My MBP really hot and really slow recently

Question

Hi,
My MBP has become really hot and noticably slower recently (within the last 4-5 months). Before I could keep it on my lap for hours watching video using VLC and run a bunch of other applications (like Safari, Firefox, iTERM, Nisus Writer Pro, TextMate, etc.) without it getting unbearable.
Now, even when it's nearly idle (running just Safari, with Quicksilver in the background) the temperature is around 130 deg. Fahrenheit, give or take 10 degrees. And the usually silent fans continuously give out an evil hiss.
The only changes I made to the MBP within that time are:
1. Upgraded to 10.5.6
2. Added growl (which I turned off for now)
3. Purchased some software via MacHeist, which includes:
acorn,
appshelf
boinxTV
CroMag Ralley
Espresso
iSale
Kinemac
littlesnapper
picturesque
SousChef
Hitlist
Times
Wire Tap Studio
World of Goo, and
eventbox
4. Upgraded to Safari 4 beta
And that's about it. Safari seems very sluggish on the initial launch, giving me the spinning ball, and more often than not, it would freeze and I would have to force quit. But then again, the previous version crashed quite often too, but I seem to remember it to be pretty perky on launch.
The only things I run in the background and/or login items are:
1. Font Agent's font activator
2. Quicksilver
3. iTunes Helper
4. Stuffit's MagicMenu
5. MenuCalendarClock iCal version
6. Expandrive
7. Little Snitch
8. MacFuse
Also my wireless connection to the USB drive on my AEBS seem to have slowed a lot too. At one point, I was reading and writing to it at almost the same speed as if it were plugged directly into my MBP's USB port. Now, it's around regular ethernet speed (not fast ethernet, nor gigabit, just regular 11Mbps).
Anyone have any idea? I'm thinking of just reinstalling from the 10.5.2 DVD I have, but that means I have to backup everything and I know I'll lose something during the process, because I have a WD 320GB disk and have used it all up except for about 10GB. It's gonna take a good part of a day (or two) to do the complete reinstall.
Any help as to why my MBP's so sluggish and hot would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks in advance.
S

Answer 1

Yes, you need more free space on your HDD, for sure. But...
Let's back up a minute. I just re-read your original post - 130 °F is NOT hot. That's barely warm. Most of us are used to looking at temps in Celsius (at least, I am). 130 °F = ~55 °C. My CPU is at 49 °C right now, 5 minutes after waking the machine up from an overnight sleep in a cool downstairs office. Normal MBP idling temps are in the mid 50s °C (the 130s °F), so you are most definitely not having a temperature issue. Running a heavy CPU load will push the temps into the 70-80 °C range (160-175 °F); fans normally don't spin up past idle speed until the CPU/GPU temps are in the 70s °C (your idle speed is 2000 rpm).
So, if the fans are making an 'evil hiss' that's not due to temperature.
To conclude - your initial issues were 1) really hot, 2) noticeably slower and 3) an evil hiss from the fans. So, #1 is a non-issue, since your temps are quite normal. #2 is most likely due to lack of HDD free space (you've run out of room for virtual memory and swap files). That leaves #3 - just how evil is that hiss? What fan speeds does your monitoring software (iStat Pro, for example) report?
Have you run the Apple Hardware Test? (Insert Install DVD 1 and reboot with the d key pressed.) That will check out your fans, sensors, etc.