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Just opened my MBPr, cleaned out tons of dust & hair, and now its blazing fast again!

Hieveryone

Hieveryone

macrumors 603
Original poster
Apr 11, 2014
5,632
2,347
USA
I'm really surprised how dust can slow down your MBPr.

It's been 1 year since I bought my late 2013 MBPr 2.6/8/256

Today I decided to pop open the bottom lid. I found there was dust and hair.

So I cleaned it up, turned on my MacBook Pro Retina, and it's lightning fast just like new again!

I recommend doing this once a year because for me it worked out nicely!!!

So happy :D:D:D:D
 
Hieveryone said:
I'm really surprised how dust can slow down your MBPr.

It's been 1 year since I bought my late 2013 MBPr 2.6/8/256

Today I decided to pop open the bottom lid. I found there was dust and hair.

So I cleaned it up, turned on my MacBook Pro Retina, and it's lightning fast just like new again!

I recommend doing this once a year because for me it worked out nicely!!!

So happy :D:D:D:D
Click to expand...

funny, i just did this exact thing tonight with my late '13 rmbp...also only a year old. it was dirty and dusty and should cool a little better now :)
 
I may want to open up my 2012 rMBP, I don't think its running hot, so I don't think its a problem.
 
You have a dusty environment. I've always used my macs 2-3years without cleaning and it never accumulate much dust.

But cleaning is a really good idea to keep computers running nicely. Although not required anymore with the nMB. :)
 
maflynn said:
I may want to open up my 2012 rMBP, I don't think its running hot, so I don't think its a problem.
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That's the thing. I would have never guessed my computer was slower. It happened so progressively it's hard to tell. But there is a noticeable difference AFTER cleaning out the dust. It's reminiscent of how it ran when I first bought it.
 
Could I use a hairdryer to do this? On the 'cool' setting obviously :)
 
sn said:
Could I use a hairdryer to do this? On the 'cool' setting obviously :)
Click to expand...

Just be sure that you don't blow dust deeper into the machine, i.e., you should still take it apart
 
Yes, the hairdryer idea is only likely to make things worse. The tool-less solution is to use a vacuum cleaner, but that's probably not going to make a big difference unless you somehow got large, loose dust bunnies in the machine and get lucky with the vacuum.
 
Once a year or two, I pop off the bottom lid of my mac book pros and clean it out with a can of air. Afterwards, I usually see a temperature drop of at least 20 degrees.
 
ctyhntr said:
Once a year or two, I pop off the bottom lid of my mac book pros and clean it out with a can of air. Afterwards, I usually see a temperature drop of at least 20 degrees.
Click to expand...

Wow, that's huge, even if you're talking Fahrenheit rather than Celsius. Visually, is there a lot of dust and "plaque" in the machine when you open it up? I took the bottom off of my 11-month old rMBP last weekend and it was extremely clean inside, which surprised me. I use it daily at home and work.
 
I use the hose on a vacuum cleaner (Dyson) with a brush attached to the hose. I remove the case-back and lightly run the brush over the insides. I also vacuum the keyboard. The problem with a can of air is that it "blows" and thus, you never know where a stray strand of hair or dust might go. A vacuum cleaner, on the other hand, "sucks" and thus, dust and hair and whatnot is coming out of the computer, not into and around all the components. Anyway, my ten cents worth.
 
sn said:
Could I use a hairdryer to do this? On the 'cool' setting obviously :)
Click to expand...

Bad idea, hairdryers are normally double-insulated and can generate huge amounts of static on the outer shell, go too close and it will discharge to your mac...
 
lambertjohn said:
I use the hose on a vacuum cleaner (Dyson) with a brush attached to the hose. I remove the case-back and lightly run the brush over the insides. I also vacuum the keyboard. The problem with a can of air is that it "blows" and thus, you never know where a stray strand of hair or dust might go. A vacuum cleaner, on the other hand, "sucks" and thus, dust and hair and whatnot is coming out of the computer, not into and around all the components. Anyway, my ten cents worth.
Click to expand...

This is pretty sound logic but beware of the static charge that will build up on that hose. We used to have an expensive meter for testing work surfaces for static charge prevention. It was pretty interesting to measure other things and the charges on vacuum equipment was scary.
 
Yes, there is alot of dust. I've done this twice on my 2009, and once on my 2011 Mac Book Pro. After blowing out the 'plaque' on the fans, I wipe down the bottom lid. For me, its time to clean when the only app running is Firefox and CPU temperature hovers around 145 Fahrenheit. After cleaning, it drops back down to 120-124/2000-2100 rpm.

newellj said:
Wow, that's huge, even if you're talking Fahrenheit rather than Celsius. Visually, is there a lot of dust and "plaque" in the machine when you open it up? I took the bottom off of my 11-month old rMBP last weekend and it was extremely clean inside, which surprised me. I use it daily at home and work.
Click to expand...
 
adamhenry said:
This is pretty sound logic but beware of the static charge that will build up on that hose. We used to have an expensive meter for testing work surfaces for static charge prevention. It was pretty interesting to measure other things and the charges on vacuum equipment was scary.
Click to expand...

So still use a vacuum or nah?
 
got my first rMBP last week and was kind of disappointed with it, cpu's ramping up constantly, 3-4 hours battery usage at full charge even with 94% health on the battery... reset the PRAM and immediate change... 8 hours battery time at full charge and currently at this second showing 6:53 @ 84%... CPU's have died down also, but after seeing this i took the back off and it was full of dust and even bits of grit!? so cleaned out and the temp's dropped by 5-7 degrees C and yeah its a totally different MacBook...

My main machine is a cMP 5.1 3.46ghz 12 core with GTX Titan and 48GB of ram so i was no way near expecting the MacBook Pro to be comparable however its starting to feel nippy as i expected it too.
 
MH01 said:
When I clean mine out, I think I'll repaste the CPU and GPU
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I just did this on my 2010 MPB and it made a HUGE difference along with cleaning out the dust that you don't see by just removing the lid. The factory paste job was absolutely terrible and I had a good piece of dust/hair stuck between the fan and heatsink. Before I was idling around 130-140*F, typing this I'm sitting at 105*F. I can't even get the fan to go above idle even under high CPU load.
 
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