Overheating MacBook Pro - mystery solved

[Darksaber]

A lot of people have been complaining about their MacBook Pros overheating and there have been various firmware upgrades, but for some it did not help. Now a guy took apart his MacBook Pro and discovered huge amounts of thermalpaste on the 3 hot parts, the CPU, GPU and chipset. He cleaned it up, applied a thin layer, which dropped his temps over more than 15 degrees. The official manual of the MacBook pro shows how the techs are to apply thermal paste - a whole syringe per pad...


View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[infrared]

Wow.... that's crazy

 

[belgarath03]

that's nog really clever, is it?!

 

[TotalChaos]

that is insane, no wonder they were overheating the dumb fu**s

 

[Tory]

 

[karolpl2004]

wow, and i thought i was the only one who tought more is better. well now i understand why too much is bad. that explains why when i first built my pc, it had damn high temps.

 

[overcast]

Yep, just a tiny tiny dab is all you need. In fact, arctic silver recommends that you don't even spread it out. Let the pressure of the heatsink do it's job.

 

[newtekie1]

No wonder they had to severally underclock the GPU to keep it from overheating.

I honestly can't believe that in the decades of Apply making computer they never learned how to apply thermal paste. It kind of makes me wonder if this might be one of the reasons the G5s get so damn hot.

 

[karolpl2004]

Yep, just a tiny tiny dab is all you need. In fact, arctic silver recommends that you don't even spread it out. Let the pressure of the heatsink do it's job.

7. Spread the Arctic Silver thermal compound over the CPU core as shown in the photo to the right. The small amount from the photo in step 5 above has been carefully spread over the top of the core using a single edge razor blade. A razor blade or the clean edge of a credit card can be used as the application tool.

yeah...

 

[oldschool]

If a little is good, more is better and too much is "just enough".

Idiots !

 

[trog100]

"7. Spread the Arctic Silver thermal compound over the CPU core as shown in the photo to the right. The small amount from the photo in step 5 above has been carefully spread over the top of the core using a single edge razor blade. A razor blade or the clean edge of a credit card can be used as the application tool."

####

it used to be said the main reason the stuff (Arctic Silver) worked so well was cos they were the only people who told u how to apply it properly..

thermal paste is a poor heat conductor.. but still air is worse.. too much isnt good but its far safer than too little.. just right takes far to long for any mass production process which is the simple explanation for why they use too much..

it only really matters when cooling is on the edge.. this is the real problem..

trog

 

[drade]

Thats a ton of thermal paste, I frecen hate apple....

 

[Sasqui]

That's a pretty sad commentary on human error.

 

[wazzledoozle]

You would think that at the price premium of macbooks, they would at least have a manufactured thermal pad layed onto each core.

 

[overcast]

yeah...

I knew someone would be the wise ass. That technique is for old CPU's with the tiny heat spreader over the core. You do NOT spread the paste out over a large surface area. You place a tiny dot in the center of it, where the core is and the majority of the heat. Let then the pressure of the heatsink spread it out.

If you have a small core CPU like an Intel P3 or AMD, you are done mounting the heatsink. Please see the storage and removal sections below.

If you have a Intel P4 or Athlon 64 type CPU with a large metal heat spreader, continue on to step 10.

9. On an Intel P4 or Athlon64 type CPU with a large metal heat spreader, put a small amount of Arctic Silver onto the center of the heat spreader as shown in the photo.

Only a small amount of Arctic Silver is needed

P4- About the size of an uncooked grain of short-grain white rice or 1/2 of a BB.

Athlon64- About the size of one and a half uncooked grains of short-grain white rice or 3/4 of a BB.

10.

RECHECK to make sure no foreign contaminants are present on either the bottom of the heatsink or the top of the CPU core. Mount the heatsink on the CPU per the heatsink's instructions. Be sure to lower the heatsink straight down onto the CPU.

Once the heatsink is properly mounted, grasp the heatsink and very gently twist it slightly clockwise and counterclockwise one time each if possible. (Just one or two degrees or so.)

Please note that some heatsinks cannot be twisted once mounted.



Our testing has shown that this method minimizes the possibility of air bubbles and voids in the thermal interface between the heat spreader and the heatsink. Since the vast majority of the heat from the core travels directly through the heat spreader, it is more important to have a good interface directly above the actual CPU core than it is to have the heat spreader covered with compound from corner to corner.

 

[newtekie1]

I knew someone would be the wise ass. That technique is for old CPU's with the tiny heat spreader over the core. You do NOT spread the paste out over a large surface area. You place a tiny dot in the center of it, where the core is and the majority of the heat. Let then the pressure of the heatsink spread it out.

First of all, the "old" CPU's didn't have any heat spreaders, that is just the bare core. Secondly, if you look at the pictures that is what type of CPU the macbook has. In fact, no mobile processor has a heat spreader, neither do any chipsets(mobile or not), or GPUs(mobile or not).

 

[wazzledoozle]

First of all, the "old" CPU's didn't have any heat spreaders, that is just the bare core. Secondly, if you look at the pictures that is what type of CPU the macbook has. In fact, no mobile processor has a heat spreader, neither do any chipsets(mobile or not), or GPUs(mobile or not).

Actually via chipsets have a heatspreader

 

[trog100]

there is some valids points here.. too much on a small surface like the core and the excess would just sqeeze out the sides not doing much harm..

tooo much especially thick paste on the big heater spreader surface would do lots of harm.. they are even saying the entire heat spreader surface dosnt need covering..

assuming both speader and cooler surfaces are reasonably flat.. u might even be better off useing no thermal paste at all.. ???

i am talking between top of spreader and base of cooler when i say might be better off with none..

trog

 

[overcast]

there is some valids points here.. too much on a small surface like the core and the excess would just sqeeze out the sides not doing much harm..

tooo much especially thick paste on the big heater spreader surface would do lots of harm.. they are even saying the entire heat spreader surface dosnt need covering..

assuming both speader and cooler surfaces are reasonably flat.. u might even be better off useing no thermal paste at all.. ???

i am talking between top of spreader and base of cooler when i say might be better off with none..

trog

Well you always need some to fill in the tiny crevices you can not see with the naked eye. Even a mirror finish under a microscope looks very rough.

 

[zekrahminator]

hey darksaber are you a member of SA?

 

[Migons]

Actually via chipsets have a heatspreader

Aren't they just wirebond packaged (not flipchip)?