Mooing and heat fixes: what does each method do?

Question

My black MacBook used to have both the whine & mooing + it was hot. (I started with a black MacBook with idle CoreDuoTemp of 66~69C.)
So I searched and searched and tried a LOT of things posted on this forum.
Now I actually understand WHAT these tricks do, so I thought I'd share my experiences AND ASK, "DOES ANYONE KNOW OF ANY BETTER/OTHER METHODS?"
1. Unplug the battery trick
Others have found that unplugging the battery causes the CPU to operate at 1Ghz, lowering the temp. However, the CPU will be stuck at 1Ghz even when you load it.
I finally found out what this does by using Apple's free developer tool Reggie SE. (Don't fool around with Reggie SE since it can kill your computer) For some reason I cannot understand, unplugging the battery trips the "Thermal trip indicator."
The exact words from Reggie SE when the battery is unpluged:
"Thermal trip indicator event is active. This indicates that the processor is above the recommended operating temperature. This bit is read-only and cleared once the temperature drops below recommended operating temperature".
Effectively, the CPU thinks that the temperature is unstable and automatically fixes your freq to 1Ghz.
So this fix is definitely a result of a bug from Apple. My best guess is that they didn't write the parameters inside the ACPI drivers to handle such an event since they don't expect users to run their MacBook minus the battery.
2. Delete the IOPlatformPluginFamily.kext trick
According to apple documentation, "The MacBook uses an advanced system management controller (SMC) to manage thermal and power conditions, while keeping the acoustic noise to a minimum. The SMC is fully independent of the operating system."
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/HardwareDrivers/Conceptual/MacBook0605/Articles/MacM42DeveloperNote.html#//appleref/doc/uid/TP40004263
So why does trashing a file (last time I checked, file-on-harddrive=software) change things? Because the CPU throttling is controlled by OSX.
Inside IOPlatformPluginFamily.kext, there is a section describing CPU throttling. It's a bunch of characters that I can't decipher, but what IS interesting is that it is the exact same setting for the Macbook, Macbook Pro, and the updated Macbook Pro.
When this file is trashed, some users (including myself) will notice that the "mooing" disappears. What actually happens is the CPU throttling is disabled, causing the CPU frequency to be fixed at 1.667Ghz. Normally, the CPU will throttle between 1.5Ghz and 2Ghz. The operating temperature INCREASES and the mooing disappears since mooing only occurs over a very narrow temperature range. This also gets rid of the CPU "whine," for reasons related to CPU throttling that I don't understand.
With this "fix," my CoreDuoTemp went from 66~69C to 71~73C. If you have a 1.83Ghz macbook, the numbers are probably different.
Anyway, we can probably agree that we'd rather get rid of the mooing by LOWERING the temperature rather than INCREASING it.
3. Removing the plastic piece covering the vent-fix
If there is a plastic cover on your vent, the solution is simple! But I think this is a minority event.
4. Reapplying thermal paste
I have not personally tried this method, although I agree that it should work. But it'll only work if Apple screwed up when they manufactured the MacBook, i.e. used inferior paste.
5. Re-seating the heat sink
This works the same way as #4 - by properly distributing the thermal paste and making a good thermal contact at the CPU/Heat sink interface.
http://discussions.apple.com/profile.jspa?userID=396441
Joe said that his seat sink was a bit "loose," and that he tightened the screws. Well I checked mine and the screws were fine.
So here's what I did:
1. Very slightly loosen the 4 screws holding the heatpipe in place (1 rotation)
2. VERY gently push down on the heat sink and wiggle it around in an effort to evenly spread out the thermal paste
3. tighten the screws.
That lowered my idle temp from 66~69C to 59~63C. Since my particular MacBook mooed at 66-69C, the mooing is now GONE! And now I have a cooler laptop!
6. Use less mem-persistance programs.
I noticed that running apps like little snitch and sizzling keys (or any kind of app that runs in the background) increases the temperature by a degree or two. This really isn't a fix though, since that's like saying "don't use your computer if you want to keep it cool."
7. Disable a core (use as single processor)
Well this isn't a very attractive options since I paid all that money to get a dual-core laptop!
What's worse, disabling a core doesn't decrease my temperature at all, even though I thought it should work. If anyone has evidence contrary it'll be interesting.
Well, does anyone have other ways to lower their MacBook temperature and/or get rid of mooing?

Answer 1

http://cnscenter.future.co.kr/resource/rsc-center/presentation/intel/spring2001/ epis102.pdf
This is the pdf from Intel Developers Forum, that descript what effects on the processor temperature. As you can see from the pp. 17-19, the surface flatness is the significant factor, so the other way of decreasing the temperature is to check if the cooler basement is flat and, if it's not, to polish it.