MacBook Pro hot and very slow

Hello, I have a MacBook Pro which i bought brand new back in December of 2006. I am running OS X 10.6.4. with a 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and 3 GB of RAM (1 GB, 2GB). My computer recently has begun to run very slowly. I installed Windows XP through VMware Fusion about 2 weeks ago. Every time I run it, the computer start to heat up and all the fans turn on, which i thought was normal figuring running a virtual machine can make the processor run pretty good. but in the last 2 days, my computer will be running nothing at all, yet the computer is still extremely hot along with all the fans running. I turned it off and had it rest over night but when i turned it back on, it took about a good 5 min to boot up and is still running hot. I downloaded OnyX and cleared the cache and other unnecessary files that were in my computer. My hard drive is using 134 Gigs out of 160. Can that be the problem? I don't know what else to do except maybe just clear out the whole system and bring it back to default settings. If thats the case, I'll do it. I have my whole system backed up on 2 hard drives, 1 through time machine, the other just dragged and dropped.

Jersey Juice said:

My computer recently has begun to run very slowly. I installed Windows XP through VMware Fusion about 2 weeks ago. Every time I run it, the computer start to heat up and all the fans turn on, which i thought was normal figuring running a virtual machine can make the processor run pretty good. but in the last 2 days, my computer will be running nothing at all, yet the computer is still extremely hot along with all the fans running. I turned it off and had it rest over night but when i turned it back on, it took about a good 5 min to boot up and is still running hot. I downloaded OnyX and cleared the cache and other unnecessary files that were in my computer. My hard drive is using 134 Gigs out of 160. Can that be the problem? I don't know what else to do except maybe just clear out the whole system and bring it back to default settings. If thats the case, I'll do it. I have my whole system backed up on 2 hard drives, 1 through time machine, the other just dragged and dropped.

Click to expand...

Three things:

- If your Macbook has been running fine since December 2006...and you installed VMware Fusion recently...that could have contributed to the current problem.
- Your Macbook may be hot...but it's probably not unusually hot. Typically when folks say "my Macbook is running hot"...it's between 75-90°C. You need to find out how hot your computer is. Try this program:

Temperature Monitor: Description

- if you have a 160 gig hard drive in your Macbook...formatted capacity I think is around 149gig. So if you currently have 134gig on it...that's 90% full...and yes...that could be contributing to the problem (slowness).

So bottom line is:

- running VMware Fusion (and associated programs within VMware Fusion) is probably causing the extra heat
- your 90% full hard drive is probably responsible for the slowness

Hope this helps,

- Nick

Hey thanks for responding. Should of noted that the 160GB is the formatted capacity of my hard drive. Also, the fans finally went off but as soon as i opened safari they went back on. I have a widget that says my CPU A Temperature Diode is jumping around from 135 degrees F to 150 F. I heard theres an app that can control the fans better in my system. Would that be advise to download it or is it a waste of time?

Jersey Juice said:

Hey thanks for responding. Should of noted that the 160GB is the formatted capacity of my hard drive. Also, the fans finally went off but as soon as i opened safari they went back on. I have a widget that says my CPU A Temperature Diode is jumping around from 135 degrees F to 150 F. I heard theres an app that can control the fans better in my system. Would that be advise to download it or is it a waste of time?

Click to expand...

Ok...if your hard drives formatted capacity is 160 (134 used) that would be 83.7% full. Not as bad as 90%...but maybe a contributing factor for the slowness.

To be honest...the heat situation is probably normal...so I wouldn't get too freaked out about it. You could try this program for the fan control:

Download smcFanControl for Mac

...but I really don't think that it's going to help much. Your fans are probably already at top speed...so they're doing the best they can. But give it a try...who knows.

My Macbook Pro (as well as many other Macbook & Macbook Pro owners)...experience the same thing as you are regarding the heat. Some programs & websites like You Tube...just make your computer work harder.

Again for the slowness:

- your 83.7% full hard drive may be contributing to it
- when was the last time you repaired permissions
- don't have too many applications open at the same time. It just fragments your ram...not leaving enough available ram for any one program

Hope this helps,

- Nick