Coolbook for Macbook Air

Are you a Macbook Air owner who spent nearly 90000 INR to get this sleek and sexy device, and now suddenly worried that you made the wrong decision? Many MBA users have been facing a major speed-heat performance issue. While the MBA is a beautiful device and has many advantages, it is not really cut out for heavy duty use. However, in recent times, it has been found that using even a few applications simultaneously causes the Air to heat up and slow down.

The basis issue is that the MBA does get overheated when its CPU is fully activated. This problem is exacerbated in areas where the ambient heat is higher, including obviously in India. Apparently, Apple has introduced some form of a speed-breaker to slow you down, so that the heat issue can be addressed. But it has been done in a funny way... they have introduced some activity called "kernel_task" which blocks most of your CPU and leaves you with very little to do. So your Air does not get overheated (relatively) but performs worse than a Windows machine.

The solution to this can vary depending on your situation. Try the following.

1) Temporary Solution: Try an SMC reset.. Shutdown your MBA. Then press the (left) Shift-Control-Option along with the power button once. Wait for 5 seconds and restart. The laptop should race for a while, but when the heat overtakes it, kernel_task will get back into action. More details on the SMC reset here.

2) Working Solution: Lots of people have successfully adopted the Coolbook option. It is an expensive solution ($10) but it works as advertised. Apart from the cost, the issue to keep in mind is that you will end up tinkering with some core hardware settings at the CPU level. If you are not the tech risk taking type, avoid it.

How does it work? Very simply, it undervolts the CPU by providing it lower voltage than what is provided by default, the presumption being that Apple has provided for the Max settings but the CPU can work even with lower voltage.

Does this work? Ever since I installed Coolbook, Mr. Kernel_Task has disappeared (I disabled Coolbook the other day just to check, and Mr. K_T made a quick appearance!). What's the downside? The CPU does get heated up much more than before, sometimes crossing 90 degreesC from the usual 70-odd... and the MBA can "hang" and get locked for a few seconds... this has happened a few times (once a day on an average) but that is worth the speed and performance recovery that I have seen.

Hope this is helpful...