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The lowest CPU temp I ever saw was 61C. If I drive my Cinema Display (ie 6750M in use) and open one web browser page the temps jumped to the upper 60s which was not that bad except for I was not really "doing anything" and now the fans have jumped to the low 4000s.

Which is all you had to tell the Genius, and it's a 99% bet you would have had a new MacBook Pro. No fuss, no muss, no argument.

What am I missing here?
 
I got my Macbook Pro on Friday and after noticing the somewhat high temperatures, I kicked around the idea of reapplying the thermal paste. I decided against doing this (last night, not after reading this :)). I have Apple care and if the system melts down I can return it.

To the op, IIRC you left the battery connected? Yeah, that probably did the damage.

Right!

This is what warranties are for. I don't blame anyone for trying this. It would be fun actually, but for the risk. I've don'e this before, but only when I don't have to remove the system board.

I mean, sure the Apple techs can do this in their sleep, but if they brick something it's nothing.
 
No need to remove battery, just make sure it's the first thing you unplug

Sucks to hear about the Macbook pro dying. I was very careful with doing mine the first time, but after that it becomes really easy when you know what your doing.

I re-applied thermal paste to my brand new 2011 macbook pro a few times with no problem. I followed the 2010 macbook pro 13" guide on IFixit.com and also did not remove the battery because I did not have a Y wing screwdriver, but I did unplug it. I did get some better results, and I got a quieter machine as a result of doing so.

Removing the battery just makes it easier to remove the logic board, but it's not necessary. Just make sure it is the first thing you unplug, and make sure you ground yourself prior to working on it. (I just touch my PC chasis or a metal sink faucet in my house). Sounds like something went wrong and you either statically killed it, forgot to plug a wire in or left the battery plugged in. The macbook doesn't get hot enough when you boot it to kill it even with no or bad thermal paste application.

Any word on what happened after you took it back to Apple?
 
Yes but with that much thermal paste (potentially) on there check your temps. If their high take it back and demand a refund. There is a good chance that it will do slow damage to your system and then crap out after your warranty is done.

How high is too high though? I'm still looking around for average temperatures. I think that temps under load are okay, but temps with light work loads are too high.
Example with both fans set to 3K rpm minimum:
All cores loaded - 90C with fans at max rpm.
Watching You tube videos - 70C
Browsing this forum (no flash running) - 65C
Idle - 48C

Right!

This is what warranties are for. I don't blame anyone for trying this. It would be fun actually, but for the risk. I've don'e this before, but only when I don't have to remove the system board.

I mean, sure the Apple techs can do this in their sleep, but if they brick something it's nothing.

I've reapplied the thermal paste on many $500-600 graphic cards. I've never been afraid to do this however, the MBP is more than $2K. That would be an expensive screw up. :(
 
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How high is too high though? I'm still looking around for average temperatures. I think that temps under load are okay, but temps with light work loads are too high.
Example with both fans set to 3K rpm minimum:
All cores loaded - 90C with fans at max rpm.
Watching You tube videos - 70C
Browsing this forum (no flash running) - 65C
Idle - 48C

The only one I would consider "high" is the forum browsing one. I'm at 47 degrees C right now. But then I'm using Firefox with minimal plugins - only the bare essentials. Fans at the lowest possible setting which gives 1999rpm. Willing to wager that's something in your browser causing that one.

The idle is a "little" high, but that could be anything. Spotlight, anything.


Now as I said, the first MBP I got had those same figures. I took it back and had them exchange it - for a different reason, in my case, the uneven backlight and a stuck pixel dead center - but the heat was also there. They swapped me right on the spot and actually allowed me to verify the replacement was good before leaving AND got me the business discount I was supposed to have gotten on the first one. This one hasn't had the heat issue. It did have a minor graphical issue, which I remedied with a fully clean install of Snow Leopard - no backup restore, then manually restored my apps and files and it's been working fine.

Again folks, the lesson here is....

Keep swapping,
Stop hacking,
Know that you can always count on Steve...for sure.
That's what AppleCare's for.
 
Again folks, the lesson here is....

Keep swapping,
Stop hacking,
Know that you can always count on Steve...for sure.
That's what AppleCare's for.

It is easier to do it myself than have to deal with swaps and explanations.
 
It is easier to do it myself than have to deal with swaps and explanations.

Fine - as long as I don't see a thread from you up on here complaining if something goes wrong.

I also don't see how it's "easier", nor do I see why explanations are necessary. You tell them it's overheating, you show them it's overheating, they walk in the back and get you a new one. You're out in 20 minutes max. Or do you waste 2 hours of your day trying to do Apple's job?

Time is money. But whatever. It's your $1500-$3000 to blow.
 
Fine - as long as I don't see a thread from you up on here complaining if something goes wrong.

I also don't see how it's "easier", nor do I see why explanations are necessary. You tell them it's overheating, you show them it's overheating, they walk in the back and get you a new one. You're out in 20 minutes max. Or do you waste 2 hours of your day trying to do Apple's job?

Time is money. But whatever. It's your $1500-$3000 to blow.

It is easier to do it myself than have to deal with swaps and explanations.

I think he said that as a joke and was mocking all of the fanbois who play Steve Jobs in their parents basement. What he meant was: it's easier to void the warranty outright and to break your computer in the process of voiding your warranty, with the hope that you have a computer that does not work and a warranty which will not cover it.
 
Fine - as long as I don't see a thread from you up on here complaining if something goes wrong.

I also don't see how it's "easier", nor do I see why explanations are necessary. You tell them it's overheating, you show them it's overheating, they walk in the back and get you a new one. You're out in 20 minutes max. Or do you waste 2 hours of your day trying to do Apple's job?

Time is money. But whatever. It's your $1500-$3000 to blow.


I think it's not that common for ppl to kill their machines when they tear them down, it's what us tech guys like doing and besides exchanging a new mac might give you a slightly cooler mac, but it's still got a crap paste job inside and cleaning it up will ultimately get you the best results. It may be easier to just swap the mac, but some ppl just enjoy tearing apart their machines for the fun of it. :)
 
Fine - as long as I don't see a thread from you up on here complaining if something goes wrong.

I also don't see how it's "easier", nor do I see why explanations are necessary. You tell them it's overheating, you show them it's overheating, they walk in the back and get you a new one. You're out in 20 minutes max. Or do you waste 2 hours of your day trying to do Apple's job?

Time is money. But whatever. It's your $1500-$3000 to blow.

You won't. I am certified from Apple to do "Apple's job." So yeah, I can do it myself.

Also, it only took me about 30 minutes max. I would have spent more time with Apple on the matter.
 
OP: What happened? Did you take it back to Apple? Did the Easter bunny (Apple) leave you a golden egg (new MacBook Pro) in return for it? Come on spill the beans, curious minds want to know. :)
 
I've mentioned this a lot of different places, but unless a user has GFXCardStatus, I've noticed there are a lot of 3rd-party scripts and background processes which can call the Discrete Graphics Cards into use nonstop. I opened and closed MSWord 2004 in Rosetta once, and its autoupdater background process kept the 6750m running even after Rosetta closed =/
Google Chrome did the same thing, except it at least went back to Integrated graphics upon quitting.

I can't help but wonder if this is related to a lot of high idle temps....
 
I have to go out of town for work for a week tomorrow, so, I won't get a chance to deal with it for a while.

This is probably my 20th Mac, so, maybe that's why I'm not so freaked out. I'm more sad than anything, you know, the way the owner of a new Ferrari is sad after they total the Ferrari in the first week. :(

Anyhow, what can I do, explain what happened and maybe they will cut me some slack and enter me as a number in the machine or maybe I will owe them $1600 or whatever for the logic board. Knowing Apple, it's $2999 for the logic board, lol.
 
I have to go out of town for work for a week tomorrow, so, I won't get a chance to deal with it for a while.

This is probably my 20th Mac, so, maybe that's why I'm not so freaked out. I'm more sad than anything, you know, the way the owner of a new Ferrari is sad after they total the Ferrari in the first week. :(

Anyhow, what can I do, explain what happened and maybe they will cut me some slack and enter me as a number in the machine or maybe I will owe them $1600 or whatever for the logic board. Knowing Apple, it's $2999 for the logic board, lol.

Thanks for the update. Fingers crossed that it won't cost you $2999 or even $1600 to get you back up and running.
 
I've mentioned this a lot of different places, but unless a user has GFXCardStatus, I've noticed there are a lot of 3rd-party scripts and background processes which can call the Discrete Graphics Cards into use nonstop. I opened and closed MSWord 2004 in Rosetta once, and its autoupdater background process kept the 6750m running even after Rosetta closed =/
Google Chrome did the same thing, except it at least went back to Integrated graphics upon quitting.

I can't help but wonder if this is related to a lot of high idle temps....

Agreed. I have GFXcardstatus and I seriously see it using the integrated graphics hardly ever. Almost never.
 
If you tell them you messed it up, here is the logic board pricing:

13" 2.3: $849
13" 2.7, 15" 2.0: $899
15" 2.2, 2.3: $999
 
Well, I wasn't going to re-apply thermal paste until I read this thread.

I didn't have a temperature problem, even when running the processor at 100%. The hottest it got was 202 degrees Fahrenheit but cooled to 186 Fahrenheit once the fans maxed out and remained at that temp.

The images in this post made me wonder if my machine was just as bad with the thermal compound.

I took it apart ...and sure enough, mine was just as bad. I was rather disappointed so I applied some OCZ Freeze, and I was impressed with the results. Now running 100%, it only gets up to 176 Fahrenheit before the fans kick on and reduce the CPU temp to 156 Fahrenheit constant.

On the plus side, it also increased my CineBench (on ATI) score from:

OpenGL: 31.32 FPS
CPU: 4.86 pts

to

OpenGL: 35.55 FPS
CPU: 5.11 pts


Then again, I've been a technician for over 20 years and know what I'm doing, so if you don't have the technical aptitude, I wouldn't recommend trying on a $2k-$3k machine, but advice too late for the OP.
 
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