X-Plane Trying to Fry my Macbook Pro

[markc80]

Hi all,

I have a Macbook Pro 2.4Ghz i5 with 4GB of RAM and a NVidia GeForce GT330M (256Mb) running a fully patched, fresh install of 10.6.7

I've deleted all of the preferences in the Output folder of X-Plane and removed all of the Custom Scenery, Plugins and then go to fire up X-Plane (9.67)

I get dumped at LOWI with the default plane, and launch Activity Monitor and see that X-Plane is always using 95-102% of my CPU, then my Macbook's fans kick in as the bottom of the Mac reaches around 500 degrees

I'm hesitant to keep using X-Plane in case I do damage to my Mac, but don't see why it should be using so much of the CPU. Looking at some of the specs of people's Macs here, I should be just fine.

Even switching off the graphics-hungry bits, it does exactly the same (see screenshot).

Any ideas/suggestions welcome,

Thanks all

Mark

[Goran_M]

I suggest you contact X-Plane support.  That would be your best bet.

Start with this...

http://x-plane.com/pg_support.html

[flyinhawaiian]

I have pretty much the same computer, and it sure gets hot, but a nice interm solution I've come up with is putting little furniture pads under each corner (stuck to the desk) to get air flow underneath.  The ones I got were from Lowe's, item#: 54238

[JGregory]

or....

http://www.zalman.co.kr/Eng/product/Product_Read.asp?idx=397

[simbabeat]

You can try these two fan control thingies:

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/23137/fan-control

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/23049/smcfancontrol

make sure to uninstall one before trying the other.  Don't have them both installed at the same time.

[clavel9]

I've been using X-Plane on an MBP for some time. There is very little you can do to stop the heating up of the computer. (Short of some of the hardware solutions listed above in previous posts.) I never use X-Plane outside of a well ventilated room, ideally near a door. Basically, you don't want to run the computer at sustained temperatures above about 80 C. I use a utility called SMC Fan Control which allows manual control of the fan speed (in RPM) and displays the temperature in the menu bar. I usually run the fan up to 6,000 RPM, keeping the temperature down to about 75-80 C. I usually leave the fan running for a few minutes afterwards to cool it right down.

[NoutvanZon]

He merisi,

I have the same with my MacBook Pro. Using the smcfancontrol nicely pointed out by simbabeat I can get the CPU temperatures down to 80 degrees celcius with the fans at 6200rpm.

None the less I will buy a laptop cooler. They are only 20 euro or so and can probably kick another 10 degrees from the CPU temp. Ill get back to you once I bought it.

Apple wanted to decrease noise so they installed a weak fan.....  :-X

[simbabeat]

Apple wanted to decrease noise so they installed a weak fan.....  :-X

Yes, and in the built in SMC they set the fans to barely even go to 2000 even when the CPU is at 100%. Like they want you to fry your $3 million dollar laptop.