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It's official: Macbooks have bad thermal paste applied
- Thread starter odedia
- Start date
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kainjow said:What's happening on the 20th? Everyone calling Apple to complain about hot MBs?
Yaup: http://whine.osx86project.org/
Bad use of the word official in the Title.
More accurately:
Oded now passionately believes Macbooks have bad thermal paste applied
In no sense is it official or recognized by Apple...
Maybe even better title:
MacBook manual also illustrates improper application of thermal paste - get a clue, Apple!.
More accurately:
Oded now passionately believes Macbooks have bad thermal paste applied
In no sense is it official or recognized by Apple...
Maybe even better title:
MacBook manual also illustrates improper application of thermal paste - get a clue, Apple!.
LastZion said:
You MBP will never be ice cold, the aluminium is designed to dissipate heat so you will always have a warm/slightly hot underside when the CPU etc are running intensively.
But we should not be happy with products that are not pleasant to operate.
My PowerBook gets hot, but i feel for you guys whos MBP are too hot to touch.
Rich.
CanadaRAM said:
Well, if there was room in the title I would have written "Oded just saw the official service manual and saw that Apple officially says to put a ton of thermal paste on their macbooks, so it's official: The macbooks have too much thermal paster applied".
But I had to but some corners LOL.
Oded S.
G5 PowerBooks and spankin brand new touch screen video iPod with WiFi, bluetooth and built in toaster with HD capability next Tuesday!!1x86isslow said:
Could someone fill me in as to why applying too much paste increases heat? I thought the problem was that not enough paste was being applied? (I admit to not following the heat issue problem up until very recently - I'm about to buy a macbook - so I suspect I've got things wrong).
Being that apple just switched from ppc to intel, i guess some problems were to be expected, but some of this is just insane. Talk about quality control issues. Not only that but at this price point if i had a MBP with those problems i would be pissed off. I personally would return it and buy an older laptop untill they got these things right.
Macbook vs. Mini
It puzzles me that the Macbook would have heat problems. It's basically a Mac mini with a tiny bit faster processor. The mini has no heat problems and it's not like that has a big housing.
I would also love some real statistics. I know a couple of completely satisfied MBP owners, including myself.
And to answer the question: thermal paste is not a very good heat conductor, so if the layer of paste between the processor and the cooling block or casing is too thick it does not conduct enough heat. There should just be enough paste to compensate for the unevenness of the metal surfaces.
It puzzles me that the Macbook would have heat problems. It's basically a Mac mini with a tiny bit faster processor. The mini has no heat problems and it's not like that has a big housing.
I would also love some real statistics. I know a couple of completely satisfied MBP owners, including myself.
And to answer the question: thermal paste is not a very good heat conductor, so if the layer of paste between the processor and the cooling block or casing is too thick it does not conduct enough heat. There should just be enough paste to compensate for the unevenness of the metal surfaces.
good god, how can they be so stupid?? This is not good, not good at all. I may rethink buying one of these until this is officially resolved...
But even in the thread above that you're mentioning, everyone's agreeing that it's not anywhere as bad as the MacBooks Pros.odedia said:The manuals ARE in sync. Here's a photo a user on these forums took:
It's from this thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/201987/
I'm just trying to sort thru all of the info that's available.
There's one review where the guys MacBook gets so hot that it repeatedly kernel panics. I don't recall MacBook Pros kernel panicing because of heat, and I haven't read any other review mentioning heat as an issue, so I'm still inclined to believe that the guy got a lemon.
As for MacBook pictures, we have some showing what looks like a reasonable amount put on, and others showing more. Is Apple being inconsistant?
Guess there's nothing to do but sit back and wait for more reports as the masses start to get their MacBooks.
I'm debating between holding off buying one, or buying one from Amazon since their return policy is pretty liberal. (And their $100 MIR and no-tax makes them really inexpensive!)QCassidy352 said:
margotspop said:
Essentially the BEST solution is for the metal of the heatsink to be completely FLUSH with the processor die. If it isn't, which it never perfectly is, there are tiny air pockets. Air is bad for heat when it's between the dissipation medium (heatsink) and the processor. Thermal grease is used as an "extension" of the bottom of this heatsink to ensure the contact is flush, allowing heat to go from the processor DIRECTLY into the heatsink with the grease being a catalyst.
Too much grease, and the heat won't travel far enough. The grease will act as an insulator or "blanket". Not good.
GREAT RESOURCE FROM ARCTIC SILVER
http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm
Note the size needed:
Reference what Apple has been doing earlier in this thread.
NOTE: You don't actually have to spread the grease, you just have to put the bead of it on the die, then firmly place your heatsink on top, being careful not to lift it again once you've put it on (doing so would create air bubbles in the grease). Placing the heatsink firmly on the bead of grease will naturally spread it perfectly to size.
Wow. So you put that little drop on and then press the heat sink down and that little drop squishes to cover the entire area that needs to be covered?
Got it, thanks.
I'm going to order through Amazon (saves me $150), but they're not shipping until July. Hopefully, things will be sorted out by then.
I'm going to order through Amazon (saves me $150), but they're not shipping until July. Hopefully, things will be sorted out by then.
Amazon's ship date for the MacBook Pros was wayyyyyyyy out in the future too. They shipped a lot sooner than the orig. date give. Hopefully MacBooks will too!
aristobrat said:But even in the thread above that you're mentioning, everyone's agreeing that it's not anywhere as bad as the MacBooks Pros.
I'm just trying to sort thru all of the info that's available.
There's one review where the guys MacBook gets so hot that it repeatedly kernel panics. I don't recall MacBook Pros kernel panicing because of heat, and I haven't read any other review mentioning heat as an issue, so I'm still inclined to believe that the guy got a lemon.
As for MacBook pictures, we have some showing what looks like a reasonable amount put on, and others showing more. Is Apple being inconsistant?
Guess there's nothing to do but sit back and wait for more reports as the masses start to get their MacBooks.
The macbooks at the apple store were much hotter than the MBP's sitting next to them.
aristobrat said:Amazon's ship date for the MacBook Pros was wayyyyyyyy out in the future too. They shipped a lot sooner than the orig. date give. Hopefully MacBooks will too!
That's what I figured. Balancing saving $150 against having to wait for months is hard.
aristobrat said:But even in the thread above that you're mentioning, everyone's agreeing that it's not anywhere as bad as the MacBooks Pros.
I'm just trying to sort thru all of the info that's available.
There's one review where the guys MacBook gets so hot that it repeatedly kernel panics. I don't recall MacBook Pros kernel panicing because of heat, and I haven't read any other review mentioning heat as an issue, so I'm still inclined to believe that the guy got a lemon.
As for MacBook pictures, we have some showing what looks like a reasonable amount put on, and others showing more. Is Apple being inconsistant?
Guess there's nothing to do but sit back and wait for more reports as the masses start to get their MacBooks.
The macbook pro's aluminum functions as a huge heat sink, so it actually helps the heat get away from the computer despite the bad thermal paster applied. On the macbook, however, the plastic case provides an incubator for the heat, so it will get too hot to function much more quickly. Actually, in that respect it's a good thing, cause now Apple must do something about it. Macbooks will "die" very quickly.
Oded S.
