Care & Feeding of a MacBook Pro 3,1

[MultiFinder17]

Hello all! I'm curious as to your input on this. One of my favorite old machines to use for personal use is a late 2007 MBP that I've had for a while. I love the look of the pre-unibody machines (plus mine is nearly spotless!), I love the feel of its keyboard (it reminds me greatly of the 12" PowerBook that got me through college), and I have mine pimped out with max RAM, a pretty decent battery, and the upper case with multitouch trackpad of an early 2008 which makes it much more pleasant to use today. However, I have one issue with it that concerns me.

They die. A lot.

I would like for mine to not die. I keep an eye on the temps inside, and while the GPU doesn't get that hot, the CPU really gets cooking. For example, when I boot it up, the fans come on screaming full blast and the CPU sits at 100+ for several minutes until it's done doing its thing and calms down. I repasted it a year or three ago.

I know these machines run hot as balls, but seeing those kinds of temps from the CPU give me the willies. Any advice other than "Use MacsFanControl to crank the fans?" Or is that about it? Thank you!

Screenshot below is from MacsFanControl showing the temps immediately after booting when MDS is busy losing its mind for a minute or so.

 

[Amethyst1]

That CPU temp looks way high given it's been repasted (assuming the readout is correct). Just to be sure, I'd probably check the thermal paste and possibly reapply it, ensure that the heatsink makes proper contact, clean the fans and look into undervolting using CoolBook. That can make quite a difference if your CPU undervolts nicely.

 

[MultiFinder17]

Yeah, I'l tear it down this weekend or next and see what's up in there, probably repaste it in just case since it's not that bad to do.

In the meantime, I've been playing around with some of my dead machines, including a dead early 2008 that the top case on my 2007 came from. I picked it out of the recycle pile at the computer shop I used to work at years back and I've been slowly picking it clean for parts. I've never actually seen it POST; it's always been assumed to be dead. I'm noodling around with it, and decide to wire it all up just for shiggles. Plug it in, it powers on and gives the long, low BOOOOOOOPs of no RAM. Curious, I threw in the RAM from my 2007 and lo and behold, it gives me a blinking question mark.

I quickly assembled it properly, and I now find myself with a working Early 2008 15"! 2.4GHz, 4GB RAM, 120GB SSD and a 256MB 8600M GT makes for a nice little system. Plus, being an early '08, it can run newer versions of OS X! I loaded High Sierra on it for the time being, and it's running beautifully! It's nice to have a more software-modern machine with this old keyboard that I adore.

 

[Amethyst1]

256MB 8600M GT

Revised or not?

 

[MultiFinder17]

Revised or not?

I'm honestly not sure - I'll check the model number on the GPU die next time I have it apart. I may tear it down tonight just because I enjoy tearing apart computers

 

[darngooddesign]

If it gets really hot while booting, don't shut it down.

 

[MultiFinder17]

I'm honestly not sure - I'll check the model number on the GPU die next time I have it apart. I may tear it down tonight just because I enjoy tearing apart computers

By tonight I actually meant 'now'. Nope, unfortunately it's a 602.

 

[bobesch]

Congrats, that you happend to kiss a magic-frog.
Oh, I'm fond of the early-intel silver-MBPs too and I really enjoy to use an early-2008 MBP as my daily driver (and the Apple icons, you've sent me two or three years ago, which are pleasure to me every day since!).
100° on the CPU is quite tough, but the CPU e.g. on my i7 2012 MBP does run that hot regularly, if on heavy load and the TurboBoost isn't switched off (which I normally do) - so I think, CPU of your's 2007 MBP will cope and it's below the temperature, where flux get's toasted and far below melting temperature of solder. On recommendation of @eyoungren I use iStat Menu to keep an eye on temperature. Problem with user-defined fan-control is, that, that the system might run hot, while lid is closed after finishing work, software control has gone to sleep and system's temperature-control is overwritten by software-settings and does not react. I think, that did happen to my early-2008 MBP once and caused it's GPU to die.
Temperature of Your MBP's GPU but looks ok - nevertheless and unfortunately GPU failure is unpredictable. It can be provoked, but even with TLC there's no guarantee for a long honeymoon.
(I gave one early-2008 15" MBP to my great nice and she placed the book between cushions to watch streaming video and the GPU was down within a week. Quite similar with a coworker of mine: used the iLapStand upside down with the hot part of the book's bottom-plate sitting just on top the plush-upholstery of the iLapStand, which is meant to sit on your knees or the table...)
Gentle bakery (140-150°C for 10 min) did always help with my Books, but actually it didn't last very long and rules out any early-intel silver-MBP from mission-critical tasks.
My current 17" early-2008 MBP is a refurbished "emerald-book", the ones with the green dot on the RAM-socket and I really keep my fingers crossed, that it's keeps it's promisses!
I'm thinking about getting a BGA-soldering-station to try out GPU-replacement - just for the hell of it (good project for your advanced classes ...)
Cheers, Bob