- If you have any of the Air models which lack fans, there's a common hack of putting thermal pads between the CPU heatspreader and case, effectively turning the bottom case into a large heatsink, and giving your system a longer maximum performance before throttling.
The downsides is that this makes the bottom of the case quite hot on a place you can touch, but putting a plastic hardshell over the entire laptop deals with that, and also gives protection.
- I had to do this to my 2012 MBP (along with fixing the gpu solder problem) and I found it wasn't that hard to disassemble / reassemble. Also replacing the battery, upgrading the ram/storage was very easy to do. Contrast this to my 2017 MBP which has to score on the top 10 list of worst apple products of all time as far as quality and ease of repair go.
Have these new M3/4 MPBs gone back at all to being easy to dismantle or change the battery in? The OP with their M1 mentioned tearing overly thin ribbon cables.
by dclowd9901
1 subcomments
- >But where I also really notice it is in idling: just writing this blog post my CPU was right at 46°C the whole time, where previously my computer idled right aroud 60°C. The whole computer just feels a bit healthier.
I get this same feeling whenever I change the fluids on my cars. I know from a practical perspective, it's very little changed, but I can't help feeling like the car just feels like it's in a better place. Which I guess it is? But I know it's entirely mental.
- The author should benchmark a few months afterwards. A common problem with using "PC" thermal pastes (for lack of a better word) is that they experience more pump out than whatever they use for laptops, so a few months later the performance might end up worse than before he changed the paste.
by haiku2077
1 subcomments
- Don't use regular thermal paste or pads in a Mac. They're not suitable for non-pressure mounted applications.
You can buy TCRS Carbon Black if you really need to repaste a Mac part instead of swapping a new part that was pasted at the factory.
- I love "the process was quite friendly" coupled with "two of the connectors broke when I looked at them and one costs hundreds of dollars to replace".
by smallpipe
2 subcomments
- I remember doing it on a thinkpad. I didn't break any cables, I didn't need a guide, and it got significantly quieter afterwards. Macbooks are pretty, they've got a great CPU, but the repairability is just rubbish
by moribvndvs
0 subcomment
- > The fan was incredibly easy to swap out (hats off there, Apple!)
After reading this, an Apple middle manager is gathering an emergency meeting to figure out who fucked up
by Eric_WVGG
1 subcomments
- I wouldn’t trade a modern Macbook for an old one by any stretch, but man, you could really have some fun with those older models.
I gave my modded 17" 2009 "cafeteria tray" Macbook Pro to my father, and after using it for many more years, he brought it in for… something. I had replaced the internal optical drive with an SSD and reformatted it as a “Fusion Drive” (a kind of smart multi-drive partition that would put commonly-accessed things on an SSD and large rarely-used storage on an HD, identified as a single drive), apparently every Genius Bar employee crammed around the table because they had never seen any Apple computer like it :D
- As someone who fixes these things, I rarely damage them. But you should be using nylon probe tools (a.k.a. “black sticks”) and tweezers, and properly practice electrostatic discharge safety. Or just have an Apple Authorized Service Provider handle this for you.
- this read more like "Do Not Repaste Your MacBook". There's no way this was worth 5 degrees and 100 points in cinbench (sic)
- I recently paid 60 euros to get my 14" m1 macbook cleaned, it was extremely dusty inside, so much so that the left fan started making strange squealing noises and then a pinging sonar-type sound every few seconds. Luckily with the combination of the fan control app and the built in apple diagnostic tool I managed to determine it was probably the fan and brought it to the local service shop to disassemble and clean. Now the only things left are to replace the original battery which is at 75% and replace the rustling speaker which was damaged by ants getting inside through the vents and chewing on it.
- A nice and unexpected thing about the current MBPs is they usually have their fan completely turned off. There was barely any dust in my M1 Max MBP when I looked.
- I wonder if Apple itself offers repasting services via AppleCare. For someone like me, with little experience in handling electronics, it might be better than trying to fiddle with the MacBook’s internals.
- Several years ago I replaced the thermal paste in my MacBook Pro and I did it in two steps: first to high-end paste; and second to liquid metal.
The results were impressive, and I think it’s a bit veiled how paste degradation over time impacts perceived laptop speeds. I’ve been tempted to replace the paste on new devices but haven’t taken that plunge.
https://fluffyandflakey.blog/2019/04/13/increasing-thermal-h...
by drewolbrich
1 subcomments
- I have a 2021 M1 Pro MacBook Pro that I use every day, and I don't hear the fans...at least not yet.
I wonder how my situation differs from Christian's.
- [flagged]
- While I can appreciate the intent of this blog post.. I don't see how the title should be "repaste your Macbook" when touch ID breaks and the button stops working.
Doesn't Apple offer this service if you have AppleCare+? or even if you dont? that way its on them?
- I have yet to read a valid reason why PCM isn't used by default on these Laptops other than $10 increase in BOM.
by ErrorNoBrain
0 subcomment
- someone made a youtube video not too long ago (i think was that guy who made the 3rd party ssd upgrade kits?) he said that apple uses a special type of thermal paste... not that its some super awesome unique product, it's just that its not a paste in the typical sense, like you'd use on a GPU or CPU. It's more like a "putty".
- Weirdest disconnect of content to headline.
In short: If your M1 is still working fine, don't do what I did.
- I remember having to do this with the 2006 MBP, the first Intel books, when they were new.
- I use my M1 Max every day and still have only heard the fans once when it kernel panicked.
- Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I use a laptop for real work as little as possible.
Long term high CPU usage goes on a properly silent and easy to repaste (and LARGE ofc) desktop.
As a consequence, the oldest laptop I have around (a 2009 macbook white) is just fine(tm) noise wise.
- Is it possible to clean the dust out of the M1+ models without cracking them open?
- > My favorite memory of my M1 Pro MacBook Pro was the whole sensation of “holy crap, you never hear the fans in this thing”, which was very novel in 2021.
I had that same "wow, no fan" when I got my M1 Mac (still have my 2014 Intel MBP and the fans come on almost immediately)
> this dang thing still seems to just shrug at basically anything I throw at it.
Unfortunately, this year I started playing with stable diffusion stuff, while it might be possible to optimize, what I have (automatic1111 and comfyui), is slow and my fans come on. Slow = 6x to 12x slower than friends with gaming PCs.
- Need to repaste and replace pads on my 3090 (appears to be overheating) and dreading the process, especially the pads.
>[After] Max CPU temperature: 96°C
What? Is that normal for macs?
Vaguely unrelated I'm only buying thermal grizzly paste in future...that factory tour they did was super impressive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsIk_mMrt2w
by throwaway328
3 subcomments
- > Four years later, this MacBook Pro is still a delight. It’s the longest I’ve ever owned a laptop
Is this normal? Changing laptops every 2 or 3 years seems absolutely bonkers to me
by noname120
1 subcomments
- @dang Can you remove the editorialization of the title? The original title is “You should repaste your MacBook (but don't)”
- Oooorrr…
Next time buy a Framework 13.
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