Sooo, some time ago I decided that I needed a larger screen MacBook than my 13″ model … and also wanted a newer year that could support MacOS Sierra (2010+) … so I went on a hunt for one. I decided I should try to get one that was broken … yeah not a smart idea, but I also have experience with computer hardware … so I took a chance.
I did find one that met my requirements … but sadly there was a major glich. The auction description and specs were wrong, so now I have a MacBook Pro 15″ 2009 … the good thing is that I got refunded, and got to keep the notebook.
Ok, so first problem … MacBook immediately panics at book. I booted up with an external drive with Windows 10, and it booted. Hmmm, so possibly OS is corrupted. So, I reinstalled the OS … still get a panic. Swapped the memory out with the ones from my 13″ … and it booted without panic. Great. Bought a couple of 4GB DIMMs … one for each.
Now one thing … in my web research on MacBook panics, I kept running into the GPU issue. It appears that a number of models with a discrete GPU had manufacturing issues and over heating caused it to fail. I installed a temp meter and kept an eye on it … and many times the CPU temp got up to 100C just surfing the web with multiple tabs. I also ran a GPU stress test and did not notice any video failure. … anyway, I decided just to take this thing apart … because that is what I do (remember the toilet story).
Thanks to iFixit I got down to the heat sinks.
Thats what the underside of the logic board looks like. There was dust bunnies on everything, including in the vents and fans. I cleaned up everything and put new thermal paste on.
Right now I have Safari open with two tabs, Lightroom, and the WordPress app … CPU temp is 69C and the fan is running at 2300RPM. Seems to be running about 10C lower in temp when scanning though my LR library … and most important is that the top of my thighs aren’t baking.
This Old Camera 