MacBook Pro overheating in Boot Camp

I just got a new MacBook Pro and installed Windows 7 via Boot Camp. I updated the system completely both in OS X and Windows (so I have Boot Camp 3.1 drivers). Yet, it's pretty much unusable except for surfing the web. If I try to play a video back, it gets extremely hot and as I've found out with Core Temp, it's bumping into the 105 degree Celsius Tjunction temperature limit and throttling. Thus I end up with stuttering video and a pretty useless machine on the Windows side. This is just one activity that does this. Compiling in Visual Studio does the same thing.

Is this typical for Boot Camp or is there something wrong with my machine?

 

Did you buy your Mac because you have a need for OS X?

Boot Camp is simply the tool to partition the drive so you can install Windows and has absolutely no bearing on the functionality of Windows itself.

105 is high, however keep in mind that Macs are designed to run OS X. Even though they can run Windows, the experience is not the same. You'll find many people complaining about heat issues, poor trackpad response, poor battery life, etc, which unfortunately come with running Windows on a Mac.

 

I know Windows on a Mac tends to run a few degrees higher, but that temp is definitely not the norm. Are your fans running? What surface is the laptop sitting on?

 

It's not typical. I have my macbook pro running on Win7, and rarely it gets over 150-160F. What are your temperatures in Os X

 

Yes, I am planning on doing some iPhone development. I tried VMware Fusion but it was horribly slow; it definitely wouldn't work out for my needs.

I actually have no other complaints about the way it functions in Windows, at all.

It idles in the mid 30s and then ramps up the fans when something processor intensive heats things up. It gets up to the upper 60s, on a desk. Contrast to Windows, where the fan is barely running and stays that way even as something like Prime95 is running.

I tried smcFanControl and rebooting but that's not going to work out. Every time the system goes into standby, the fans reset to their lowest speed.

 

redmaxx:

Just curios, what model of Macbookpro do you have? And when you said

did you mean you did try to run windows in the VM and it was too slow? If yes, I am a bit suprised because other people were satisfied with the performance but that was on Macbookpro 17"/3.06.

Thanks

 

I've got the 13.3" 2.26 GHz model with 2 GB of RAM. I didn't expect it to be fast, but it was worth a shot.

Apple Care advised that I reinstall Windows, which has gotten the fan scaling back. The only issue I have now is that Apple seems to wait until the CPU reaches 104 C before kicking up the fan, then it holds it down around 90. Definitely an improvement over the first go around. As long as this is the way Apple wants it to run, then so be it. The way I figure it, as long as it's under warranty, they'll have to fix anything goes wrong from it running so hot. I just wish they would kick the fans up more aggressively. I like the overall package enough to use it over any other Windows laptop out there.

 

My buddy's mbp13 does not have these issues whatsoever, I'd be suspicious of a real problem if i were you.

 

Here it is: http://i46.tinypic.com/10h153l.png

Turns out I was mistaken, OS X exhibits the same behavior. It idles around 60c and then hits 105c very quickly after starting mprime. I'm using iStat nano to get this info. The fan is very slow to ramp up to 6200 RPMs and almost as soon as I shut mprime down, the fan slows to ~2000 RPMs even though the thing is still in the 70s.

I'll give Apple a call in the morning and see what they say...

 

Thats a bit useless then.... Its a piece of hardware.... My MBP throttles when at 90oC and the fans are at 2800 or something like that, under OSX. Thats stupid; very very rare I've ever seeen my processor max out while encoding, a bit useless; not surprised Windows doesn't like it so much.

 

did you try resetting the SMC? always the first thing to try when the fans aren't spinning up correctly...

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

 

When I had XP installed on my MBP--I RARELY had heating problems.
With OS 7-- it's constantly overheating. Even running games that are 5-7 years old. I've tried fan control programs and it doesn't work. At a loss really.

 

I hadn't tried that but unfortunately it didn't work: http://i49.tinypic.com/2uz5saw.png

Apple said that it's probably a defective sensor and made me an appointment to bring it in to be exchanged. Thanks for everyone's input!

 

you could also enable nvidia powermizer on the windows side. google for powermizer switch and download it.

 

Well, the store did diagnostics on it and there don't appear to be any issues with any of the sensors or the fan. I also ran mprime on one of the in-store machines and the thing also gets up to the processor's thermal limit while the fan just idles along at 2K RPMs. So obviously, there's no reason to exchange it since it appears to be a software (OS X or SMC) issue.

 

Thanks, I'll try this later today.

 

you could also try the lubbo fan control. It allows you to control the laptop fan speed. By default, the threshold temperature is 80c that is, the temperature will have to reach 80c before the fans will kick in to decrease the temperature. You could change the threshold temp to something like 58-60c. When you have done that, drag the lubbo fan control program to the startup folder. It will start each time you windows starts.

 

story short guys , i managed to install osx on my DV5 laptop ( don't ask me how cause its illegal here ) , in graphics and cpu intensive programs like Ableton live , photoshop, matlab and stuff that are available for both mac and windows i found my laptop alot cooler when running this applications on the mac os and not on the windows , so its not the problem of ur laptop , the problem is with windows applications , i think windows applications consume more resources than the same mac applications + macs aren't designed with alot of fans in it like other laptops cause its not normal for u on OSX to reach those high temperatures ( so u can say the laptop is not designed for the windows applications that use more resources )

- u can try running on powersaver if u r running high performance this will reduce the heat alot
- u can run parallels if u have a good mac
- or u can buy a PC

 

Do you know by default powersaver lock the CPU to the lowest performance state? Therefore less heat is produced not a smart way to reduce heat.

 

so thats why i suggest this to avoid him loosing his CPU , compiling on visual studio (unless u r doing a major project u can use balanced ) or watching youtube will work normally on power saver , i'm a Microsoft student partner by the way , so this question seems as an insult to me ... be careful man

 

try netbeans 6.8. It rocks!! i also ran on powersaver while i was using windows.

 

when it comes to C# visual is the best , i only use netbeans when it comes to java

 

This has nothing to do with being a student partner or not.
You can be an employee of Microsoft yet not know about Advance Power Management.
Nobody wants to cripple their 2GHZ CPU for the time being because the computer cannot handle the heat when by rights the computer should be able to.

 

i ll want to cripple my laptops to avoid them getting fired,if u have an hp high end laptop or a macbook running windows and high end programs u ll know what i am talking about , i bought a coolers to so i can use more of my laptop's power ,

Lets face it macbook don't have enough fans to handle windows or high end games , mac os don't produce that much of heat , i think some professional should tell us why windows applications produce more heat on a computer that can handle windows and mac os , while using same applications i said b4 this appears to be so weird

 

What we do here isn't bending over because the OEM offers inadequate cooling.
We
1)Make the fan spin faster by modifying EC
2)Put on better thermal paste
3)Enlarge vent holes.
4)Demand a refund
It is yet to establish whether Windows produce heat or your laptop cannot handle cooling properly.

 

Did you enable powermizer? The mac is definitely thinner than the average laptop. Also there's no holes at the bottom. These small things contribute to heat building up. Also The mac is locked on the 9600m gt in windows. If you enable powermizer, your temps should drop to mid 60's. The mac was not made for windows. It runs windows but with some compromises among which are heat and battery life.

 

I like no 1 & 4 , 2 evolves voiding ur warranty and 3 will ruin ur laptop appearance

 

I can tell you guys this---
when I was running XP for games, I almost never overheated to the point where I crashed. At some point I upgraded bootcamp and moved to OS7.

One or the other caused a lot of overheating problems. Either the bootcamp update with new drivers or OS7 caused problems--or both.

I was thinking of getting one of the new mpbs when they come out but if the damg thing overheats supereasy that's a problem.

 

I've heard the newer MBP 13 comes with an integrated 320M. So does this mean that heat isn't an issue with the April 2010 MBP 13 in Win 7 under bootcamp? Can anyone with the new MBP 13 confirm this? Heat is the only major issue holding me back from buying one.

 

the 320m just like the 9400m is an integrated gpu. I believe it will be around mid 50's c for the gpu temp.

 

Can you please tell me if the new Macbook Pro 13 (Apr 2010) will run Windows 7 properly under bootcamp? I know that the MBP it isn't optimized for Win7 but the hardware is just so frickin' good looking, I just want to buy one.

I basically want to know if there will be any heat issues. You say GPU should be around 50C since the 320m on the 13" is integrated. Will that mean that it will run cool under Win7? I would like to switch to OSX completely but my work requires Visual Studio 2008 which is why I have to dual boot.

I am going to buy a new laptop tomorrow would really appreciate it if someone could help me out here. The heat issue has a lot of mixed reviews, some people say it isn't that bad some say its really awful. Could someone with the new updated 13" MBP please put in a word here?

 

Nothing has changed regarding Windows 7 and installing it on a Mac. It's still quirky.

You will get poor battery life (compared to running OSX).
You will have heat issues (which are subjective depending who you ask).
You will have trackpad/keyboard backlight issues.

 

correct. you bought a mac for os x. get used to it.. there are mac equivalents to almost all popular and well used windows programs now.

 

Is it me or is no one trying to solve the OP's problem?
Anyway, I think he should undervolt his CPU with RMClock, I did it and now my 2.53 GHz Macbook Pro runs at 1.0000V in Windows and the temperature is 48-52^C (118-125^F) with the fans running at 3000 RPM which is almost silent. (I set the fan speed in Mac and then restart).

 

+1 , undervolting gives alot less temperatures

 

Macs may not have the best hardware at the moment - but the statement that macs can't handle high end games is completely false (heatwise). I realized that boot camp's default thresholds are 60 and 80. Basically the fans work at around 2000 all the time and after 60 Celsius they will kick in a little faster, 3000-4000 rpm and after 80 degrees up to 6000 rpm.
While the idea isn't bad, there is something wrong with the default refresh rate. When the CPU sensors recognize that 80 Celsius has been reached, the fans will slowly start to kick in - the refresh rate is too low for that - When the fans reach over 4000 - 5000, the temperature, by default (boot camp) will be 90-95.

When the fans have reached 6000 rpm, temperature will stabilize at 75-76 Celsius

I installed Lubbosfancontrol, and set the same thresholds. Problem fixed. Right after I reach 60, fans kick in within 4-5 seconds (as opposed to 30-45 seconds by default). Temperature never reaches over 73 and is stable at 71-72 celsius. I've overclocked my card to 650/1430/948 (as opposed to apples 500/1100/750 or similar).

I've tried like Bad Company 2, modern warfares, 3dmark06 and Half life lost coast 2 video stress test. Even at very high fps and cpu at 100% load the temperature is what is mentioned above.

Mac's are designed to run at higher temperatures, due to the dev's wanting it to run more quiet. The max temperature it can handle is 105. Now miles before any harm will be done to your computer, if it will ever reach 105, it will shut itself down and countermeasures will be taken.
It's not high heat that ruins your chips (trust me, you will want a new mac before that happens) as much as sudden temperature amplitude. Think of desert soil. Same happens with metal.

If your computer has defective parts, that's a completely different topic, though. An average macbook pro joe shouldn't overheat.
Sure enough, if you wish to be careful, you can always monitor your temperatures.

Btw i'm using a 2010 unibody i5 520m 15" mbp

Any further questions?

 

In the 2010 Macbook's (at least in my 13") the backlight and heat have been addressed. Battery life is a little better, but still only around 5-5.5 hours.

You're definitely right about quirkiness. Whenever I boot into Windows 7 the sound is muted.

Sorry for bringing an old thread back

 

Yes......why are you digging up a thread that's been dead for 6 months?