Fudge Donner Posted August 5, 2011 Posted August 5, 2011 no clue where to put this so server i thought might be best. but my macbook pro is running at a good 80 degrees c which is 175 F while running sl according to my fan app. could these be why i get he spinning rainbow pin wheel while in sl which causes me to force quit and restart? if so i hope i can get some answers before tommorrow so i can get a cooling pad.
Randall Ahren Posted August 5, 2011 Posted August 5, 2011 Get a can of compressed air for cleaning PCs and use the little straw to direct the air into the radiator fins of your computer and blow the dust out. This will usuually solve a problem with overheating in a computer. Also check your fans and make sure they are working and have all their blades (I once had a blade breakoff from a computer fan). Remember to blow the dust away periodically from your computer's radiator fins to avoid problems in the future with overheating. ps: Desktop computers generally have less problems with overheating. Consider a desktop for your next hardware upgrade.
Fudge Donner Posted August 5, 2011 Author Posted August 5, 2011 i have a desktop just when i moved it hasnt been unboxed as my living situation is not permanent yet, and i have a mac book pro with no external vents not to sure as how i would get a nozzle in there for air
Randall Ahren Posted August 5, 2011 Posted August 5, 2011 Massive design problem. I also suggest avoiding Macs for your next hardware upgrade.
Marianne McCann Posted August 5, 2011 Posted August 5, 2011 This would be a viewer issue. I believe I've heard before of performance issues with MacBooks in particular.
Dana Dielli Posted August 6, 2011 Posted August 6, 2011 Fudge Donner wrote: ... but my macbook pro is running at a good 80 degrees c which is 175 F while running sl according to my fan app. ... I'm not happy about it, but I think if you do some checking, you'll find that 80C is well within normal operating range for the MBP while running graphics. My 2007 MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo routinely runs around 180F (82.2C) when I'm playing sl. For me, a cooling pad is a necessity, if only to keep from burning my legs! I agree to an extent with the previous poster who suggested it's a design failure. While I may not be qualified to second-guess Apple's engineers, I feel common sense alone would indicate that better fans would help keep things cooler and perhaps extend life expectancy of critical parts. Edited to add: I should have mentioned that by using smcFanControl, I can force both fans to 6005 rpm and try to keep things down to about 170F (76.7C), except when I'm dealing with a lot of textures, in which case I'm stuck "cooking".
Baloo Uriza Posted August 8, 2011 Posted August 8, 2011 You'll notice that Apple calls the Macbook line "notebooks" and not "laptops." Because the metal case will get burning hot. It's what they do. Built with passive cooling only, these machines are not suited for use in bed, on your lap or any other surface that isn't hard and preferably ventilated. You're probably better off with a Lenovo ThinkPad A, T or W series for your next mobile machine. Put a Linux distro on it that comes with GNOME by default, and you'll hardly know the difference (other than you're not causing first and second degree burns when you run SL with it on your lap).
Baloo Uriza Posted August 8, 2011 Posted August 8, 2011 Randall Ahren wrote: Get a can of compressed air for cleaning PCs and use the little straw to direct the air into the radiator fins of your computer and blow the dust out. Apple doesn't believe in vents.
Malaki96 Posted August 8, 2011 Posted August 8, 2011 The vents on a MacBook are along the hinge between the base and the display. Just because they're not ugly, doesn't mean they're not there. Placing your hand below this hinge will give you an idea of how much hot air is being moved by the "passive" cooling.
Baloo Uriza Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 Malaki96 wrote: The vents on a MacBook are along the hinge between the base and the display. Just because they're not ugly, doesn't mean they're not there. Placing your hand below this hinge will give you an idea of how much hot air is being moved by the "passive" cooling. Being blocked by the hinge doesn't count.
Void Singer Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 it's passive and you can still detect airflow through case joints?! note to self: never buy a mac notebook.
Fizz Savira Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 Hmm, lots of mis-information in this thread... Maybe I can help clear it up? But only if people read the thread ;-) Macbooks have fans, just like other laptops. The fans draw air from the top, those neat looking grilles on each side of the keyboard, and exhaust it out the back, which for many versions is hidden by the hinge for the display. I personally use a 3rd party application called "smc fan control" -- http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/23049/smcfancontrol The reason I use that is because I've found that on older Apple laptops (before unibody) that Apple wasn't ramping up the fan speeds to my satisfaction. My newest laptop (2011 unibody MacBook pro) I don't bother with smc fan control, because the fans ramp up and down nicely. I also own a 27" iMac desktop, and it gets quite hot as well, so I also use smc fan control there. I just ramp the fans up until I get a temperature I'm comfortable with, and then turn it down later on when I'm done. If you think your fans are dusty, you may consider taking your laptop in to the Apple store, if that's an option for you. I suspect a genius will be able to help remove the dust. For the iMac, I found that running a vacuum cleaner hose along the bottom of the unit (where the air intake grille is located) can help remove a fair amount of dust buildup. The desktop units have a filter which prevents the dust from coating your fans and ruining them over time, but the filter itself will impede airflow when it gets too dusty. Finally, none of this is unique to Apple - current generation computers run hot, Apple has just chosen to ramp their fans up slower than other manufcaturers, which for most usage scenarios is a win, as the machines run cool and quiet.
Gavin Hird Posted August 13, 2011 Posted August 13, 2011 80 deg C is quite normal for a MBP when running graphics full tilt like the SL viewer makes it do. Air for cooling the MBP is drawn in through the space between the metal and the keys on the keyboard and vented out at the hinge between the main body and the display. You can always try and apply compressed air to clear the path if you feel there is a lot of dust there, but I doubt hit makes much of a difference. What I find is that putting the machine on a laptop holder that allows air to circulate under it (even passive helps), and the most efficient ones are those with built in fans. As you may have noticed, the metal housing gets quite hot under the machine, and raising it will help cool off that heat faster.
Wulf Metaller Posted October 26, 2011 Posted October 26, 2011 I have recently bought a 17inch Mac Book pro after using an imac for several years. Im so disappointed using SL on it. The temperature jumps up as soon as SL is switched on and I can hear the noise through my headphones. People in the next room ask me whats wrong with my computer. Its not a fault, this only happens on Second Life. no other applications or games. It just uses so much of the CPU. The various temperture control units you can use only really give you options to increase fan speed, so you have no relief from the noise. Presumably the fans are doing their job because the Mac Book Pro just gets too hot with SL. There is a design fault, this shouldnt happen, but probably so few people use SL on it, nothing will get done. The guy at the Mac store looked at me like I was insane when I suggested something was wrong with the design. But my wife runs SL on her £300 Dell laptop with no heat problems at all. I paid £2300 for the Mac Book Pro thinking Id be getting something special, but it is more or less unusable for SL. The imac was brilliant. No heat or fan problems. I so wish I'd never changed
Madelaine McMasters Posted October 26, 2011 Posted October 26, 2011 Wulf, I run SL on a 4.5 year old MacBook Pro (2.33GHz, Core2 Duo) with no problems. The only crashing I experienced was do due dust blocking/stalling the GPU fan. If your Mac is a recent machine, it should run SL just fine. Given a choice between the SL viewer and the Mac as your culprit, I'd be looking at the viewer. I've had little luck running LL viewers and much better luck running Firestorm.
Baloo Uriza Posted October 26, 2011 Posted October 26, 2011 Wulf Metaller wrote: Im so disappointed using SL on it. The temperature jumps up as soon as SL is switched on and I can hear the noise through my headphones. People in the next room ask me whats wrong with my computer. I'd be more disappointed that Apple neglected to include adequate cooling for how much you paid for it. This shouldn't be a problem, even with the demands SL is putting on the machine, Macs have roots so deep in graphic design and 3D modeling that having adequate cooling shouldn't have been a complete afterthought like your story suggests is the case.
Madelaine McMasters Posted October 27, 2011 Posted October 27, 2011 Baloo Uriza wrote: Wulf Metaller wrote: Im so disappointed using SL on it. The temperature jumps up as soon as SL is switched on and I can hear the noise through my headphones. People in the next room ask me whats wrong with my computer. I'd be more disappointed that Apple neglected to include adequate cooling for how much you paid for it. This shouldn't be a problem, even with the demands SL is putting on the machine, Macs have roots so deep in graphic design and 3D modeling that having adequate cooling shouldn't have been a complete afterthought like your story suggests is the case. Baloo, why would you be disappointed in something that hasn't happened? One anecdote isn't sufficient to build a case and I've had proven success with a far less capable Mac (also an anecdote). I'd defer to Consumer Reports, JD Power and general market share growth to suggest that Apple hardware isn't disappointing many people.
Baloo Uriza Posted October 28, 2011 Posted October 28, 2011 To be fair, JD Power and Consumer Reports said the Prius was one of the best cars out there and JD Power thinks Go Daddy's the best hosting company around. Then the phrase "unintended acceleration" became part of the vernacular. I haven't seen many people who have had a good experience with Go Daddy, or even use them intentionally if they're at all aware of any other alternative. I don't exactly trust their opinion over real world experience.
Madelaine McMasters Posted October 28, 2011 Posted October 28, 2011 Void Singer wrote: perhaps this?... Which is why I also look at market share, earnings, margins, inventory turns and other metrics and as well as their integrals and first derivatives. I then mix in my understanding of engineering (I am one) and manufacuturing (I make things) and the intangibles. From this I try to determine whether my personal experience with the quality of a thing is representative. So far so good, though I don't recommend this strategy to anybody. With only my own anecdotal life as evidence, I can't discount luck. ETA: if, for years, a lot of people say they like a thing better than another thing, then follow through by buying it, you begin to trust the correlation, if only a li'l.
Void Singer Posted October 29, 2011 Posted October 29, 2011 I was thinking more of the factor of "good at somethings != good at others".... for instance there are people that would try raytracing on a phone if someone made an app that could do it.... and then downrate the phone because it was horribly slow or did not perform to their expectations.... sadly people still look at all computers as magical devices and they hear "x is a good computer" and wonder why it doesn't do what they wanted when it really wasn't designed for the use they put it to.
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