my overheating mac!

eurotrotter

how are we lads and lassies?

hope yer all winding down after a nice wkd.

I purchased this laptop in April 2007, and I have since installed Snow leopard, but the overheating, and the vicious fan has kicked in before i instlaled leopard.

any ideas what might be causing this, or what i could do to reduce it?

here is a link to her, fan going like a hairdryer:

http://www.youtube.com/user/willpower1905?feature=mhw4#p/a/u/0/HJvQy1Y2Qx8

thanks very much
Ed

john__long

Open up Activity Monitor: (Applications -> Utilities -> Activity Monitor.app)

Organise the processes by CPU activity. Anything in there eating up the alot of power?

Maybe your Spotlight indexer is going mental. I think that's called "mdworker".

If "mdworker" is the problem, open Terminal (Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal.app) and run the following command:

sudo mdutil -E

Here's a screenshot of it:

john__long

Oh Jésus Horatio Christ.

Just watched your video.

Your watching a Flash video?!?!?!??!

Of course the fan's are gonna go mental! It's Flash! Flash == loud fans!

Sad Professor

Yeah, Flash is a piece of sh*t! The sooner it dies the better.

silvine

You can change you fans' speeds with SMC Fan Control.

john__long

If it's flash related and you alter the fan controls, you'll probably cook the machine to death in no time at all.

You need to check Activity Monitor next time fans are on loud.

uberwolf

Sad Professor wrote: »

Yeah, Flash is a piece of sh*t! The sooner it dies the better.

heartened to hear this isn't just me. Embedded videos do the same thing

john__long

There's a simple solution.

Install this and use Safari.

Instead of loading Flash it loads the video's in Quicktime format if available. Same format the iPhone uses. Quicktime != Fans!

Only works on Safari. So for Firefox, either block the flash outright or pray someone added an extension that does the same!

Oisintarrant

My Pro does the same, heats up so hot you cant touch the bottom sometimes. It could be sitting ideal all day, and it would still be very hot to touch. Checked up on it a while back and turns out they all do it. Also, I know youve updated to Snow Leopard, but check see if your updates are complete. There were quite a few fan speed updates over the past while.
As smart as apple are, making a metal case that holds heat and inhibits wifi strenght is a bit daft.

john__long

@Oisin:

Do try the Click2Flash I linked my previous post. It's saved my legs from being roast hams!

Sad Professor

Youtube also offer a HTML5 opt-in. Doesn't work on a lot of videos though.

http://www.youtube.com/html5

Oisintarrant wrote: »

As smart as apple are, making a metal case that holds heat and inhibits wifi strenght is a bit daft.

But it looks nice. :pac:

Seriously though, the aluminium is much better at handling heat than plastic. It conducts the heat to the surface where it can be dispersed. In contrast, a plastic case acts as a insulator which just causes the machine to get hotter - not good for the internal components. I haven't experienced any wifi problems with the latest MBP either.

john__long

I forgot about the HTML5.

I tried it. Seemed like poo.

Click2Flash is much more reliable.

Never had WiFi troubles myself either.

acous

john__long wrote: »

If it's flash related and you alter the fan controls, you'll probably cook the machine to death in no time at all.

AFAIK you can't force the fans to go slower, only faster.

john__long

I thought it was just tweaking the low and high thresholds. I'd leave em be anyways! Apple set em that way for a reason!

kevteljeur

Flash destroyed a Macbook Pro of mine. I wish I was kidding but I'm not. The end result was having to selectively disable the graphics extensions.

Flashblock is your friend (although there are issues with blocking ads on sites you visit, I'm becoming more aware of how that affects their bottom line. Complex issue.).


k