What to do when your Mac is overheating
If you’re having warnings about temperature on your Mac, you can feel the heat through the casing of your Mac or even if your fans are kicking up a serious amount of noise. You’re having issues with the running temperature of your Mac. Run through our list of tips on how to try and keep the temperature on your Mac down. If you exhaust this list without much difference, you’re going to need to have it looked at by an Apple Specialist who can clean out all the dust and debris in your fans and inlets and re apply the thermal paste that cools your Mac components down.
Quit large apps or run them solo
To see if you’ve got a process or app that’s giving your MacBook an extreme workload , first go to the magnifying glass in the top right of your screen and search ‘activity monitor’ open it and click the CPU tab and in the CPU% column you will get a read out of all the apps and processes being carried out by your Mac and the amount of computing power they’re using. From this you will be able to distinguish if you need to run certain programs individually with other apps closed and so on. Checking on the problematic apps to see if they have any new updates available is also a good shout.
Close Browser Tabs
I know, sometimes you’ve just got windows you can’t close because you’re using them, or you’ve got them open to remember something or keep a website safe. But having a load of browser windows open does expend a lot of your Macs computing power, and when you do that, your putting your Mac at risk of overheating. Try bookmarking any websites you’re keeping safe and if you click the magnifying glass in the top right of your screen and search ‘Stickies’ you can put sticky notes on your desktop to remind you of certain websites you’re going to need. If you drag and drop the web URL (not copy + paste) into a sticky it will make a hyperlink. Allowing you to click the URL to re open the website!
Make sure your Mac is in the right position
If you’ve got your iMac or MacBook in an alcove or on a closed shelf, try moving it out into the open so it can circulate the warm air out and cold air in. If they same air is being dragged through your iMac over and over again the temperature will gradually rise causing your fans to work harder trying to cool off your Mac. If you have your MacBook on your lap or on a table, ensure nothing is blocking the fan inlets.
Reset the heat sensors
If none of these tips have worked, you may have an issue with the heat sensors in your Mac. To reset your heat sensors you need to perform an action called an SMC reset. Do this by first turning off your Mac and unplugging it for 15 seconds. Then power on whilst holding these buttons:
Control+option+shift+power on
Run a fan diagnosis
If none of the above have helped resolved the issues you’re having with overheating. You can run diagnosis on your Macs hardware to ensure it’s running as it should. If the fan is malfunctioning for whatever reason, it would definitely explain your problems. To do this, first turn your Mac off, then turn it back on whilst holding down these buttons: D + Power On. Once the test is complete you’ll see a pop up on your screen of the results. Check these Error codes for any beginning with ‘PPF’ which is the code given to cooling fan malfunctions. If any of these show up, you’ll need to get your Mac booked in with an Apple Specialist who can repair the issues your Macs having with its cooling fans.
None of that helped?
If none of that helped or if you’re having trouble with any of the steps, contact us here at Hero Tech Support for all the help you could need. We offer free pick up & drop off in Hampshire and don’t charge a penny for diagnosis. So we could pick it up, tell you what’s wrong with it and drop it back without you paying a penny if you don’t want the work done!
