Be gone. Noisy Macbook Air!

[Dekimasu]

If you go back in to the Apple store in the first couple of weeks after buying your computer, and tell them, "This is loud. I don't want a new one, but please check the thermal paste," will they do it?

If I were to do this myself, I'd be worried forever that I'd screwed something up.

 

[jjahshik32]

All I know is that I've heard the arctic silver paste in long term isnt good. I hear that the heat eats through the paste.

 

[mgsarch]

I'm curious if you used the same stock seemingly generic heat sink compound vs. the Arctic Silver if you'd have the same results. Is it the higher grade compound or the re-application that lowered the temps?

Just a thought...

Regardless of what people say, the difference is marginal.

His results scream initaial over application.

That said, I'd still use AS5 whenever possible. It's cheap anyway.

I wonder if this would fix my MBP that was idling around 90c before i sent it back for applecare.

 

[mgsarch]

All I know is that I've heard the arctic silver paste in long term isnt good. I hear that the heat eats through the paste.

supporting evidence?

jj, you really gotta think or fact check before you post this kind of stuff. there are people that come here for guidance and see nonsense like what you've just said and take it to have value.

I've never once seen anything to support what you're saying and I've used AS for years and years. Maybe some batches were bad or something but to generalize like you have here is not helpful for anyone.

 

[dzhiurgis]

Ok, fork that Arctic Space Coke or whatever thermopaste. I've just applied some cheap-white-ass one and it works briliantly cool! I've cleaned old paste with toiled paper with no problems, so again - no need for Zolton-Tips, alcohol or whatever to clean.
Except the main cover (10 screws) the dissasembly wasn't as easy as expected. For that cooling Thing to remove, you'll need to unsrew two side-screws, the one on the boomerang and extra small screws around the fan, but to do that you'll need to disconnect port and hdd data cables.

~

 

[silverblack]

Not a huge difference

I have a Week 1 MBA, with Coolbook running. But it wasn't running that hot even before Coolbook; i.e., fan didn't kick in under normal web browsing, and running Microsoft Office apps. Although Coolbook did lower the max temp from >100C (before) to ~ 92C when cpu is stressed (after).

Today, I cleaned the excess thermal paste. Did I notice any difference? Not really. Cpu temp still stayed around mid-50 C under normal use, and it still climbed to over 90C under stress.

IMO, don't bother with this, unless your MBA fan does spin up to 6000 rpm even under normal use.

 

[mgsarch]

I have a Week 1 MBA, with Coolbook running. But it wasn't running that hot even before Coolbook; i.e., fan didn't kick in under normal web browsing, and running Microsoft Office apps. Although Coolbook did lower the max temp from >100C (before) to ~ 92C when cpu is stressed (after).

Today, I cleaned the excess thermal paste. Did I notice any difference? Not really. Cpu temp still stayed around mid-50 C under normal use, and it still climbed to over 90C under stress.

IMO, don't bother with this, unless your MBA fan does spin up to 6000 rpm even under normal use.

Yeah, if it wasn't broken, I certainly wouldn't have have broken it open to scrape the paste.

Btw, to the guy that decided not to use alcohol or do any sufficient job cleaning off the original paste. Best of luck buddy! Even if it doesn't make a huge difference, why not take the precaution of doing things properly?!

I mean, I've touched the stuff, it's sticky, toilet paper leaves tissue residue. Even with alcohol the stuff can be a pain in the neck to get off and you need to make sure it doesn't spill over.

Obviously, you're not going to see an issue immediately?! I wouldn't boot it up and just say BRILLIANT IT WORKS!!!!!

 

[dzhiurgis]

mgsarch, I have seen plently of thermopaste, I know how frikin sticky and messy it is, however the paste on my air was dry and scriped of extremely easy and the crystal was shiny as polished

 

[jjahshik32]

supporting evidence?

jj, you really gotta think or fact check before you post this kind of stuff. there are people that come here for guidance and see nonsense like what you've just said and take it to have value.

I've never once seen anything to support what you're saying and I've used AS for years and years. Maybe some batches were bad or something but to generalize like you have here is not helpful for anyone.

I've seen somewhere in another thread about someone explaining the arctic silver paste on cpu's rather than used on gpu's with the paste getting eaten up rather quickly.

I've used the arctic silver 5 on the x1900 gpu on my older mac pro last year and it worked great but personally I'd be too scared to apply it on a cpu, but then I think it'd be safe on a macbook air as to it used on a core 2 duo extreme/xeon which get much hotter.

 

[bart rijksen]

Is there also a code so that it runs at a max of 4600 rpm?

 

[applestew]

Anyone got any diagrams or pictures to show where the heat sink screws are?

And do we really have to disconnect the cables before removing the heat sink.

Looks like I may undertake the reapplication of thermal paste since you guys swear by it.

 

[giantsfan1975]

I have notice a significant decrease in fans and heat since I reapplied the thermal paste on my MBA 1.8. I used Arctic Silver 5 and completed the procedure under 30 minutes. The screws needed to be removed are obvious and easy to locate. The connectors that are removed are easily undone and reattached.

(This is a BREEZE compared to a MBP!!!!!!)

Tools Needed:

P0 Phillips Head Screw Driver, Q-Tips, Rubbing Alcohol, Arctic Silver 5 and a Razor Blade to spread a thin coat over the chip's.

Also, These are my CoolBook Controller settings.

800 @ 0.9000v
1200 @ 0.9125V
1400 @ 0.9250V
1600 @ 0.9500V
1800 @ 0.9750V

High Throttling

The MBA now runs like it should and my only gripe is with 1080p.(Choppy)

Anthony

 

[nobackup]

I have notice a significant decrease in fans and heat since I reapplied the thermal paste on my MBA 1.8. I used Arctic Silver 5 and completed the procedure under 30 minutes. The screws needed to be removed are obvious and easy to locate. The connectors that are removed are easily undone and reattached.

(This is a BREEZE compared to a MBP!!!!!!)

Tools Needed:

P0 Phillips Head Screw Driver, Q-Tips, Rubbing Alcohol, Arctic Silver 5 and a Razor Blade to spread a thin coat over the chip's.

Also, These are my CoolBook Controller settings.

800 @ 0.9000v
1200 @ 0.9125V
1400 @ 0.9250V
1600 @ 0.9500V
1800 @ 0.9750V

High Throttling

The MBA now runs like it should and my only gripe is with 1080p.(Choppy)

Anthony

same thing here I just used the cheap stuff (all they had), it was either it fixes it or it goes back for exchange (which here in dubai is a pain), did the same thing on REV A macbook (had some artic silver back then), and thats still running strong.

In addition to ur settings I have set all speeds to .9000 v and have applied throttoling.. what a difference

lots of opinions here without having tried anything...

seems like a lot of people here just

a) want to push up there posting count
b) have nothing else to do

great tip thanks buddie..

 

[tangledweb16]

That's honestly surprising to me.....

Heck, the loudest thing about my MacBook is it's CD drive, and I was guessing that without that, the MacBook Air would be whisper quiet. Guess not...

 

[nobackup]

That's honestly surprising to me.....

Heck, the loudest thing about my MacBook is it's CD drive, and I was guessing that without that, the MacBook Air would be whisper quiet. Guess not...

well thats what I thought and based with the Rev A Macbook embarrassment, I assumed that they had learnt their lessons..

Now thats not saying that every AIR is hot and a blower (of hot air lol), but the week 6 I received, was , so first coolbook .... big difference and then scraped of the thermal (yep they used the work instruction on how to apply icing on cakes) paste and replace, I guess mine is now the way that is should.

 

[wordy]

Also, These are my CoolBook Controller settings.

800 @ 0.9000v
1200 @ 0.9125V
1400 @ 0.9250V
1600 @ 0.9500V
1800 @ 0.9750V

High Throttling

Tried these settings and they worked like a charm on a 1.6 Air. I suspect across the board the voltages CAN be lowered some more without loss of stability, but to other users, these values are a great starting point and you will see a difference!

 

[giantsfan1975]

same thing here I just used the cheap stuff (all they had), it was either it fixes it or it goes back for exchange (which here in dubai is a pain), did the same thing on REV A macbook (had some artic silver back then), and thats still running strong.

In addition to ur settings I have set all speeds to .9000 v and have applied throttoling.. what a difference

lots of opinions here without having tried anything...

seems like a lot of people here just

a) want to push up there posting count
b) have nothing else to do

great tip thanks buddie..

I had the voltage settings lower on my MBA, but had a few Kernel Panics. The numbers I posted allowed me to work the MBA hard without problems.

Enjoy!

 

[sir. mac]

So I figured I give this a shot for my noisy little MBA.

So it goes something like this (using the arctic silver with proper cleaning), right?

1. Unswcrew the parts to get to the cpu and the gpu
2. Use ArctiClean 1 and ArctiClean 2 to completely clean the surface of the cpu and gpu, and the cooling unit
3. apply a thin layer of arctic silver goo on the cooling unit and a thin layer on gpu and cpu (using a credit card to apply)
4. put cooling unit on immediately (?) and reassemble

I wonder about the last part, is it supposed to dry off a bit? Also, is it best to use a credit card to apply paste, and also how much paste should be used, equal amounts on all surfaces? Is it supposed to be a extremely thin layer, or a little more?

Anything else I should think of?

That´s a lot of questions, but I really don´t want to screw this one up...

 

[wrinklefree]

I just did this on my MBA and reported zero difference.

 

[applestew]

I am mustering courage to do this too. I think that maybe for part 3, you can just put sufficient thermal paste on the CPU and GPU, that shd spread onto the heat sink when you press them together.

Comments?

So I figured I give this a shot for my noisy little MBA.

So it goes something like this (using the arctic silver with proper cleaning), right?

1. Unswcrew the parts to get to the cpu and the gpu
2. Use ArctiClean 1 and ArctiClean 2 to completely clean the surface of the cpu and gpu, and the cooling unit
3. apply a thin layer of arctic silver goo on the cooling unit and a thin layer on gpu and cpu (using a credit card to apply)
4. put cooling unit on immediately (?) and reassemble

I wonder about the last part, is it supposed to dry off a bit? Also, is it best to use a credit card to apply paste, and also how much paste should be used, equal amounts on all surfaces? Is it supposed to be a extremely thin layer, or a little more?

Anything else I should think of?

That´s a lot of questions, but I really don´t want to screw this one up...

 

[Mactagonist]

I've seen somewhere in another thread about someone explaining the arctic silver paste on cpu's rather than used on gpu's with the paste getting eaten up rather quickly.

I've used the arctic silver 5 on the x1900 gpu on my older mac pro last year and it worked great but personally I'd be too scared to apply it on a cpu, but then I think it'd be safe on a macbook air as to it used on a core 2 duo extreme/xeon which get much hotter.

No. It is made for CPUs and has been used for years on CPUs that got much more hot then a c2d does.

 

[Scott6666]

Is there also a code so that it runs at a max of 4600 rpm?

Search the threads for smcFancontrol. In a thread called "setting MAX fan speed" or something like that. You have to go get smcFancontrol and then run a terminal commmand string.

 

[happyslayer]

Hi all,

I have been building High End Gaming PC's and using AS5 for many years...

One thing to remember to those that said they did it and didn't notice a big change need to remember that Arctic Silver 5 has a break-in period before it becomes fully heat conductive. I don't remember the time limit, but there is a definite period. Give it a few days of hot and cold cycles and you may notice that it will show a little more temperature drop.

I have most definitely noticed this behavior on the PC side of things. It isn't dramatic, just a few degrees at most, but every little bit helps.

I haven't done this to my own MBA yet, but maybe this weekend I will do it. My MBA runs fine, but the tweaker in me just loves to mess with hardware.. trying to make it faster, cooler, quieter... whatever.

Good Luck!

 

[sir. mac]

I am mustering courage to do this too. I think that maybe for part 3, you can just put sufficient thermal paste on the CPU and GPU, that shd spread onto the heat sink when you press them together.

Comments?

seems plausible, but if you look at the images in page 1 in this thread it seems as if he applies a thin layer also on the heatsink. But It could also just be cleaned so it looks applied. That´s what I´d really like to know. I sent him a PM and will write here when, what and if I hear anything

 

[pilotError]

Hi all,

I have been building High End Gaming PC's and using AS5 for many years...

One thing to remember to those that said they did it and didn't notice a big change need to remember that Arctic Silver 5 has a break-in period before it becomes fully heat conductive. I don't remember the time limit, but there is a definite period. Give it a few days of hot and cold cycles and you may notice that it will show a little more temperature drop.

I have most definitely noticed this behavior on the PC side of things. It isn't dramatic, just a few degrees at most, but every little bit helps.

I haven't done this to my own MBA yet, but maybe this weekend I will do it. My MBA runs fine, but the tweaker in me just loves to mess with hardware.. trying to make it faster, cooler, quieter... whatever.

Good Luck!

It's something like 20 hours...

If you go to the Arctic Silver web site, they have instructions on how to apply the paste. I believe in there it tells you about the thermal cycles.