Macs are a premium product that makes up an almost 10% share of the laptop market. But, despite their superior marketing, they’re not completely immune from the common laptop issue of overheating.
It’s an alarming situation because overheating can destroy your laptop’s delicate components. Indeed, it is essential to maintain your Mac as cold as possible to avoid damage and to extend the machine’s life.
Overheating can happen to any electrical product, from other computers to TVs, radios, and even guitar amps and poor circulation or old components are often to blame.
Macs share some of the issues of the above-mentioned electrical products and have some unique to themselves. Read on to find out some possible reasons why your mac is overheating.
Why Is My Mac Overheating?
Mac overheating happens for a variety of reasons.
Let’s take a look at some of the possible causes of an overheated laptop, and then we’ll look at how to remedy them.
Demanding and Faulty Apps
If you’ve owned your Mac for a long period, chances are you’ve got a slew of apps installed on it.
It is usually not a problem, but if you have CPU-intensive software loaded, or a third-party app locked in a loop, it might cause your computer to overheat rapidly.
If you use many of these demanding apps simultaneously or have numerous apps open without realizing it, your older Mac will quickly heat up.
Soft Surfaces
Soft surfaces, for example, your lap, a bed, a blanket, or a floor carpet, are pleasant to sit on, but they can also cause your Mac to overheat.
When you place your computer on a soft surface, there is less air circulation, and it needs proper ventilation to stay cool.
Dust Build Up
Vents, covers, and other openings from outside to the inside of your Mac can collect dust which also restricts airflow.
It’s natural for your Mac to accumulate dust and debris over time, but most people don’t know how to clean it. The built-in vents are critical to keeping your computer cool, and if they become dusty or blocked, your MacBook can start to overheat.
How to Prevent Overheating on a Mac?
Managing the workload for your system, limiting your multitasking enthusiasm, and clearing up rubbish or spyware are some of the simplest ways to try to cure your Mac running hot.
Let’s get started!
Enable Heat Protection
If your Mac tends to overheat, the first thing you should do is install third-party software and enable Heat Protection, which will prevent your battery from charging if the temperature rises over average.
It is a crucial step, and we strongly advise you not to skip it. Otherwise, your battery may also deteriorate rapidly.
Remove the Junk from your Mac in a Single Click
One of the causes of an overheated laptop is too many files to work through while doing regular tasks. Cleaning up any rubbish or useless data on your Macbook is the best approach to handling this.
Transfer Massive Files to the Cloud
When performing a disc cleanup, you may discover that the items taking up the most space on your Mac are crucial to you. Extensive video and image files, 3D projects or movie projections, and other oversized and growingly megabyte-consuming items.
Consider transferring large files to the cloud. It’s a win-win situation because if they’re vital, you won’t lose them, and they won’t take up space on your Mac.
Check the Activity Monitor
If your Mac continues to overheat, use the built-in Activity Monitor to see which processes use the most power. To get the app navigate to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor.
Control your Browser’s Tabs
Browser tabs are infamous for using a significant portion of your computer’s processing capacity, especially RAM. Running thousands of tabs in your browser may be one of the solutions to the issue, “Why is my Mac overheating?”
Our advice is to keep track of your tabs and close those you no longer use. Closing additional tabs are the best choice for your Mac to save ram and limit potential overheating caused by the RAM.
Remove Dust from your Mac
Sometimes you have to start cleaning from the interior of your gadget and work your way out. Some people report that they’ve discovered the risks of an overheated Mac and its dust. That’s true; dust that accumulates on the top of your device as well as on its components may be a source of poor ventilation and heat dispersion.
Clean your Mac from dust and keep it clean afterwards. Don’t use water or any unapproved cleaning products that could damage your system.
Examine for Malware
Like any other software, malware can use your computer’s processing power and contribute to its overheating. So, one of the reasons your Mac overheats so quickly might be malware, which you don’t want on your laptop.
Run a fast scan on your system to cover your bases and examine your device is overheating due to malware or not. Most anti-virus programs can take care of this for you.
Examine Your Fans
The fan runs on your device to move warm air out of the device and assist the system in cooling down more quickly. If your fans aren’t working correctly, your computer will overheat. In this case, your Mac may need to be serviced.
Macs Fan Control software allows you to monitor almost every aspect of your computer’s fans, such as fan speed, temperature sensors pane, menu-bar icon, and autostart with system option. To avoid this issue, you must download this software or something similar.
Keep it Cool
The temperature of your environment directly influences the temperature of your Mac, so avoid leaving it in heat or cold. The ambient temperature of your MacBook should be between 10° and 35° C (50° and 95° F).
If your Mac becomes too hot, it will cease working correctly. In this situation, a Mac temperature detector will assist you in preventing overheating. You must select the best Mac temperature monitor to ensure that the app you choose is a trusted one.
What Next?
If you’ve tried everything we’ve mentioned above and still are facing Mac overheating issues, you may need to see a Mac professional. These severe issues may necessitate a visit to a Mac Consultants Network shop or Apple support.
Check out our other articles for more tech tips that may help you.