Shall I replace the termal paste in my Macbook Pro Retina?

[Aztec]

Hey,

I have a 2013 Macbook Pro Retina 13". It's about 5 years old and the cpu is about 45-50 degrees c at idle and about 80 or more when under load. Shall i replace the thermal paste to see if it makes a difference?

Thanks.

[jiyeon]

It's an Apple product so no.

[Emberstone]

It will probably help, but you should probably download a fan app and see when it's even kicking your fans on. Macs are known for not turning the fans on worth a damn because Apple prefers silent operation over performance and life of the product. Check that and adjust it accordingly first.

[Aztec]

Just now, MiNy said:

It's an Apple product so no.

I get where you're coming from but you can actual replace the thermal paste on this model or are you saying it gets hot since it's Apple?

[Aztec]

Just now, Emberstone said:

It will probably help, but you should probably download a fan app and see when it's even kicking your fans on. Macs are known for not turning the fans on worth a damn because Apple prefers silent operation over performance and life of the product. Check that and adjust it accordingly first.

Ahh I will do that and I will probs give that thermal paste as as well. not sure how long thermal paste is designed to last. 

[jiyeon]

1 minute ago, Aztec said:

I get where you're coming from but you can actual replace the thermal paste on this model or are you saying it gets hot since it's Apple?

You can replace the thermal paste, but generally Apple products seem to be optimised for situations like this. It wouldn't hurt to try though.

[Doramius]

I'm sure it'll show some improvement, but I don't think it'll be amazing improvement.   By opening it up and cleaning it out while changing the thermal compound, I think it'll show a decent improvement, and then decrease over time.  They get cruddy pretty quick, even with low dust environments.  You can try liquid metal thermal compound to show an even bigger improvement.  for the cost, it's worth trying out.  Just be very careful when dealing with liquid metal, and make sure you put the acrylic on well.

[Aztec]

Just now, Doramius said:

I'm sure it'll show some improvement, but I don't think it'll be amazing improvement.   By opening it up and cleaning it out while changing the thermal compound, I think it'll show a decent improvement, and then decrease over time.  They get cruddy pretty quick, even with low dust environments.  You can try liquid metal thermal compound to show an even bigger improvement.  for the cost, it's worth trying out.  Just be very careful when dealing with liquid metal, and make sure you put the acrylic on well.

I've never opened up my Macbook before. It may have loads of dust in side. I do have the tools for the job however. Do you think "Jetart Nano Diamond Thermal Compound" is okay? I use it in my rig and I get temps of 20-25 idle.

[Crunchy Dragon]

9 minutes ago, Aztec said:

but you can actual replace the thermal paste on this model

Yes, but it's Apple so it's gonna be tough.

[HolaImBob]

Louis Rossman did a video about this the other day 

 

[Christophe Corazza]

14 minutes ago, Aztec said:

I've never opened up my Macbook before. It may have loads of dust in side. I do have the tools for the job however. Do you think "Jetart Nano Diamond Thermal Compound" is okay? I use it in my rig and I get temps of 20-25 idle.

 

Arctic MX-4 is a more budget-wise thermal paste that is excellent for every day use.

One step up the ladder, you can find Noctua NT-H1 and Arctic Silver 5. Both are very good thermal pasts and perform well for overclocking... if you're into that on your MacBook 

If you really want to go balls to the walls in terms of performance, you could buy Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut which is obviously more expensive than the previous ones.

 

That being said, if your thermal paste is really completely degraded, ANY new thermal paste will give you better performance than what you have now.

[Aztec]

Just now, Christophe Corazza said:

 

Arctic MX-4 is a more budget-wise thermal paste that is excellent for every day use.

One step up the ladder, you can find Noctua NT-H1 and Arctic Silver 5. Both are very good thermal pasts and perform well for overclocking... if you're into that on your MacBook 

If you really want to go balls to the walls in terms of performance, you could buy Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut which is obviously more expensive than the previous ones.

 

That being said, if your thermal paste is really completely degraded, ANY new thermal paste will give you better performance than what you have now.

Thanks didn't know you could overclock Macbooks. Although don't think I'll risk it haha. I do see where you're coming form though makes sense thanks.

[Christophe Corazza]

10 minutes ago, Aztec said:

Thanks didn't know you could overclock Macbooks. Although don't think I'll risk it haha. I do see where you're coming form though makes sense thanks.

 

It's indeed not such a good idea 

 

About the thermal paste: please make sure that you know what you are doing. Such laptops (and I'm not only targeting MacBooks in perticular) are very difficult to service, so I would highly suggest that you at least look up some teardown guides before you attempt replacing the thermal compound.

[Aztec]

On 7/2/2018 at 10:25 PM, Christophe Corazza said:

 

It's indeed not such a good idea 

 

About the thermal paste: please make sure that you know what you are doing. Such laptops (and I'm not only targeting MacBooks in perticular) are very difficult to service, so I would highly suggest that you at least look up some teardown guides before you attempt replacing the thermal compound.

I've replaced the thermal paste, screw heads broke too. it's worse heating up more. Probably just going to wait till student loan comes in and then buy a new one

[Christophe Corazza]

7 minutes ago, Aztec said:

I've replaced the thermal paste, screw heads broke too. it's worse heating up more. Probably just going to wait till student loan comes in and then buy a new one

 

Seems like you had some bad luck here... 

 

7 minutes ago, Aztec said:

it's worse heating up more.

 

Have you applied the thermal paste correctly and a sufficient amount (not too much/little)?

If so, then this means that the cooler itself is not seated correctly.

[Aztec]

1 minute ago, Christophe Corazza said:

 

Seems like you had some bad luck here... 

 

 

Have you applied the thermal paste correctly and a sufficient amount (not too much/little)?

If so, then this means that the cooler itself is not seated correctly.

I believe i have, i wouldn't be able to make changes if i did as as the head on the screw is broke and wouldn't be able to get into it again. i didn't take the cooler out, just the heat sink. It keeps randomly shutting down now

[Christophe Corazza]

8 minutes ago, Aztec said:

It keeps randomly shutting down now

 

What are the temperatures of the CPU?

[Aztec]

On 7/8/2018 at 6:10 PM, Christophe Corazza said:

 

What are the temperatures of the CPU?

about 60 degrees c. I've attempted the repair again and keeps shutting down and rebooting on startup and booted when connected to power source. I've tried resetting the SMC. I'm currently unplugging the battery and then waiting 30 seconds and then putting that in.

[Aztec]

On 7/8/2018 at 6:10 PM, Christophe Corazza said:

 

What are the temperatures of the CPU?

I'm getting 60 at idle... that's bad 

****EDIT****
I've upped the fans to full and then back down and it seems okay. not sure though

[Christophe Corazza]

60 degrees Celsius at idle is definitely not OK. What have you done exactly to the fans?

 

There are floating around different ways on how to reset the SMC. Have you used the correct one?

https://discussions.apple.com/message/32006750#message32006750

[Aztec]

12 hours ago, Christophe Corazza said:

60 degrees Celsius at idle is definitely not OK. What have you done exactly to the fans?

 

There are floating around different ways on how to reset the SMC. Have you used the correct one?

https://discussions.apple.com/message/32006750#message32006750

I've done some more testing and reset the SMC and can confirm that it's now 33 -37 degrees C at idle.

[Christophe Corazza]

12 minutes ago, Aztec said:

I've done some more testing and reset the SMC and can confirm that it's now 33 -37 degrees C at idle.

 

33 to 37 degrees Celsius is more like it. Well done.

 

Were the instructions in the link successful?

But how is the issue with the battery (shutting down, rebooting on startup and booted when connected to power source)?

[Aztec]

On 10/07/2018 at 12:45 PM, Christophe Corazza said:

 

33 to 37 degrees Celsius is more like it. Well done.

 

Were the instructions in the link successful?

But how is the issue with the battery (shutting down, rebooting on startup and booted when connected to power source)?

Apologies for the long delay. It was doing that on the power source as well. They were yes thank you. What i did was, removed the thermal paste again and then re applied it and then reconnected the battery again. It seems to work fine now. Although that being said, intel power gadget software tells me that it's about 37-40 idle and 100 under load on a cinema 4d benchmark test. Doesn't sound too good haha but i might be wrong. It's usually 42 when on Safari. The battery also keeps draining very fast and can't seem to find many background activities. 

[Christophe Corazza]

37 minutes ago, Aztec said:

Apologies for the long delay. It was doing that on the power source as well. They were yes thank you. What i did was, removed the thermal paste again and then re applied it and then reconnected the battery again. It seems to work fine now. Although that being said, intel power gadget software tells me that it's about 37-40 idle and 100 under load on a cinema 4d benchmark test. Doesn't sound too good haha but i might be wrong. It's usually 42 when on Safari. The battery also keeps draining very fast and can't seem to find many background activities. 

 

Does the battery drains significantly faster than before replacing thermal paste?

[Aztec]

5 minutes ago, Christophe Corazza said:

 

Does the battery drains significantly faster than before replacing thermal paste?

I belve so, it's draining so fast but then i look in activity monitor and I have "Kernel Task" at the top of list in using resources. I've had this problem before but on another MacBook. Not sure if its that or means nothing since Apple can't do anything about that. Kernel task is using 14% of my CPU and nearly 1gb ram