2007 MacBook Pro CPU exceeds 200° F

Question

I've been searching for average running temperatures for MacBook Pros and can't seem to find the consensus. My late 2007 MBP regularly runs into the high 100°'s F (monitored my iStat) and the hottest component is always my GPU or CPU. The GPU will regularly reach 185° F+ while the CPU will hit over 200° F+ (the hottest I have caught it at is 211° F). This is with a fan control running - without it the computer would shut down daily.
I have yet to have someone take this matter seriously - are these normal running temperatures?
By no means am I pushing the computer - generally Safari will be opened to check RSS feeds then quit out of. Mail will be running in the background and possibly VLC for music and Preview for painting references. My computer is on an elevated vented stand in a rather cool (72° F) room while I work.
Is there something I can do to keep it cooler? Is this a hardware issue? I have already had one battery blow - possibly heat related?
Thanks!

Answer 1

Welcome!
I get nervous on my Late 2007 MBP when temp pass 170F, but that only happens if I test some game demo that's demands a lot from the system. Mine (running 10.6.4) idles at around 110 to 12oF and seldom exceed 140-150F doing routine stuff like word processing or browsing. The computer is supposed to do a safety shutdown at around 100C/212F so you are really close to the line.
If System Profiler (in Applications > Utilities) shows "Model Identifier" as "MacBookPro3,1" or MacBookPro4,1" you have the sometimes flaky NVIDEA 8600M GT graphics chipset that can fail in high heat conditions, so it behooves you to get control of the temps.
There are two areas to help you get temps under control:
1) Physical Arrangement: Don't use the computer in your lap or one a blanket, pillow or other surface that covers the case bottom. The case is a part of the heat dissipation system and air must get under the computer. The hinge area in the back also lets out some heat so it needs to be unobstructed.
If you use an external monitor, leave the built-in display open. A lot of heat escapes through the keyboard.
Those computer pads with fans help, but are not a complete cure-all.
2) Software issues: Sometimes a "runaway" background process can eat up enough processor cycles to run up the temps. I had this happen after running a game demo that caused the MBP to write to its system.log file continually and overheat.
Find Activity Monitor ("AM" hereafter) in your Utilities folder. Before launching it, quit all user applications but do not restart the computer. Now launch AM. If you've not used it before, its "Show" option in the upper part of the window will be at the default of "My Processes." Change that to "All Processes from the pull down menu in that option.
Now click the column in AM titled "%CPU" to sort everything by processor demands. Then watch what "bubbles" to the top of the list for a minute or two. Other than AM itself, no process should be using more than about 5% of the CPU cycles.
If something is using a lot or the processor, write it down and post it as a replay to your own thread and we can see how to tame it.
Good luck!
Allan