Disconnect battery just to clean heat sink?

I had a minor liquid spill on my retina macbook pro. Took it to apple, genius said everything "appeared" fine except for some residue on the heat sink (it was orange juice). He took a pic on his phone and it showed some dried up orange juice in like 5-6 of the vents. He said I could try to clean it myself with alchohol wipes and toothpicks.
Here is my question - do I need to disconnect the battery or do anything after I open the back, but before I clean the heat sink? I am nervous about doing this as it is, and I am afraid of messing something up.

I thought that corrosion would be a big problem, and the genius told me that the heat sink is made from a coated aluminium and can't corrode... was he wrong?
I am really tight on money (owning a rMBP is way out of my means but I saved up for a long time...) and don't want to have to spend the money to have someone else clean it if it's not really important to the operation or life of the computer or if it's something I can do myself.
Thanks for your input so far!

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Cleaning heat sink on Macbook Pro Retina after liquid spill... HELP!

Hello all...
My wonderful boyfriend spilled about 3-4 tablespoons of orange juice on my Macbook Pro Retina (15in) on Thursday. Right over the left speaker and onto the ESC, ~, brightness up and down, 1, 2, 3, TAB, Q, W, Caps Lock, and A key. It also dripped down and got into the vent. I immediately (like within 1 second) grabbed it and turned it upside down, and wiped it up while holding it upside down. I then turned it off and held it upside down for some time, and let it sit open and off after that. I turned it back on the next day and had no apparent issues. (However today some of the keys have been "crunchy", so I think I better clean them...)
I couldn't get it to the Apple store until yesterday because of Hurricane Sandy and not having power or anything. I had the genius check it out. He could only take off the back without having to charge me anything and he said that none of the liquid sensors were tripped in the back of the computer but that there was some dried up orange juice in the heat sink (but apparently not really anywhere else which he said makes me the luckiest person in the world). He took a photo on his phone and showed me... just some residue and orange juice that looked "dried up" in like 5 or 6 of the vents. He said that I could try to clean it myslf with alchohol wipes and a toothpick at my own risk. But I am very nervous as I am not exactly tech savvy... I watched videos on how to take the back off, but the part about disconnecting the battery and all gets me nervous. My question is, do I have to disconnect the battery to just gently clean up the heat sink with a little toothpick and alchohol wipes? Do I have to ground myself? What do I do?
Also, how necessary do you think it is to even clean it up? Could the heat sink need to be replaced in the future from this? Is it really a big deal? I'm looking for honest answers, since I felt like the genuis guy had too much liabality to say anything to me about anything.
Unrelated, what are the chances that liquid got through the keyboard to anything more sensitive to liquid? The genius couldnt really give me an answer. I have noticed just as I am typing now that sometimes it seems that the cursor of where I am typing will just jump back to the end of the previous line when I hit the Caps Lock key... it's very strange and I'm getting agita just thinking about it. Could that be a problem with just my keys getting stuck somewhere or a bigger problem with hardware being damaged... help and THANK YOU!

When i start any game the CPU goes up to 90° in 2 minutes and the computer shutdown after at least 5 min.
I found a solution. after a lot of research i checked that my fans are working on the minimum means at 2000 rpm even when the games are on. so i install it a software called smcFancontrol that u can control ur fan speed and i make it up to 4000 pm (you can do it with iStat menu too) and i tested my computer. I Have been playing on my macbook pro since this morning and there is no problem of overheat or shutdown.
Is it normal that we need to change the fan configuration or control to play a game that was working fine before.?
for cooling my machine i have a mStand Rain design http://www.raindesigninc.com/pic_high%20res/mstand_macbookpro_keyboard_perspecti ve_unibody.jpg

Best cleaning steps for g4 processor and heat sink?

I just pick up a dual 800 quicksilver cpu. What is the least expensive/best way to clean the die surfaces as well as the heat sink surfaces? Also does anyone know a link showing stable higher than originally rated speeds?

Hi pheidius-
The surface description is odd- I would expect it to be smooth (as all heatsink surfaces I have seen).
You may be correct on the thermal pad. It would be the only logical explanation..... I've never really "dissected" a thermal pad before- just scraped them off and tossed 'em.
If it is a thermal pad, you may have clearance problems with just thermal compound. This is, of course, dependant on the thickness of the previous pad......Just check the heatsink and it's contact on the processor after you have finished cleaning the thermal pad from the heatsink. It should be obvious if there will be clearance problems.
Recommended removal proceedure for a thermal pad is to use a plastic card (like a credit card) or a plastic putty knife.
When replacing thermal pads, after the old is completely removed, the heatsink surface needs to be heated until hot to the touch (use a heat gun), and then apply the new pad, pushing the pad on firmly and evenly.
Note: When using thermal pads, wait until the heatsink and pad are cool before removing the protective paper and installing on the processors.
If you end up using thermal compound, carefully apply the compound. Getting sloppy, and applying too much, especially with Arctic Silver, can cause problems. The compound is not just thermally conductive.......it is also electrically conductive.
Back to the overclocking question- This article may be of interest.

Static/crackling freezes/shuts down Toshiba L300 (already cleaned fan/heat sink)

Was slightly intermittent but pretty much unable to use the computer at this point. The only clues I can give is that there seemed to be 2 errors about usb so wondering if that could cause the static build up that freezes the computer? One was on shut down and the other was after static started and it seemed to be trying to grab a driver (for usb I think) almost as though the device disappeared but then the laptop froze. It wasn't too long ago one of three ports wasn't working but they all work recently (don't recall which one quit for a bit).
Unfortunately I need to fix it myself due to finances. How do I physically disconnect all the usb ports to rule them out? I probably did this when I took out the motherboard to clean the fan/heat sink but I don't know for sure which connection(s) they were.
If I'm way off please provide other suggestions. I REALLY appreciate any help given.

first off, please provide the entire model number of your computer. It is printed on the bottom. do not provide s/n.
Do you have a backup of all your personal data? If not, I would say that should be your priority at this point.
After that has been dealt with, the next question is "did you make restore disks when computer was still working?"
Can you get into recovery menu (spamming f8 on start up). If so, try going into safe mode and restoring the computer to a restore point at a point in time before the problems started.
When you cleaned fan/heat sink, did you reseat the heatsink. If not, you may want to open it back up and reseat the heatsink (i.e., remove old thermal paste and reapply).
L305-S5955, T9300 Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, 60GB SSD, Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit

Heat Sink on MacBook Pro (mid 2012)

I recently acquired a mid-2012 MacBook Pro that is in need of repair. The device was advertised by the seller as needing repair, and I wanted to experiment in repairing such a problem.
The MBP suffered the symptoms of a failed logic board - no power, LEDs don't light up on either the side of the Mac or the MagSafe Adapter. Per the tutorial on Ifixit.com, I took a look inside the laptop and was able to safely remove the logic board. As I examined the heat sink and the thermal paste connecting it to the processor, I found that the paste had completely dried up. In other words, as I completed part 3 of Step 27 ("Carefully remove the heat sink from the processor."), the heat sink could be removed immediately after I unscrewed it from the logic board - no need to use the spudger to loosen the paste. While examining the interior, the battery also seemed to have signs of wear (the screw tab closest to the optical drive appears cracked); no damage/leakage of battery cells detected.
What are my options at this point? Will it be worth it if I try to clean the old paste from the heat sink & processor, then reapply as instructed (on ifixit.com or other reputable DIY repair sites)? Or, because the battery is slightly damaged in addition to the lack of processor-to-heat sink connectivity, would it be easier/better in the long run to make an appointment at my nearest Apple Store for a Genius Bar consultation?
Thanks for any advice & comments!

Re: Heat Sink on MacBook Pro (mid 2012)
created by PlotinusVeritas in MacBook Pro - View the full discussion
This solved my question This helped me
And why again are you worried about re-applying thermal paste to the heat sink to CPU on logic, ...since youve already indicated the logic board is fried....?
I assume you got a new logic and are asking about grabbing some white thermal paste off Ebay.....or?
... or I'm basically seeking the opinions of more experienced members of the Community (such as yourself ) that can verify my attempt to personally fix the device are not worth it, and are better left to Apple's Geniuses.
Actually, I haven't gotten a new logic board yet. More or less, I was taking it apart for inspectional purposes only. I wasn't intending to remove the heat sink, but the thermal paste was already worn out. I am not sure if the logic board is fried, though after examining the whole laptop some more, the previous owner may have tried to do some fixing/upgrading and failed (foam missing, a bracket for the HDD missing also). I was examining the logic board to determine if there have been any liquid damages to the machine - none found, to the best of my knowledge.

Expected cost to replace macbook heat sink

Does anyone know how much it would cost have have apple replace the heat sink in my early 2008 model macbook? The warranty is obviously gone, but other than the fact that it overheats, the computer is in fine condition. here are my basic specs.
2008 model mac book (black)
2.4 ghz intel core 2 duo prcessor
2 gb 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM (upgraded from 2 GB by user)
Intel GMA X3100 144 mb graphics
running lion OSX
I don't trust myself with opening up the main casing, I barely trusted myself upgrading the RAM.
Approx cost anyone?

The heat sink and fan are an assembly. What makes you think there's a problem with the heat sink specifically? Have you reset the SMC?
Laptops with a battery you can remove
Shut down the computer.
Disconnect the MagSafe power adapter from the computer, if it's connected.
Remove the battery.
Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.
Release the power button.
Reconnect the battery and MagSafe power adapter.
Press the power button to turn on the computer.

How to make 260 gtx 55nm VRM custom heat sink

Warning: This will void your warranty
The caveat above added by Mike, Forum Administrator
How to Create a Custom 260 GTX 55nm VRM Heat Sink
Introduction: This guide was created to show how you can make a custom VRM heat sink from the stock heat sink to be used with an aftermarket cooler.
Reason: Many aftermarket companies, such as Thermalright and Arctic, fail to provide a good VRM heat sink for the 55nm 200 series GTX’s. The solution often involves poorly sticking thermal tape or no solution at all, such as the Arctic cooler, which states it’s ok to leave the 260 GTX 55nm VRM chips uncovered. To leave the VRM chipset uncovered maybe ok for stock clocked cards but what about an over clocked card or an enthusiast trying to push the performance envelope? That is after all, what these aftermarket cooling solutions are all about; especially the Arctic cooler which can cool up to 250 watts! Fortunately the solution is very easy and should take you no more than 10 to 15 minutes to address.
Use: To create a custom made VRM heat sink to be used with an aftermarket cooling solution such as the Arctic cooler and Thermalright cooler.
Tools:
Dremel, with metal cutting wheel and sanding wheel.
Thermal Pads, which you can buy in sheets from any performance pc store and should be 1.0 mm in thickness.
Philips Screw Driver, very small size would be ideal.
Before we begin I’d like to remind you that removing or tampering with the stock heat sink will more than likely void your warranty. This guide was also constructed assuming an aftermarket cooler will be installed. The card used in this guide is a MSI 260 GTX 55nm with reference PCB design (REV 1) but will also work with other 200 series GTX cards. When working on any electronic device, always make sure you are well grounded!!!
Step 1: Remove the screws with the springs only from the back side of the graphics card as shown in figure 1A. There is a total of 13 spring screws that need to be removed. Check to make sure that your card does not have two small additional securing screws which are located on the exhaust side of your graphics card with your DVI ports. If your card does contain these additional screws, remove them before continuing on to step 2.
Step 2: Gently work the card from the heat sink. NOTE: Do NOT force or pry heavily, you will damage your card. It may take a little caressing depending on how much poor quality thermal putty was used from the manufacturer.
Step 3: Remove the fan power connector from the fan power port as shown in figure 2A.
Step 4: Remove and discard all the old thermal pads. You should never re-use thermal pads and especially not the low quality manufacturer ones! NOTE: keep in mind the location of the VRM thermal pads since you will be making replacements.
Step 5: Clean off the voltage regulator chips with a tissue or with a soft eraser as instructed by Arctic. Personally I use a tissue very lightly dipped in alcohol to clean the surface of the chips. The voltage regulator chips for the 260 GTX 55nm are shown in figure 3A. NOTE: I will not be covering the cleaning of the GPU or Ram since it does not pertain to the VRM heat sink.
Step 6: Flip the heat sink so you are looking at the bottom where the thermal pads were attached. There are 6 very little screws which need to be removed from the assembly. Figure 4A shows the location of the screws attaching the plastic shroud assembly. Once they are removed gently pry the plastic shroud off and set it aside.
Step 7: Now turn the heat sink over and remove the 4 black screws from the top side of the heat sink. The fan should come off freely and set that aside as well. Your heat sink should look like figure 5A.
Step 8: Now we are ready to begin cutting the stock heat sink. With a sharpie draw a black as shown in figure 6A. This will give you a marker to follow when cutting.
Step 9: Attach the metal cutting wheel to the dremel and begin cutting across the black line. Danger: ALWAYS wear eye protection when cutting a metal object or any object. The metal is very soft and not much force is needed to cut it. Try not to damage the mounting holes when cutting (figure 6A). You may need to lightly sand the cut edge depending on how rough or jagged it is after cutting. When you’re done you should have a piece as shown in figure 7A. This will be your VRM heat sink. Important: MAKE SURE you clean the heat sink well and remove all metal particles. Also allow the heat sink to dry well before installing!!
Step 10: Next cut the new thermal pads to the shape of your VRM chips. It should look like figure 8A when you are finished.
Step 11: Gently place the heat sink into place and attach the screws. When you are done it should look like figure 9A.
Congratulations on your custom made VRM heat sink. The great thing is that it never has the risk of falling off, such as thermal taped ones, and can be removed and installed as many times as you wish. It also does not contain thermal adhesives which also do not facilitate removal as well. The stock spring screws will also insure secure contact between the VRM chips and the sink. The custom heat sink comes with nicely built in fins and much better cooling performance then individual dinky VRM heat sinks provided from the Arctic or Thermalright coolers.
p.s. It is possible to put old heat sink back on the card since each section has its own mounting screws but I would not recommend this unless absolutely necessary.

I'm running a corsair 750 watt PSU
Q660
Gigabyte g31 motherboard
1TB WD Hard drive
OCZ 1066mhz of ram
And I recently swapped the lighting with a gtx 260 and see what would happen in the same system. The GTX260 ran games smoothly, and would run furmark fine with the newest nvidia drivers. Swap back the gtx 275 lightning, and games are really slow and choppy especially when you add any kind of AA. The FPS is literally cut in half when I switched to the msi gtx 275. I think it's safe to say that the GTX275 is defective.

Pismo CPU upgrades/heat sink

Does anyone know if the 400 mhz heatsink and 500 mhz heatsink are interchangeable?
PowerMac G4 MDD 1.25 Ghz, PowerBook G3 Pismo 400, Newton 2100, iPod Photo 30 gb Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Hi Gerry:
Are you replacing just the heat sink, or the entire processor daughter-card? If the heat sink and tube only, yes, they are interchangeable. Be sure you apply a thin, even layer of thermal compound on the processor after removal of the old heat sink and before installation of the new.
Good luck.
cornelius
Message was edited by: cornelius

Question about the heat sinks in these models

Hey all,
Can anyone tell me about the heat sinks used in these model laptops?
Here are my questions:
Are they made from pure copper?
What is inside the tubes that run between the processor covers and the fan? Is it just air? or something else?
Is the thermal paste that sticks to the processors toxic?
I'm not sure this is the right place to ask but thought i might as well try.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

you mean the entire T series range, or are you after information on a specific T model?
1) most of the parts are made of pure copper
2) there is a working fluid within heat pipe, which should either ethanol or acetone. The phase change from liquid to gaseous phase is what transports the heat away from CPU/GPU/motherboard chipsets.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pipe
3) thermal paste usually contains silicon and silver, it is not to be ingested as such.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_grease
Regards,
Jin Li
May this year, be the year of 'DO'!
I am a volunteer, and not a paid staff of Lenovo or Microsoft

IPod battery just about had it, now acting weird

iPod mini...i know the battery needs to be replaced, but it still works fine when i connect it to my adaptor in my car so i haven't sent it in yet. i just went to attach it to my computer to upload some new songs. the normal "do not disconnect" lit up, but then it made 4 beeping noises and went to the charge screen unanimated. my computer said it disconnected itself. now it is randomly connecting and disconnecting from my computer. what is going on???

I think you may have answered yourself on this one. You admit that your battery is living on borrowed time so it is very likely that it's acting strange because the battery just doesn't have enough juice to behave properly.
Just thought I should mention though....you may benefit more if you post in the correct section for your player. This is the nano section, not the mini.

Wind Box DC100 change fan/heat sink

Hi,
I just bought the MSI Wind Box DC100 with the AMD E-450 APU, which is nice and all. But the fan on this thing is so insanely noisy, I have had a look inside (I know, warranty voided and all that) and everything looks very proprietary. I am looking to replace the fan, or the whole heat sink including fan if possible. Does anyone know of any solution to that? I have not found any standard coolers that has the same form factor as the one used in DC100.

I completely agree with the first post; the fan in the Wind Box DC100 is insanely noisy.
I bought this tiny PC for using as a mediacenter, but the fan is always running and has a high pitch that it's impossible to ignore.
Even though I've been buying MSI motherboards and PCs for years, this is surely a serious design flaw; it's a real pity, because the DC100 is a nice computer in all other aspects. I solved my problem by removing the original fan and "fitting" a huge external fan (9 cm in diameter) on the left side. It was a LONG work, because I had to cut the internal steel chassis, then the external plastic chassis, find the correct pinout and solder the small original custom connector to the new fan, remove the old fan and adapt a heatsink to take its place, route the cable and so on..
Several hours of work, but the result is completely satisfactory; the new fan is impossible to hear at maximum speed when you are 10 cm away; it's almost like having a fanless PC.
I used an Arctic F9 Pro PWM, which is 12 Volt, while the computer outputs 5 volt in that socket; it's not a problem, because in this way the fan goes at half the nominal speed (2000 rpm @ 12 volt ==> about 1000 rpm @ 5 volt), which is more than enough to keep the CPU about 10° C below the typical temperature I experienced using the old fan, while being completely silent.
At startup the DC100 outputs a message that the fan is not working (it stays for 3 seconds, then the system continues booting without a problem); that's probably because the rpm it gets from the PWM signal is way lower than that of the original fan; the rpm value returned is correct indeed, and I can monitor it in Windows.
This is the colour scheme I used to solder the old connector to the new fan:
Original fan Arctic F9 Pro PWM
Black GND Black
Yellow +5 Red
Green Sign Yellow
Blue PWM Blue
The new fan is really good; it's isolated from the computer where it is attached by using 4 rubber ties which don't propagate vibrations to the chassis. I bought it for 4,38 Euro, which would be a real bargain, if only slightly less work to fit it to the PC were needed.

Corrected amd web site on new heat sink with pipes

http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=30520 foudn by doing yahoo search. amd + heat pipes.
and cant get the following to work, yet that was up for a while.
could be because it is a protected website. no idea what that means.
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ComputingSolutions/0,,30_288_13265_13295^13332,00.html
i found this and am curious it this will be available for amd processors that we have already purchased? Would be worth while if using amd parts would not void warrenty.

It isn't gone, the link was just wrong. It ships with FX processors only if you read further down. Probably with the newer ones that are running warmer.
As for warranty, you do not have to remain with the Stock Heat Sink to retain warranty, although if the heatsink goes bad and causes a CPU failure using a non-stock heatsink that will void warranty. :-/

G3 Pismo processor replacement - no heat sink bracket???

Hi there
This is kind of related to a previous and still running thread to do with my dead pismo but I thought I would start a separate thread for this problem. I just got a replacement processor for my Pismo but there doesnt seem to be anywhere to screw the two screws in from the heat sink that will sit above it - i have seen in other photos that there is usually a round plastic bracket with two screw holes that sits on top of the processor? Any advice? or is different for certain processors?
thanks

troy:
are any of the later G4 Powerbook processors interchangable with the Pismo?
Unfortunately, no Would have been nice, though.
a G4 processor and a gig of RAM I know the Pis would be a great back-up
There are several threads in this forum which discuss processor upgrade. This one traces my own decision making process. As you will note in the thread, this is not an inexpensive upgrade. In my case it was an easy decision since this is my primary computer. I recommend getting your computer going and see it runs for you. At later stage, if you decide to go this route, you can research the different threads, and, maybe, even post one of your own. There are many Pismo owners who have upgraded and would love to share their stories.
can you recommend G4 processors available for the Pismo
Mine is by Wegenermedia, and although it works fine and my experience with Wegener was not bad, others have had very negative experiences. I hesitate to recommend Wegener. Look at the others mentioned in the thread. Give yourself some time to research and think about it.
Good luck.
cornelius

127oC Heat Sink!!!!!

Hello all,
i have had my macbook for a year now, just upgraded the ram from 512 to 2gb. Iv always thought that my macbook ran hotter than my friends and now i have installed iStatPro it has raised some alarming figures.
The most concerning is the value for the 'Heat Sink B' which is 127oC!!!!
Is this usual with all macs and should i get it looked at?? (seems a stupid question almost, its hot enough to boil water!!)

Looking at your specs, you have one of the original CoreDuo MacBooks. A number of these machines did have a problem with a faulty heatsink sensor. As a result, the machines would randomly shutdown as the MacBook thought it was overheating. Apple corrected this problem with a firmware update that ignored the faulty sensor. There are enough redundant sensors that a faulty one does not present an issue. There really is no way for your heatsink to be about 2.5 times warmer than the processor itself. Unfortunately, even though Apple was able to upgrade the firmware to ignore the sensor, third party apps can still get the reading. This seems to be causing a number of people concern. If your machine is functioning as it should... and your fans are only coming on high when your machine is doing something processor intensive, you should be fine.

Northbridge Heat Sink is running 90C. Is that too hot?

I've been having computer issues and just started watching temperatures. My Northbridge Heat Sink is running at 90C and I can't figure out if that is too high. And if it is what do I do about it? I've been inside the computer a lot lately because of graphics card and ram issues. Could that have done something? I have no idea what temperature it was running before since I've never paid attention.

I am using Temperature Monitor.
I've had several things happen recently with my computer and I can't seem to figure them all out at once.
First, my screen was freezing intermittently and had some pixeling then just finally it all went bad. After ruling out any hard drive problems I just replaced the 7300GT because I thought that was my primary issue.
Since I was already going to be opening the computer I decided to upgrade the ram as well. So I also installed new FBDIMMS - 4 x 2GB that I added to some 2 x 2GB that were added about 5 years ago.
(Side note: after the bad graphics card and before all the new hardward arrived my Airport Extreme seems to have also died on me! Haven't had time to completely troubleshoot that issue yet. I was waiting until the parts came in.)
After adding the RAM the "about this mac" showed that I had 12gb of ram running. Then the computer completely froze on me and the fan got really loud which it has never, ever sounded like that. I had to force it to shut down and then it just started up in its own. So now in "about this mac" it shows only 8gb of ram. It's not recognzing the original 2 x 2GB.
Because the of the fan getting so loud I decided to check temperatures and noticed the Northbridge Heat Sink at 90c and just wondered about it.
I'm just overwhelmed with so many issues. This computer has been great and I've never had such a rash of problems like this. It's getting over my head! And I've bothered my friends' husband enough already with all of this!

Disconnect battery just to clean heat sink?

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