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Why I Drilled Holes in My MacBook Pro and Put It in the Oven

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Re: Why I Drilled Holes in My MacBook Pro and Put It in the Oven

#131

Post by some1else »

jerrytsai wrote: post #125
uptown wrote: post #79

My early 2011 MBP has had one logic board replaced so far at my own expense a short while after AppleCare expired. This site has been compiling relevant information to those experiencing the same problem, and the #mbp2011 hashtag on Twitter is also a good resource for those affected: http://mbp2011.org/ https://twitter.com/search?q=%23mbp2011

Yes, this problem is widespread and unacknowledged by Apple. https://www.change.org/p/timothy-d-cook-replace-or-fix-all-2... It's ludicrous that to attempt to fix this problem, you would have to go so far as to bake your laptop. It cost me over $US 500 to get this fixed at an Apple Store.

Had two 2007 MacBook Pro's break down that way. Local Apple Care Service providers didn't want to apply Apple-mandated extended warranty. I was pretty disappointed to find out that later models exhibited similar flaws, because the soldering issue of 2007 models was blamed on nVidia.

When a friend was buying her mother a christmas present iPad, I went with her to examine which models handle the tablet workload better. We ended up picking an older generation, non-retina model. A few previous generation retina models, presumably running latest iOS updates, had ridiculously high temperatures just idling on the shelf.

Re: Why I Drilled Holes in My MacBook Pro and Put It in the Oven

#132

Post by lookrealclose »

chroma wrote: post #7
techrat wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd think after 10 years having model after model of aluminium built laptops, Apple would have found a way to solve the heat issues they always have... but nope, they still think it's a good idea to put the heat exhaust vent right up against the bottom lip of the screen where it is still blocked when the machine is in use.

Where else can one put air vents on a laptop? The sides are taken up by expansion ports and speakers. The front is blocked by the battery. The bottom is often obstructed by blankets, clothing, etc. The top is for the keyboard, trackpad, and palm rest. Putting vents at the hinge actually makes the most sense. It guarantees ventilation ports won't be fully obstructed. The vents face away from the user, reducing fan noi…

I don't know... maybe on the side like my Latitude. I thought Apple users knew how to "think outside the box" LOL!

Re: Why I Drilled Holes in My MacBook Pro and Put It in the Oven

#133

Post by LeonM »

PuffinBlue wrote: post #71
LeonM wrote: post #52

I own the same laptop, I have it for about 2.5 years now and never experienced such temperatures. During a normal workday, (programming, compiling, git etc) I never once heard the fans spin up. I have a BookArc[1] laptop stand, which is about the worst possible way to keep a running MBP (lid closed, fan slots pointing down) and even with lots of gaming, I have never experienced any problems. Yes, I do clean the fans…

Right...except for the tens of thousands of people with the 2011 machine experiencing heat related damage to the GPU. Your study size of one doesn't 'go to show' anything at all regarding the MacBooks thermal performance. It shows that you yourself haven't experienced any issues but that's where it ends. I for instance have a 2010 i7 MacBook Pro and it will spin up and get ridiculously hot (too hot to touch) simply w…

You are right. I just wanted to share my personal experience, my English writing is not good enough to express that intention...

Also, I didn't notice the MBP in the article is a 2011 model, mine is mid-2012, so I guess I can't compare those.

Re: Why I Drilled Holes in My MacBook Pro and Put It in the Oven

#134

Post by Alupis »

Someone wrote: post #121
digitalsushi wrote: post #99

There is an alternate universe where every time he took his computer apart, he skipped the reflow heat stuff and just put it back together... and it worked identically for identical periods of time between failures. I'm not saying it's this universe, I'm just saying there is one out there.

I wondered that, too. I wonder whether he actually reflowed solder in the oven. Wikipedia gives a sample profile that heats to over 200 degrees Celsius for a minute or so. This uses around 170 degrees Celsius, which is used for preheating in the Wikipedia example. Also, a Google image search gives me reflow heats above 200 degrees for the 5 images I checked. Also "The speed holes worked: The boot chime rang. The scre…

Why do you doubt the temperature did not reflow the board?

When I solder electronics, I'm usually somewhere between 500F to 650F, but that's so things get hot enough quickly enough to not burn. I don't doubt a slow bake at 340F would do the same thing... some online googling shows people doing reflows with toaster ovens in the same temperature range (340F-450F).

It's likely the solder joints were not completely disconnected, but rather simply cracked. So heating them a bit would allow the crack to reconnect, at least for a short while (seems to explain his symptoms of repeated failures after extreme system temperatures during operation).

Re: Why I Drilled Holes in My MacBook Pro and Put It in the Oven

#135

Post by melvinmt »

proveanegative wrote: post #41

I have question related to this issue. Which MacBook model, new, refurbished or used, should I buy if I want it to last as long as possible and be useful for doing OS X-specific programming tasks?

I heard from my repair guy that the models after 2011 are much harder/more expensive to upgrade and repair.

Re: Why I Drilled Holes in My MacBook Pro and Put It in the Oven

#137

Post by SAI_Peregrinus »

morganvachon wrote: post #120
madawan wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you talking about? I can get a €20 Samsung in any place that still sells dumbphones. I got a €30 Nokia 5 years ago and it still works splendid.

This is what drives me insane about the state of modern electronic device quality. It seems the less you pay, the longer it lasts. This is completely the opposite of how it is with traditional goods like furniture, utensils, tools, and so on. Maybe it's over-engineering, maybe it's forced obsolescence, maybe it's something beyond my comprehension. But it stinks.

One of the biggest smartphone features is "thinness". Thinner phones are considered better.

Thinner phones are also significantly weaker, can flex more, can get cracked circuit boards, cracked solder joints, etc.

The biggest feature of many phones decreases reliability.

Re: Why I Drilled Holes in My MacBook Pro and Put It in the Oven

#138

Post by Justsignedup »

Alupis wrote: post #134
Someone wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wondered that, too. I wonder whether he actually reflowed solder in the oven. Wikipedia gives a sample profile that heats to over 200 degrees Celsius for a minute or so. This uses around 170 degrees Celsius, which is used for preheating in the Wikipedia example. Also, a Google image search gives me reflow heats above 200 degrees for the 5 images I checked. Also "The speed holes worked: The boot chime rang. The scre…

Why do you doubt the temperature did not reflow the board? When I solder electronics, I'm usually somewhere between 500F to 650F, but that's so things get hot enough quickly enough to not burn. I don't doubt a slow bake at 340F would do the same thing... some online googling shows people doing reflows with toaster ovens in the same temperature range (340F-450F). It's likely the solder joints were not completely disco…

Is it not true that baking it makes any "cracking" in the soldering smooth out since this is similar to what is done to boards at the factory during construction?

Re: Why I Drilled Holes in My MacBook Pro and Put It in the Oven

#139

Post by lookrealclose »

petercooper wrote: post #13

One time I saw it climb as high as 102º C—hot enough to boil water. If doing anything slightly intensive, my 15" MBPR is the same; I've had it hover at 100-105C for periods. Why not scale down the CPU at crazy temperatures? Intel CPUs have a cutout, but the entire machine needs a more gradual solution. Running at 90C+ is not viable long term. Now it's over 2 years old, I might just buy a entry level MBP instead rathe…

>Why not scale down the CPU at crazy temperatures?.

Are you kidding me? What's the point of even buying the faster CPU then? You could just, you know, design the computer properly. You hive-minded Apple fans are so unaccustomed to critical thinking that you don't see Tim Cooks writing on the walls.

Re: Why I Drilled Holes in My MacBook Pro and Put It in the Oven

#140

Post by pwnna »

mike-cardwell wrote: post #75
Kurtz79 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know what model you have, but my old T61p with dedicated graphics had the same heating issues as my newer Macbook Pro.

A T420 with no heat issues whatsoever. [edit] Not a great image but you can see where the vents are on the back and the left hand side on this image: https://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSpIDoMt_OkYzjIF9E6... Doesn't matter how far I fold the screen back, the vents aren't blocked by it.

How did you get your T420 to have no heating issues? What processor/GPU combo do you have?

I have a T420 and have major heating issues with it playing games. I've tried everything: thinkpad fan control that turns the fan up to 7000RPM, clearing everything out with compressed air, replacing the thermal paste..

After a few years of observations, I think the problem may lie in software.. It seems like when I'm playing games and what not my CPU gets turboboosted, which stays there until it reaches about 90C, when it gets severely throttled, killing framerate and all. I use linux, so right now I have several scripts that goes and disables turbo boost. However, even at that point, it still will boost the CPU when running certain GL applications... Not sure why.

In fact, I've noticed this issue on all Sandybridge laptops I own/have encountered: the 2011 MBP, a dell inspiron... Ivy bridge computers seems to have no issue with this (W530, 2012 MBP).

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