overheating when watching youtube

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whenever i watch videos (i use google chrome) my computer overheats (as noted by smcFanControl) to >90 Celsius.

this has become a huge problem, as the videos tend to always lag

what can i do to fix this situation?

i have set my settings on smcFanControl to max RPM

my macbook (black) is close to 4 years old..
 
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Your Mac's Specs
2003 Powerbook G4, 768 mb's of ram 120gb hard drive, 17 inch dvd burner, or Superdrive
whenever i watch videos (i use google chrome) my computer overheats (as noted by smcFanControl) to >90 Celsius.

this has become a huge problem, as the videos tend to always lag

what can i do to fix this situation?

i have set my settings on smcFanControl to max RPM

my macbook (black) is close to 4 years old..

Since your macbook is 4 years old, i think I know the culprit. What happens is over time dust becomes lodged in the heatsinks inside your computer(ive cleaned many of these on many different kinds of laptops) and ive seen it up to 4-5mm thick built up on the heatsink. How to fix this is you have to disassemble your macbook(if you are willing and somewhat knowledgeable of the internals). to do this, you need 1 small phillips head screwdriver for the external case screws, a(i think, cant remember the exact size) T6 torx driver, it may be a t5 or a t7 tho. Remove case screws using the small phillips, there may be a t-11 under the ram cover too, theres 2 on my powerbook under there. Once the top cover/keyboard is removed, remove the t-5, t6, or t-7 screws(once again dont remember exact size) on the fans. Remove the fans, and throuroghly clean the heatsinks to remove dust and debris. Once finished, just reverse the procedure to reassemble. And no more overheating Macbook!
 
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thanks so much.

would anybody know
a.) the exact screws? and if it is easy for a novice to do?
b.) how much a store would charge for this?
 
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Mac Mini i5 (2014 High Sierra), iPhone X, Apple Watch, iPad Pro 12.9, AppleTV (4)
I agree that dust may be a factor....however.... what you're also seeing the the result of Flash using loads of CPU cycles (it's built into Chrome)

As an experiment why not disable Flash in Safari and try running YouTube in Safari, it forces it to drop to HTML5
There's a good post on Daring Fireball and links from there to other sites. Read it all first. It's easy enough.
It's improved things no end on my sons White MacBook of a similar age to yours.
 
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Hi,

Just came on to ask a question, yet seems exactly the same as the OP's.

My white intel Macbook has recently been overheating if i watch any videos, causes the audio and video to skip, like a VCR-tape juddering on pause yet with audio as well! Sometimes it even makes the audio sound horrifically broken and robotic, and putting it to sleep and waking it up again is the only way to fix it.

I can fix the issues with playing videos by putting an ice pack under it!! Yet these ice packs will only last for 20 minutes under the machine.... and I don't have many!!

I saw the post about the heatsink being the issue, and think that dust clogging is most likely the case for mine, it has never been cleaned in 4 years, yet used heavily, the temperature goes up to >90 degrees when watching a video, and the fan at 6200RPM, yet i can hardly feel any air coming out of the back vent! Just a faint meandering stream to be honest!

The thing is however, that a) I don't have all the torx screwdrivers required to take it apart. and b) i would be perfectly happy to do so if i did, were it not for the ribbon connecting the keyboard to the main unit. I have a fear of connections like this ever since i buggered up an ipod wheel's ribbon taking that apart a few years ago.

Is there any way of clearing out all the dust without taking it apart?

My macbook is also one of the ones that due to the design fault, has the plastic trimmings around the keyboard and screen that snap off. Been thinking of sending it to apple for them to repair for free. Do you think if i asked at the Genius bar when booking this complementary repair, i could ask them to clean the dust out for me as well??
 
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aaah, so its only a #00 screwdriver required!

May well give it a go then!

Thanks!
 
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Just tried taking it apart with a 00 screwdriver.

Got to the area shown in this picture :

5S3CJvHHALKDSgZC.medium


The middle screw will just NOT come out for me, i have tried as hard as possible, to the point where my fingers hurt from holding the screwdriver!! I just cannot undo that screw.

Is there any solution to this? Can i get at the fans without undoing this screw, or am i just screwed (excuse the pun) with this laptop overheating forever!
 
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thanks so much.

would anybody know
a.) the exact screws? and if it is easy for a novice to do?
b.) how much a store would charge for this?

a. Its easy, theres screws along the 2 sides(8 screws), and if its a 17, theres 5 alomng the bottom back, or smaller theres 4 along the bottom back, they are long. Then theres 3 of the previously mentioned Torx screws per fan, and theres 2 fans in the unit. Also there may be 2 torx screws under the ram cover, theres 3 to remove in that, and on my powerbook, on the front of the battery bay, 3 more screws.

b. a shop would charge a preset flat rate(can be 60-150 per hour) somewhere in between there, plus parts if any get broken in the process. But its easy enough for a novice to do. After all, you arent modifying it, like I do with my hardware...

EDIT: I saw your post, and sometimes that can happen. Apple uses this compound on their screws(other companies do too) thats known as Loctite. The stuff pretty much locks the thread so the screw dont back out during NORMAL use. Use a little bit bigger phillips on it.
 

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