Overheating: 90-100C; Random shutdowns

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MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011

Late 2011 model, A1278 / 2.4 GHz i5 or 2.8 GHz i7 processor.

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Seymor Butz @breathlungs

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Gönderildi: 14 Tem 2024

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Overheating: 90-100C; Random shutdowns

My last battery was 3rd-party and cheap, and I assumed that was the culprit, but after replacing it with another better 3rd-party battery, my voltages aren't wildly dropping anymore, but still I'm getting random shutdowns which now I think could be due to overheating.

I've replaced the thermal paste twice and cleaned the dust. Last time I replaced it, the temps seem to be higher than before. Right now my CPU is <10% and still I'm idling around 70-80C.
See this mini-heatsink here that covers 2 chips? It wasn't actually connected with thermal paste - it was a small peice of white foam. That foam broke upon removing the heatsink, so I don't have it, and now the heatsink perhaps doesn't make contact with those 2 chips. I once tried to use a big glob of paste to connect it but it didn't make much difference in overall temperature.
- I read somewhere here that someone removed it and resulted in their temp problems being fixed -- attempted but no difference.
I tried to take the back-case off to see that makes a different but it doesn't seem to.

**

Here's an etrecheck report: https://bpa.st/GNYQ

What's going on, any ideas?

Added sensor data pics:

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@breathlungs the mini-heatsink is your chipset heatsink. The "white foam" was most likely a thermal pad. I would try to replace it. Thermal paste on this is not the way to go.

oldturkey03 tarafından 14 Tem 2024

@oldturkey03 Thermal pad, alright. Will ship around or scavenge something.

Something else that's odd which I should've mentioned: After the shutdowns - the battery is at 0% (shown via the side-lights and eventually ~4% or so after booting) - so its like I'll be plugged in, running off AC power fine, then all of a sudden something fails, voltage drop(?), computer shuts down - and then oddly I'm able to charge back up again after booting, from 0. So... maybe something is weird with the way the computer is talking to the battery. As I said, I replaced the battery, but this new battery reporting a healthy state is occasionally doing the same thing.

Seymor Butz tarafından 17 Tem 2024

@breathlungs - Focus in on the CPU heat sink! While the PCH chip also needs a heat sink it's not the one thats likely getting pushed here.

If the charger/battery is an issue download this gem of an App to see things more clearly with the power aspects CoconutBattery lets get a snapshot of it as well.

Dan tarafından 17 Tem 2024

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Seymor Butz @breathlungs

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After getting thermal pad replacements, I cut them to size and re-attached the black heatsink that covers those 2 chips near the CPU.
Re-applied a different thermal paste with a higher thermal conductivity
Following some others' examples on where/how to do the thermal pad to unibody heatsink mod on macbook pros, I layered a few pads in the only place where it's possible on this 13" model. I also removed the little black tape and double-sided tape there, cause we know better than Apple. See photos below for amazing results.

Results: Much better idle temps. Haven't spiked to 99° like it was doing before. Idling around 50-60. I know it should be lower, but the paste is at least 6 years old, so that could be a factor. Less of a paste, more of a "dough" at this point...

Also: 2 other cool mods I'd like to try some day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISXOc3gY...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3mRlah3...

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@breathlungs - The thermal pads don’t really offer that much. If you download the free version of TG Pro you can narrow down the root cause.

Most of the time it’s bad air flow across the fins as they are loaded up with dust as well as the fan blades. A good clean is the first step.

Cleaning and applying fresh thermal paste is the next. But be careful! It’s not quantity it’s placement! Most people over do it, to get a view of size take a thin sheet of tissue paper cut it up to the size of the CPU chip wet your fingers and roll it into a tight ball. Even this is too much but it gives you a bit of scale on the amount.

Dan tarafından 10 Ağu 2024

@danj Yeah I'm still getting into the upper 90's after about 24 hours. I guess I'll bite the bullet and actually buy new good quality paste. Then eventually replace the heatsink. Then eventually drill holes in the bottom-case for airflow.

What do you think of TGPro Results: https://i.imgur.com/HbbfvwF.png

Seymor Butz tarafından 10 Ağu 2024

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@breathlungs the mini-heatsink is your chipset heatsink. The "white foam" was most likely a thermal pad. I would try to replace it. Thermal paste on this is not the way to go. — oldturkey03
@oldturkey03 Thermal pad, alright. Will ship around or scavenge something.

Something else that's odd which I should've mentioned: After the shutdowns - the battery is at 0% (shown via the side-lights and eventually ~4% or so after booting) - so its like I'll be plugged in, running off AC power fine, then all of a sudden something fails, voltage drop(?), computer shuts down - and then oddly I'm able to charge back up again after booting, from 0. So... maybe something is weird with the way the computer is talking to the battery. As I said, I replaced the battery, but this new battery reporting a healthy state is occasionally doing the same thing. — Seymor Butz
@breathlungs - Focus in on the CPU heat sink! While the PCH chip also needs a heat sink it's not the one thats likely getting pushed here.

If the charger/battery is an issue download this gem of an App to see things more clearly with the power aspects CoconutBattery lets get a snapshot of it as well. — Dan
@breathlungs - The thermal pads don’t really offer that much. If you download the free version of TG Pro you can narrow down the root cause.

Most of the time it’s bad air flow across the fins as they are loaded up with dust as well as the fan blades. A good clean is the first step.

Cleaning and applying fresh thermal paste is the next. But be careful! It’s not quantity it’s placement! Most people over do it, to get a view of size take a thin sheet of tissue paper cut it up to the size of the CPU chip wet your fingers and roll it into a tight ball. Even this is too much but it gives you a bit of scale on the amount. — Dan
@danj Yeah I'm still getting into the upper 90's after about 24 hours. I guess I'll bite the bullet and actually buy new good quality paste. Then eventually replace the heatsink. Then eventually drill holes in the bottom-case for airflow.

What do you think of TGPro Results: https://i.imgur.com/HbbfvwF.png — Seymor Butz

Dan @danj İtibar: 488,9b Self employed contract worker 35 338 973 · Answer 1 · 2024-07-14T06:02:37-07:00

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Dan @danj

İtibar: 488,9b

Self employed contract worker

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973

Gönderildi: 14 Tem 2024

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Etrecheck Doesn’t offer what you need for diagnostics. Download this great app to get a better view on what’s going on TG Pro take a snapshot of the apps main window making sure you capture all of the sensors as you’ll find the list is quite long! Post it here so we can see. Ideally we need a few captures. Once with nothing running (just after starting up) then when you suspect there’s a problem, then once more after you shutdown the running apps soon after.

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Sure - check it out - added some sensor data. Not much to see. I idle around 60-70 and get up to 90+ under load.

Seymor Butz tarafından 14 Tem 2024

@breathlungs - I can’t tell for sure as I really need what I asked for as it’s looking at all of the sensors at the different load time points as laid-out. If you look at the palm rest the temp is too low given the CPUs load. That aims me to a bad heatsink.

Dan tarafından 14 Tem 2024

I also have cold hands. jk.

Yeah I wish I had a thermal camera I could point at the board under load. It's only that one area it seems.

Do heatsinks go bad? Piece of metal - has one job - just sink the heat. Could try to replace it, if it's not too expensive to import here.

Seymor Butz tarafından 14 Tem 2024

@breathlungs - That hunk of metal is hollow! It is filled with a liquid coolant which can leak out!

You don’t need a thermal camera, just TG Pro as I outlined to get the needed data.

Where do you live? Country and nearest city.

Dan tarafından 14 Tem 2024

In the land of the East, sir, for now anyway. Yeah parts are available but usually pricier than what you can easily get on eBay in the West.

New data point: running the computer with the bottom-case off makes no difference in the temps. Still gets up to 99 sometimes under heavy load.

I read someone applied thermal pads between the heatsink and the case so I bought this "6 thermal pads,three sizes, each with 2 pieces: 20x67x0.5mm, 20x67x1.0mm, 20x67x1.5mm" -- if you know where exactly to put them, I'd appreciate it.

I'm open to replacing the heatsink but I would have to *know* for sure that that's the part that's bad.

(Also I'm pretty sure this all started after my earlier incident here:

Water spill, thermal sensor, kernel_task, oh no..)

☝️ Even though after multiple attempts there, I *did* get all the temp sensors working... maybe something else, more subtle, is still off - as I think after that, I started getting these MCHC timeout boot msg delays.. will update OP

Seymor Butz tarafından 26 Tem 2024

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