smoke from inside MacBook

recently i noticed that i have smoke marks that have arisen from inside my macbook. there are black smoke marks from behind the fan at the crease of the screen, and there is a grey smoke stain right where it says 'macbook' below the screen. there are also grey smoke marks in the center of my keyboard, like smoke came up from underneath.

there are no other changes in the macbook's performance (knock on wood). it is a 13" macbook, bought in 2007.

needless to say, this is freaking me out. does anyone know what causes this or any preventative steps i could take to avoid damage? i would appreciate any thoughts on what is going on here.

Needless to say...smoke coming from any electronic device is not good!

- Are you using the proper power adapter/power brick for your MacBook?
- Did you spill any food or liquid on your MacBook?
- Is your MacBook's battery extremely warm (warmer than it should be)?
- Is your battery swollen?

- Nick

Have you ever cleaned out the fans / vent on the machine? That might help.

newly replaced battery

pigoo3 said:

Needless to say...smoke coming from any electronic device is not good!

- Are you using the proper power adapter/power brick for your MacBook?
- Did you spill any food or liquid on your MacBook?
- Is your MacBook's battery extremely warm (warmer than it should be)?
- Is your battery swollen?

- Nick

Click to expand...

Thanks for your response, Nick.
Yes, I have the proper adapter, which I replaced about a year ago. I haven't spilled anything on it, but I do use it a lot.
The battery does get pretty warm, but I'm not sure how warm is too warm. I keep a board underneath it when I work on it because it gets too hot for my lap. But I thought that was typical.
The battery had been swollen, and started losing charge quickly about a month ago. I replaced the battery, and the charge has been fine since then, and not swollen.
I'm at a loss!

s2odin said:

Have you ever cleaned out the fans / vent on the machine? That might help.

Click to expand...

No, I've never done that. Is that something I could do myself or do I have to take it in to the store? Sounds like that would be a good idea to do in general, too.

labyrinthian said:

No, I've never done that. Is that something I could do myself or do I have to take it in to the store? Sounds like that would be a good idea to do in general, too.

Click to expand...

You can do it yourself.
Just get a can of compressed air from Officemax, Best Buy, Fry's, MicroCenter, anywhere that has them. Just take the back cover of your macbook off and the fans should be at the top. Just do short, controlled bursts of air from inside the macbook to the outside of the case at the top (you want to spray the dust through that crack / vent). And you can spray from the crack inside the machine, which will clear that vent, but you will then need to spray it back outside the machine.

And be warned, 3 years of not cleaning it, it will be pretty disgusting in there.

labyrinthian said:

Thanks for your response, Nick.
Yes, I have the proper adapter, which I replaced about a year ago. I haven't spilled anything on it, but I do use it a lot.
The battery does get pretty warm, but I'm not sure how warm is too warm. I keep a board underneath it when I work on it because it gets too hot for my lap. But I thought that was typical.
The battery had been swollen, and started losing charge quickly about a month ago. I replaced the battery, and the charge has been fine since then, and not swollen.
I'm at a loss!

Click to expand...

Yeah...a warm battery is not necessarily a problem...since the most of the bottom of the notebook can get warm. What I meant was...was the battery by itself seemingly getting much hotter than the surrounding areas.

Two things you mentioned sort of set off "red flags".

- What was the reason the power adapter was replaced a year ago...loose wires on the adapter?...or charging issues?
- You mentioned the previous battery was swollen...this is never a good thing.

Basically if you have a 13" 2007 MacBook...you should be using the 60 watt power adapter.

- Nick

s2odin said:

You can do it yourself.
Just get a can of compressed air from Officemax, Best Buy, Fry's, MicroCenter, anywhere that has them. Just take the back cover of your macbook off and the fans should be at the top. Just do short, controlled bursts of air from inside the macbook to the outside of the case at the top (you want to spray the dust through that crack / vent). And you can spray from the crack inside the machine, which will clear that vent, but you will then need to spray it back outside the machine.

Click to expand...

Thanks, s2odin, I'll definitely try that.
Anyone else have any experience with smoking problems? Are there any ways to control or moderate temperature for MacBooks?

pigoo3 said:

Yeah...a warm battery is not necessarily a problem...since the most of the bottom of the notebook can get warm. What I meant was...was the battery by itself seemingly getting much hotter than the surrounding areas.

Two things you mentioned sort of set off "red flags".

- What was the reason the power adapter was replaced a year ago...loose wires on the adapter?...or charging issues?
- You mentioned the previous battery was swollen...this is never a good thing.

Basically if you have a 13" 2007 MacBook...you should be using the 60 watt power adapter.

- Nick

Click to expand...

The power adapter issue was because the cord got a little finicky and would go in and out of functioning, so I think it was a wire issue. I've been using the new power adapter for about a year now, and i havent had the weird smoking problem until yesterday.

Yes, the swollen battery was strange. I would occasionally have issues clicking on the mouse pad, like it wouldn't click down all the way. Only occasionally, though. I read about it here on the forum as being a symptom of battery issues. sure enough, the battery was strangely swollen. since i replaced it, i havent had problems with the mouse either. could a swollen battery impact the level of heat inside the machine, or cause smoking? do you think the replacement battery could be defective?

thanks again for your feedback.

One thing you can do to get an idea if your MacBook is dirty (before cleaning as "s2odin" has suggested)...is install a program like "Temp Monitor":

Temperature Monitor: Description

Usually a Macbook/MacBook Pro doing some low demand tasks like posting messages on an internet forum should have temps around 48-55°C (and you probably shouldn't have much in the way of fan noise. If you were watching YouTube videos (much more demanding)...your MacBook's temps would be in the 70's+°C or higher (even approaching 90°C)...and your fans would be in "high gear".

So what I'm saying is...if you're doing low demand tasks (internet forum posting)...and your Macbook's temps are high & the fans are loud....then you could definitely have a dirty MacBook.

- Nick

Just wondering if you saw smoke coming from the MB ?? Or you just see the marks ... Are you sure its smoke as fine fine dust particles can look like a smoke stain ... Just saying

You can use SMCfanControl to manually change the rpm of the fan speeds ..... Just dont forget you have it activated. But its only really for those that know why there machine is over heating. You should find the underlying problem 1st .....

labyrinthian said:

Anyone else have any experience with smoking problems? Are there any ways to control or moderate temperature for MacBooks?

Click to expand...

Smoke is ALWAYS a BAD thing...this just shouldn't be happening!

- Nick

labyrinthian said:

could a swollen battery impact the level of heat inside the machine, or cause smoking? do you think the replacement battery could be defective?

Click to expand...

A swollen battery could most definitely impact the heat level inside the computer...if it is not functioning properly. If your current battery is just 1 month old (according to your earlier post)...it could be defective...or not 100% compatible. Was this a "genuine" Apple replacement battery...or a different brand?

- Nick

TattooedMac said:

Just wondering if you saw smoke coming from the MB ?? Or you just see the marks ... Are you sure its smoke as fine fine dust particles can look like a smoke stain ...

Click to expand...

Great suggestion/thought!

@ OP...if you see little black streaks of "stuff" coming out of the Macbooks vents...that could just be very fine dirt (as TattooedMac suggested)...of course if you actually see smoke or smell smoke...that' a different matter.

- Nick

Listen, I know it gets said on boards all the time, but you need to take the machine in for a check. If you do have smoke evidence, why take a chance with your expensive machine by blowing air into the fans? If you are wrong, a potentially good laptop could be permanently damaged.

Get it checked out properly, and you will know exactly what is wrong and what is necessary to fix it.

pigoo3 said:

A swollen battery could most definitely impact the heat level inside the computer...if it is not functioning properly. If your current battery is just 1 month old (according to your earlier post)...it could be defective...or not 100% compatible. Was this a "genuine" Apple replacement battery...or a different brand?

- Nick

Click to expand...

thanks everyone for the feedback.
yes, the battery was straight from the apple store, so it should be compatible.

but you're right, i've never cleaned the fans/vents before so its probably pretty dirty in there.

i didn't actually see the smoke rising, but they look like pretty distinct smoke stains, as opposed to the typical dust / hand marks (its one of the white frames that they eventually discontinued because they got dirty so quickly). the stains look just like when we had a house fire; darker at the bottom and more diffuse moving up. so i'm pretty sure its smoke, not just dust, unfortunately. also, it won't wipe off easily. but i also haven't smelled smoke specifically coming from the machine.

i'll try that temperature monitor. sometimes the fans go on even when i'm just doing word processing. and i'm going to get some of that compressed air asap.

thanks all for the help! i'll try all these steps and see how it goes...
happy new year!

Docal97 said:

Listen, I know it gets said on boards all the time, but you need to take the machine in for a check. If you do have smoke evidence, why take a chance with your expensive machine by blowing air into the fans? If you are wrong, a potentially good laptop could be permanently damaged.

Get it checked out properly, and you will know exactly what is wrong and what is necessary to fix it.

Click to expand...

Just a question, how can blowing air into the fans remotely hurt the machine? This is recommended by almost everybody to reduce build up of dirt inside the machine. I do this once a month with my machine (and every laptop I have owned) and have never damaged any components. And if you take it in for a check, what do you think they're going to do? Use their magic and get rid of the dust? They're going to get a can of compressed air and blow it out of the fans.

labyrinthian said:

i'm going to get some of that compressed air asap.
!

Click to expand...

Yea grab some of that and give it a good blow job and double, triple make sure you dont i repeat DONT aim it directly at and components, parts or wiring ... Do it gentle and not full blast

labyrinthian said:

i didn't actually see the smoke rising, but they look like pretty distinct smoke stains, as opposed to the typical dust / hand marks (its one of the white frames that they eventually discontinued because they got dirty so quickly). the stains look just like when we had a house fire; darker at the bottom and more diffuse moving up. so i'm pretty sure its smoke, not just dust, unfortunately. also, it won't wipe off easily. but i also haven't smelled smoke specifically coming from the machine.

Click to expand...

I'm thinking that if you actually haven't smelled smoke...then it wasn't smoke! Electrical/electronic "smoke" has a VERY distinctive smell/odor to it...and if you had "computer" smoke...you would have known it. And if it actually was "smoke" coming from your computer...it probably wouldn't be very long before your computer completely stops functioning.

I'm thinking you have a REALLY dirty computer...and it should be cleaned ASAP. Don't procrastinate...or you might be looking for a new computer...which as you know...would cost BIG bucks (a lot more than a can of compressed air & a couple hours of your time).

Good luck...let us know how things turn out.

- Nick

As pigoo3 has mentioned. Electrical burning STINKS. My macbook pro has little smoke like streaks at the back under the monitor but that is just the dust from the fans on 6200 rpm ALOT of the time. I like to do a lot of gaming on my machine and it gets very hot. 80-100*c most of the time. What i do is use a very small torx (i think its a 3.5 or a 5, can't remember off the top of my head0 and disassemble the back panel of my mbp , when blowing out the fans make sure they DO NOT spin with the compressed air as they will spin faster then they should and could get damaged. make sure you blow out all the spots where you see the fan blowing and re-assemble.

Doing this cleaning on a regular basis definately keeps the temps a lot lower and gives peace of mind. Also helps to keep the fans working properly. Too much dust/dirt stuck in there can slow a fan down or it could get stuck which could cause a burning smell from the motor trying to drive the fans.

This whole process with the right tools takes 5-10 minutes to do and i do it once every few months.