Macbook Pro Overheating Issue/Good time to buy Macbook Pro 16"?

[raymond montego]

I recently purchased the fully loaded newest 16" Macbook Pro (complete with 8tb) and was beyond excited to start using it this past week and ended up having to return it after a long discussion with the apple techs. The laptop bottom was so hot when all i was doing was downloading my dropbox folders for work, it hurt to touch and the space above the touch bar was burning up and even the keys were hot to touch to the point it was borderline painful. I was downloading about 100gb of files. I primarily do audio production and a little video editing so it was a concern that a simple downloading task would overheat my laptop so fast....The techs ended up saying, since it was so new, I should just return and replace or get a refund because that shouldn't be happening when doing a relatively simple task.

1. Has anyone else experienced overheating with the Macbook pro 16" fully loaded laptops? I thought that was a huge issue they fixed from the last ones?!

2. Is this a bad time to purchase a macbook pro due to everything going on with COVID-19? Is the apple quality control lower right now due to less workers and potentially higher demand for laptops because everyone is at home? I really want to pick up one again, but I'm hesitant to due to this issue I had. I have never had a problem with any macbook pro in the last 12 years of buying from Apple (and i've prob purchased 5) and this in no way would turn me away from the company, but I'm just wondering everyone's thoughts on this and if it would be better to wait until things settle down a bit. Ideally I need a new one asap for work tho.

Hope everyone is staying safe out there!

-Raymond

 

[satcomer]

Sometime lemons slip through, sorry for your trouble!

 

[4sallypat]

....
2. Is this a bad time to purchase a macbook pro due to everything going on with COVID-19? Is the apple quality control lower right now due to less workers and potentially higher demand for laptops because everyone is at home? I really want to pick up one again, but I'm hesitant to due to this issue I had. I have never had a problem with any macbook pro in the last 12 years of buying from Apple (and i've prob purchased 5) and this in no way would turn me away from the company, but I'm just wondering everyone's thoughts on this and if it would be better to wait until things settle down a bit. Ideally I need a new one asap for work tho.

Hope everyone is staying safe out there!

-Raymond

Purchase of any Mac is safe with the fact that the assembly and production have been done in China before the pandemic for the most part.
Anything you find will be clean but watch out for the box handling as it get shipped from China to the US and to your hands.
Just clean the box exteriors before bringing it inside.

I like my 16" base MBP - it's my daily desktop computer connected to a 27" Thunderbolt display - have heard others complaining of excessive heat and fans when connected to external displays but nothing weird has happened on mine...

 

[raymond montego]

Sometime lemons slip through, sorry for your trouble!

everyone i speak with seems to agree with you that it was just my first apple "lemon." and i should just reorder now/the new mbps are one of the best releases in years.
[automerge]1586458898[/automerge]

Purchase of any Mac is safe with the fact that the assembly and production have been done in China before the pandemic for the most part.
Anything you find will be clean but watch out for the box handling as it get shipped from China to the US and to your hands.
Just clean the box exteriors before bringing it inside.

I like my 16" base MBP - it's my daily desktop computer connected to a 27" Thunderbolt display - have heard others complaining of excessive heat and fans when connected to external displays but nothing weird has happened on mine...

This one was custom made because I fully decked it out (i usually have laptops for years/still have a working 2011 mbp so i go all out) would the custom ones still be in danger of quality control issues you think? i would assume not, but was curious if anyone is having issues but it sounds like (from youtube reviews and other forums) the only main issue, as u said, is the external display fan noise/heating and i don't even use an external monitor. i def got a lemon

 

[satcomer]

Sometimes lemon slips through with the proper chip sealant correctly!

 

[raymond montego]

Sometimes lemon slips through with the proper chip sealant correctly!

what do you mean the "proper chip sealant correctly"

#imanoob lol

 

[satcomer]

what do you mean the "proper chip sealant correctly"

#imanoob lol

Like Arctic Sliver! Thermal compound!

 

[lewiss]

I have had the same problem since purchasing mine. Brought to apple techs and they could not figure out the problem.
Was going to return and exchange and then the pandemic hit. The computer otherwise works fine. But when I am editing it gets so hot I have to put it on a pillow so it does not burn my legs. I thought that they had fixed this problem!

 

[jagooch]

Same here. Mine( Macbook Pro 2019 16") overheats with 2 external LG ultrafine displays attached. I have iStats and when the Radeon High Side power metric goes over 6 Watts, the fans speed up slowly until they hit max speed. At that point, they are so loud I cannot hear music, videos I'm watching, people on conference calls, etc.

I tried to work with Apple tech support to fix it, but after 20 hours of troubleshooting with Apple tech support, they replaced the motherboard which didn't fix the issue.

What does work is connecting the displays to an eGPU( Razor X, specifically) and the eGPU to my Mac. Radeon High Side power draw sits at about 2 Watts and my fans are dead quiet!

I probably should have returned my Macbook within the return window, but Covid lockdowns hit and I really needed the computer since I had sold my previous Macbook already.

I'm looking forward to getting a fanless Macbook , as soon as they support at least 2 external displays and 32GB RAM.


Potentially, I can sell the GPU in my eGPU display at a nice markup given the scarcity of cards these days. That should at least partially make up for the loss I'll take when I sell my Macbook for much less then what I bought it for.

I saw one post that said if you upgraded to the 5600M AMD dGPU, that would solve the problem as it's the issue is tied to the 5500M dGPU. But on Amd.com, page 4 , someone refutes that.

Discussion of overheating issue on AMD.com

I'm going to open a case with Apple ( again ) and see if I can get the 5600M GPU installed or an alternative solution to the issue. Basically, I need to dump the 5500M GPU or they need to fix the driver to reduce the power draw.