Cool Macbook Pro withOUT Fans

mgmartino Said:

"Cool Macbook Pro withOUT Fans: [...]Any suggestions for a water cooling or any type of cooling system for a macbook pro that is Fan-Free would be much appreciated!"

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Troubleshooting Cooling a Mac:

A. Based on Personal Experience:

On my desk, I'm always using a riser for my MBP(it has no fans). On my lap, I'm always using a Laptop Cooler that is at an angle. Being at an angle, the fans circulate much slower and frankly are never heard. My riser lays at a 35 degree angle, and my laptop cooler lays at a 30% angle.

B. Finding Directly from Apple:

1. Go here: About Fans and Fan Noise in your Apple product - Apple Support
2. Scroll to: Make sure the vents on your Apple product aren't blocked
3. Scroll to: Learn more

Run the Apple Diagnostics to see if any hardware issues are detected.

It is possible you have a software issue. To look for possible software issues run EtreCheck and post the report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper. If you give EtreCheck "Full Disk Access", then the report will include more details which may contain clues.

It is also possible the heatsink & fan are full of dust or maybe the heatsink compound has dried out too much and needs to be refreshed, but I would do the above first to eliminate things that may not require opening the laptop where something could be physically damaged.

Thanks for posting the EtreCheck report. Most likely CleanMyMac is causing most of your problems so uninstall it by following the developer's instructions. This app is notorious on these forums since after uninstalling CMM most users see a marked improvement. Anti-virus apps, cleaning apps, and third party security software are not needed on a Mac and usually causes more problems than they solve plus they impact system performance and interfere with the normal operation of macOS.

Also you should uninstall Adobe Flash since Flash is no longer supported on any platform. Flash has always been a huge security risk even when it was receiving security updates from Adobe. Be sure to follow Adobe's instructions for uninstalling Flash.

Some of the error logs show that memory was improperly modified which is usually caused by apps like CMM.

The report also shows your Mac is starting to use some Swap which can slow down a Mac even when using an NVMe SSD like your laptop is using. However, without seeing how or when Swap started to be used, it is hard to say how important this is. I'm just mentioning it since at some point in the last three days something you did used enough memory to start swapping memory to the SSD. Perhaps this is just a side effect of CMM, but it may be something to keep an eye on while using the Mac. You can use Activity Monitor to monitor the memory usage. Besides the memory pressure (yellow or worse red), seeing GBs of compressed memory or Swap is usually a sign that you don't have enough memory for the the workload/workflow. Unfortunately you cannot upgrade the memory on your laptop.

You should also check to see if your laptop qualifies for this Battery Recall Program (not all laptops have the issue):

15-inch MacBook Pro Battery Recall Program - Apple Support

FYI, here is the current list of the publicly acknowledged free repair programs for various Apple products (some products have multiple programs):

Apple Service Programs - Apple Support

I've used iStat in the past, but when troubleshooting hardware I need to see all the information in front of me instead of hidden on the menubar or menus. Macs Fan Control allows me to see everything, plus I can use it without installing any drivers. It is probably best just to use one of the apps so they don't step on each others toes.

Cleaning tools (as well as anti-virus apps & third party security software) usually cause more problems than they solve plus they impact system performance. These types of tools install into the inner layers of an OS which interferes with macOS making the system more unstable & flaky. If you search these forums you will see hundreds if not thousands of posts where people uninstalled CMM and their problems magically disappeared.

The easiest way to keep your computer clean is by only installing the bare minimum apps you actually need and minimize the number of apps you test out in order to find the app you want for a certain workflow. I like to use another computer (or booting an external drive to test install software so my main boot drive is not touched which keeps it clean). Also reboot your computer once in a while which can help performance as it will clear out some temp & cache files (also don't relaunch your open apps/windows so they can reset themselves too once in a while).

If things get really messed up, then sometimes it is good to perform a clean install by first erasing the drive and then after installing macOS manually reinstall your third party apps and manually migrate your data from external media. It is a lot of work, but after years of OS upgrades and migrations, sometimes it is just a good idea. It is an excellent opportunity when upgrading from an Intel Mac to an M1 Mac so that you can focus on installing just native M1 apps as much as possible since you are changing system architectures.

As far as keeping your Mac secure, macOS already has lots of preventive measures already built into macOS. The user must also do their part to further minimize harm to the system by practicing safe computing habits. A well respected forum contributor has created this article with lots of useful tips:

Effective defenses against malware and ot… - Apple Community

Your boss needs to complain to the IT department. The machine is operating as designed and IT departments are charged with recommendation of which computers to buy.

You can buy coolers that the Mac can sit on, but that have fans too. It's not your fault the fans are loud, it's the nature of your work assignments that is the root cause. Guess who assigns those tasks .... Boss Man!

mgmartino wrote:

Why would my machine be getting so hot with such a menial task though. It's not happening to other people with less robust Macs.

I've provided several possible explanations. Have you tried running the Apple Diagnostics yet to see if perhaps you may have a hardware issue? If there is no hardware issue detected by the diagnostics, then some third party software is the most likely cause for a computer to work hard at a menial task. Post an EtreCheck report as I advised. We need the information provided by both of these things in order to assist you since we cannot actually see or interact with your machine personally and we are not mind readers. Yes, my method requires some work on your part.

mgmartino Said:

"Cool Macbook Pro withOUT Fans: I used to use this one before https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002NU5O9C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1. (but I did not run the fans, I just used it to angle machine and provide ventilation, because obviously if I used the fans in the stand it would still be problematic for the screen recording)”

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Use It:

That’s the one that I use. The fans work great, and the only time you would hear audio on screen recording would be through a iPhone (or something do the like), through use of a camera-type app. Never had any issues with heat. All being said, I’d say use the fans. You’d power them off the Mac, or an external power adapter.

mgmartino wrote:

I like to use another computer (or booting an external drive to test install software so my main boot drive is not touched which keeps it clean).

So in relation to how you are describing to use it, to benefit me now, I don't quite understand. But it sounds like an interesting strategy if you wouldn't mind elaborating a bit.

If you are looking for a new app to use, sometimes you may have several to choose from which look promising. Depending on the app, sometimes it is better to test them out on another computer so as not to create problems on your main computer. Apps with actual installers are the ones best tested on another computer, because the installer usually places lots of files all over the computer, but unfortunately some of the uninstallers don't always clean things up completely. I also keep another computer handy just for other general tasks which may not always be safe for my main work computer, such as browsing websites as I want to keep my main computer as safe & stable as possible as I don't want my main computer to have any unexpected downtime.

However, what about google chrome, when you launch it and it has that "restore previously open tabs" button? I do use that because it is very handy and to my surprise even after quitting chrome, shutting down my computer, restarting my computer, and then manually clicking to launch Chrome...once that blank google window opens up, it still asks me if I want to restore tabs...Is that a problem?

It could be a problem, but like you said it is so convenient. I restore my previous sessions all the time, but once in a while I have to start from scratch because of issues related to that feature. FYI, Chromium based browsers tend to utilize a lot of CPU & memory resources which can slow a computer down and cause the CPU to run hot, but unfortunately there are not a lot of other options. Even I am using a Chromium based browser (Vivaldi) since I cannot stand any of the other browsers.