Overheating MBP (another...) remedies?

DoubleCheese · 3 Apr 2014 at 16:20

I've got a late 2008 13" MBP (upgraded to 240Gb SSD and 8GB RAM) and over the past few months it has started getting quite hot and the fan is almost constantly on. Battery life varies from 1hr to 3hrs and it is failing (Service Battery notification) so a new one is on order and should be with me in a few days.

I'll check the fan tonight for dust and see if that is part of the problem.

I use Google Chrome mostly (5-10 tabs in use) and Google Chrome Helper seems to keep the CPU at over 80% utilisation most of the time.

Would an upgrade to Mavericks and a new battery make a world of difference? Or is this a no brainer and I should have done it months ago?

Thanks.

sieze2 · 3 Apr 2014 at 16:24

Mavericks is more energy efficient in my opinion. When you open it up, just clean out all the crap in the heatsink. Its probably just blocked the fan's airflow.

Emlyn_Dewar · 4 Apr 2014 at 08:54

Clean and remount the heatsink with some decent thermal paste. Should make a reasonable difference given the age of the machine.

shiver · 4 Apr 2014 at 10:26

Fresh Mavericks install, not upgrade might be a good idea too