Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
How do I clean the cooling fans on my MBP?
- Thread starter majordude
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5H11 Safari/525.20)
I usually just stick my vacuum cleaner up to the vents to take the dust back the other direction.
I usually just stick my vacuum cleaner up to the vents to take the dust back the other direction.
I usually just stick my vacuum cleaner up to the vents to take the dust back the other direction.
The vents are that slot that run along the back of the computer right below the screen? Sucking it from there (the exhaust) is the same direction as the airflow.
It's not that simple. There must be 30 screws to remove to get into a MBP.
Agree with the OP. The compressed air is a good idea, however i wonder if anybody can explain whats the best way to apply it (how, what direction?)
Opposite direction of airflow. Do the heatsinks first, THEN the fans, as the heatsink-cleaning will throw more dust into the fans.
I have the same exact MBP. It's fairly simple, and takes me about 5 minutes to open the case. I've done it at least 5 times (for hdd swaps and cleaning). There's 4 screws on each side, 2 on the back, 4 on the bottom, 3 for the ram cover, and 4 in the battery compartment. Just unscrew them all (you need a tiny phillips and a t0 torx.) and then pop the top piece off (start near the display and pull forward). Disconnect that one ribbon cable from the logic board (its just a pop on fit thats taped down) and then then take the case off. You'll hear a snapping sound, but thats just the snap fit pieces opening up. They aren't breaking, so don't worry about it. Once it's off, you'll have access to the fans and you will be able to clean them off.
What did you think the fans blew into? Those little rectangles of black fins between the fan shrouds and the outer case are heatsinks. They are connected to a heatpipe, that covers the chips.
You mean apple uses plain old heatsinks???
I thought that they would use magical fairy dust! I've always thought that was the reason Apple's products are more expensive.