Hi,
Just came on to ask a question, yet seems exactly the same as the OP's.
My white intel Macbook has recently been overheating if i watch any videos, causes the audio and video to skip, like a VCR-tape juddering on pause yet with audio as well! Sometimes it even makes the audio sound horrifically broken and robotic, and putting it to sleep and waking it up again is the only way to fix it.
I can fix the issues with playing videos by putting an ice pack under it!! Yet these ice packs will only last for 20 minutes under the machine.... and I don't have many!!
I saw the post about the heatsink being the issue, and think that dust clogging is most likely the case for mine, it has never been cleaned in 4 years, yet used heavily, the temperature goes up to >90 degrees when watching a video, and the fan at 6200RPM, yet i can hardly feel any air coming out of the back vent! Just a faint meandering stream to be honest!
The thing is however, that a) I don't have all the torx screwdrivers required to take it apart. and b) i would be perfectly happy to do so if i did, were it not for the ribbon connecting the keyboard to the main unit. I have a fear of connections like this ever since i buggered up an ipod wheel's ribbon taking that apart a few years ago.
Is there any way of clearing out all the dust without taking it apart?
My macbook is also one of the ones that due to the design fault, has the plastic trimmings around the keyboard and screen that snap off. Been thinking of sending it to apple for them to repair for free. Do you think if i asked at the Genius bar when booking this complementary repair, i could ask them to clean the dust out for me as well??