smoke from inside MacBook

[cwa107]

I'd be amazed if what you're seeing is actually smoke residue as opposed to just dust deposits. Just out of curiosity, how do you heat your home?

 

[6string]

All I'll add to this is that I would put my nose to the Mac (middle of keyboard and back of the machine).
As mentioned, if this was smoke, there would be a very distinctive burnt out electrical scent.

 

[labyrinthian]

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.

hi everyone,

good question about the smoke / dust thing. when i smell it right now, i don't smell any pronounced electrical burnt odor. coincidentally, the day that i noticed this happening to my macbook was the same day a musician friend put his instrument case (plastic) on top of our heater (gas), which promptly began to melt. so the house was stinky in a burning plastic way for that day and the next. that was a complete coincidence in timing, but long story short, my macbook could have smelled too, but i wouldn't have noticed it.

the reason i'm inclined to think it is smoke instead of dust is that it is staining the plastic, which i don't imagine dust to do so quickly. it really happened all of a sudden, so smoke seemed like the best explanation. wouldn't fine dirt/dust take a while to gradually build up? i definitely could be wrong about the smoke thing tho (and hope i am).

i just purchased some of the dust remover spray and am getting ready to open it up (carefully). wish me luck! thanks, all.

 

[cwa107]

hi everyone,

good question about the smoke / dust thing. when i smell it right now, i don't smell any pronounced electrical burnt odor. coincidentally, the day that i noticed this happening to my macbook was the same day a musician friend put his instrument case (plastic) on top of our heater (gas), which promptly began to melt. so the house was stinky in a burning plastic way for that day and the next. that was a complete coincidence in timing, but long story short, my macbook could have smelled too, but i wouldn't have noticed it.

the reason i'm inclined to think it is smoke instead of dust is that it is staining the plastic, which i don't imagine dust to do so quickly. it really happened all of a sudden, so smoke seemed like the best explanation. wouldn't fine dirt/dust take a while to gradually build up? i definitely could be wrong about the smoke thing tho (and hope i am).

i just purchased some of the dust remover spray and am getting ready to open it up (carefully). wish me luck! thanks, all.

I'd be willing to bet your Macbook ingested some of that smoke while it was busily circulating the ambient air, trying to cool it. And as it entered and exited the case, it left some residue behind.

I think some compressed air and a bit of mild detergent will take care of it. If it was really smoking, I'd highly doubt it would be functional.

 

[rippingviper]

I'd be willing to bet your Macbook ingested some of that smoke while it was busily circulating the ambient air, trying to cool it. And as it entered and exited the case, it left some residue behind.

I think some compressed air and a bit of mild detergent will take care of it. If it was really smoking, I'd highly doubt it would be functional.

This is correct. If it started to have electrical smoke it is already too far gone. And yes fine dust and dirt builds up within a matter of weeks depending on the conditions.

 

[TattooedMac]

...... coincidentally, the day that i noticed this happening to my macbook was the same day a musician friend put his instrument case (plastic) on top of our heater (gas), which promptly began to melt. so the house was stinky in a burning plastic way for that day and the next.

Ahhhh now the story is unwinding . . . . . . Can now see why you thought it smoke

I'd be willing to bet your Macbook ingested some of that smoke while it was busily circulating the ambient air, trying to cool it. And as it entered and exited the case, it left some residue behind.

Bingo

If it was really smoking, I'd highly doubt it would be functional.

And that was my thinking when i mentioned dust in my OP . . . . . Electrical + Smoke = something melting/overheating . . . . . .
Something melting/overheating in a delicate Electrical environment = Something not working the way it should, and seeing your still works with out problems IMHO = Smoke not from your machine

Good luck disassembling the Mac and cleaning it up ...

Keep us posted to how it all pans out

Cheers

 

[labyrinthian]

Ahhhh now the story is unwinding . . . . . . Can now see why you thought it smoke

Bingo


And that was my thinking when i mentioned dust in my OP . . . . . Electrical + Smoke = something melting/overheating . . . . . .
Something melting/overheating in a delicate Electrical environment = Something not working the way it should, and seeing your still works with out problems IMHO = Smoke not from your machine

Good luck disassembling the Mac and cleaning it up ...

Keep us posted to how it all pans out

Cheers

Thanks, everyone, I think you were right about the smoke being ingested, and not produced by the macbook, cwa and tatooedmac. I opened 'er up, and there were definitely smoke-like stains on the inside, particularly on the part right above the fan. so it makes sense that the fan could have pulled in the smoke when it was in the environment. incidentally, it was also totally dusty too, so that could be involved somehow too.

the compressed air worked partially to get the smoke stains off the inside, but i was too nervous to use any detergent or anything wet near the machine. so its cleaned up enough, i think, and it gives me peace of mind to know that nothing was actually toasted in there! phew!

thanks everyone for all the great advice. i'll also make it a part of my regular maintenance to open it up and clear out the major dust with compressed air. thanks for those recommendations!

 

[s2odin]

Thanks, everyone, I think you were right about the smoke being ingested, and not produced by the macbook, cwa and tatooedmac. I opened 'er up, and there were definitely smoke-like stains on the inside, particularly on the part right above the fan. so it makes sense that the fan could have pulled in the smoke when it was in the environment. incidentally, it was also totally dusty too, so that could be involved somehow too.

the compressed air worked partially to get the smoke stains off the inside, but i was too nervous to use any detergent or anything wet near the machine. so its cleaned up enough, i think, and it gives me peace of mind to know that nothing was actually toasted in there! phew!

thanks everyone for all the great advice. i'll also make it a part of my regular maintenance to open it up and clear out the major dust with compressed air. thanks for those recommendations!

Did you use the compressed air in the fans to clean those out?

 

[labyrinthian]

Did you use the compressed air in the fans to clean those out?

yes, i did. but i did it gently and didn't let the fan overspin. also, i only saw one main fan. is there another one?

 

[chscag]

No. Your MacBook only has one fan.

 

[labyrinthian]

great. thanks for all the help!