Overheating issue in Windows mode plagues the new Macbook Pro

Various Apple forums are abuzz with users complaining about the absence of fan support while running Windows by Bootcamp in the latest Macbook Pro.

Not so Pro?

The 2008 unibody Macbook Pro got pretty good review from across the community. But there seems to be a problem while taming this new beast – more than one user reportedly had an overheating issue while running Windows by Bootcamp. Some of those are –

·         “peterjmacbook” from Australia reports in the Apple support forum that while running Windows for more than 30-40 mins by Bootcamp in his 2008 unibody Macbook Pro, he ended up having “a mini-stove for frying eggs or boiling water instead of a notebook.”Later he controlled the fan speed by booting into MacOS, use smcFanControl to ramp up the fans to 5000rpm, then restart in Windows. But apparently it adds 5-10 minutes to the boot time. He, even after applying the recent EFI update 1.3 and SMC update 1.2, continued to have this problem.

·         “vanjab” reported the same problem with his new 15-inch Macbook Pro.

·         “speedybiker” experiences a similar problem while using Windows XP.

·         “majicman” in the Macrumors forum reports an overheating issue while using Windows XP Pro in his Macbook Pro that engulfs the whole machine from arm rest all the way back to the screen. In fact he could almost “smell the heat coming off of it”.

So what could be the problem? One could be the fact that Windows PCs use BIOS while Macbooks use EFI. So as peterjmacbooks points out - Vista doesn't have EFI hooks in it and it may be impossible for a Vista app to directly control the fans through the EFI. But its Apple’s responsibility to address any such problem, although there are actually very scanty reports relating to this problem. Maybe Apple had one defective Lot shipping to the retailers.

Update : During our review we also did not notice any problems or so (still the Macbook Pro was hotter than in mac os x, but that’s always the case).