Overheating reduces performance and lifespan. We start by explaining how MacBooks regulate temperature, including why fans often stay quiet until critical thresholds.
Dust accumulation is the #1 cause of overheating. Our macro photography shows exactly where dust bunnies hide in different MacBook models and safe cleaning techniques using household items.
Some overheating stems from software. We identify which background processes—like Chrome helper nodes or Adobe Creative Cloud—spike CPU usage unexpectedly.
Thermal paste degradation affects older MacBooks. We document our repasting experiment showing before/after temperature differences under load, with infrared camera images.
For extreme cases, we evaluate cooling pads and laptop stands. Surprisingly, some popular “cooling” products actually restrict airflow. We measured actual temperature changes.
The guide includes SMC reset instructions for when temperature sensors malfunction, plus how to interpret temperature readouts from third-party monitoring apps.
We conclude with emergency protocols for when your MacBook overheats to the point of shutting down, including data recovery methods if the issue is hardware-related.