Okay, so I bought a new 13" MacBook Pro two weeks ago, and everything had been going great, until today. I had my computer on and plugged in (battery was charging, about 90% full), and was running Safari and iPhoto. I had my MacBook on my lap desk, so it was on a flat surface, not just my lap or something. I stepped out of my room for no more than a minute, and when I returned, I smelled burning plastic. My first thought was that my little fan had died, but it was still running fine. I realized the smell was emanating from the area of my computer. Sure enough, my MacBook was no longer on, and the smell was definitely coming from it. Since then, I've talked to Apple (who told me to bring it to a repair place to have it looked at), and I've also started the computer up twice. Each time, it worked fine, and I could feel the fan blowing air out. I only kept it on for a few minutes each time. I guess I'm just curious if anyone else has encountered something like this? It's very frustrating because the thing is only a few weeks old.
Yeah, you should definitely take that in. I'm on a 15" Macbook Pro with Retina running App Store, GIMP, Settings, Calendar, Mail, Steam, Skype, Calculator, Chrome, Illustrator, Google Software Update and Firefox with many tabs. And the computer's on a blanket. Apple seems to have placed the exhaust in the absolute worst spot ever, which is also right by the built-in mic. But anyway, that's off-topic. Personally, I haven't had that problem at all. I mean, I've felt my computer very hot at points. But never have I smelled something and the only crashes were during cross-platform and OS hopping and stuff like that, running one program in one OS with the files in another.. yeah. Take it in. You'll be glad you did. You probably got the worst-made machine they had.
Could've been the charger too. You probably just received a lemon, seeing how it is only a few weeks old.
MacBook Pros do have a tendency to overheat, but unless your room was so hot as to be uninhabitable for humans, it shouldn't do so with just Safari and iPhoto open. And even when mine does overheat, it just runs more slowly; it doesn't melt and shut down. Definitely bring it in.
Thanks for the responses and advice guys. I ended up calling Apple back this morning because I really wasn't satisfied with the answer I got last night. Sure enough, this time around, as soon as I said "burning smell" the lady was like, "I'm gonna transfer you, that's a whole different department". So already I was further along than yesterday. I ended up talking to a really nice supervisor who told me to first try and exchange it for a new one at Best Buy (where I bought it). Went there this afternoon, and with no real fuss or hassle was able to exchange it for a new one. Hopefully this one does a bit better! Thanks again!
The new ones aren't too bad. My only 2007 MBP was freaking hot. I used to say that it was a laptop computer and desktop hibachi.
