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Overheating? Not enough thermal paste.


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Come on, Apple - this is easy stuff!

 

There have been several people who have applied thermal paste to their MBP after they realized that Apple had put way too much on there! For one guy it decreased his temps 15C.

 

Here are some links for those interested.

 

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthrea...40&pagenumber=1

http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=2141610

http://home.sc.rr.com/mixedbag/MBP/Photos.html

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=195309

 

For those wanting to do a disassembly,

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/85.1.0.html

 

The MBP Manual was also posted on this forum awhile back.

 

Anybody willing to try it?

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Yeah, one of those guys used AS5, which is supposed to be quite good.

 

It's sad, though, that you'd have to do something like that right after getting your MBP, assuming you had difficulties.

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I can honeslty tell you it is not the CPU paste, it is rather the fact that the MBP does not properly CPU throttle. when plugged in it runs at full speed 24/7. When on battery the CPU is hard dropped to 1Ghz _without_ dropping the Vcore of the CPU (hence that wonderful humming noise.) Mash, I know you want an MPB, but think you should wait till OS X (via hacking in this forum, or by everyone's favorite fruit) get Speedstep running.

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Its similar inside your imac.. and Artic Silver 5 is the best, any other thermal past are ok, but try to use AS5, and dont put too much ...

 

If you are implying that they are using AS5 in Macs, then obviously they aren't up to their standards. Otherwise (and as I am thinking) Apple have found some very cheap paste or a paste that hasn't been tested properly. Probably saved them 0.25c per Intel Mac. Who knows what Apple does to save money, but it was their bad and I believe as a multi-international corporation they should have recalled the stock, little as the problem is to the advanced user. An extreme problem for the guys who are up there just trying to get by with their graphics program. (not sure if they did actually recall these but, from what i've read they haven't and aren't planning to).

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I had all of the above problems as well as the fact that the temp had burt the flat panel all along where the Func.keys are - called Apple, within 20mins there was a UPS van outside my house waiting to take it away - I thought that was great. I haven't got it back yet tho. I will find out if they did anything about it tomorrow...

 

fingers crossed

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I cant wait till the new intel line sort out the teething problems.

 

The MBP looks like a sweet laptop for everything I want. Sadly, I don't require a protable heater or anti-dog device. nevermind........

 

When Apple address these issues, and I get a job -hehhe- I'm buying.

 

Just my 2cents

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I cant wait till the new intel line sort out the teething problems.

 

The MBP looks like a sweet laptop for everything I want. Sadly, I don't require a protable heater or anti-dog device. nevermind........

 

When Apple address these issues, and I get a job -hehhe- I'm buying.

 

Just my 2cents

 

Hmmm... after seeing this (mess) I'll think I better stick to my self build hackintoshes.

They may be not as "perfect" as true Apple machines but this is ludicrous for a company that claims to build better stuff then anyone at premium prices. I build PC's for more than a decade and I never applied as much conducting paste as these morons.

 

I can only say: THIS is what happens when you morons ditch your local workforce and build everything in China.

 

It's the same with cars, celphones, TV's, washing machines... those multidollar companies really need to fall flat on their faces. So I hope that your 20th may initiative has success. You have at least my vote. Show them!

 

It's like someone alread said: For that asking price they outa get those machines back and fix it.

 

Just my 2 pennies,

 

EPDM

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sigxcpu-

 

I've heard that AS5 (and probably others) takes a few heating and cooling cycles to be fully effective. You might warm it up (with CPU heavy apps) and shut it down a few times to see.

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hmmm, i've just discovered that my talent in putting things back is somewhat missing. the rubber frame is not touching the bottom part of the case in all the places :graduated:

 

i've started about ten glxgears in X and a while true loop in bash, to make the thing hot and it didn't have any problem for about 10 minutes. the coolers started, but not at full speed, that is what it bothers me. anyway, i've started them at full speed just once, in a warm room and having the mbp on the bed by compiling a big source. i hope that the sensors are still getting the hotness needed.

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If you check the support forum on Apples macbook section: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?t...466466&tstart=0 , people are reading a lower internal idling temperature from the sensors with the redone thermal paste. Well since both the external and internal temperatures are much lower with the new amount of thermal paste, there seems that there is no reason that apple doesn't fix this problem since all evidence points to the fact that an the paste was incorrectly applied. I dont want to do it myself since I'm afraid I'll void the warranty.

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I don't think overheat problem is caused by improperly fitted thermal past. As I understood, thermal paste is transferring heat from the chips thru pipe to sensors which suppose starts fan. In other words, temperature information is incorrect if paste is set inproperly. Well, if this is a point, then it could be easily fixed by software which can tell fans to starts in lower temperature.

 

Or not.

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I was reading the discussion again, and it seems as though the people believe that the temperature information is retreived from the processor rather than the sensors on the heat pipe. Therefore the temperature won't be incorrect because of the thermal paste

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Hi all,

 

Just a thought/question, I have seen in numerous places people actually saying the exact opposite, more heat on your MBP => better dissipation. Less Heat, more stays inside => less dissipation.

 

It seems bizarre though, that Apple would design a machine that would heat up that badly... On the other hand it's bizarre if it's "only" thermal paste.

 

Please confirm that my doubts are due to peer-pressure, not my brain, and that indeed too much paste => less heat dissipation.

 

J

 

PS From my understanding the processor temp is usually taken from the processor, not the heat pipe...

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Yeah, when the paste is misapplied it means the processors get hot but the heat doesn't go through the temperature control system. That means it builds up inside the case and gets everything hot.

 

When everything is working right, you should feel less heat because the system is working properly.

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The problem seems to be TOO MUCH thermal paste. If you have a look at the photo in Apples Take-Apart manual it states the amount to put on, and it's quite frankly ludicrus.

 

You see, the aim of the paste is to fill in the air gaps that appear in a metal-on-metal contact. Paste is not as good as a metal interface for heat transfer, but is much better than air. If you look at any paste mfgr website they tell you to apply thinly, and scrape off (not wipe off) any excess.

 

To repeat - the ideal is metal touching metal with no air gaps. Apple specify to dump a whole tube on each heatsink interface. No wonder things are getting warm.

 

Also to avoid confusion:

The CPU temp is taken from a sensor on the actual CPU.

The fan control temp is taken from a sensor on the heat pipe. Too much (or none at all) heatsink paste will stop the heat adequately transfering to the heat-pipe, and the fan sensor will never get to temp, and never turn on high enough to do anything.

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