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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

#281

Post by 72deluxe »

morganvachon wrote: post #152
MrJagil wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, a more expensive phone has way more (hardware) features, and thus way more points of failure. Makes perfect sense to me, though I do understand your position. Snow Leopard has been praised as the best OS X release for focusing almost solely on bug fixing. I wish releases such as this were more common both in soft- and in hardware.

> Well, a more expensive phone has way more (hardware) features, and thus way more points of failure. That's an excellent point. Nokia of old was often associated with build quality, but the more advanced you got, the more stuff would break. Their cheaper Symbian phones tended to last forever, but the N-series, especially the N900, had more hardware issues than their cheaper brethren. Given that the N900 was basicall…

I really enjoyed using Snow Leopard, skipped the Lion and Moutain Goat upgrades but did go with Mavericks, had no problems whatsoever, plus Yosemite has been fine for me, if not a teeny bit sluggish for me. But what widespread stability issues have you heard of? I haven't had any problems.

I am still on Mavericks at work, thank goodness for the fix for multiple screens as Mountain Lion would be useless!

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

#282

Post by 72deluxe »

hmottestad wrote: post #6
gnarbarian wrote: post #2

This is what happens when function plays second fiddle to form.

Apple moved from PowerPC to Intel because the new generation of PowerPC chips wouldn't run cool enough to put in a laptop. Intel had long been pushing for cooler chips and longer battery life. Beginning with its Centrino line and the Pentium M processor. Apple hopped in right after the Core chips landed (dual core), and these chips were amazing for Apple. They could continue with the macbook pro design with a new and…

Were Ivy Bridge considered to be OK? I have a 2012 MBP with the top IvyBridge i7 and it gets warm if you play games (in Windows) but I hardly ever hear the fan any other time (I compile C++ on it all the time). I just thought I'd ask as the "dead MacBook" stories frighten me.

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

#283

Post by 72deluxe »

freehunter wrote: post #176
pwnna wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 g…

My wife uses my older T420 with a dual core i7 and an nvidia workstation GPU of some sort as a Sims 3/4 machine with Windows 8 and never has heat issues. I'm currently using a W530 with Red Hat 6 for work and it gets hot occasionally but never enough to feel more than mildly uncomfortable to the touch and certainly never enough to cause any short term problems. Granted, I only ever use it for running a few VMs, not f…

Not real Red Hat 6 though right? I used 6.2 all those years ago.

Do you mean RHEL 6? :-)

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

#285

Post by 72deluxe »

berkut wrote: post #64
chroma wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The problem is that as you push the screen back from vertical, the area for air to escape gets reduced.

I had not noticed that but it is true! Does anyone know if the case acts as a good heatsink? I always assumed that was why they went with aluminium, other than it looking great.

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

#286

Post by grandalf »

slantyyz wrote: post #239
grandalf wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just use them on my lap and have never had heat problems with any of my macbooks. Before I bought my first macbook air I wrote a program on the console that slammed the CPU and left it running at the apple store. When I came back a few hours later the program was still running (100% CPU on all cores) and the machine was still cool to the touch. I then purchased the laptop.

> I just use them on my lap and have never had heat problems with any of my macbooks. Yes, but have you ever specifically had a 2011 MBP like in the article? It's a very specific set of models that have the heat issue. Mine could easily hit 90C under load (it just bricked itself last week). Which mean it was quite hot to the touch. After I changed the thermal compound, it would hit the low 80s (C) at peak, but even t…

I haven't had that model. Apple has clearly had some thermal design problems in the past, but my sense is that they have been resolved in newer models.

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

#287

Post by 72deluxe »

driverdan wrote: post #202
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?

2010 MBP were very good, 2011 MBP had the issues highlighted in the article, 2012 MBP seem to be ok. 2012 Retina MBP are generally good but have some known issues (eg LG display losing pixels). Mine's currently getting a bunch of things fixed which will probably end up being a new keyboard, logic board, and another LCD. 2013-2014 rMBP seem to have the 2012 issues fixed. Airs are ok so long as you don't intend on flog…

I have a 2012 MBP (non retina). Never ever had any problems with it at all, runs cool and I compile all day long (C++). Not much gaming going on, but when I do (under Windows on it) it goes mental with the fans. It is the top i7 one with the dedicated nVidia GPU in it, but I have no complaints about it (so far).

EDIT: I must also state that it has a plethora of ports on it that are lacking on the retina models. Gigabit ethernet (with AVB for audio, hurray), Thunderbolt (or Mini DisplayPort for driving a screen/TV with audio over it for HDMI too) FireWire (for audio interfaces), two USB3 ports, SD slot, mic input, audio out (headphone or optical S/PDIF), button to indicate amount of battery remaining (so you don't have to turn it on to find out) and a DVDR/CD drive. Can't beat them in my opinion.

I chuckled observing the MacBook Air user with his bag of appendages for ethernet and powering a display. Sort of defeated having the super slim device!

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

#288

Post by 72deluxe »

WiseWeasel wrote: post #192
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'm going to say MacBook Air - it runs cool equipped with solid-state components and integrated graphics. Whichever one you choose, make sure you get the SSD storage option, as it will run much cooler and simply perform better. It amazes me that Apple still ships computers with spinning hard drives in 2014, let alone a laptop.

I have hard drives fail on me and SSDs fail on me at work. It is far easier to get data from a hard disk in the case of failure, which is why I still use disks at the moment. Of course, backups are a necessity in all occasions but I would rather trust a spinning platter than can be taken out of a defective hard disk (with a bust circuit board) and put in another disk than a bunch of chips on a board.

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

#289

Post by swimfar »

zymhan wrote: post #280
rasz_pl wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

physics, 340F will NOT melt solder

Got a source for that? According to Wikipedia, 340F is not far from the melting point for solder. Depending on the solder used, it may have melted, or just gotten soft enough to heal any gaps or cracks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solder#Lead-free_solder

The link you attached lists a few different lead-free solder alloys with the lowest melting at 412F(211C) well above 340F(171C). Eutectic tin/lead solder has a melting point of 361F(183C), also above 340F.

I'm not sure whether or not cracks can heal at temperatures below the melting point, but I would be surprised if that were possible.

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

#290

Post by puckmunch »

andrew_wc_brown wrote: post #130

I owned an early Macbook Pro 2011 model. I had the logic board replaced 4 times and the 4th time paid out of pocket. After that one burnt out I gave up and bought a new computer. Simply the worst computer I ever owned.

For what it's worth, Hewlett-Packard had a very similar problem with a line of theirs using the same GPU (and the same lead-free solder), and Microsoft's Red Ring of Death is fundamentally the same problem.

The fact that you can only get a discrete GPU'd MBP now if you buy the most expensive model while the Iris Pro is capable of doing everything a discrete GPU did indicates that Apple's cut their losses with this technology. The motherboard's fine. The decision to accede to EU environmental mandates was the point of failure.

No one in the industry sufficiently tested leadfree solder in GPU BGA mounts before going into production and to be fair, it was a year before people started noticing failures. Apple's dismal head-burying response only made it worse.

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