MacBook Pro :: How Much Ram Should Be Free While Idle
Aug 8, 2010
I just got my 13in mbp a couple days ago and I've been watching the activity monitor since one of the reasons I got a pro was for the extra ram over the macbook. Mine seems to only have about 2.08 free while I have nothing running except whatever it came with since I haven't installed anything yet. This seems a little low considering the regular macbooks only come with 2gb how could they even run snow leopard? Am I missing something about reading the activity monitor or is there something I can do to free up more ram or is this just normal?
I just bought a 13 inches alum macbook pro...I'm wondering why does it run @ 2K rpm even when my comp is freezing ( like 25C)...I used to own a white macbook and most of the times it was running @ 1K..Never saw my new macbook with less than 2K rpm...With 2K, I can hear the fans so it's a little annoying
Whenever I turn my computer on, it makes the start up sound and acts like the screen will turn on, then it goes black. I can't get it to come out of sleep unless it goes idle. It's like the roles have reversed. The screen turns on when idle, but as soon as I move the mouse or touch a button, it goes black again. It's plugged in, and even if the battery is dead, it always runs when it's plugged in. Also, on the battery bar, it's stuck at 00:26.
I notice sometimes that if I don't type anything with the keyboard for a few minutes, that when I resume typing the computer does not input the first keystroke. Does anyone else have this issue? IIRC, the SR MBP I had before this that I got replaced did this as well.
This has been driving me nuts for a few months now. My macbook keeps emitting a sound very much like static. Only today, I realized that this sound goes away when the processor is working. So if I scroll down in Safari, open a New Folder, etc, the sound briefly pauses before resuming again. Almost sounds like a refrigerator. It bugs me a lot lot. Anybody else having this issue? Or has Apple been able to fix this for anyone?
I'm having a bit of a problem with my Macbook. Once the display goes to sleep, I can't seem to get the screen to come back. The computer doesn't actually turn off, but when I try to get it back with my mouse it goes black. I can usually still slightly see my applications and stuff, and the fan still runs. I end up having to shut it down and then restart it every time. Just wondering if anybody knows how to fix this.
I'm posting this on behalf of my father. He has a 2008 white macbook which has recently started running quite hot (160-180+F), even at idle. It has the latest version of 10.7 installed. He has an external HD with his previous copy of 10.6 and it exhibits the same behavior when booted from that system.He bugs me whenever he has computer problems told me that his MacBook had started randomly shutting down with no warning. I had similar trouble with a MacBook Pro and it turned out to be a faulty battery, so we got him a new battery, figuring it couldn't hurt to have a fresh one with a 4 year old computer. it didn't solve the problem at all.
Later he said that he noticed the computer felt hot, so he decided to run a small fan blowing across the computer while it was on his desk, and that stopped the random shutdowns. So I thought, OK, this is an overheating issue. Maybe the fan isn't working properly, it's full of dust, something is hogging the CPU all the time, etc.
The next time I was at his place I had him install fan control and a temperature meter. We noticed right away that the thing was running really hot. It was at 160-180F while at idle. He had menu meters installed, after a reboot we could see that the processor was sitting at 2-5% load. Not only did the sensors report the high temperate, but I could feel that the bottom of the case was very hot.We decided to open up the case and see if there was dust clogging things up, etc. There was some, but nothing clogging vents or anything. We blew it out nice and clean with compressed air anyway and put it back together. I even turned it on while we had it open so I cold see that the fan was actually spinning, and it was.
A few days ago my MBP started spinning up the fans like I was doing something really intensive. Only I wasn't. I installed smcfancontrol and it reported both fans at close to 6000rpm (5899 is the highest I've seen it) and a cpu temp of 75 c - 85 c while idle. iStat Pro reported the same. No apps running after a reboot and the fans instantly spin up and the cpu temp hovers around the 80 mark. I'm of the understanding that 50 - 70 is considered normal with the fans in the 2000-3000 rpm range. Yes? Heres a screen cap with only Activity Monitor running. You can see the most intensive process is 3.5% and the temp and fan speed can be seen in the upper right.[URL]
Info: MacBook Pro (17-inch Mid 2009), Mac OS X (10.6.8), 8GB, 1TB
This morning I set to work on my laptop as usual. I typically leave it plugged in while not moving around, and today was no exception. I h ave a 15" macbook I purchased in December of 2010, and it's currently running OS X 10.6.8, if that makes a difference.
Anyhow, when I started up my Macbook and set to work, the battery was fully charged (indicator read that it was fully charge, and that the power source was the power adapter). The power adapter light was green. I then stood up and did some work for roughly 2 hours away from the laptop. When Ieft, I put the display to sleep - In the background the machine was still running a webbrowser (reading an all-text page) and preview (a PDF was open). This is nothing out of the oridinary, and I do it all the time usually.
What was unusual was when I returned to my machine after 2 hours of idling (with the display asleep)Â to find that my battery had been almost completely drained. The power adapter light was now orange, and the indicator showed that the battery was only 4% charged. The power source was still displayed as the power adapter.
I understand that during intense processses the Macbook will draw from the battery AND the power adapter - But my Macbook was simply idling! I can't fathom that a webbrowser and Preview would require THAT much draw for power. In fact, I've run my Macbook MUCH more intensely for much longer periods of time when running Final Cut and Adobe After Effects and NEVER seen this issue before.
Is this an indication of a failing battery? Ever since I noticed this, the charging time indicated has held steady at ~1:13 (that's been about a half an hour now). I don't know if the Macbook will discharge the battery completely every so often by itself, or if the battery is just failing and that's why it went from 100% to 4% in just under two hours while idle.
The fan is almost constantly running, it shouldn't be. The Activity monitor at the moment is showing that 45% of CPU is idle. About a third of my drive is free. I have 500 Gb of SSD, so there are no moving disk heads. The screen is turned up to a level I want to work with. I am running the regular stuff -- Word, Firefox, Mail and other Apple apps, all usual stuff. The MBP sits on a clear glass desk so heat can disburse through the glass, but the fan is still running. The MBP is about two years old. Lion.
My daughter has just got a macbook air 2014 1.4 128gb 4gb ram.I realize these are not power house machines, but are pretty slick, due to the SSD, and hardware/software relationship. What bothers me is that while the computer is doing nothing, and i mean nothing, everything closed down, nothing downloading in the background etc, Activity monitor shows that the memory is using 2.2gb of swap (which i believe means it is needing to use the cpu for support). Â
the reason i started having a look at this is because she plays sims 3, and whilst it plays ok, jesus, the fan goes full steam and the battery is pretty much dead in one hour, even though the games specs fall well within this systems specs.(So she only plays it plugged in now).The sims thing is fair enough though, if that is the work the computer needs to do to run it, but why is the RAM seemingly not coping while the machine is idle?Â
I have an early 2008 Black MacBook with 4GB of RAM and the stock 160GB hard drive. Sometimes, when I have only Mail and Safari open and am just browsing emails, the fan starts to run full speed, and the internal temperature reaches 180. This often happens when the Mac is actually idle and only displaying the screen saver! The room I'm in is rarely over 75 when this occurs. I don't really have any intensive login services, just a GMail notifier and things like Suitcase and iTunes Manager.
Eeven after the keyboard update (2/19), my mac still seems to ignore the first key I press when my computer is idle. usually happens with the pause, play, caps lock, etc. i tried to redownload the keyboard update from the apple site, but it said my keyboard did not need the update because its already updated.
I have seen a lot of posts about new Thermal Paste (mostly Arctic Silver 5) helping with the heat on MBA, most being positive. I have a rev B and have just bought the AS 5 but before I apply and risk the warranty I would like to see how many actually saw lower temperatures after applying it.
So if you have a Rev B and you have re-applied the Thermal Paste did you temperature under idle and load decrease?
I am using MacBook pro Mac os X 10.7.3 lion. As per apple specification over wireless connection browsing battery will provide backup up to 7hrs. But I am getting max. 3/4 hrs even when its idle or playing music only. And when I am running a app getting back up only for 1/1.5 hrs. Its only 1 month old. So whats the problem? Should I contact with mac?
Info: Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.3), Intel core i7, Ram 4GB
I'm using a 2009 model MacBook with 4GB of RAM and a 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo Processor. I've been having issues for quite a while now where even with just ONE program active, it will often lag, slow WAY down, or even flat out crash. Upon further inspection in the Activity Monitor, I discovered that the vast majority of the computer's memory -- at least 80% and up -- is marked as idle.Â
First: What does this mean?
Second: Is there any thing that can be done about the stated issues?Â
Whenever I use something cpu/graphic intensive, the temp shoots up and stays up. Normally I would idle at around 36C, but after I use youtube or play any game, the temps would stay at around 55C even after exiting all the programs and is at 99% idle. It's fine when I'm plugged in, but when I'm using my battery, I only get about 2.5 hours with the brightness on very low and wifi/bt off. Checking the stats on iStat, the battery is using 19Watts at idle.
Is 55-60 degree centigrade normal temperature of cpu in idle state ? I'm using 2.4 GHz i7Â macbook pro retina early 2013. Two days back i gave my macbook for screen replacement after that i feel my macbook is getting overheated!
I have this macbook that at the beginning was working great, but now, since a couple o week doesn't sleep anymore when left idle. I have tried quitting tons of deamons, programs turning off sharing and so on. Nothing. I set the sleep timer at 1 minute to check it. Nothing. It won't sleep. The curios thing is that unlike other user with the same problem who sleeps the computer manually and they find it on some minutes later, my macbook can sleep for days if manually put in sleep (Lid or Sleep from the menu). No automatic waiking, it just can't sleep when left idle. This is not the first time it happens. Some month ago the only solution was reformatting the drive and reloading Leopard. Right now i don't want to this again as i just loaded Snow Leopard since day 1.
So, summing up here's my situation:
the macbook can sleep manually (lid or menu). the macbook stay in sleep without waking up (just wake with normal wake). the macbook doesn't go to sleep if left idle for the time set in system pref (but it shut down. the monitor according to prefs). the macbook runs 10.6.1 with a new system, without loading anything, the computer can sleep if left idle. i can't tell if i have installed something that have screw up things. Just normal apps...
i can provide you as many logs as you want, just tell me which you need.
Here is a list of my processes running now, (sleep not working)
Recently my Mac Pro has been going to a black screen when idle for a while and I need to power off using the power button and restart. It's not set to ever go to sleep but if I use the sleep function under the Apple, it functions as it should, waking when I touch a key (although I don't let it sit for a while before I wake it). When it is in the black screen mode, it still is performing Time Machine backups.
I use iChat for Gtalk and AIM and so far I love it, except when I change my status to Away (red dot), it appears as idle (orange dot) to my Gtalk friends. I had a couple people wondering how my status was idle while we were chatting. Is there a fix to this?
Switching to another app like Adium is not an option.
My new 21.5" iMac didn't go to sleep automatically when in idle state. I read a lot of posts regarding this issue and tried a few of the possible solutions: resetting the SMC and so on. I finally was able to fix my problem (so far) with the help provided in the following link: [URL]
I have a 2.66 quad core 2009 Mac Pro. Running 10.6.2. I see weird behavior in the Activity Monitor. The "% idle" number jumps from 49% to 61% to 99% (but usually stays around 49%), when I'm actually 99% idle. The "% user" and "% system" just don't add up to "% idle." Does anyone else see this? I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the RAM I just installed, or if this is a coincidence.
My Mac Pro has started to go to a black screen when idle for a period of time. When it does this, I need to use the power button to power off and restart. It does not appear to be asleep (I have it set to never sleep) since Time Machine is still backing up and Mobile Me is still syncing. Oddly, if I manually put the computer to sleep (under the apple), it will come back to the normal screen by using a key on the keyboard (moving the mouse does not work) no matter how long I am away.
I have tried resetting, disconnecting and reconnecting all cables but the problem still exists.
