MacFormat UK – June 2019

GENIUS TIPS Mac hardware

Mac hardware

We help to solve your hardware hassles, from

interrupted upgrades to running diagnostics

Hardware

quick-fire

questions

Which adapters

can charge my

new MacBook Air?

> You can use any

30W or greater Apple

USB-C power adapter,

including the 61W and

87W models provided

with MacBook Pros

since 2016. Cables have

separate serial numbers

too; in your case, all of

Apple’s cables should

be good, but you should

keep each together with

its respective adaptor.

There’s a detailed guide

at bit.ly/mfmbpsu.

Which resolutions

does a Retina 5K

iMac offer?

> Recent Retina 5K

displays support several

ranging from 1280x720

up to 5120x2880, with

‘looks like 2560x1440’

as the default. To see

the full list, hold the å

key when you click the

Scaled option in the

Display tab of System

Prefs’ Displays pane.

as kernel_task. So kernel_task is actually your

friend, as it’s trying to reduce the amount of

heat your Mac’s processor is generating to let

the computer cool down.

There are three things to do: Ensure your

Mac mini is in the coolest place possible and

out of direct sunlight; check that its fan and

cooling vent are clean and unobstructed; and

if those still don’t help, try resetting the SMC

(bit.ly/mfrstsmc), which controls cooling.

If the problem persists even when you

next restart the Mac, or occurs when your

computer should still be cool, run Apple’s

hardware diagnostics (bit.ly/mfapdg) in case

one of the temperature sensors is giving a

spurious reading. Tools like iStat Menus

(14-day trial, bjango.com) let you monitor

temperatures and fans, but don’t be tempted

to fiddle with kernel_task as it’s on your side.

Q

When using my Mac mini 2014, its

fans spin up and it feels hot. Activity

Monitor shows kernel_task is taking

100% of the CPU. How can I kill that and let

my Mac cool down?

by JEFF JAME

A

Although this is counter-intuitive,

these are symptoms of a single

underlying problem, and not its cause.

When your Mac’s processor is heavily loaded

with an intensive task, it generates more heat,

which is managed by the Mac’s cooling system.

That includes both raising fan speeds

and reducing the work being done by the

processor. The way that it achieves the latter,

when it can’t reduce the processor’s clock

speed, is to lock your intensive task out using

the kernel, which shows up in Activity Monitor

58 | MACFORMAT | JUNE 2019

My Mac mini keeps running hot!

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.c

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macformat.com @macformat

A common cause of overheating

and high kernel_task loads is lint

and dust in the cooling system.