Should I disassemble my MBP to change the thermal paste?

Hello.

I'm considering disassembling my MBP since I think that there is a problem with it's thermal paste. I think that it's thermal paste is not applied well so that my MBP get hot for no real cause.

I'm capable of disassembling those kinda tech but I'm worried that I would cause damage. I'm planing to use iFixit's guides but will disassembling a MBP be really hard.

How old is your MBP ? That's the main question. If it's less than a year old, I wouldn't dare do it, unless you don't care about voiding the warranty. If you have either Apple Care or the warranty is still valid, then just take it to an Apple store to have them assess the situation and see if they can replace it for you.

Doug

Well it's couple a years old. And I'm sure it's out of warranty.

In that case, it's up to you. If it's a risk you're willing to take, based upon the presumption that it is actually the thermal paste when it in fact might not be... then go right ahead. No one can tell you it's a good or bad idea. Good luck and if you do it let us know how it turns out...

Doug

cansurmeli said:

Hello.

I'm considering disassembling my MBP since I think that there is a problem with it's thermal paste. I think that it's thermal paste is not applied well so that my MBP get hot for no real cause.

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The first thing you need to do is establish that your MBP is hotter than it should be. If it's not getting any hotter than other MBP's...then everything is normal.

What sort of temps are you getting (°C or °F)...and what are you doing on the computer when you get these temps?

If you don't know...download a program called "SMC Fan Control" or "temp monitor" to find out:

SMC Fan Control for Mac

Temperature Monitor

Hope this helps,

- Nick

When idle it's about 55 to 65 celcius. When I encode a video or empty the trash it goes up to maximum 80 celcius.

In a cool room it's fine to put my hands on it but when the room isn't that cool the body of my MBP gets hot and it's annoying to put my hand. I mean not that annoying but at first it when I purchased it, it was never like that.

cansurmeli said:

When idle it's about 55 to 65 celcius. When I encode a video or empty the trash it goes up to maximum 80 celcius.

In a cool room it's fine to put my hands on it but when the room isn't that cool the body of my MBP gets hot and it's annoying to put my hand. I mean not that annoying but at first it when I purchased it, it was never like that.

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The temps you mentioned do not seem to be that bad. Those temps are similar to what I get on my MBP. Around 60°C when doing e-mail & light internet surfing...70-75°C when watching You-Tube videos or gaming.

But if you feel that your MBP seems hotter than when you purchased it...then maybe something has changed.

Have you ever heard the saying..."If it isn't broke...don't fix it!"

When you disassemble your MBP...you never know...something might get messed up. It would be a shame to open it up...find the thermal paste to be just fine...put it back together...and then it doesn't work properly.

Good luck,

- Nick

Those temperatures seem normal to me too. When encoding video for many hours, the temperature can go all the way up to 90˚ C. But it usually bubbles around 80˚, anywhere from 35˚ to 60˚ the rest of the time, depending on what I'm doing.

Remember that Macbook Pro's are real workhorses and meant to be used like a desktop, and as such it will get as hot as one within a compact space. Make sure you have plenty of ventilation behind and below your computer and never set it on your lap. That's why they call them notebooks and not laptops anymore. I have my MBP sitting on a cooling stand with a fan and that seems to work well.

As a final decision I'm not planing to disassemble my MBP. I think pigoo3 is right. MBP's are expensive and I don't want to mess it up.

I already ordered a cooling pad. I will try that and report back for other users.

I'd agree with that assessment. 80C is really not that bad under load for these machines. They just cannot be kept as cool as a desktop where you have all the room you need to put some really good coolers and fans in.

Mine gets well over 90C and I've run it full bore like that in 8-10 hour stretches while gaming many many times over the last 3 1/2 years with no ill effect.

(Yeah, us old guys still like to game on occasion. Even though we can't keep up with you young whipper snappers any more.)

Aren't MB Pro CPU's soldered to the mobo? I had a previous generation MB Pro, and took it apart quite a bit, swapping drives...and I remember what a hassle that was....20 something screws to replace a hard drive.

My newer unibody MB Pro's CPU is almost certainly soldered to the board. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Todd

bobtomay said:

Mine gets well over 90C and I've run it full bore like that in 8-10 hour stretches while gaming many many times over the last 3 1/2 years with no ill effect.

(Yeah, us old guys still like to game on occasion. Even though we can't keep up with you young whipper snappers any more.)

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Yeah...90°C is pretty darn hot! I don't think I've gotten my MBP that hot yet...but I know that some folks do. I've also noticed that my MBP gets hotter in the hotter Summer weather. Which of course makes sense.

Hotter ambient temp = hotter air = hotter laptop!

Of course "us" older guys like to game on occasion. We liked gaming when we were younger (20's, 30's, etc.)...no need to stop or for the gaming interest to wane...we just don't have as much time to "game"!

- Nick

veniculum said:

Aren't MB Pro CPU's soldered to the mobo? I had a previous generation MB Pro, and took it apart quite a bit, swapping drives...and I remember what a hassle that was....20 something screws to replace a hard drive.

My newer unibody MB Pro's CPU is almost certainly soldered to the board. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Todd

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There are a lot of them that are soldered to the board - probably most of them. You'd have to look up each individual one to know for sure, which I have not done.

Hopefully, this issue of putting 10x too much thermal paste has been taken care of a few years ago. Mine was one of the models where this had a high volume of discussion across the net. Considered taking mine apart to do reapply the paste, but just never got around to it.

Have you ever read some articles about people reapplying their thermal pastes on their MBP's and having a much more cooler MBP even on hot weather or with high capacity activities like video encoding or emptying the trash.

I know this is a problem about whether being hot. Right now, it's night on my country and I'm outside so the temperature of my MBP is cool; about 42 Celsius. It can get any hotter but it won't be distractive since the temperature is cool right now.

Last summer I'd a bigger problem that my MBP was impossible to put your hand on near the trackpad and so I gave it to it's official service in my country and they cleaned it's inside from dust and it got better but the new MBP's or the MBP's that got their thermal paste changed seem normal to me.

Hot weather gets notebooks hotter and there isn't much more space in them to cool it like desktops but even though I said I won't disassemble my MBP I'm still curious about what would happen if I get it's thermal paste changed.

I wish someone who changed his MBP's thermal paste reply. It would be so informative.

pigoo3 said:

Yeah...90°C is pretty darn hot! I don't think I've gotten my MBP that hot yet...but I know that some folks do. I've also noticed that my MBP gets hotter in the hotter Summer weather. Which of course makes sense.

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I've had mine cooking up to 104˚C just watching a flash video - I hate flash but as that is all that is used on Kelby Training and YouTube I have no choice but to use it.

I use SMC fan control when watching flash videos now or doing heavy work in Lightroom or Photoshop and set it to go to 3000rpm or 3750rpm. Both still relatively quiet but cool a lot better than the default speeds.

With those in speeds running I've never seen it top about 90˚C. It is sitting at 61˚C right now typing this at the default 1999rpm setting and is cool to the touch.

cansurmeli said:

I wish someone who changed his MBP's thermal paste reply. It would be so informative.

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Based on the temperatures you listed earlier...your MBP is still within the normal operating range in terms of it's temperature.

Like you said...when the weather is cooler your MBP runs about 42°C...and when the weather is hotter & you are doing some "heavy-duty" computing...your computers temp is around 80°C.

Even though your computer seems very warm/hot...it's probably no different than what a lot of the rest of us experience.

Sure...if the thermal paste between the MBP's cpu & heatsink is not the correct amount or was incorrectly applied...maybe replacing the thermal paste would help. But you will never really know unless you or someone else opens up your MBP to see.

If your MBP is truly overheating it could be due to:

- the thermal paste
- dirt or fuzz inside the computer
- a faulty or broken cooling fan
- inadequate cooling air ventilation around the computer
- a combination of some or all of the above

...or nothing is wrong!

- Nick

Only according to my aging memory, even those that put up pics and did go so far as to document, clean and reapply the thermal paste; they were seeing a maximum of 10 degree drops... from something over 100C to something over 90C.

I've not seen anyone reporting max temps as low as 80C on any MBP while running the CPU at 100%+ until the last couple of models. That tells me Apple has been working on this issue along with Intel putting out more energy efficient and cooler running chips today than they were 3-4 years ago.