Should I replace my MacBook thermal paste

[powerplayer75]

I have a MacBook (Aluminum unibody, non-pro) A1278 from Late 2008. I do not know when the actual laptop was manufactured but it was after late 2008. It has been overheating on the simplest of tasks such as playing a 720p60FPS YouTube video where it would go to the 80's Celsius and the fan would get very loud (3000-6000 RPM). Im wondering if I should replace its thermal paste as it is an old machine and the thermal paste is probably hardened and some cleaning and some new Arctic Silver would help.

[tp95112]

You can, not sure if they started soldering there laptops in 2008 though

[powerplayer75]

There is an iFixit guide on how to take the heatsink off so I plan to just follow that.

[The Sloth]

yes replace your MacBook thermal paste every 2 years.  

5 minutes ago, tp95112 said:

You can, not sure if they started soldering there laptops in 2008 though

they don't solder the cooling solution. 

[Badger906]

its a failry simple task. did it on my unibody mac back in the day. reduced temps back down to when it was new.

youve probaly got a million dust bunnies in there too. so be good idea to blast them away too.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

9 minutes ago, tp95112 said:

You can, not sure if they started soldering there laptops in 2008 though

This was before the shenanigans where thinness took over the engineering department.

[flyboytgb]

It's possible, but be cautious. Laptop components are much easier to damage than desktops. Had the same issue on an asus netbook, killed it somehow while replacing the thermal grease. If there's not much to lose by bricking your MBP then I'd say go for it. If anything it'll be a good learning experience. Good luck!

[Electronics Wizardy]

12 minutes ago, tp95112 said:

You can, not sure if they started soldering there laptops in 2008 though

heatsink is never soldered to the chip. 

 

There is no lib on laptop cpu, there already de lidded.

[powerplayer75]

6 minutes ago, flyboytgb said:

It's possible, but be cautious. Laptop components are much easier to damage than desktops. Had the same issue on an asus netbook, killed it somehow while replacing the thermal grease. If there's not much to lose by bricking your MBP then I'd say go for it. If anything it'll be a good learning experience. Good luck!

 

Do you know what you couldve done to break it? Like did you apply too much pressure to the CPU die or something?

[JakeNTech]

To replace the thermal paste on a macbook I recommend the following: 

1- Get some arctic silver 5 , Its the best I have found. 

2- Once you have taken the heat sink off, put some TIM remover onto some tissue, toilet paper will be fine, and gently wipe over the CPU and GPU/North bridge and the heatsink. 

3- Wait 2-3 minutes

4- Wipe all the surfaces you have just cleaned with a material like your t-shirt

5- Apply a line of thermal paste in a parallel line to the longest edge on the CPU, GPU/north bridge. 

6- Spred it out, you want a thin layer over the whole die. 

7- Place the heat sink down and wait. 

8- Put the screws back in a star like pattern, don't tighten them too much until they are all in

9- Make sure that it is all tight and reassemble you Mac

This is the way I have found to get the best results. Hope it helps.

You should try to replace the thermal paste at least once a year if your computing device is under full load a lot if not then every two years should be fine. If you have never change the thermal paste since receiving the mac then I recommend it. 

 

[flyboytgb]

On 4/16/2017 at 6:41 PM, powerplayer75 said:

Do you know what you couldve done to break it? Like did you apply too much pressure to the CPU die or something?

Most likely it was electrostatic discharge, or something could have broken in disassembly/reassembly. I can't remember specifically what happened, it was back in 2013.