OMG!!!
That's an INSANE amount of thermal paste. Plus all the misaligned screws... they must have monkeys in the production line putting things together. Big shame on the production process.
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15" MacBook Pro (SB) Thermal application/guide
- Thread starter fr4c
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OMG!!!
That's an INSANE amount of thermal paste. Plus all the misaligned screws... they must have monkeys in the production line putting things together. Big shame on the production process.
I've redone thermal paste too. I had the same excessive amount of compound as in the photo in the previous post. I used Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra, and my themps are:
If you want to use Liquid Ultra compound, please be VERY CAREFUL! It's conductive and it's rather liquid than a paste, so it's not hard to spill some microdrops over the mainboard.
My machine is: 2011 MBP 15 2.2
- 37 *C - idle = browsing web, chatting etc. - fans at 2000rpm
- 75 *C - full load = 8x yes > /dev/null - fans at 6200rpm (fixed speed using smcfancontrol)
- 83 *C - full load - no smcfancontrol - fans at about 5200rpm
If you want to use Liquid Ultra compound, please be VERY CAREFUL! It's conductive and it's rather liquid than a paste, so it's not hard to spill some microdrops over the mainboard.
My machine is: 2011 MBP 15 2.2
I've seen my new 15" 2.2 hit 90+ under load with the stock thermal paste.
Really debating whether I should do this (I do have some experience with doing this stuff for desktops). I think I can do it right but I'm just afraid warranty is voided just for tampering with this.
I'm guessing no one has gotten Genius bar to apply it for them?
Really debating whether I should do this (I do have some experience with doing this stuff for desktops). I think I can do it right but I'm just afraid warranty is voided just for tampering with this.
I'm guessing no one has gotten Genius bar to apply it for them?
OK, I was able to fix my keyboard issue (I forgot the plug it in). I'm using my MBP to make this post.
I'll post some thermal reports later on.
Oh yeah, something I've noticed after the procedure. Whenever I plug in my headphones when watching a video on youtube the video will stop, and then resume. The sound will also stop and then resume.
Is this normal? I never attempted this before doing the procedure.
I'll post some thermal reports later on.
Oh yeah, something I've noticed after the procedure. Whenever I plug in my headphones when watching a video on youtube the video will stop, and then resume. The sound will also stop and then resume.
Is this normal? I never attempted this before doing the procedure.
That's just plain depressing. 2200$ for a laptop, and you get quality control of a 220$ laptop.
I was really thinking I'd finally be upgrading my 24" 2006 iMac, but the hell with it, I am not paying for this. Apple lives in lala land, this has been an issue ever since I bought the very first original Core Duo Macbook Pro.
Here's a post I wrote in May 2006 after returning my boiling first-gen Macbook Pro. 5 years later - and things are exactly the same.
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=2374130&#post2374130
I was really thinking I'd finally be upgrading my 24" 2006 iMac, but the hell with it, I am not paying for this. Apple lives in lala land, this has been an issue ever since I bought the very first original Core Duo Macbook Pro.
Here's a post I wrote in May 2006 after returning my boiling first-gen Macbook Pro. 5 years later - and things are exactly the same.
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=2374130&#post2374130
Well after the thermal application I am about the same maybe 3 degrees less than before. Interesting brought the laptop only in the house and my temp is 47 C this is attached to nothing. But when in office to 30 inch monitor , firewire, usb and audio ports I am running at 60C. So in effect that is about a 13C difference. Actually just dropped down to 45.
Bottom line here this is little difference than last years model. I say about a 7 to 10C swing. Really not bad considering the power of the 2011.
The real interesting number is the difference between all the stuff attached and running it by itself. Apparently as I mentioned before all those connection cause a lot of heat. The whole left port side is not even warm but when connected to everything it gets very warm.
I'm thinking my numbers are about as normal as it gets. So if your running really hot without attachments connected and under the 50C mark i would not even worry about it. I think the thermal application is worth the effort but you really need to check your abilities before proceeding this is risky. But after doing it once it would be easy getting through it the first time is nerve racking I agree.
One thing not mentioned in this thread is the power connection is actually on the back side of the logic board so lift out carefully after everything else is disconnected and spin it around and pull that plug.
Also the FIRST thing you should do is pull battery plug before doing anything and tape it back to the battery to get out of the way..
Now one very weird thing happened after everything got all buttoned up . Pay attention here. When I went back to insert all my connections and when I put the POWER Mag safe plug in even with the MBP closed it turned on. Very strange that it did that and it did it on both machines I owned. This time I hard pressed it off until I finished all my connections.
I would on the side of caution as soon as your done turn it on without anything connected . I think somehow when you disconnect the battery something resets itself and as soon as you put power to it it powers on. Rather see folks not connect anything first time and you power it on first than shut down and reconnect everything.
Honestly the first MBP this happened I continued inserting plugs when it powered up and it went south on me as i may have fried it. The power would work randomly and would not shut down. Apple replaced it for that reason. So again I would just turn it on first and reset the battery with a power up and go that route. I have no clue what happened but I just would not take that chance again.
Good luck everyone. Now just need a Sata 3 drive and 12gb of ram and i will be a happy camper
Bottom line here this is little difference than last years model. I say about a 7 to 10C swing. Really not bad considering the power of the 2011.
The real interesting number is the difference between all the stuff attached and running it by itself. Apparently as I mentioned before all those connection cause a lot of heat. The whole left port side is not even warm but when connected to everything it gets very warm.
I'm thinking my numbers are about as normal as it gets. So if your running really hot without attachments connected and under the 50C mark i would not even worry about it. I think the thermal application is worth the effort but you really need to check your abilities before proceeding this is risky. But after doing it once it would be easy getting through it the first time is nerve racking I agree.
One thing not mentioned in this thread is the power connection is actually on the back side of the logic board so lift out carefully after everything else is disconnected and spin it around and pull that plug.
Also the FIRST thing you should do is pull battery plug before doing anything and tape it back to the battery to get out of the way..
Now one very weird thing happened after everything got all buttoned up . Pay attention here. When I went back to insert all my connections and when I put the POWER Mag safe plug in even with the MBP closed it turned on. Very strange that it did that and it did it on both machines I owned. This time I hard pressed it off until I finished all my connections.
I would on the side of caution as soon as your done turn it on without anything connected . I think somehow when you disconnect the battery something resets itself and as soon as you put power to it it powers on. Rather see folks not connect anything first time and you power it on first than shut down and reconnect everything.
Honestly the first MBP this happened I continued inserting plugs when it powered up and it went south on me as i may have fried it. The power would work randomly and would not shut down. Apple replaced it for that reason. So again I would just turn it on first and reset the battery with a power up and go that route. I have no clue what happened but I just would not take that chance again.
Good luck everyone. Now just need a Sata 3 drive and 12gb of ram and i will be a happy camper
Is it strange or is that by design? The MBP can run in a clamshell mode. Mine also turns on when I plug an iPhone/iPod to it even when the cover is closed.
The thread gave me the courage to go ahead and do the same for my 2008 late unibody mbp. Still going strong for all my needs.
Now I must say when I opened things up it was no where near as bad as the pictures i've seen or what others have said. Guess I just got lucky, nonetheless I did clean up the excess amount and reapplied some paste. Pictures below. If you're wondering why I didn't remove the left fan, well lets just say that one screw really hated me and decide to strip its self
Now I must say when I opened things up it was no where near as bad as the pictures i've seen or what others have said. Guess I just got lucky, nonetheless I did clean up the excess amount and reapplied some paste. Pictures below. If you're wondering why I didn't remove the left fan, well lets just say that one screw really hated me and decide to strip its self
woops.
I applied a thin layer anyway
no problems
I did the same at first.
Then i read the warning and freaked. Luckily i ordered some thermal pads off of ebay, and undid my error today. This computer is awesome, too bad though, that the temps spike when plugged into an external monitor 
That was another MR member who went ahead and re-appled the TC, which is not covered under the first post. For your reference, the highlighted area below is what you should not touch:
Why nobody should touch this?
Why nobody should touch this?
Because the thermal paste you'll apply isn't thick enough. You need a thermal pad.
Btw, does anyone know how to pull out the keyboard ribbon? The tiny one underneath the left fan? Also what about the power supply to the harddrive? The red and black cable?
Thanks.
You have to pull up a little latch in the front to release the ribbon . Use a toothpick or pointed plastic spader tool . Tricky little thing
What about the power supply to the hard drive? Pull up or slide out?
As for the keyboard, do I just pull the ribbon out once the latch is lifted? So only the gold plated ribbon is showing? It seems so tricky since the other ribbons have some sort of connector on them when you pull them out of their sockets.
Correct, it should be a ribbon connector. The power supply to the hard drive should be pulled up, if I remember correctly. Not 100% sure though.
Hard Drive/optical is a pull up. wireless is a slide out. Also near the battery is a silver cover that needs to be removed with 2 connectors there. One is a pull up the other is a slide out with a tab on it.
Before doing any of this pull the battery cable first and just tape it backwards to the battery to get it out of the way. That worked nice for me.
Hard one is the display connector. Lift clasp bar up than slide out . Not a lot of room there and be careful. Power on back side is pull out
Fan cables are pull up. Hope that helps
Thermal screws try to remember the pressure applied and you want to apply equal pressure after the deed is done. Also screw down in a cross pattern so you get equal pressure going back on . I did it in 3 stages of pressure
Just lift the little tab. I use a spudger, which I got from ifixit. It also works very well for removing the other connectors, you can just slide it under the cables and wiggle up.
This is my first post, so hello every one. I've got a QuadCore MacBook Pro 15" 2.2 and done the thermal paste work. Below are my results:
Integrated graphics:
Discrete graphics:
Idle = web browsing with 4 tabs opened, chatting
Full load = in terminal 8x yes > /dev/null
All temps were measured after 10 min from /dev/null processes start.
I used Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra
Do you think that those are good results? Or is it worth trying to do it again? Maybe with Arctic Silver 5? I am asking because I saw that some of you got 31C on idle.
UPDATE:
As I'm writing this my idle temps on integrated graphics are around 29 - 31C and my ambient is about 20C. MacBook's uptime is 40 minutes. I suppose that the reason I got higher temps yesterday is that my idle measurements was done after the full load temps. I was just more interested with those. So for me everything went fine and I can say that Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra is very good paste, if not the best.
Integrated graphics:
- Idle - 36C - fans @ 2000rpm
- Full load - 74C - fans @ 6200rpm (fixed)
- Full load - 83C - fans @ 4000rpm (auto)
Discrete graphics:
- Idle - 38C - fans @ 2000rpm
- Full load - 77C - fans @ 6200rpm (fixed)
- Full load - 85C - fans @ 4800rpm (auto)
Idle = web browsing with 4 tabs opened, chatting
Full load = in terminal 8x yes > /dev/null
All temps were measured after 10 min from /dev/null processes start.
I used Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra
Do you think that those are good results? Or is it worth trying to do it again? Maybe with Arctic Silver 5? I am asking because I saw that some of you got 31C on idle.
UPDATE:
As I'm writing this my idle temps on integrated graphics are around 29 - 31C and my ambient is about 20C. MacBook's uptime is 40 minutes. I suppose that the reason I got higher temps yesterday is that my idle measurements was done after the full load temps. I was just more interested with those. So for me everything went fine and I can say that Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra is very good paste, if not the best.
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Remember your temp will depend heavily on how hot the ambient temp is too, which is why heatsink reviews are often as delta from ambient rather than absolute.
Figured I would throw my two cents in, too. 15" 2.2 quad with a HR display.
Ambient is typically around 18-21º C
Before
Idle: 47º-49º C
Load: 90º C
After
Idle: 37º - 40ºC
Load 77º-80ºC
The best part is that my MacBook Pro can maintain that load temperature while keeping the fans <4500 RPM. Color me impressed. I used Artic Silver 5. Also, like some other have mentioned, it cools down much quicker. It goes from that load temperature back down to idle in less than a minute.
I'll put up pictures of my before thermal compound when I get home if anyone is interested.
Ambient is typically around 18-21º C
Before
Idle: 47º-49º C
Load: 90º C
After
Idle: 37º - 40ºC
Load 77º-80ºC
The best part is that my MacBook Pro can maintain that load temperature while keeping the fans <4500 RPM. Color me impressed. I used Artic Silver 5. Also, like some other have mentioned, it cools down much quicker. It goes from that load temperature back down to idle in less than a minute.
I'll put up pictures of my before thermal compound when I get home if anyone is interested.
i did this on my aluminum MacBook when i had it and it made it run a few degrees cooler.
thinking about taking apart this late '08 MBP to do the same thing when i have time. will post results and pictures for sure
thinking about taking apart this late '08 MBP to do the same thing when i have time. will post results and pictures for sure
I'm local to to you....if you do this and feel confident, I'd throw sine cash your way to do mine if I go that route...