Apple fans burned by hot Airs

Posted by Hitarth Jani | 10:44 PM | 0 comments »


Too hot to handle ... Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs holds up the new MacBook Air at its launch in January.

Apple has released a software patch for the MacBook Air, hoping to fix overheating issues that have plagued the super-thin laptop since launch.

The update "fine tunes the speed and operation of the internal fan", Apple said, but some users have found the fix useless.

It follows user reports that the underperforming fan caused the MacBook Air to overheat and eventually lockup, leaving the machine intermittently unresponsive. Countries with warmer climates, such as Australia, appear to compound the problem.

Apple has long faced problems with the first generations of its products. Early iPods were prone to scratching; previous MacBook models suffered staining, whining noises emanating from their innards and random shutdown errors, to name a few.

The Macbook Air, released in January, crams high-powered laptop components into a package that is 0.4cm thin at its thinnest point and 1.94cm at its thickest. This makes temperature regulation critical.

Users on Apple's discussion board have said their MacBook Air locks up when performing system-intensive tasks such as watching videos or conducting instant messaging video chats.

The lock ups are believed to be the result of overheating, which causes part of the laptop's central processing unit (CPU) to shut down.

"I noticed that if you don't touch it for 1-2 minutes, and you let it cool down, it starts working normally again," one user wrote.

"I REALLY hope they find a way to fix this, because it is IMPOSSIBLE to work this way."

Another said: "Not doing much - reading email, surfing, playing youtube - but fan on and computer got hotter - to around 69 C - then the stuttering/freezing started roughly every 10 secs, and then one [CPU] core shut down completely. After about 5 mins, temp had reduced, and core started up again."

But after applying the software patch, numerous discussion board users who experienced the overheating issue have reported that the problem remains.

One said it "didn't work at all". Another said they tried to install the update but were told their MacBook Air was already up to date.

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