Why Your MacBook Pro Might Be Overheating While Charging

Apple's MacBook Pros are powerful workstations that can be taken anywhere. These laptops possess powerful innards that can make running intensive apps and software possible and even easy.

Sometimes, however, some users might notice that this expensive piece of “Pro” hardware can get very hot when plugged in and charging. Those who have experienced this problem, or continue to experience this, should know that if it happens, the problem might not be with the device itself – it's in how it is being charged.

A Stack Exchange thread talks about how the MacBook Pro can become very hot when it is being charged, Cult of Mac reported. What happens is that when a user plugs the power cable into a port on the left side of the MacBoook Pro, it normally becomes hotter compared to when the power cable is plugged into a port on the right side of the machine. Why is this so?

According to graphs from iStatMenus (and presented by Stack Exchange user Bmike), the MacBook Pro's temperature increases significantly when something is plugged on the Thunderbolt ports on the left side of the device. This increase in temperature triggers the device's cooling systems, which increases CPU usage, which also triggers an increase in CPU temperatures.

The temperature increases regardless of whatever is plugged into the Thunderbolt ports on the left side of the MacBook Pro – whether it be a power charger, a USB device such as a mouse or keyboard, or an HDMI cable that connects to another device.

The graphs also show that the more ports on the left side are free, the lesser the chances of the MacBook Pro becoming hot. Plugging a charger on the right side and some USB accessories on the left won't be as hot as when plugging a charging and accessories on the left side. Plugging all accessories into the ports on the right side will be cooler.

Now what does this mean? MacBook Pro users who have been experiencing increased temperature when working on their devices can simply opt to plug chargers and other accessories into the ports on the right side of the device. The accessories will still work, but the MacBook Pro won't become hotter than it should be.