[Mac's Girl]

I have a black Macbook 2.4Ghz. I installed iStat to get the temperature readings, and I notice that my airport card temperature is 73 degrees Celsius. This is just surfing the web and checking email while the MB is plugged in and the battery is fully charged. Does anyone know if this a normal temperature for an airport card? I called Applecare but the guy I spoke to had no clue. The CPU gets to 56-58 degrees celsius under the same conditions.

[Dr. Wahnsinn]

Those temps do seem a bit high when compared to my black 2.4GHz MacBook. I woke it up about 20 minutes ago and have been doing some typing and surfing. I get 45°C for the CPU and 49°C for the wireless module. I'd guess that your CPU temp is within spec, but the Airport module is high. Anyone Else?

[Simon]

I don't think you need to worry about the AP card. The AP card doesn't produce a lot of heat itself, it's just located in a warm area (close to the heat sink). Since Apple chose that spot, they also knows it has to survive being in a warm location.

What really counts is that the fan starts ramping up when the CPU die temp reaches 65-75C. Even under full load you should never observe CPU temperatures in excess of 100C. That said, if the CPU were to actually overheat it would first throttle itself and then eventually shut itself down. The same thing for the rest of the MB. If the MLB senses it's become too hot it will force shut down your Mac.

Absolute temperatures can easily give a wrong picture though. Cooling depends on many things: your ambient air temperature, air flow, surface your Mac is on, etc. If you're interested in observing (and possible increasing) fan speed (and CPU die temp) I suggest you try out the free utility smcFanControl.

[Mac's Girl]

Thanks. I had been worried that the airport card might stop working if it got too hot. I installed smcfancontrol, and it is keeping my airport card at 65 C now (set at 2500 RPMs). So having the fan constantly running higher won't create problems in the long run or reduce the life expectancy of the fan? I use my MB for work, so it is running for 9 hours a day, plus some personal time in the evening.

[Simon]

Why do you believe a fan running at higher RPMs will last longer than a +5C AP card?

IMHO it's best to leave everything at defaults settings until you know better. The default settings is what Apple has adjusted. They know what temps and fan speeds their various parts can handle for prolonged periods of time. And BTW, that's what their warranty pertains to.

[Mac's Girl]

Okay, I had installed smcfancontrol at your suggestion, but I will uninstall it. I just made an appointment to see a Mac Genius to see what they suggest, if anything. I still have 2 more days to exchange my MB since I recently got it, but I'll keep it if they say don't worry. Thanks.

[Maflynn]

I found that I needed to reset the SMC unit on my new MBP to get the fans to spin up beyond 2k. Beforehand, the temps quickly rose to the 70s as well, now the temps are hovering around the 50s