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MBP 1.83ghz overheating...

A

Ariel222

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 7, 2008
12
0
Hi All, so about 18 months ago I was able to purchase a MBP 1.83 ghz core duo machine. Until recently it has been my pride and joy, but of late my beautiful machine is overheating.

At any rate, it took me lots of scraping and saving to be able to purchase this machine and now I am still able to web-surf and email and all is fine, but as soon as I start doing anything that's cpu-intensive it's a no go.

I have looked all over the place for some software to just underclock the cpu so that it won't overheat and have been unable to find any such thing.

I'm pretty handy and have replaced the hard drive and added some memory, but I had the top cover off yesterday and I'm not prepared to handle pulling out the logic board. The battery has also never worked properly, and my machine has proper serial for battery replacement, but the battery does not. So Apple said no-go on battery replacement. If I knew for sure that buying a new battery will stop the machine from overheating I would easily spend the money on it.

Please do give me some advice, I do love my machine, but if push comes to shove and this will end up costing me thousands to fix, I'll probably just go buy a Dell because I can have basically the same specs on a dell for around $999 but with the cooler running core 2 duo...course that might also overheat.

Oh and to make matters worse I was in the Apple store and asked one of the geniuses and he said that Apples don't overheat and he can't imagine anyone having issues like that with a MBP. I should have walked him over to one of the machines and googled it for him.

Anyway, all please, please give me some advice here, when I bought this machine I was intending on it being an *investment* and being able to use it for a good 5 years before needing a new one.
 
Déjà vu


My 1.83 GHz MacBook Pro did exactly the same thing, to the extent that when I took the battery out after about 13 months of use in order to read the serial number to Apple, there were scorch marks around the battery compartment, and the trackpad cable was slowly being burnt through where it came into contact with the battery.

That Apple 'Genius' should be fired. 1st generation Apple laptops have a reputation of overheating massively. Mine got so hot that the case softened and warped. I'm guessing the other bits which failed internally were a result of the heat too.

We gave it to Apple, who said that it wasn't overheating, and after a long battle with Apple, they finally admitted it and agreed to do some repair work outside of warranty for free. After replacing the logic board and numerous other parts (almost the entire machine in fact), they sent it back, and I was still having problems with it. In all fairness, Apple did do a great job, all the bits they said they'd repair were working just as they should new, and Apple kept in touch with us closely along the way. When it came back however, it was still overheating (not something there's an easy 'fix' for), and the display was fading out. In the end, they agreed to replace it, and sent me a 2.2 GHz stock MBP (current generation) which is miles cooler, and I returned the old 1.83.


Personally? I believe it's a flaw in the design of the 1.83 MacBook Pros. I never really see anybody talking about issues with the 2.0 or the 2.16, but the 1.83 model seems to be very unreliable. Google '1.83 MacBook Pro overheat' or similar to see.

Send an email to sjobs@apple.com. This is what I did, and got an email back asking me to ring a number of an Apple executive who helped me. Just be reasonable and truthful with them, as I was. I'd be happy to help in any other way...
 
Thanks for the advice...

Okie, I just emailed "Steve"...yeah I'm sure he'll be reading it personally. :)

Will let you know what happens with that. I've been deciding what to do though, and most likely I'll just put the 80g hard drive and my ram that I bought and try to sell the MacBook Pro. Probably impossible to sell those
1.83's....though not sure.

I haven't seen any kind of scorch marks or anything on the battery, mine has been just shutting itself down when it gets too hot. Which is good in that way
it hopefully won't melt the motherboard and such...but still can't do the video editing. Heh, and I almost bought iLife 08 not long ago. Glad I didn't blow any *extra* bux.

Obviously, I'll wait and see if I get any kind of response from Apple over the next few days. I won't hold my breath. I've already been scoping out the Dell's. GAH!!! I actually really like OS X. Heck I'd be happy if they'd just trade me for a refurbished lowest speed Core 2 Duo. Speed doesn't matter
all that much to me...just the overheating...Heck I ran on my Ibook G3 600 for like 7 or 8 years.

Killyp said:
Déjà vu


My 1.83 GHz MacBook Pro did exactly the same thing, to the extent that when I took the battery out after about 13 months of use in order to read the serial number to Apple, there were scorch marks around the battery compartment, and the trackpad cable was slowly being burnt through where it came into contact with the battery.

That Apple 'Genius' should be fired. 1st generation Apple laptops have a reputation of overheating massively. Mine got so hot that the case softened and warped. I'm guessing the other bits which failed internally were a result of the heat too.

We gave it to Apple, who said that it wasn't overheating, and after a long battle with Apple, they finally admitted it and agreed to do some repair work outside of warranty for free. After replacing the logic board and numerous other parts (almost the entire machine in fact), they sent it back, and I was still having problems with it. In all fairness, Apple did do a great job, all the bits they said they'd repair were working just as they should new, and Apple kept in touch with us closely along the way. When it came back however, it was still overheating (not something there's an easy 'fix' for), and the display was fading out. In the end, they agreed to replace it, and sent me a 2.2 GHz stock MBP (current generation) which is miles cooler, and I returned the old 1.83.


Personally? I believe it's a flaw in the design of the 1.83 MacBook Pros. I never really see anybody talking about issues with the 2.0 or the 2.16, but the 1.83 model seems to be very unreliable. Google '1.83 MacBook Pro overheat' or similar to see.

Send an email to sjobs@apple.com. This is what I did, and got an email back asking me to ring a number of an Apple executive who helped me. Just be reasonable and truthful with them, as I was. I'd be happy to help in any other way...
Click to expand...
 
I also have a 1.83 CD mbp and love it. :) Yes it does get hot, but I have not experience any scorching like Killyp. But, to be fair, I generally won't use it on my lap without an Antec notebook cooler.

My suggestion is to check that your fans are actually running. You can use SMC Fan Control to do this. You can even up the speed of your fans slightly to help keep the mbp cool. My right fan assembly started making noise one day and had to be replaced by Apple. If one or both of your fans died this may account for your sudden overheating.

Don't give up yet. Best of luck. :)
 
Steve Called!!!!

OMG you guys!!! They called....and yes it wasn't *actually* Steve. The guy on the phone said that Steve was "very concerned" over my email and wanted him to call me for him. So anyway, he said he will get some info from me via email and then he will call me again tomorrow with some options.

YAY!!! Apple, maybe I do still love you!!!

Granted, I haven't heard the *options* yet. Heck I'd even be willing to throw
in some money like maybe $500 to get my beautiful MacBook Pro back to its own wonderful self. I've been really thinking about it though and there is no
way I'm spending even close to $1000 to have this fixed. If I *were* going to spend $1000 (which would really suck right now as my financial situation is
a bit sucky...not in a horrible way, but just lots of bills right now and it would
be plain stupid of me to go blow $1000). Back to the *point*...if I WERE going
to spend $1000...I would probably not want to to do it to repair a relatively obsolete core duo chip...when all the new ones have the C2D.

Heck $1099 will but me a new Macbook....and $799 will be me a Dell of somesort (though I truly do shudder at the thought of doing Windows).

Selling is an option, but yeah I'd feel the need to explain all the issues with this machine and don't feel comfortable selling it as AOK. And Ulitmately that is an option. If I'm unable to do the things I bought it for in the first place, then I can get a web/email machine for *FAR* *FAR* less money.

Anyway, they suggested I may have to send it in for repair. So I guess I'd
better do a backup.

I dunno..I wonder if the CD just doesn't do well with Leopard though that
will really irritate me too, because it's supposed to be OK.

Also, it's not overheating because I have it on my lap...I have it on one of those aluminum pads that holds the keyboard at maybe a 15 degree angle
so it is *always* on that pad thing so there is even air space underneath the machine. I don't sit with it on my lap much...usually it's on a table. So when I say overheating...it's actually getting too hot and shutting down on me. I'm not even that hard on the machine...I know that some guys have pictures of their melted machines because they set it up to encode video and let it run for 8 hours straight.

Thanks for listening guys.
 
Told you ;)

If you need any help at any point, you can email or PM me. You have a PM.
 
Killyp said:
Déjà vu


My 1.83 GHz MacBook Pro did exactly the same thing, to the extent that when I took the battery out after about 13 months of use in order to read the serial number to Apple, there were scorch marks around the battery compartment, and the trackpad cable was slowly being burnt through where it came into contact with the battery.

That Apple 'Genius' should be fired. 1st generation Apple laptops have a reputation of overheating massively. Mine got so hot that the case softened and warped. I'm guessing the other bits which failed internally were a result of the heat too.

We gave it to Apple, who said that it wasn't overheating, and after a long battle with Apple, they finally admitted it and agreed to do some repair work outside of warranty for free. After replacing the logic board and numerous other parts (almost the entire machine in fact), they sent it back, and I was still having problems with it. In all fairness, Apple did do a great job, all the bits they said they'd repair were working just as they should new, and Apple kept in touch with us closely along the way. When it came back however, it was still overheating (not something there's an easy 'fix' for), and the display was fading out. In the end, they agreed to replace it, and sent me a 2.2 GHz stock MBP (current generation) which is miles cooler, and I returned the old 1.83.


Personally? I believe it's a flaw in the design of the 1.83 MacBook Pros. I never really see anybody talking about issues with the 2.0 or the 2.16, but the 1.83 model seems to be very unreliable. Google '1.83 MacBook Pro overheat' or similar to see.

Send an email to sjobs@apple.com. This is what I did, and got an email back asking me to ring a number of an Apple executive who helped me. Just be reasonable and truthful with them, as I was. I'd be happy to help in any other way...
Click to expand...

Funny you say that. We had the same problems for the most part.
Mine started with my 1.83 keyboard breaking. I sent it in for repair and all came back fine. I used it for a few more months when the case starting warping because of the excessive heat not only that but it warped the display hinge and made it incredibly loose. They did nothing. Eventually my display dies but was covered in what seemed to be a checkerboard. They replaced the logic board. I get it back and then the computer wouldn't start. After eventually getting it to boot the bluetooth card wasn't being read... I called Apple and they agreed to send me a 2.16 C2D MBP. I got that one and it had a broken key so he said send it back, so I did. I got another one and it had a bad superdrive. So after that the current generation had been released and the new girl I was working with sent me a brand new one again. Not to mention mine was a refurbished model in the beginning. But when they went to replace it for the first time they had no refurbished models in stock so they had to send me a new one! This new one is so much better then the old ones. It's perfect, it stays cool and works a lot better! The 1.83 models were absolutely terrible!!!
 
Stood up by Steve???

Hi All,

Well "STEVE" never did call back. I was in the car driving when Apple Guy called so really didn't get his phone number or name or anything.

He said he would call me back yesterday and also said he would email me
with what info he needed serial number etc...etc. Anyway, will give them
another day or two but probably if I haven't heard back by tomorrow afternoon, I'll figure I've been stood up.

I must admit...I'm a bit upset with Apple of late in more ways than one. I've been a Machead for probably 4 years now.....but lately they seem to be going backwards. iMovie '08 for instance. I can't believe they took out the audio stuff so you can't see the waveforms and such.

I guess I'll start searching for an inexpensive alternative for osX that is a third party video editor. I haven't tried Final Cut, I fear that may be a bit out of my league. I want a video editor that will allow me to do TONS of stuff and have tons of options for menus etc...maybe even configure your own wit a background picture (yep I know iDVD lets me do that. :)

Apple kicks ass with their OS and probably hardware in general (though as you all have heard, I'm not pleased with my hardware either). So I dunno, I'm just totally on the fence regarding sell it and buy a Dell or keep it and be unable to do my video editing.

I truly think Apple is trying to have too much control over their users and what they're allowed to do and configure etc. I used to be a System Administrator...so I love things to be HIGHLY configurable. Heck I hacked my Ipod Touch soon as I got it home and it's been FABULOUS.

So yeah. I guess I'm just unsure where to go from here. Hrm...OsX running a KDE desktop..YUM!!! :) That might just be PERFECT.
 
uh oh.

I had a woman from Apple ring me over a problem I have been having with a Mac. But I asked her would she mind calling me back the next day as it was a bad time for me.

Hmmm lets hope they call back and don't forget about me :(
 
Hrm...yeah...I don't know what to think...

I guess I can email "Steve" again and tell him how they never called me back.

I don't know maybe they think I'm trying to get a brand new machine with the pendryn chip or whatever it is coming out Tuesday. I didn't even realize they
had new stuff coming out Tuesday.

At any rate, that's so not the case. I've never cared about having the latest and greatest because it's always the latest and greatest for all of 5 minutes. I would prefer if they replaced the machine and gave me one of the slower c2d just so it's not so likely to have the overheating issue...but other than that...I don't care that much about the new stuff.
 
Well they left me a message....

Well "Steve" called back again today and I made a run for the phone, but
didn't get there so he left me a voicemail...I called him back and left him a
voicemail...so phonetag...so will keep the phone with me and see what happens.

I didn't think they would call me back again...so I guess it's a good sign.
 
Well they called me again today. They want me to take my machine in for inspection. They have been really good to me. I even got a email address and a direct phone number for the person who is dealing with my case here in Ireland.

Im chuffed by the level of service
 
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