https://yogesh.lonkar.org/tags/hardware/ Recent content in Hardware on Yogesh Lonkar Hugo en-IN © lonkar.org Fri, 09 Oct 2026 01:04:03 +0530 https://yogesh.lonkar.org/posts/macbook-monitor-throttle/ Thu, 08 Oct 2026 18:00:00 +0530 https://yogesh.lonkar.org/posts/macbook-monitor-throttle/ <blockquote> <p>TL;DR: I forgot to clean the cooling fans inside my old MacBook Pro and a new monitor is where I noticed the throttling. The fans speed didn&rsquo;t sound like act-ci or fine tuning Qwen. After the cleaning the fans sat at 1850/1686 and the CPU speed limit stayed at 100.</p> </blockquote> <ul> <li>2026-10-07, ~19:00: got new external monitor that connects via HDMI as well as USB-C.</li> <li>~19:07: finished setting it up and cables.</li> <li>~19:15: Observed mouse felt sluggish so immediately thought new monitor is causing some issue. Started troubleshooting. Played videos. Closed everything. What I observed was I have new external monitor, moving mouse feels sluggish and video in chrome is playing like stopmotion.</li> <li>19:31: After 15 minutes not able to figure out what was wrong asked claude.</li> <li>19:34: <code>top</code> sample WindowServer 72% CPU, a Chrome renderer 84%, VTDecoderXPCService 12%, load average 2.7 / 10.3 / 10.9. Nothing pegged, nothing obvious.</li> <li>19:47: Multiple changes like forced GPU for external monitor, battery settings, a restart was suggested. Also one <code>pmset -g log</code> had a line <code>ThermalEvent Ignored DarkWake thermal emergency signal</code>. claude didn&rsquo;t stressed on it and I overlooked.</li> <li>~20:00: Restarted laptop and sluggishness went away. Closed for the day.</li> </ul> <p>At 19:31 the speed limit read 100, so no throttle showed in anything I sampled and I couldn&rsquo;t name a culprit.</p>