macbook runnin' hot, problem?

nate_D · Post by **nate_D** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 4:38 am

i've had my macbook since may and have recently started noticing the fan gets up to 6000 rpms and CPU A gets up to 160 degrees farenheit (according to istat pro). i'm not sure if its because i've got my tascam hooked up through firewire, an x session midi controller, and a ms 20 keyboard hooked up to a usb hub (and a korg dongle thing). its not affecting the performance of live or anything but it just sounds loud/scary. i've looked back through some of the older post but a lot of them say that its a situation that was common on the older macbooks. should i be worried about this at all? thanks

nate_D · Post by **nate_D** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 5:03 am

also, i remember reading somewhere that they changed the firewire ports on the latest macbooks and that they were actually weaker than before. so maybe they are conflicting firewire ports? anybody?

966sf · Post by **966sf** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 6:46 am

I have one of the older MBPs since May of 06 and it's normal to get hot. Never been a problem to me at all. I read a long time ago that Macs were always made to withstand high temperatures I just keep mine properly ventilated. I mean it should be fine unless you enjoy using your laptop on your naked body! then that might be uncomfortable! but I don't think 160 fahrenheit is bad. You can still drink stuff at 160 and it's tolerable.

nate_D · Post by **nate_D** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 8:50 pm

its just really noticeable when it gets quite. you hear the fan gradually pick up speed. i called applecare and the chick i talked to made it sound like it wasn't a big deal but she also couldn't give me the specs that were considered dangerous for the internal temps and fan speed

966sf · Post by **966sf** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 12:30 am

well people still report hitting temps way over 160 when MB is under full load so i wouldn't be too worried. and don't the Macbooks have gel or something to protect them from heat? That along with your heat sensors working, which means your fans getting louder, you should be fine, yeah?

nate_D · Post by **nate_D** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 2:16 am

not sure about that gel. i'm actually having a hard time finding info on shit like that. i think the temp increase just has something to do with the amount of stuff i'm running through usb and firewire. that's the only time it happens. still, i'd like to know whats considered dangerous as far as internal temperatures and what not. its pretty much the only problem i've had in 2 months with my mac. best investment ever!
how's that Novation Remote Zero SL? i've had my eye on one...

3rdordertrauma · Post by **3rdordertrauma** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 2:41 am

The novation Remote SL's rock. I'm using 2 zeros and I love em so far. Only one complaint... apparently the Remotes have no midi feedback implementation so if I move a parameter with the mouse that is assigned to something on the SL the Sl does not update to reflect the change. Of course this is not the case in Automap mode (which I hardly ever use).

966sf · Post by **966sf** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 4:30 am

well my MBP gets hot based on how hard I drive it. For me, it will still get hot if I use it for long enough even if I just run Live using no FW or external MIDI. I'll download Istat and see how things run the next few days if I have time. Have you tried using your Macbook without your stuff plugged in. Like just running audio clips in Live?

Also. how loud is your fan going? Is it making a high pitched whine or low pitched hum? i remember a few months ago, anybody who had a high pitched whine coming from their MBP at least was advised to call AppleCare from their website. but i don't think that had anything to do with your computer.

All in all I still think you're ok. Look for the temps that other people are reporting because I don't think Apple has ever released anything besides that it operates under international "safety standards" or whatever.

As the Remote SLs, yeah they're great. As far as Automap goes, I've never really had any problems. Except all my Automap plugins load into my Celemony (Melodyne) Folder in Live for some odd reason. I think the only controller I'd rather have is a Jazz Mutant Lemur and I'm a poor college student so I can't afford that! The Lemur i don't think even uses MIDI. The coolest thing about the SLs and Automap Universal is that you have considerable freedom to program your own like 3rdorder does, but if you just want to use what they have already there, you get a very intuitive layout to work with. While MIDI will never be totally headache free, Novation just gave it a big Aspirin especially for beginners and non-geniuses (most of us! ha ha)

966sf · Post by **966sf** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 4:52 am

well I just ran Istat on my MBP running a Live set going 50% CPU and the temperature reads 167-171. So looks like the temp thing is normal. However, my fans are only going about 1500rpms so you should check up on those fans, maybe?

3rdordertrauma · Post by **3rdordertrauma** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 5:51 am

966sf wrote:I think the only controller I'd rather have is a Jazz Mutant Lemur and I'm a poor college student so I can't afford that! The Lemur i don't think even uses MIDI.

Same here.. I'd love a Lemur but I'll have to wait for the price to come down in the technology. Pretty sure Lemur uses OSC which I know nothing about... yet.

966sf wrote:The coolest thing about the SLs and Automap Universal is that you have considerable freedom to program your own like 3rdorder does, but if you just want to use what they have already there, you get a very intuitive layout to work with.

I'm not programming my own "automaps" so to speak, though I'd love to know how if its possible. I'm more making old school templates same as you would on other controllers. But yes its very flexible and I prefer it over automaps for now. One feature I love is the ability to make any button on the surface a "hot key" pointing to any template you have stored. With this I'm able to juggle 13 different template seamlessly. I have used many different midi controllers and none that I've used have been as friendly as the SL's (for me).

@ Nate_D... sorry to side track your thread here... its funny how discussions like this end up in threads so far off topic. I wonder how much good information is lost in threads like that.

nate_D · Post by **nate_D** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 1:49 pm

i take credit for it because i initially asked 966sf how he liked the sl, so that's my own fault for derailing the conversation

back to the topic, i wish i could remember where i had read that about the difference in firewire ports between the new macbooks and the older ones. i think thats got something to do with. i'm not 100% sure about this but i think the tascam fw 1884 requires 800 mbps and the new macbooks firewire ports are only 400 mbps. which is kind of weird because it runs fine other than heating up. then again that's expected due to a laptop running like 4 devices at once. just a guess though. still don't know what temp & fan speed is bad though...

966sf · Post by **966sf** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 8:46 pm

well your fans (or fan because i think you have only one on Macbook) are running six times the speed of mine at relatively the same temperature. Yeah and that would account for the loud noise. Definitely bring that to the attention of Apple. Or see what other Macbook users are getting, not Macbook Pro. Also make sure you have the latest firmware? Though you should already have it. Your stuff is pretty new. there are some apps to control fan speeds but i never tried them and people usually use them to make their fans run faster.

Pasha · Post by **Pasha** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 10:07 am

Hi Note_d,

I'm a Black MB C2D user. I bought it last November so it's not the latest model, but I have the same experience. My fan is very loud (MBPs have two fan, while MB are supposed to have only one) and can reach 6000 RPM when CPU under stress. This happens 100% when I run VMWare Fusion but not with Live. However sometimes when Safari hits an heavy Flash page CPU gets hotter and fan began to run at high speed and make noise.
My MacBook temp is 61 Centigrades when normal with fan at about 3500 RPM.
When CPU runs at full speed under full load,I get 81 Centigrades and almost 6000 RPM.
You can try this test or check the Intel Mac temperature Database at:
http://www.intelmactemp.com/list

I'm still concerned about my results I don't know if this is ok or not.

- Hope it helps,
- Pasha

nate_D · Post by **nate_D** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 8:19 pm

yeah, its a high pitched whine. good call on that pasha cause i did notice it kept happening when i was using safari (especially youtube) while i'm in a live session... i should have thought about that

Pasha · Post by **Pasha** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 8:44 pm

nate_D wrote:yeah, its a high pitched whine. good call on that pasha cause i did notice it kept happening when i was using safari (especially youtube) while i'm in a live session... i should have thought about that

Don't worry. Do you think it might be something with flash?
It doesn't seem to happem when I browse apple site and happens
when I use firefox.
It's strange. Do you run 10.4.10 or 10.4.9?
I think Apple fixes a lot of things without telling us, just like in the case of the FW
problem introduced by 10.4.10. They claim audio update was for some pops and cracks reported but we know is not only that...
Can you confirm that Firefox + Flash does the same?

- Best
- Pasha