MacBook Brings the Heat...

May 28th, 2006 | apple, burningsensation, heat, macbook, video, youtube

And in a not-so-good way.

I've been dreaming of a 13 inch wide laptop for awhile now. The MacBook seemed like my dream come true. I went out to the apple store to test it out and see if I could handle the glossy monitor. I was pretty close to making a purchase until I felt the bottom. No way in hell.

This "laptop" is only suitable for people who are done having children. Scolding hot. Think I'm exaggerating? Here's a YouTube video someone shot taking the temperature of the bottom of the laptop. 119.8 degrees Fahrenheit.

Is that hot enough to cook eggs on?

2 Comments

Comments...

(Page 1)

1. I used to have a Dell Inspiron 5300, a model notorious for overheating to the point where the BIOS's safety mechanism would kick in and shut the computer down. Dell wised up and stopped putting powerful P4 desktop processors in their Inspirons, opting for Centrinos instead. Hence my 9300 is really cool even after hours of running.

While the problem is different (I think everyone's accepted the thermal grease explanation for the MacBooks), the response from Apple is similar to Dell's (issue a firmware fix and otherwise ignore the problem). But in this case it's worse because it doesn't take a year's worth of dust in the case for the problem to manifest like the Dell's did. My MBP is brand new.

This thing is too hot. It hurts your legs when it's on your lap, and even the top surface gets too hot to type with. I've heard that, to a degree, the whole metal case is supposed to be a giant heatsink, but I find it hard to believe the fans are never supposed to run. Hopefully Apple does something, because it's ridiculous.

10:28AM on May 30th 2006 by Mike

2. I've since heard that the firmware they issued helps to the tune of 20 something degrees... that still seems pretty hot to me.

11:51PM on Jun 1st 2006 by Alex

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