MacBook Pro late 2011 13inch - CPU temperature goes above 100°C

[kpcboopathi]

Hello,

My personal MacBook Pro model is late 2011 (13inch). I have upgraded RAM to 10GB (Corsair RAM 8GB + stock 2GB) and replaced HDD with Samsung EVO 860 SSD with help from net. It's current OS is High Sierra and running on original battery with 85% health after 1110 counts. I have another company provided MacBook Pro for software development. So, I am using this personal MacBook only for browsing news sites, MS Office apps and watching movies. No gaming at all. The MacBook is still doing great with above tasks. However, it's CPU temperature started going above 95 °C-100 °C with just 3 or 4 tabs (Just news sites) open in safari and the fan started spinning with high noise. I opened and cleaned the Fan. Still no luck. So, I thought the thermal paste was not effective and needs to be replaced. As I was not comfortable in opening mother board and replace it, I contacted one local technician for the paste replacement. He opened the MacBook in front of me, checked only fan and told Its GPU problem and only motherboard replacement will work. I never had any glitch issue on screen. So, I did not agree for motherboard replacement and came back. I am planning to buy ARM MacBook Pro in 1 or 2 years. So, I need to use this personal machine for another 2 years for light usage. I am worried the high temperature may damage the internals. So,

1) Have any one faced GPU issues in 13inch model? I know 15inch models are infamous for GPU issues but not in 13 inch as per my knowledge.
2) I am still suspecting the thermal paste as this machine is 8.9 years old now. Have anyone replaced thermal paste and saw some notable improvements in temp? If so, how much will it go down after replacement?

If somebody have got good results in thermal paste replacement, I can approach the technician again and blindly ask him to replace it. appreciate your help.

 

[Yebubbleman]

Hello,

My personal MacBook Pro model is late 2011 (13inch). I have upgraded RAM to 10GB (Corsair RAM 8GB + stock 2GB) and replaced HDD with Samsung EVO 860 SSD with help from net. It's current OS is High Sierra and running on original battery with 85% health after 1110 counts. I have another company provided MacBook Pro for software development. So, I am using this personal MacBook only for browsing news sites, MS Office apps and watching movies. No gaming at all. The MacBook is still doing great with above tasks. However, it's CPU temperature started going above 95 °C-100 °C with just 3 or 4 tabs (Just news sites) open in safari and the fan started spinning with high noise. I opened and cleaned the Fan. Still no luck. So, I thought the thermal paste was not effective and needs to be replaced. As I was not comfortable in opening mother board and replace it, I contacted one local technician for the paste replacement. He opened the MacBook in front of me, checked only fan and told Its GPU problem and only motherboard replacement will work. I never had any glitch issue on screen. So, I did not agree for motherboard replacement and came back. I am planning to buy ARM MacBook Pro in 1 or 2 years. So, I need to use this personal machine for another 2 years for light usage. I am worried the high temperature may damage the internals. So,

1) Have any one faced GPU issues in 13inch model? I know 15inch models are infamous for GPU issues but not in 13 inch as per my knowledge.
2) I am still suspecting the thermal paste as this machine is 8.9 years old now. Have anyone replaced thermal paste and saw some notable improvements in temp? If so, how much will it go down after replacement?

If somebody have got good results in thermal paste replacement, I can approach the technician again and blindly ask him to replace it. appreciate your help.

There isn't a GPU issue on the 2011 13" models which only had integrated (shared memory) GPUs. Only on the 2011 15" and 17" models' discrete GPUs (their integrated GPUs were also fine for the same reason).

I'd honestly just replace the thermal paste. On those models it's not that hard. You can find a more detailed guide on iFixit, but the steps pretty much boil down to the following:

1. Unscrew bottom panel
2. Disconnect the battery cable from the logic board.
3. Disconnect the fan cable and remove the fan
4. Disconnect all cables from the motherboard (be particularly careful about removing the cable to the microphone)
5. Unscrew all screws connecting the logic board to the chassis and/or other non-logic board components
6. Unscrew the screws connecting the heatsink to the motherboard around the CPU
7. Use a rubbing alcohol and a paper towel or a rubbing alcohol wipe to remove the existing thermal paste from both the CPU (on the logic board) and the heatsink itself (this is crucial)
8. apply a thin layer of new thermal paste to the die of the processor (this is the silvery bit in the center of it, you only need a thin layer to coat the die; no more, no less
9. Reverse step 6 by reconnecting the heatsink to the logic board (this will set the new application of thermal paste between the processor and the heat sink)
10. Reverse steps 4 and 5 to reattach the main logic board (there are only so many screws and only so many cables; I'd definitely be sure to have reconnected all of them; there are guides and service manuals that can help with this)
11. Reverse step 3 by screwing in the fan and reattaching the fan cable to the motherboard.
12. Reverse step 2 by reconnecting the battery cable to the logic board
13. As carefully as you can, set the MacBook Pro on its side so that the lid is open, it's not in danger of falling, you can see the screen and lightly operate it, but that the bottom panel is still open (this is so you can test to make sure you've reconnected everything properly
14. Once you're sure everything is in properly, re-screw the bottom panel in
15. DONE!

Steps 4, 5, and 10 are by far the worst here. But if you're slow and patient and follow guides, you shouldn't have much trouble. The rest is pretty simple. Having gutted and rebuilt many a unibody 13" MacBook Pro during my days working at an Apple Authorized Service provider, I can tell you that it's one of the best laptops to work on in existence. Shame they're not built like they used to.

 

[kpcboopathi]

Thank you, Yebubbleman. Last time I had not able to remove fan cable. It was very hard and I was afraid of breaking it when pulling. So I cleaned fan without removing cable very carefully. For thermal paste replacement, I have to remove lot of cable pins. That is the exact reason why I am considering technician to do this job. Thank so much for the detailed instructions. As you said, steps 4, 5 & 10 are risky for me considering my failed effort to remove fan cable.

And yes this is one of the best MacBooks they have built with User upgradable HD, RAM, Magsafe charger, Battery level checker, Sleep indicator, All the required ports, SD card reader, DVD drive, Right sized Trackpad (I like this smaller one than latest bigger ones), physical function buttons,...etc. Those were wow factors for my fellow windows users and worth the extra cost at the time. IMHO they can keep all except Ethernet port & DVD drive and still make compact MacBooks. Sad Apple has become greedy and not considering user experience any more.

 

[CooperBox]

Hi, I just fired-up my early 2011 13" MBPro (also 10GB RAM and Samsung SSD) in order to provide you with some comparative feedback.
As a long-time collector of Macs, this is a laptop which I don't use daily but it gets fairly frequent use as these early MacBooks (up to late 2012) are wonderfully upgradeable and also a joy to type-on compared to newer MacBooks.
As with all my laptops purchased used, I always 'get inside' for two main reasons: to clean all components, especially the fan(s) and repaste the CPU. I've even done this on barely used units and found the factory-applied thermal paste often leaving a lot to be desired, i.e. not completely covering the CPU.
With a room temp here of 28deg, on first boot of this laptop today (running OS 10.12.6) I heard the fan run up to above normal idle speed (was clearly audible), then after a minute or two reduced to idle speed of approx 2000rpm with Macs Fan Control showing cpu core average of 69deg C.
I then logged onto the internet with FFox browser v81.0.1 NOTE: I never, ever use Safari!
With one tab open, no change in average temp, with 1997 rpm indicated.



Then with 2 tabs open (this forum and YouTube), Macs Fan Control showed the following with video playing.



Then with 2 videos playing: note that the fan speeds up from 2000rpm to 3335rpm with temp stabilizing at 88deg with a total of 5 tabs open and Mactracker application running.



Given that my early 2011 MBPro and your late 2011 are virtually indentical with only a minor difference in CPU clock speed 2.3GHz v 2.4GHz (assuming you have the i5 version), it's clear you that have a problem concerning your higher temps.
Knowing these Macbooks well, I believe you have 2 problems.
i) You say you cleaned the fan, but was this 'in-situ' with a small brush and/or air canister? If so, it's probably not sufficient, because there's frequently heavy build-up of debris just rear of the fan in the exit matrix prior to passing overboard, and any clogged debris here cannot be seen or completely removed with the fan in place.
ii) It's highly likely that the cpu requires a good clean and fresh application of thermal paste.
Removing the logic board is not so difficult if you carefully follow the iFixit tutorial, but be extra careful when detaching those cable connectors - they are extremely fragile. When detaching the fan cable ( iFixit step 5 for the fan) and similar, use the flat end of a spudger underneath the cable and carefully pry up vertically, do not pull horizontally! Read the extra 10 comments by iFixit users, as many have broken the fan connector by forcing or pulling the cable horizontally which will rip it from the logic board!
If in any doubt, just ask away......

I should have added; avoid your local technician who said it's a GPU problem and that only motherboard replacement will provide a cure. Imho he's talking out of his derriere, and with a comment like that is only out to make a quick buck.
These laptops are such a delight to work on, if you were close I'd do a repaste on it f.o.c. Can't say that for the new ones which are to be avoided at all costs, especially when AppleCare expires. More and more Apple products today are potentially disposable due to excessive costs when a hardware fault develops. Truly wicked!

 

[kpcboopathi]

Thank you, CooperBox. I will try to disconnect fan cable carefully and clean the fan. If I get success on this, I will be having confident to remove other cables fo the thermal paste replacement. I will check iFixit comments again. (I have upgraded RAM & SSD using iFixit's guides only)