Hot palm on Macbook Pro

[highlandsflyer]

I have to clean out laptops on a regular basis due to build up of debris in the exhaust.

 

[Raging_Bulls]

I have to clean out laptops on a regular basis due to build up of debris in the exhaust.

A good sports exhaust will sort that out.







True, some cooling fin designs are quite prone to clogging up. A good clean with compressed air and a toothbrush or stiff paintbrush can perform miracles. Modification of the design can also help, but it's best to avoid that if you don't have the tools and the knowledge.

Just remember to either block or disconnect the fans before you start blowing compressed air into them. Any electric motor will become an alternator if it's spun by an external force, and you don't want that current to fry your motherboard or GFX module. Most modern PCs have built-in safety features for that, but it never hurts to be safe.

 

[silverclaws]

If a laptop is hot it is because of increased load or dust/broken cooling.

If air comes out the back and the fan speeds up and down in use then it would be chance in a million the internal cooling has 'broken' somehow.

Being 2010 and a MBP I doubt it is either full of dust or has faulty fans so your cooling is probably ok. Being unibody and Apple it is coming apart easy anyway.

Which means you need to find what is 'using' the laptop hard and producing the heat. If it only happens in a browser then use another, look in the system activity tool at CPU load, is anything high? (50%+)

Install Firefox and when it asks to install flash say no, try it like that for a bit..

First of all, thanks to all who have suggested and he who took the trouble to ask at work, on the pc 'felt' across the exhaust outlet was common, mind with an air intake on the bottom what could I expect, but the pc comes apart roughly every six months for a de- felt, fan clean and hoover out, but the mac, the whole thing is a heat sink so no air intakes, just fans pushing air out the back under the screen.

Browsers, currently I am using Chrome with no add ons, in times of trouble I use Camino, but firefox is still on here somewhere, but I migrated from that to Chrome because the issues first started with firefox and Opera on the pc is fast but it demands up to 90% of the cpu in use so there is no way I will consider that for the mac. Safari is a bit basic, but it struggles to find stuff Chrome can with ease.

But most of my problems occur when writing replies to posts on forums and also when I am on Tumbler which is image heavy so what form do those images take on tumbler are they flash ?

But I have kicked off the heavy apps like Mac speach dictate and Inspiration, that eased the situation a bit but there is no way I am booting off my CS5 design standard, but apps tend not to be a problem, the problem occurs online.

I have been watched the CPU tool but nothing untoward and I have a widget on the dashboard that monitors everything even exhaust temperature and speed of fans it doesn't indicate anything hammering the cpu or hdd hard, either that or I don't know what I am looking at.

 

[drcarlos]

I had a chat with our PC engineers at work and they say the most common root cause of problems with laptops is dust and crap inside the case stopping the cooling working effectively

Quite correct, taken a few apart myself and cleaned them, but easier to do by back blasting the cooling system with compressed air canister (find the exhaust vent and spray the air in there). The fins are usually a lot finer and closer together than a desktops as they need to similar cooling surface in a lot smaller space so they block really easily and need a clean every 6 months really.
If indeed it does have a 320M GPU they don't run quite as hot as the 8600M GT that has the issues as they are a workstation GPU for rendering 3D drawings rather than a gaming GPU that is usually pushed harder (they were also offered in professional level Dells with longer warranties). Anyway if it's just web browsing when it's getting hot the GPU won't be being worked at all so you will find it is actually the CPU getting hot.

Carl.