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How to clean Macbook Pro Fans?

Sankersizzle said:
Now we are in agreement! Apologies for busting your balls.

This reminds me of a story I recently heard on the news where a kid was going down a backyard hill on a toboggan with his parents and hit a tree and broke some bones -now the parents are suing the homeowner for a poorly placed tree and all children have to wear helmets while tobogganing. When I was tobogganing and hit a tree my father would just make fun of me then call me a dunce and send me back up the hill... I feel like we hold hands a little too much in this day and age.

I totally feel you on the canned air though, when I was younger I didn't know that if you shook the can, it would shoot out in liquid form. I ended up shooting it inside my computer, and well, you can imagine how that worked out.
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I agree, some things do seem to not make sense and I would imagine 95+ percent of the population knows water and electricity don't mix, but there are people with challenges and you never know.

Yeah, I did that when trying to get dust off of a motherboard and it was the end of that computer. Also, the force in which it blows air I have had literally disconnect wires and hear some reports of parts actually being broken by such force. IIRC the MBP wires are partially glued so it shouldn't be an issue, but now I: 1) spray the can away from the computer for 1 second to clear liquid, 2) get a longer hose and bend the hose while keeping the canister upright, 3) go verrrrry light on the air as the amount of pressure needed to remove dust isn't very much.

Here is an odd question...the unibody MBP features cooling in a different style than other computers. The CD drive has a flexible flap on it to keep out debris. It has no large vents (aluminum is a part of the cooling design). The hinge system is also closed off differently and makes it hard for dirt to get into. The keyboard may be the only way for dust to go on. Since it is nearly a closed system, does it really ever need a dust cleaning?
 
NickZac said:
I agree, some things do seem to not make sense and I would imagine 95+ percent of the population knows water and electricity don't mix, but there are people with challenges and you never know.

Yeah, I did that when trying to get dust off of a motherboard and it was the end of that computer. Also, the force in which it blows air I have had literally disconnect wires and hear some reports of parts actually being broken by such force. IIRC the MBP wires are partially glued so it shouldn't be an issue, but now I: 1) spray the can away from the computer for 1 second to clear liquid, 2) get a longer hose and bend the hose while keeping the canister upright, 3) go verrrrry light on the air as the amount of pressure needed to remove dust isn't very much.

Here is an odd question...the unibody MBP features cooling in a different style than other computers. The CD drive has a flexible flap on it to keep out debris. It has no large vents (aluminum is a part of the cooling design). The hinge system is also closed off differently and makes it hard for dirt to get into. The keyboard may be the only way for dust to go on. Since it is nearly a closed system, does it really ever need a dust cleaning?
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I believe one fan is an intake or the space between them is the intake, cant quite remember. But there is a quite a large vent between the mbp casing the and hinge for the screen, it runs the whole length of that gap so if both fans are blowing out there is quite a bit of air being sucked in. Im not sure how Apple seen this as a good idea because wouldn't it suck in hot air that its trying to blow out?
 
Oh wow...I never knew those vents were their. I would guess they blow in that order under the probability of the ambient room temperature being lower than the computer, but I have no idea if that is the reason, and the heat the MBP makes is discussed a lot. I would imagine some people find the heat intense to the point in which they think the fan is clogged or broken where as these things just tend to run hot (or should I say the outside gets hotter than many other laptops).
 
Don't expect my photos to get an award, but they do clearly show the fan. I lifted the cover twice for the hard drive swap and RAM. Neither times did I clean it or do anything other than working with the hardware. I purchased this in September of 2009, so the better part of a year and half. I'd say it kept pretty clean and I decided not to do anything to it, as there is always some risk when you are working around/on/close to the logic board. The fan design has always struck me as unusual; I would imagine its odd look is related to function as that little fan does cool the temp really fast.
 

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You can see the vent on the bottom cover of your top left picture. Your fan is definitely exhaust but im not sure about the 15" and 17" if one is intake and one exhaust or what.
 
tjb1 said:
You can see the vent on the bottom cover of your top left picture. Your fan is definitely exhaust but im not sure about the 15" and 17" if one is intake and one exhaust or what.
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I guess then the keyboard is where cooler air comes in, which theoretically cover most of the internals and the fan pushes it out of the system?
 
tjb1 said:
No there is plastic between the keyboard and internal, no air can move through.
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Interesting; the single vent can't be the only place for air to come in and out, can it?! Maybe the CD drive acts as an intake as the flap on it is made of some sort of fabric which probably will allow air to pass through it. The position of it behind the LCD is smart as it is will greatly decrease 'stuff' going in that you don't want to go in, as well as anyone trying to play 'poke the fan' (yes, grown people still do this for reasons beyond me).
 
tjb1 said:
You can see the vent on the bottom cover of your top left picture. Your fan is definitely exhaust but im not sure about the 15" and 17" if one is intake and one exhaust or what.
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I think they're both exhaust. iFixit (if I remember right) has some photos of one dissassembled, and I remember seeing plastic air ducts running from the fans to the vents to rush the air out, but this also means that the fans aren't blowing air out over the entire length of the vents, only part of it where the air ducts come out, leaving the rest of the vents open for air to come in. The ducts are under the logic board so you can't see them with the cover open without lifting the logic board.
 
Ok, for anyone who is considering a dustoff of their heatsinks/fans for their old Macbook Pro's:

My MBP (C2D 2.16) has been getting pretty hot, and the fans go wild on every minor processor activity. I have been following this thread a bit, and was wondering whether to go through with the rather lengthy procedure of removing the logic board and all the cables, but seeing what I found - it was worth it.

I snapped two shots of the left and right heatsinks respectively. I think the pictures speak for themselves...

fan1n.jpg

fan2.jpg


I sucked this clean with a vacuum cleaner. I'll go and buy some new thermal paste now, then put the thing back together.
 
azeteg said:
but seeing what I found - it was worth it.

I snapped two shots of the left and right heatsinks respectively. I think the pictures speak for themselves...
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Do you have pets? Just curious - that's what my A/C filter looks like every 3-4 weeks, due to my dogs.
 
greytmom said:
Do you have pets? Just curious - that's what my A/C filter looks like every 3-4 weeks, due to my dogs.
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Not at all. I can't stand either dogs or cats. And the neighbours were afraid of my polar bear, so I had to give it to my eskimo cousin.
 
AlphaDogg said:
No. It can damage the components. I recommend disassembling the MBP to see if it is really necessary to clean the fan. It is only necessary if the fan is literally caked in dust.




Even if you think that is funny, it is not. If an unknowing mac user reads this thread, they may think you are serious. Don't joke about washing a computer with water. (unless you are talking about cleaning a computer that had coke or something spilled on it... Then, deionized water is fine for washing the logic board.)
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It is hilarious. And everybody knows that non_distilled water is dangerous for electronics. If they dont, than they shouldnt even have a computer

NickZac said:
Are you kidding me? What happens when someone reads that and actually does it and 1) ruins their MBP and/or 2) electrocutes themselves?
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Lol. Name one story where someone electrocutes themselves by spilling water on a laptop? Even if it were possible, it wouldnt be harmful at all. There is not enough voltage/amperage going thru the battery.
 
When using canned air - consider - where is the dust going?

You want to dictate where that dust goes. And much of it is "dust bunnies", meaning- it's in clumps.

I just performed this operation. I have the exact same MBP as the OP and my dust build-up in the pics was the same. I used this to remove it: http://www.amazon.com/METRO-DATA-VAC-DataVac-Personal-Cleaner/dp/B0002SDMLO

I had to open the MBP up to install a new HDD (waiting on newegg.com).

If you don't feel comfortable doing this, have someone else do it. A lot can go wrong. It should be done at least every two years or when you notice it gets hotter than usual and your fans are more noticeable. Heat and vibration is the enemy of our things.
 
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