What level of M4 Max warming is too much?

Question

MacBook Pro 14" 2024 (M4)

Repair guides, disassembly, and troubleshooting information for the 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M4 family of chips, released in October 2024.

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János G. @janosg

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crwdns2931729:0crwdne2931729:0: Mud 1, 2025

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What level of M4 Max warming is too much?

Hey guys,

I recently bought a used M4 Max and started to use it. Supposedly, it fell from somewhere. From where, from what height, I don't know. The house seems to have buckled slightly and a dent has been made in it -see pictures.

Today I noticed that the area at the back, where the CPU is located, warming unusually. (According to this M4 Pro video: https://youtu.be/nTY6GJqiZHc?t=464). So I think it is not because of the batteries though, the damage is on that part of the case. And the battery is still on 100%

Even if I used it a bit more intensively than the days before, I didn't expect that.

So, my question: What software can be used for diagnosing, measuring CPU, and - if possible - battery temperature?

I've already used boot-time diagnostic mode which went fine. However, this phenomenon only occurs after prolonged usage.

@danj

Thanks for the hint. Honestly, coconut confused me a bit as its values are oddly different from system values. In fact, in coconut battery health is strange:⏎

Or this mac has a zero point module. :D

As I'm switching from PC to Mac and I'm not familiar with the Apple M silicon chip, I can't really judge when the processor is too hot. Anyway, this TG Pro is very impressive, but I still don't know if the values are too high or not. Turning on after a while of sleeping, all the cores are around 35-40°C and rise quickly to 65-70 °C. But I'm not running any extra load. Safari is running with 8-10 tabs, Protonmail client, and a DeepL translator running in the background, as well as Grammarly, OneDrive client, and TG Pro. The fans are around 2300 rpm at this time, and the system doesn't even rise this speed by default. With TG pro, of course, I can easily set it to turn up to the maximum above 70°C, for example.

Actually, as I'm a new Mac user, I don't know if this is ok? Because, for instance, I tried to drive it a bit with Geekbench6 -probably not the best mode- and even then it only went up to 70-75°C for both Efficiency and Performance cores.

Meanwhile, the battery stayed at 35°C all the time, which is at least reassuring.

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It looks like the palm area of the uppercase where the battery sits is caved in a bit. Something heavy must have dropped. This is where the battery sits, while the battery measures are still within normal it's hard to tell if the compression of the battery will lead to early failure. These batteries (cells) are layers of different materials with an electrolytic chemical bathing the layers. The distances between the layers are equal distant from each other and must stay within a set distance otherwise the battery degrades.

I would remove the battery and carefully reform the case so the area is no longer creating a compressive force on the battery. Review this guide MacBook Pro 14" Late 2023 (M3 Pro and M3 Max) Battery Replacement it should help as this series is very similar. Then just use the 3M Quick Release strips where the ones you removed to remount the battery being careful not to distort the battery in the process.

crwdns2934271:0Mud 1, 2025crwdnd2934271:0 Dan crwdne2934271:0

Running Apple Diagnostics at boot ("D" key) with the charger connected might provide some addition insights.

crwdns2934271:0Mud 2, 2025crwdnd2934271:0 livfe crwdne2934271:0

@danj Can you give me a hint where to find such a stretch release tape? You mentioned in another topic the 3M Double Coated Stretch Release Tape 6657-150. Unfortunately, it is not available in the European market. Found some similar from TESA, the tesa 76925 and ask them about it, where is it available, but didn't get any feedback yet.

Thanks in advance.

crwdns2934271:0masiku 2 agoMud 6, 2025crwdnd2934271:0 János G. crwdne2934271:0

@janosg - Don't use standard TESA tape as it's to thick and is not a stretch release tape which is what you want for a battery.

iFixit offers a short version Stretch Release Battery Adhesive. Fire off an email to see if they offer a longer version.

I did find a few Amazon offers, I can't speak about them as I just use the 3M product. Do a google search "Stretch Release Tape" see what that pulls up for you.

crwdns2934271:0masiku 2 agoMud 6, 2025crwdnd2934271:0 Dan crwdne2934271:0

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Dan @danj

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Self employed contract worker

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crwdns2931729:0crwdne2931729:0: Mud 1, 2025

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Measuring your CPU's as well as battery temp can be achieved using a good monitoring App like TG Pro it's what I use. You may what to use this other App as well CoconutBattery which will offer a deeper view into your Batteries health.

I would monitor the fans as it's possible the case distortion is interfering with them which in turn is why the system is a bit warm.

It's also possible the applications you are running are just pushing the system a bit more than you expected. See if this issue is happening more with a given App is running and see if it's upto date.

@janosg - Yes, CoconutBattery can be confusing!

Let's look at the first thermometer bar Battery Charge, think how full your cars fuel tank is, this is no different. Presently you have a bit over half charged.

The next one Battery Health is the how much you can fill the tank over time. Think it like your water heater which slowly builds up junk (scale and sand) so it can't hold the same amount of water as it did new. The above 100% is a bit eye dropping to some, as how could the battery be more than 100%? When this is the tolerance during manufacture as the minimum is 100 but they always go for about 5% extra. So no worries here!

Battery temp will rise and fall between charging and use. Right now it's about room temp 77.5 F that's well within the normal range. It's when you hit 90 C/194 F is when I would worry!

TG Pro has alerts which you can set, but from what I see here and what you've described I think you're just fine!

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Yep, thanks! Addendum: I downloaded 'Endurance' to run a proper load test on all cores at once and so far I think the values are ok. All 14 cores were loaded to 100%, and the performance cores warmed up to 90-100°C, efficiency cores to 85-90°C, and even the system default settings were enabled, not TG override, the fan speed ran above 5000 rpm quickly, and the CPU temps never rose above 100.

Thanks again for the tips.

crwdns2934271:0masiku 6 agoMud 2, 2025crwdnd2934271:0 János G. crwdne2934271:0

@janosg - sounds like you're good! Don't forget to accept the answer. thanks!

crwdns2934271:0masiku 6 agoMud 2, 2025crwdnd2934271:0 Dan crwdne2934271:0

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It looks like the palm area of the uppercase where the battery sits is caved in a bit. Something heavy must have dropped. This is where the battery sits, while the battery measures are still within normal it's hard to tell if the compression of the battery will lead to early failure. These batteries (cells) are layers of different materials with an electrolytic chemical bathing the layers. The distances between the layers are equal distant from each other and must stay within a set distance otherwise the battery degrades.

I would remove the battery and carefully reform the case so the area is no longer creating a compressive force on the battery. Review this guide MacBook Pro 14" Late 2023 (M3 Pro and M3 Max) Battery Replacement it should help as this series is very similar. Then just use the 3M Quick Release strips where the ones you removed to remount the battery being careful not to distort the battery in the process. — Dan
Running Apple Diagnostics at boot ("D" key) with the charger connected might provide some addition insights. — livfe
@danj Can you give me a hint where to find such a stretch release tape? You mentioned in another topic the 3M Double Coated Stretch Release Tape 6657-150. Unfortunately, it is not available in the European market. Found some similar from TESA, the tesa 76925 and ask them about it, where is it available, but didn't get any feedback yet.

Thanks in advance. — János G.
@janosg - Don't use standard TESA tape as it's to thick and is not a stretch release tape which is what you want for a battery.

iFixit offers a short version Stretch Release Battery Adhesive. Fire off an email to see if they offer a longer version.

I did find a few Amazon offers, I can't speak about them as I just use the 3M product. Do a google search "Stretch Release Tape" see what that pulls up for you. — Dan
Yep, thanks! Addendum: I downloaded 'Endurance' to run a proper load test on all cores at once and so far I think the values are ok. All 14 cores were loaded to 100%, and the performance cores warmed up to 90-100°C, efficiency cores to 85-90°C, and even the system default settings were enabled, not TG override, the fan speed ran above 5000 rpm quickly, and the CPU temps never rose above 100.

Thanks again for the tips. — János G.
@janosg - sounds like you're good! Don't forget to accept the answer. thanks! — Dan

MacBook Pro 14" 2024 (M4)

What level of M4 Max warming is too much?

Update (05/02/25)

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Update (05/02/25)

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