Will my MacBook blow up?!

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

Will my MacBook blow up?!

Hi guys,

Now i’ve got your attention with the dramatic title! :wink:

I’ve created a Quartz Screensaver using my Mac which is sound-responsive, and I use it in extended desktop mode when DJing, with Traktor running off of my new MacBook Pro’s Screen, and the Club’s screens hooked up to my mini display port with the screensaver on them.

I’ve only just managed to get my hands on the right cabling to actually connect to the bars’ screens, so i’ve only been using the screensaver whilst mucking about (usually around 2.5 hour sets) as of yet.

I’ve got a busy weekend coming up, and i’m doing 2 x 5.5 hour sets. I noticed just now after a 3 hour practice run (whilst running the screensaver) that my MacBook has become VEEEERY hot underneath and just wondered whether I should just forget the screensaver, in case it burns out my graphics card or something?

I know it sounds a bit pedantic, but it’s my first Mac and I was wondering whether any of you pros could advise? :slight_smile: I’m probably being paranoid but any comments would put my mind at rest lol

Cheers!

2

You can get a laptop fan and stick it undereath.

[ame]Amazon.com : laptop cooling pad

I would suggest one that sucks hot air away from the laptop rather than blowing air onto it.

3

yes

4

or ditch the screen save at gigs for something more basic

5

Stop worrying. Your being paranoid.

No screensaver ever… EVER.

Your Mac will be fine… I have done sessions with my Mac that have gone on for days.

Dont listen to scare-mongers.

Turn It On… Forget about it… Have fun.

6

“that have gone on for days.”
dance marathon w0000tttt

7

So Karlos are you saying just don’t bother with the Screensaver? That would be a shame but it’s not exactly the end of the world lol

Thanks for everyone’s posts, I did mean more though as in, do you think it’s likely to happen. Like I said, my macbook was hot - but my macbook’s always getting hot so I just wanted to know whether it would stop itself from burning out the video card by just shutting off the external monitor or something.

8

A laptop stand allows more airflow too :slight_smile: I did a party last weeknd on my little 2007 macbook and the little beast was running for 23 hours non stop :slight_smile:

9

Thanks for the advice guys, I tried it out last night… The heating situation was fine, but for some reason, despite being fine at home, my macbook couldn’t handle running traktor and being connected to the bar’s HDMI Hub at the same time and in the end the screensaver just kept shutting off so that was a bit of an epic fail lol

10

Just burn a dvd of the screensaver you have and play it through their dvd player

11

Yeah i didnt really notice that you were using the Screen-Saver thru the club HDMI.
I thought you were concerned about leaving the Mac on without power saving.

Its an old habit of mine. Traktor advise was always to disable all power saving to prevent interruptions with playback.

But yeah, i never use a screensaver.

12

See I would but it’s sound-responsive (Through the Mac) so it wouldn’t work. I also wrote it in Quartz Composer lol

13

The Graphics card needs to send the image to another screen which stresses the CPU Which would cause Traktor to malfunction.

Get a software or something that does the same, the software would be optimized to use minimal CPU while a screensaver would not because there is no need. Why? Its a SCREENSAVER, designed to be on when you aren’t touching your mac.

14

Well like I said in various posts, it worked seamlessly at home… Cheers for the sarcasm though!