Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

ifixit.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 390 posts

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

#31

Post by ars »

gpvos wrote: post #21

Is it normal in the US to use Celsius for computer inside temperatures, and Fahrenheit for the oven? Aren't you converting back and forth the whole time?

Yes, pretty normal.

For temperatures near 100C the conversion is easy.

Ovens report temperatures in F, computers in C, shrug.

In general you use F for human temperatures (air temperature, fever, and cooking), and C for everything else. F has a better range for air and body temperature anyway.

Maybe Europeans will switch to F, and Americans will switch to Km :)

(In case you wonder why F is better: The coldest temperature normally experienced by people is 0F and the typical temperature is near 100F. Unlike C where you go negative, and the typical is 20.)

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

#32

Post by Perdition »

>I had a hunch that the problem was related to the thermal paste: When I disassembled it the first time, I had to scrape some thermal pads from under the Thunderbolt controller and the system hub. This left a large gap between the heat spreader and the chip. I’d tried to fill the gap with an extra big gob of thermal paste, but I suspected that the paste hadn’t gotten a good seal.

Well yeah, that's a problem as thermal paste is only meant to fill in the microscopic irregularities of the contact surfaces and isn't some magical thermal bridge. Thermal paste has thermal properties on par with most condiments. Thermal pads are particularly bad. I would use a metal shim to bridge such a gap, not just more thermal paste.

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

#33

Post by petercooper »

Kurtz79 wrote: post #24
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…

Same here. I bought the version with dedicated graphics for some light gaming, but the GPU throttles almost immediately, I doubt I'm getting better performance than I wold have with just Intel integrated graphics. I have reapplied thermal paste (which improved things a little bit), used a cooling laptop stand (useless), fiddled with smcfancontrol and other applications, to no avail. But I'm not drilling holes on the…

My problem is more with the CPU than GPU. However, there's an app that lets you switch to using the integrated graphics only (which is fine for most situations, unless you plug in an external display) which is well worth trying.

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

#34

Post by k-mcgrady »

delsalk wrote: post #15
unvs wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Norway

Is that part of the EU wide protection places like the UK, Germany, etc also get or something specific to your country?

EU provides 6 years but not from the manufacturer - from the seller. I actually had a problem where Apple told me my manufacturer warranty was up and explained I still had 6 years from the seller (Vodafone) and to go to them. Vodafone pretended the law didn't exist. Eventually Apple were kind enough to replace the device even though they had no obligation to.

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

#35

Post by kozhevnikov »

lafar6502 wrote: post #22
delsalk wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that part of the EU wide protection places like the UK, Germany, etc also get or something specific to your country?

Norway is not EU member

It is member of EEA [1] though which means they "adopt almost all EU legislation related to the single market, except laws on agriculture and fisheries."

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Economic_Area

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

#36

Post by Kurtz79 »

mike-cardwell wrote: post #27
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…

My Thinkpad has air vents on the left hand side, and also on the back. Except, the ones on the back aren't blocked like they are on Macbooks, because the Thinkpads design is based on what is sensible rather than on what will make the thinnest possible computer.

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.

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

#37

Post by rtpg »

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…

they have little feet, they could totally put ventilation on the bottom (in fact many laptops do that already)

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

#39

Post by mrweasel »

unvs wrote: post #10

I have the same laptop model and I'm on my 4th logic board. Luckily, we have 5 years of warranty for hardware failures by law where I live.

That must annoy the hell out of phone manufacturers. Even the two years in the EU is pushing it for a large number of phones.
Post reply on HN