Some questions...

[Melora]

I got my first Mac computer on Saturday - a 15 inch 2.4 MBP and I have some questions that the search button just isn't helping with. It feels quite hot, especially to the left of the keyboard. I've downloaded the SMC Fan Control and temp reader as recommended by most people but what settings should I use, what temperature should it be at?

Also when I don't touch anything for 2 minutes the screen dims. This is really annoying when I'm watching movies or videos. Is there anything I can do to stop this? Its making it hard to see. I've turned off the auto dimming functions on Display and Energy Saver so now I'm just confused.

Also any tips for useful programs would be appreciated!

 

[triddent222]

I personally only use SMC when playing Video or gaming under boot camp (which I rarely do). I found that using it at 3Ks makes the CPU way cooler (45-47C while playing videos / 50-short when using photoshop) while maintaining the noise at tolerable levels.

To stop the screen from dimming, go to System preferences, and under Energy Saving, go to Options. Uncheck "Automatically Reduce the brightness of the display before sleep."

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

To stop the screen from dimming, go to System preferences, and under Energy Saving, go to Options. Uncheck "Automatically Reduce the brightness of the display before sleep."

...and go in and check and uncheck that for every restart... it's a very old, but still unresolved bug: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304092

 

[CalBoy]

Also when I don't touch anything for 2 minutes the screen dims. This is really annoying when I'm watching movies or videos. Is there anything I can do to stop this? Its making it hard to see. I've turned off the auto dimming functions on Display and Energy Saver so now I'm just confused.

...and go in and check and uncheck that for every restart... it's a very old, but still unresolved bug: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304092

If you are watching movies with the AC plugged in, you might want to simply disable sleep (only when plugged in though). I do this because when I want it to sleep, I'll tell it to sleep (there goes that power trip!). Seriously think about it if you find it to be annoying.