Heat in several places, seems excessive

I noticed that my MB book seems to get really hot underneath. I do work with it in my lap quite a bit. But since I live in New England and the weather's been cold, it wasn't bothering me. But it does get really hot, I could never have it on bare skin, e.g., if I was wearing shorts in the summer. Is that amount of heat, which seems excessive, normal?

The other thing I just noticed was when I had plugged it in the other day. I was using the short cord that only has the 2 pronged plug. When I unplugged it from the wall, it was so hot, I basically had to drop it. That just seems wrong/dangerous to me. And today, when I looked at the end that plugs into the computer, it looked a bit corroded! At first I thought maybe the finish was wearing off. Which seemed unlikely. Then I looked at the receiving port on the computer and that seemed a bit corroded, too. Which made me think about the heat on the plug end and the over all heat of the computer. And now I'm wondering what's up with this and if it's normal.

This is a brand new MB that's not quite 2 months old.

Thanks for any advice on this!

Normal

Yeah, pretty much. Oh, and if you like numbers, my Macbook's CPU temp is currently at 64C with a fan speed of 1957RPM. I've seen it go as high as 78C during some processor intensive tasks.

Once again, normal. My wife uses it to soothe cramps. :yinyang:

it is common to have a hot macbook...mine is usually at about 90-130 degrees F. The plug doesn't get hot though. If the heat reaallly bothers you, you can download Fan Control, a program which lets u control minimum speeds of ur fans. I don't use it becuz i like my macbook silent, and fans can get pretty noisy. anyway, heres the link:
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/23137

Well mine is about the same age as yours rcronin and I've never considered it to be hot. And my charger has yet to show any heat let alone enough for me to not be able to pick it up. I'm not just showing off by the way, I think you may have an issue...

yup its normal as stated above, my MacBook was cooking at 83C this weekend when I was playing WOW, the fans were also going full speed the whole time.

Well, after reading your post, I noticed everyone mentioned the heat issue, but not the corrosion that you mentioned. the heat is no big deal, but the corrosion is something to worry about. After looking at my macbook, I see that the oly finish in the plug is a buff shine. That shouldn't come off or be ruined under normal wear and tear. I wouldn/t worry about the heat, but I would have the plug looked at at an apple store.

rcronin, your power adapter should not get that hot. Call Apple or take your system to the Apple store as soon as possible, the power adapter is overheating, that is NOT normal.

Surprised no one has mentioned this in this thread:

Download, install, and use smcFanControl. It has made my macbook a WHOLE lot cooler. It basically raises the minimum fan speed. Sure you might get a tiny bit more noise but it's an excellent trade off in my opinion. I usually have it set at 3000rpm minimum and it hovers around 50 deg. C when using iTunes, using mail, and browsing the web.

Another nice thing is you can configure profiles for the settings. I have a 'f**king turbo' setting for when I'm encoding video, an 'average' setting, and a 'low' setting. It can also be configured to change the profile it uses depending on what power it's using (battery/adapter).

Good stuff I say.

Becky,

Give Apple a call. It can't hurt, and if there's actually something wrong given what you said about the corrosion, you'll want to get it corrected. Yes my MB gets hot, not unlike my IBM ThinkPad (which runs Linux). Both machines get toasty, but not unbearably so.

Good luck and let us know how things go!

I'll take it in. It's just that it's an hour from my house and I only go out there once a month under duress. My in-laws have to watch my kiddos and I always feel like a nudge afterwards. And I have to say that I've never been treated great at the old Apple store. Double rats. Twice now they've been unable to help me and couldn't have been happier to tell me so. Kinda s*cked.

I'll definitely let you all know what I find out.

Thanks,

LBmtb said:

Surprised no one has mentioned this in this thread:

Download, install, and use smcFanControl. It has made my macbook a WHOLE lot cooler. It basically raises the minimum fan speed. Sure you might get a tiny bit more noise but it's an excellent trade off in my opinion. I usually have it set at 3000rpm minimum and it hovers around 50 deg. C when using iTunes, using mail, and browsing the web.

Another nice thing is you can configure profiles for the settings. I have a 'f**king turbo' setting for when I'm encoding video, an 'average' setting, and a 'low' setting. It can also be configured to change the profile it uses depending on what power it's using (battery/adapter).

Good stuff I say.

Click to expand...

I just downloaded this, thanks. I noticed that only the 1st fan is working. The second one is grayed out and I can't seem to do anything to it. Is that normal?

same here. i dont think a macbook has 2 fans. i have a question about the program, when i have my fan set low, or the program closed, will my fan still come on automatically when the computer needs it?

Yes, the macbook as only one fan. The 2nd fan option will be greyed out.
The smcFanControl was created for macbook pro's as well -- those machines have 2 fans.

King Benny said:

Yes, the macbook as only one fan. The 2nd fan option will be greyed out.
The smcFanControl was created for macbook pro's as well -- those machines have 2 fans.

Click to expand...

Thanks!

jamesx said:

same here. i dont think a macbook has 2 fans. i have a question about the program, when i have my fan set low, or the program closed, will my fan still come on automatically when the computer needs it?

Click to expand...

Yeah, it'll still work on the fan's default settings. The program only changes the minimum rpm the fan can run at. Doesn't restrict the max at all. If OS X decides to speed the fan up it can do that.

thats what i thought. thanks. its a good program. i just keep the min set at 3500 and its alot more enjoyable to keep on my lap...

Wow, I may need to download that program. I was have similar issues with my MacBook.