Nookie()Bear said:
As an Apple qualified tech I can say that the pics in this takeapart are not a new thing.
Thermal grease has been applied to a lot of mac products, and in most cases the pics are like that - imac g5's, imac g4's, pbs
ok some have thermal pads, but this so-called misapplication is not new.
Hmmm, this rings a bell! A couple months ago I upgraded a friend's 2003
1 Ghz iMac G4 17" with a 250 GB Seagate (replacing the 80 GB) and a 1 GB
stick of RAM. For reference, I used the official factory service manual,
paying particular attention to the amount of thermal paste used on the 2
mating surfaces. The amount of paste shown was about the size of a small
pea. So you can imagine that I was
astounded when I pulled it apart
and saw the huge mess of paste on both sides of the heat pipe! I would
guess that the amount was akin to a piece of chewing gum on each surface.
This iMac had been serviced for a defective optical drive under warranty
when it was several months old, so it is clear that the paste was added
at that time. But the manual shows a much, much smaller amount!
In any event, the iMac has run without issues for at least 2 1/2 years,
so perhaps it wasn't too big a deal in this case. But still...