14 DAY TRIAL // Several forum threads have been actively discussing an issue with the cooling system in the latest breed of Retina MacBook Pros, with some users claiming to have received replacement laptops from Apple as the issue couldn’t be properly diagnosed.
“Even when browsing the internet doing nothing intensive the fans go right up to pretty much 6000 rpm for about a minute and then back down to normal,” writes one of many users who has been experiencing the typical spike in fan speed discussed over various threads, including on Apple Support Communities.
Recently brought to light again by Geek.com and AppleInsider, the issue seems to be commonly spread amongst owners of 2013 MacBook Pro models.
On February 13, 2013, Apple beefed up the processors of the Retina-display MacBook Pro line while also dropping the prices of the respective systems.
A YouTube user going by the handle “Oyinko” has successfully reproduced the issue on video (embedded below) showing us how playing a simple song in iTunes can cause the MacBook Pro’s fans to reach speeds of over 6000 rpm.
The problem has been confirmed as widespread, though Apple is yet to acknowledge whether or not this is a design flaw. Many hope a firmware update will address the issue.
Apple is known to be testing OS X 10.8.3 internally, and if the company has paid any attention to the discussions regarding this issue, it most likely has some engineers working on a patch as you are reading these lines.
Perhaps it is worth pointing out that OS X 10.8.3 has been in development for much longer than expected (since November 2012).
This leads us to believe that the Cupertino giant is attempting to address numerous widely-reported bugs in Mountain Lion, as well as hardware-specific problems.
However, if the issue can be fixed with a software patch, it’s much more probable that this bug fix will arrive by means of a standalone SMC firmware update.
