Filed under: Portables, Macbook Pro
MacBook Pro heat problem heats up
Some people on Something Awful forums posted a solution for overly hot MacBook Pros. It would seem that an overzealous dabbing of thermal conductive paste (pictured above, to see more pics check out this site) was leading to inefficient heat handling. The solution? Dismantle your MacBook Pro, wipe off the goo and replace it with smaller amounts.
A picture from one of Apple's technical guides was posted to the forums, and suddenly Apple's legal team leapt into action. A cease and desist letter was sent to Something Awful, which doesn't surprise me too much. The end result? You might have to handle your own goo without guidance.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Wheels said 4:07PM on 5-04-2006
"You might have to handle your own goo without guidance."
Story of my life, man.
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Kasper said 4:11PM on 5-04-2006
Hi, I did this earlier today, on my Rev A MacBook Pro - it had lots of thermalpaste, imaged on http://gallery.kapsel.dk/computerting/macbookpasta/
I replaced the old chunky thermalpaste with some brand new artic silver (I think?) and put everything back together. Now its possbile to actually touch it over the F keys, and use it on your lap. One big problem is thou, that the fans are now spinning ALL the time. I guess this is because the heatpipes are actually getting hot now, unlike before, where the heat was trapped inside it. Any suggestions? The fans havent turned off yet, and my CPU is indeed idle (menumeters).
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Eric said 4:16PM on 5-04-2006
time; tomorrow afternoon
location: apple store:
activity: refund my 2166 macbook pro
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ecne said 5:19PM on 5-04-2006
I dare to insist on an unpopular opinion that my macbook pro doesn't heat up, at least, not any more than powerbook 15" 1.67.
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joe said 5:25PM on 5-04-2006
Apple is now locking and deleting threads that talk about the reapplication of thermal paste. this thread was extremely useful and had about 200 replies, and is now gone. http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2252004
this thread, also locked, http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=468818&tstart=0
hey! i guess they finally noticed the problem, but its dissapointing they would go so far as to nuke the entire discussion. perhaps they saw the pictures of the giant bubble i appear to have had on my friends macbook as seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jkerman/139297049/in/set-72057594123497895/
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YetiMac said 5:26PM on 5-04-2006
Working on my second Macbook. the first one had a problem with the keyboard so I took the opportunity to send back and get a new one. The first had heat and whine issues as well. The new one had the whine when I first received, but after doing the software update, the whine has gone. The heat doesn't seem to be as bad after the update, either. Playing World of Warcraft on it heats it up pretty good, but just normal use it stays warm, but not unbearable.
sounds to me like Apple has found a 'production' issue that needs to be resolved. I wish they would admit it is an issue and do the right thing.
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Ahmed said 5:29PM on 5-04-2006
The first time I saw this story a few days ago, I thought Ok, this might be a single incident of a guy/machine who knows *nothing* about thermal paste, but now that I'm seeing the pictures from the different people, man this is STUPIDDDDDDD (in caps), whoever told them to do that has no idea about heat dissipation, or even aesthetics, these things look ugly with those globs of paste on them, any uninformed should've logically thought something looks wrong by just seeing that...
I'm glad these MBPs are running at all with this amount of paste on them and that they haven't been fried yet...
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Johny said 5:42PM on 5-04-2006
@5
The 'bubbles' are some kind of resin which almost all processor have. Nothing to worry about.
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henrrrik said 5:48PM on 5-04-2006
This story sounds absolutely bizarre to me. The MacBook Pro is being manufactured by one of the Taiwanese firms (Quanta, Comal or Acer) that pretty much make every portable out there. The idea that they couldn't apply thermal paste properly is absurd.
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Ruben Santiago said 6:05PM on 5-04-2006
Saturday May 20th! Have you all heard? Im calling applecare! AGAIN! if thousands of people call on the same topic,the same day, apple will HAVE to do something about this, cuz i didnt spend thousands to burn my lap u know?
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Stuart Bell said 3:07AM on 5-05-2006
I'm more worried that Apple's lawyers are continuing to threaten forum hosts with this piece of incredible logic:
"The Service Source manual for the MacBook Pro is Apple's
intellectual property and is protected by U.S. copyright law. Linking
to the manual on your website is an infringement of Apple's copyrights."
They've threatened Low End Mac in the past, and they know that no one has the wealth to challenge their quite illogical argument, which is like accusing Amazon of breaking copyright by listing the name of a copyrighted book.
Stuart Bell
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trusk said 5:18AM on 5-05-2006
they really should reconsider the way their lawyers communicate to the public / their "information handling" in the apple forums. otherwise they might run into some serious image problems...
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Gaston said 2:52AM on 5-10-2006
MPB 15" 2.16 SOAP OPERA by Gaston:
I purchased a refurbished MBP 15" 2.16 for 2399 on their site, the claimed to be computers in good conditions that have been just opened box or had hardware problem that has been repaired. I placed the order.
Nightmare, here I come:
1- Computer gets shipped to the wrong address (8 days, not 24hrs like advertised on the web site)
2- Call apple and they said that the only thing they can do is to wait for fedex to locate the computer and re route it to Apple, then they will send it to me.
3- I call Fedex myself flirted with the lady operator a little and she managed to overnight the computer and send it to my house the next day. Thank you Fedex - rear anti bureaucratic process.
4- I get the computer, first thing I notice are scratches on the bottom- whatever I deal with that- Oh wait there is no software bundle or Tiger discs.
5- Call apple, after 3 days I am still wating for the software to come.
6- wait yout got to be kidding me!! the computer it doesn't have the screws and parts put well together!!! (there it was a 3 milimeter gap between the parts of the chassis)
7- Call Apple again and tell them about the issue: "I'm sorry sir for the inconvenience" "I'm sorry sir for the inconvenience" "I'm sorry sir for the inconvenience" "I'm sorry sir for the inconvenience" "I'm sorry sir for the inconvenience" "I'm sorry sir for the inconvenience" ... No solution, the only thing i can do is to ship back the machine, buy a brand new one or get another refurbished but they couldn't warranty that it will be hassle free - that's no how they advertise it on the site.
8- Computer is scheduled to be picked up tomorrow by fedex for a return, but I needed it a new computer for one of my new employees for a presentation so I went to the Apple Store and got a new computer - got a @240 student discount - All you need to do is to find a friend that has a legit student ID.
9- Plugged it in, charged it, when I grabbed it from the bottom I literally burned my hand, looked at the surface of my gloss varnished desk and surprise!.. THERE IS A BURNED CIRCLE!!! on the wood, the coat on the desk melted and now I have a ruined 800 bucks desk.
10- Attempt to return it... - OH SORRY, we'll charge you restocking fee!
FOR STEVE'S SAKE DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE CONSUMERS!!!!!
11- Now that I read all these posts about the thermal paste issue, I can't believe they put that huge amount of "bubble gum" on these processors!!!
The paste is conducting the heat rather the processors to heat up and tiger the fans.
I ASSUME WHY THEY DID THIS:
The computer seems to run good even though you can fried eggs and cook your bacon for your morning's breakfast, like this hot, the computer gives you 2 hours (if so) of computer battery life with your screen brightness at 45%
With these fans on all the time (since this processors heat up like virgin on a first date) you would have about 30 mins of batter life with your screen brightness at 45%.
Mac Book Pro performs really good and even the few non apple applications I tried run equal or faster than my dual 2.7 desktop, but something has to be done about this heat problem.
I really don't want to buy the lap dissipator for laptop computers. Hope this thread helps anyone trying to invest on one of these eggs frier.
Don't get me wrong, the performance is good, but this should have been taken care off before launching them on the market, maybe the engineering of a greater battery would have solved the problem, the thermal paste is just a "caveman's solution" to rush the release of the MBP 15". Hope Apple manages this issue on the 17 systems, maybe the bigger space leads to bigger fans or something. More work less website talk.
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dwsolberg said 5:49PM on 5-25-2006
It's interesting how large companies are apt to have problems like this. I expect that someone at Apple made a mistake, and rather than admit all the problems caused and money lost, he/she has decide to stay with the story that extra thermal grease will not cause problems. If the other people in the company like him/her a lot or are scared of him/her, then no one will speak up. I've seen it before. People need to protect their relationships and their jobs, and sometimes the product takes a hit. With a little luck, the person who made the mistake will find a way to be right but still apply less thermal paste. Human nature is weird, but I run into this situation a lot.
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Lucrezia said 8:02PM on 6-01-2006
Eric wrote:
time: tomorrow afternoon
location: apple store:
activity: refund my 2166 macbook pro
Eric, you are not alone. And I humbly propose that whoever, like myself, paid a load of money for their macpro do the same. A 'laptop' is a 'lap-top,' but if you even try to put the macpro on your lap you will get burned! In fact, I was also left with a 'nice' mark on my desk from the overheating of the machine. I am returning this computer, with a picture of my desk.
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Leila Laskujarvi said 10:58AM on 6-02-2006
I got my MacBook Pro as a replacement for my lemon Powerbook which was still under warranty. I was really excited about all the new features but I'm so disappointed with the heat problem. It might do a good job keeping you warm in the winter, but working on it now when it's already warm makes my fingers feel puffy. I'm not happy!! And although it's fast and works well otherwise, I don't really enjoy working on it. I also have a whine sound that I was planning to call Applecare about. This is the first time I've looked into this issue and I can't believe they're trying to ignore it. It's going to impact on their reputation for sure. They better do something about this soon.
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