Cause of Project: 2 year old MacBook constantly runs at a high temperature, 55°C+, during basic web browsing and 89°C+ during video conversion or intensive gaming.
Difficulty: Medium
Items Used: #00 Phillips Screw Driver, Kitchen Knife, Magnet, Can of Air (compressed air in a can), Cotton Swabs, Tooth Picks
Length of Project: 2 hours
What I did: Followed this guide to get to the Logic Board of the MacBook. When I got there, it looked like this:
Looks fine? Take a closer look:
I used a can of air to spray all the dust off the CPU, then kept a tooth pick jammed in the fan while I sprayed it, so that the fan wouldn't rotate (rotating the fan faster than it was made to be can damage it). Even after spraying it, there was still dust on it, so I used cotton swabs in between each blade (you can also use a tooth brush if you have a spare). After cleaning the logic board, it looked like this:
If you were wondering where all this dust went, well, keep looking:
I then went on to spray the inside of the keyboard with the can of air:
The connector that connected the keyboard to the logic board had a beard of dust growing on it:
Also, there was some "brown substance" that was found on the edges of the MacBook that I removed using a couple of tooth picks:
After that, just put it back together. Unfortunately, it was not as simple as that.
Challenges - Removal: As said so in the manual, the screws on the back on the MacBook do not come off easily, so the manual suggests to magnetize the screw driver to attract the screw out. Unfortunately, the force of magnet attraction was not strong enough, so I was forced to use physical force to pry out the screw - using a kitchen knife once used to slice fine slices of sashimi, and degrading it to removing screws.
As said again in the manual, when removing the keyboard it "might" stick to the connection at the above the optical drive. The manual suggested removing all other sides first, then removing it. Though effective, degrading the Kitchen Knife helped me once again.
Challenges - Cleaning: The can of air became very cold after excessive use. This is something more than just annoying to hold, but it allows condensation to occur, leaving water on the outside of the can. This not only makes it more annoying to hold since it makes your hand wet, but if one drop of that lands on the logic board, you'll need to get a new $500 logic board. Which is bad for those who can't afford that, but a great excuse for people who want a new Unibody MacBook Pro.
Challenges - Putting it back together: There were small, loose plastic bits on the right side of the MacBook that easily slide out. This happened to me twice, when I was spraying it with the can of air, and when I was tilting the MacBook to screw the screws back in:
The Magnet on the right side of the MacBook that is used to put it automatically to sleep when the lid is closed, now being unscrewed, is free to unite with it's opposite bond:
This time, it seems like the force of magnetic attraction was a lot stronger than I expected it to be, but I had no problem removing the magnet and putting it back where it belonged, without degrading the kitchen knife once again. But be warned - this is some thing you do not want to be on, or any where close to, your hard drive.
Status: Completed, my MacBook now runs 4°C cooler
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