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Pro tip: If your MBP is overheating (constant high fan speeds) the problem is usually a lot simpler than the thermal paste issue described in the article. It's
by LeonM 8y ago
Pro tip: If your MBP is overheating (constant high fan speeds) the problem is usually a lot simpler than the thermal paste issue described in the article. It's usually just dust buildup.
I have fixed multiple overheating Macbook pro's by simply cleaning out the dust buildup underneath the rubber pad, between the fan housing and the heatsink. The airflow compresses the dust into an almost solid piece (like felt), which blocks the airflow. You can usually pull it out as one piece. All you need is a pentalobe screwdriver, a pair of tweezers and maybe some compressed air.
Especially if your laptop often gets into contact with fabrics (on your lap or in bed), you should do this cleaning once a year.
- bla3 8y agoHow do you open it?
- LeonM 8y agoYou can Google that and find many guides on that topic. iFixit has really good guides. TLDR: Remove the screws on the bottom. You need a special screwdriver and keep in mind that (at least on the <=2015 models afaik) there are different size screws used around the hinge.
- Something1234 8y agoYou probably won't find that screwdriver at local hardware store though. I had endless issues finding even semi-common torx bits at Lowe's.
- tacticus 8y agoifixit can solve that problem as well (though reasonably expensiveish (additional thing. their magnetic mat with squares on them was the greatest purchase I ever made for the workshop at my first job.))
- alias_neo 8y agoThe ifixit Pro toolkit really is a necessity for anyone even remotely interested in taking things apart. I've used mine to take apart every conceivable consumer electronic, and through social bits for Nintendo, Apple, etc are priceless. I also got the magnetic mat, a Christmas gift from my wife, and when disassembling things with lots of screws is useful for drawing out the device for their location.
- akandiah 8y ago> You need a special screwdriver P5 Pentalobe screwdriver: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentalobe_security_screw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentalobe_security_screw
- threeseed 8y agoYou need a couple of things: 1) Suction cup. 2) Screwdriver kit that contains pentalobe and torx bits. You don't need to buy some expensive kit as you can get them cheaply from any hardware store.
- steve19 8y agoWhat is the suction cup for?
- jdietrich 8y agoPulling off the bottom plate once you've removed the screws. It's not essential, but it obviates the risk of damaging the case with a spudger or other prying tool.
- ianhowson 8y agoI always lifted it up from the heatsink side with my fingers. It overhangs a few mm from the hinge.
- dzhiurgis 8y agoI think it's not possible to open 2016+ models without suction cup anymore, there is some weird clips inside that open up with bending of of case. I think Apple finally won with making their computers impossible to open.
- thatssosid 8y agoIfixit has a lot of good tutorials with Images you can check them out.
- j79 8y agoOMG! You were not joking about the "felt" like appearance of the dust! My MBP seems to always have the fans on. I do occasionally run compressed air across the vents (from the outside) but decided to open it up thanks to this thread. As I was cleaning, I noticed that when blowing compressed air into the vents, one of the fans was not turning (indicating no air reaching?) I grabbed some precision tweezers and pulled this out: https://i.imgur.com/aIPSRdi.jpg https://i.imgur.com/aIPSRdi.jpg
- viraptor 8y agoI love that it looks literally like a dust bunny.
- thatssosid 8y agowow! That's a lot of 'felt'.
- phosphophyllite 8y agoCompressed air effective against little dust particles. But in case of fabric pieces or hair-like things it only making things worse.
- fafl 8y agoNice find, but please don't blow compressed air into a fan without blocking its rotation. It will induce currents and can cause damage to your mainboard.
- jmiserez 8y agoSeems like a problem a simple diode would fix. Is this really an issue?
- LeonM 8y agoMost motherboards (but not all) have basic protection for this, so it's quite unlikely that you break your motherboard electronically that way. That said, blowing compressed air at a fan will spin the fan much faster than what it was designed for. So you still risk breaking the fan mechanically. Always hold the fan when blowing compressed air at it.
- mschuster91 8y ago> Pro tip: If your MBP is overheating (constant high fan speeds) the problem is usually a lot simpler than the thermal paste issue described in the article. It's usually just dust buildup. Another thing also worth looking at is the process list and the Chrome process manager, sorted by CPU. I have no idea what, for example, sueddeutsche.de does - leave a page of them open in the background and the ads will run amok. Another thing that can cause high CPU load is memory pressure resulting in massive swapping. If 2GB RAM are already set aside for the Docker VM and another 2GB for the core OS, you're left with 12GB RAM and that is not very much.
- pcl 8y agoOn the software side of things, I find that Safari treats my laptop a lot better than Chrome. I get maybe 3x better battery life when running with a bunch of active tabs in Safari. Not sure what they're doing to throttle things, but it's pretty effective.
- culturestate 8y agoSafari (like most other Apple-developed apps) aggressively restricts processing in tabs or windows that aren't visible to the user. Apple calls it, adorably, App Nap: https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Performance/Conceptual/power_efficiency_guidelines_osx/AppNap.html https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Pe...
- jmiserez 8y agoThe annoying part is that App Nap also does this with plugged in desktops or even worse with servers that don't even have a monitor plugged in. At least it can be disabled systemwide.
- culturestate 8y agoThrottling background apps has its place on a desktop, too - leaving aside power efficiency, there are material performance gains to be made when the OS automatically prioritizes foreground tasks. I wouldn't want FCPX rendering impacted by a rogue banner ad on HowToAddLensFlare.co.cz, know what I mean? I can see how it might be problematic in a headless environment, but for most people most of the time it's probably a useful feature.
- martin-adams 8y agoThe "felt like" buildup of dust reminds me degunking a ball mouse every few weeks. Oh the feeling of a smooth mouse afterwards.