MacBook Air Overheating Problems

wdwmkr · 25 Jul 2010 at 13:49

Hi, I have an MBA rev.A @ 1.6GHz with the PATA HDD, which recently started overheating in a matter of seconds as soon as I play a video on youtube - even at the lowest resolution @360 and not in full-screen the temperatures go to 75-80C very quickly. The overheating causes it to either shut down one core, or the video playback turns into a 10-fps-slideshow

It's already out of warranty and I've been wondering whether re-applying the thermal paste will do it any good? Or should I try with a notebook cooler first?

Any suggestions are most welcome!

Slurms · 25 Jul 2010 at 13:51

PATA HDD? Are you sure?

box · 25 Jul 2010 at 13:54

Can you open it up and maybe clear out any muck you find clogging stuff up?

wdwmkr · 25 Jul 2010 at 13:59

Slurms said:
PATA HDD? Are you sure?

Yes, I'm sure

It's pretty much the very first model of MBA, thus revision A. I wrote PATA to clarify it is not the SSD model.

Can we concentrate on the overheating issues, please

Slurms · 25 Jul 2010 at 14:01

Hehe, Sorry mate, Try reseating the CPU/GPU?

wdwmkr · 25 Jul 2010 at 14:05

tim80bwi said:
Can you open it up and maybe clear out any muck you find clogging stuff up?

I have already done that. Cleaned it with compressed air, so it is dust free.

What bugs me is the fact the overheating occurs so much faster and easier than before couple of days ago. It overheated when playing videos and movies @720p before, but I know it's normal for the Air.

Yet now, it chokes itself on @360p in seconds :confused:

wdwmkr · 25 Jul 2010 at 14:08

Slurms said:
Hehe, Sorry mate, Try reseating the CPU/GPU?

Reseating? But what for? Could you elaborate your idea a bit more, please?

startrek2 · 26 Jul 2010 at 14:29

i would imagine he means like a ps3 or xbox you remove the heatsinks reapply new thermal paste after cleaning all the older ... hence reseat etc..

mcc49 · 26 Jul 2010 at 14:54

Macbooks generally dont like flash, my macbook unibody gets extremely hot whenever flash content is displayed with fans going into overdrive. It's annoying but I haven't worked out a solution yet other than not to use flash

wdwmkr · 31 Jul 2010 at 12:58

startrek2 said:
i would imagine he means like a ps3 or xbox you remove the heatsinks reapply new thermal paste after cleaning all the older ... hence reseat etc..

i see. thank you

mcc49 said:
Macbooks generally dont like flash, my macbook unibody gets extremely hot whenever flash content is displayed with fans going into overdrive. It's annoying but I haven't worked out a solution yet other than not to use flash

good to hear it from another mac user. yet, a pity as flash is everywhere on the web nowadays...

Rameses · 31 Jul 2010 at 18:08

If you want to crack it open go to: www.ifixit.com

I'd run disk utility for repairing permissions and disk (will need installation disk).

Also reset the SMC http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964

Also download 10.1 as that uses gfx rendering and greatly improves performance.

wdwmkr · 13 Aug 2010 at 15:13

Thank you, AmTechFox

The ifixit website is extremely helpful!