Macbook Pro getting hot

[Dave2002]

I noticed some while ago that sometimes my Macbook Pro starts to get hot, and at times the fan comes on really hard.
When I first spotted this, a friend mentioned that Flash could be the culprit, and since then I've largely tried to avoid sites using Flash, though overall the problem has been manageble.

Recently the problem has recurred again. I have run virus checks in case there are any problems there - and hopefully there aren't. There were some files detected but now hopefully cleared.

In the last few days the problem has been getting worse, and one thing does seem to trigger it - playing music in Spotify.
It is however hard to be sure that Spotify really is the problem, so I'm now testing out other music using other music players, including iTunes, to see if the problem applies to any music player, or simply Spotify, or perhaps it's something to do with streaming.

I have also tried to correlate this with activity on the machine, using Activity Monitor, but so far the information obtained hasn't led to any definite or definitive results. I have had hypotheses regarding available free space, and space which is allocated as "fixed", but nothing certain has emerged yet. I did think that if the free space becomes low that could cause a problem (it can ...) but it does not appear to be closely associated with this heating up effect. It's still a possible explanation, but I'm looking for others.

Has anyone else noticed this? It's very obvious with a laptop because of the warming effect! Desktop users might not notice, at least at first, until the fans come on.

[MrGongGong]

Yes, the macbook pro is prone to get rather hot at times.
Not sure what causes it though as it doesn't seem to relate to what i'm doing, though the 15" SSD one i'm using for most things is noticeably cooler (and therefore quieter) than my other one.

[muzzer]

If you're running Yosemite it takes up a lot of RAM I believe. You can increase RAM easily. Try crucial.com. They have a bespoke upgrade tool. V useful.

[Dave2002]

Yes, the macbook pro is prone to get rather hot at times.
Not sure what causes it though as it doesn't seem to relate to what i'm doing, though the 15" SSD one i'm using for most things is noticeably cooler (and therefore quieter) than my other one.

Mine is a 13 inch i7 based machine with SSD. As you say, it doesn't necessarily relate to what's going on. I thrash mine to bits, and have multiple browsers (different ones), several word processors, maybe play music all at the same time. Generally the CPU loading is pretty low, and occasionally I suspect "disc" thrashing, but my attempts to track this down are currently failing.

If there were malware on a machine, and it were being used as part of a botnet that could be an explanation. Otherwise there could just be bad software - it is certainly the case that some software can drive CPUs very hard, and when I used PCs I had some (testing) software which was more or less designed to push the CPU up to the limits. Using temperature monitoring tools it was possible to see the very rapid rise in temperature when that software was run.

The old BBC Climate Change distributed software experiment made my PCs go hot, and it was not recommended to run that software on laptops for that reason.

It is therefore clearly possible that some software could have bad code in (perhaps by accident) which would cause this problem. Maybe Spotify has had an upgrade recently which has given rise to such bad code.

[MrGongGong]

It is therefore clearly possible that some software could have bad code in (perhaps by accident) which would cause this problem. Maybe Spotify has had an upgrade recently which has given rise to such bad code.

I don't think it's that, i've never used Spotify and had the same thing as you
will ask some geekwizards

[Anastasius]

I'm guessing that you've Googled for this as there seems to be a lot of discussion about this.

[Dave2002]

I'm guessing that you've Googled for this as there seems to be a lot of discussion about this.

No. What have you found? I'm still running Mountain Lion, so shouldn't be a Mavericks or Yosemite issue.

[Anastasius]

Well here's one from a long list https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5627327 Might not explain your problem but seems to be a 'hot' topic. Sorry - coat, get!

[Nick Armstrong]

Has anyone else noticed this?

Yes!

I have a Mid 2010 MBP (17 inch) running Mavericks and have been noticing over the last few months that when a pretty full iPhoto and iTunes are open, and some Safari tabs, it does start working hard and gets hot and the fans come on, more than in the past... and it also goes slow.

I was beginning to think that something inside was going home to the big recycling plant in the sky... Thinking I should take it into Apple for a 5th birthday service and general fettle. I shall look with interest over the weekend at some of those discussion threads.

[MrGongGong]

I was beginning to think that something inside was going home to the big recycling plant in the sky... Thinking I should take it into Apple for a 5th birthday service and general fettle. I shall look with interest over the weekend at some of those discussion threads.

Good luck with getting them to look at it
I needed a new battery for a macbook pro
NO appointments available
So when in London went into the shop (IT's NOT A "STORE" )

"I want to give you £100 and you give me a battery"
"Have you got an appointment"
"NO, can I just give you the money"
"Not without an appointment"
"Can I just buy the battery (I do know how to install it)"
"No"

GO here

http://www.macupgrades.co.uk/store/help-me-find-my-mac.php?gclid=CPaBvLGP1sQCFYcSwwodahAAdg

[richardfinegold]

I noticed some while ago that sometimes my Macbook Pro starts to get hot, and at times the fan comes on really hard.
When I first spotted this, a friend mentioned that Flash could be the culprit, and since then I've largely tried to avoid sites using Flash, though overall the problem has been manageble.

Recently the problem has recurred again. I have run virus checks in case there are any problems there - and hopefully there aren't. There were some files detected but now hopefully cleared.

In the last few days the problem has been getting worse, and one thing does seem to trigger it - playing music in Spotify.
It is however hard to be sure that Spotify really is the problem, so I'm now testing out other music using other music players, including iTunes, to see if the problem applies to any music player, or simply Spotify, or perhaps it's something to do with streaming.

I have also tried to correlate this with activity on the machine, using Activity Monitor, but so far the information obtained hasn't led to any definite or definitive results. I have had hypotheses regarding available free space, and space which is allocated as "fixed", but nothing certain has emerged yet. I did think that if the free space becomes low that could cause a problem (it can ...) but it does not appear to be closely associated with this heating up effect. It's still a possible explanation, but I'm looking for others.

Has anyone else noticed this? It's very obvious with a laptop because of the warming effect! Desktop users might not notice, at least at first, until the fans come on.

Can you use it to warm up your tea?

[Dave2002]

Can you use it to warm up your tea?

Warm up maybe.

I was once given a gadget which plugs into a USB port to keep a cup of coffee warm. I didn't think that was a very good idea at the time, but I suppose if I plugged it into my MBP it could be used for tea instead.

A bit like this one - though I think mine didn't have the hub - https://www.fruugo.co.uk/usb-hub-cup...FebItAodDGkApg

The MBP functions as a leg warmer, but I don't want to take it to bed with me.

[MrGongGong]

[Dave2002]

I suppose you choose the vineyard of your choice on the Cinema display! Maybe there's also a Google Maps or Google Earth option.

Re Spotify, I have now removed it - dumped the whole lot in the Trash and erased it. Some problems have now disappeared, and a whole lot of free memory has appeared in Activity Monitor on startup.

It may or not have been relatively benign - perhaps the problems were due to cached music files - but one thing it wasn't doing was obeying the instruction to not run itself at startup, so I binned it. This does seem to have made a significant improvement.

One other concern is that the Logitech notice about the update to the LMS server keeps appearing. I think I would now like to dump the LMS server on this machine for similar reasons to Spotify - and again it's not clear to me how to do that. Some advise selecting it in System Preferences, and then doing a "right click" - but basically nothing like that seems to work on this machine.

[johnb]

Dave

LMS automatically running on startup
Method 1) On Windows you can stop LMS automatically starting when you start the computer by right clicking on the TrayIcon and clicking on "Automatically run at login" (this acts as a toggle). I imagine there is a similar option on a Mac.

Method 2) Once again in Windows, you can set LMS to run or not run at login by opening the "Control Panel" (from the TrayIcon, from the Start/Programs, or running "squeezeboxcp.exe") and setting the option in the Status tab. Presumably there is something similar on a Mac.

To turn off automatic updates
Open the LMS Web interface
Settings
Advanced
Software Updates
Disable both automatic updates and automatic downloads

This might not stop the nag message if the update has already been downloaded.

There are two options then - either accept the update (which I recommend unless you are running 7.8.x/7.9.0) or find the update download and delete it. I forget the location used for the downloaded file but it might well be in the Cache/updates folder. You can find the location of the Cache folder be opening the LMS Web interface - Settings/Information and scroll down to find "Cache Folder". (Make a backup copy before you delete any file you find there, just in case I am giving you duff information.)


BBC iPlayer
For information, things have now settled down with regard to the BBC Radio Live and Listen Again and, currently, the best solution is given in this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showth...uick-fix-guide. It explains how to install the "alpha" version of Triode's BBCiPlayer plugin which can deal with the new HLS streams, both live (320kbps) and listen again (128kbps). However, as the BBC has removed the R3 320kbps from the new HLS LA streams the thread also explains how to install the "BBC iPlayer Extras" plugin, which uses the old RTMP/AAC (while they exist) and gets R3 LA at 320kbps (together with 4 weeks availability). All the installations are via the standard method - no hacks involved.

If you really want to uninstall LMS from your computer, surely there is a standard procedure for doing that on a Mac. I find LMS extremely valuable, but perhaps you don't. These days it is one of the few ways to play BBC R3 Live/Listen Again at 320 kbps and stream it to your audio system.