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Be gone. Noisy Macbook Air!
- Thread starter netddos
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Yes, the battery is removed. The picture is something I got from Google Images. I haven't taken apart my air for a few days now.
Big difference after replacing thermal compound
Finally got the AS5 and cleaning fluids, a bit of time, and the nerve to open the computer up. Kind of fun until I lost one of the screws--finally tipped the computer right side up and it fell out (from where?) so I was glad I wouldn't have to spend hours crawling on the floor looking for it.
After reading the posts and looking at the "heatsink", I figured that a thin film on the cpu wasn't going to make enough contact. Instead of putting a near translucent film of AS5 on, I spread a thicker coat on with a razor blade, then put a small dab, about a half a grain of rice worth, onto the CPU before remounting the heatsink. Maybe this wasn't the ideal method, but the result has been great.
Before, it would spin up to 6200 rpm on youtube or other video use. Now, when I did the CPU load test on CoolBook, the temperature stabilized at around 80 degrees after about 3 minutes, but the fan NEVER went above 2500 rpm! Fullscreen youtube produced the same result. I haven't put it to super heavy use, but in everything that I normally do, the fan hasn't gone about 2500 rpm since replacing the thermal compound. Quiet, quiet, quiet! In normal use, the temperature can be as low as high 30's to 50 degrees, and the heatsink is often a few degrees below it. Well worth the effort!
Finally got the AS5 and cleaning fluids, a bit of time, and the nerve to open the computer up. Kind of fun until I lost one of the screws--finally tipped the computer right side up and it fell out (from where?) so I was glad I wouldn't have to spend hours crawling on the floor looking for it.
After reading the posts and looking at the "heatsink", I figured that a thin film on the cpu wasn't going to make enough contact. Instead of putting a near translucent film of AS5 on, I spread a thicker coat on with a razor blade, then put a small dab, about a half a grain of rice worth, onto the CPU before remounting the heatsink. Maybe this wasn't the ideal method, but the result has been great.
Before, it would spin up to 6200 rpm on youtube or other video use. Now, when I did the CPU load test on CoolBook, the temperature stabilized at around 80 degrees after about 3 minutes, but the fan NEVER went above 2500 rpm! Fullscreen youtube produced the same result. I haven't put it to super heavy use, but in everything that I normally do, the fan hasn't gone about 2500 rpm since replacing the thermal compound. Quiet, quiet, quiet! In normal use, the temperature can be as low as high 30's to 50 degrees, and the heatsink is often a few degrees below it. Well worth the effort!
Finally got the AS5 and cleaning fluids, a bit of time, and the nerve to open the computer up. Kind of fun until I lost one of the screws--finally tipped the computer right side up and it fell out (from where?) so I was glad I wouldn't have to spend hours crawling on the floor looking for it.
After reading the posts and looking at the "heatsink", I figured that a thin film on the cpu wasn't going to make enough contact. Instead of putting a near translucent film of AS5 on, I spread a thicker coat on with a razor blade, then put a small dab, about a half a grain of rice worth, onto the CPU before remounting the heatsink. Maybe this wasn't the ideal method, but the result has been great.
Before, it would spin up to 6200 rpm on youtube or other video use. Now, when I did the CPU load test on CoolBook, the temperature stabilized at around 80 degrees after about 3 minutes, but the fan NEVER went above 2500 rpm! Fullscreen youtube produced the same result. I haven't put it to super heavy use, but in everything that I normally do, the fan hasn't gone about 2500 rpm since replacing the thermal compound. Quiet, quiet, quiet! In normal use, the temperature can be as low as high 30's to 50 degrees, and the heatsink is often a few degrees below it. Well worth the effort!
Did you also apply paste to the GPU?
Yes, sorry I applied AS5 to both. When I looked at the heatsink, it was pretty clear that it wouldn't lie perfectly flat onto the cpu/gpu. In fact, as I cleaned it the shiny parts that make direct contact with the processors deformed from the little pressure used to wipe them off. There are quite a few posts above saying they followed the thin-film method and not getting any contact at all, which is pretty obvious as to why once you look at the construction of the system. I was just hoping that I didn't apply too much to spill over, but the system works great now. For whatever reason, the fans would spin up to max around 65 degrees before, but now they don't even go above 2500 even around 80 degrees. Who knows why? It runs way cooler and quieter.
Bought a Macbook Air two weeks ago.
I applied the SMC update, installed Coolbook, and now added Artic Silver... overall my Macbook Air is now 10 degree cooler but still, it takes only 5 minutes on Youtube for the fan to jump at 6200rpm
I'm wondering if it would not be better to underclock the CPU a 1 or 1,2ghz, lock the fan a 3600rpm and then stop paying attention to cooling.
Could it be possible to do that by tweaking the SMC and/or the EFI?
Doing so would be OS-independant, which would be great because i mostly want to use Linux on the MBA, and today when i do so the fans gets very noisy in 30s, far more quicker than when i use OSX+Coolbook.
I applied the SMC update, installed Coolbook, and now added Artic Silver... overall my Macbook Air is now 10 degree cooler but still, it takes only 5 minutes on Youtube for the fan to jump at 6200rpm
I'm wondering if it would not be better to underclock the CPU a 1 or 1,2ghz, lock the fan a 3600rpm and then stop paying attention to cooling.
Could it be possible to do that by tweaking the SMC and/or the EFI?
Doing so would be OS-independant, which would be great because i mostly want to use Linux on the MBA, and today when i do so the fans gets very noisy in 30s, far more quicker than when i use OSX+Coolbook.
success
I just registered to say that I followed the instructions in this thread and my macbook air runs like a totally new machine. The temperature is consistently 10 degrees C lower than before, and the fan rarely kicks in at full speed anymore. Everything in the system feels more responsive. THANK YOU to everyone here!
quick notes:
*disassemly/reassembly was indeed easy
*my gpu and cpu did have way too much paste on them. i used towels and 70% alcohol to remove the old paste (from the cpu, gpu, and bottom of heatsink)
*applied a reasonable amount of arctic silver 5. gently spread it around to form a thin coat over the entire surface of cpu and gpu
*put heatsink in place, then lifted it to confirm that paste on chips made full contact.
*reassembled and i'm now extremely happy
*i'm also using coolbookcontroller with the lower-voltage settings posted earlier in this thread. i can't say how much of an effect this has compared to the new thermal paste, but it does help. i am not experiencing any problems from lower voltage.
thanks again!
p.s. Apple: wtf? you're causing yourself expensive tech support and bad publicity over such a simple / easily correctable problem. talk to whomever it is that you subcontract for macbook assembly and get this fixed.
I just registered to say that I followed the instructions in this thread and my macbook air runs like a totally new machine. The temperature is consistently 10 degrees C lower than before, and the fan rarely kicks in at full speed anymore. Everything in the system feels more responsive. THANK YOU to everyone here!
quick notes:
*disassemly/reassembly was indeed easy
*my gpu and cpu did have way too much paste on them. i used towels and 70% alcohol to remove the old paste (from the cpu, gpu, and bottom of heatsink)
*applied a reasonable amount of arctic silver 5. gently spread it around to form a thin coat over the entire surface of cpu and gpu
*put heatsink in place, then lifted it to confirm that paste on chips made full contact.
*reassembled and i'm now extremely happy
*i'm also using coolbookcontroller with the lower-voltage settings posted earlier in this thread. i can't say how much of an effect this has compared to the new thermal paste, but it does help. i am not experiencing any problems from lower voltage.
thanks again!
p.s. Apple: wtf? you're causing yourself expensive tech support and bad publicity over such a simple / easily correctable problem. talk to whomever it is that you subcontract for macbook assembly and get this fixed.
i reapplied arctic silver 5 to my old mba, it helps a bit. watching youtube makes the temp about 64-65c than before (70-72c). but it's still not a fix for the problem. it's still stuttering when watching youtube video after 6-7 minutes
the problem is fixed with the new 45nm processor i believe. but i feel robed with this old mba.
the problem is fixed with the new 45nm processor i believe. but i feel robed with this old mba.
I posted this on another thread, but thought i might get some ideas here too.
I tried to perform this procedure, but I'm stuck at the step of removing the heatsink. The screws are simply too small. I've gone all the way down to a #000 Phillips and I still cannot unscrew the heatsink.
I have a bad feeling that I may even have damaged the screw heads. Did you have any problem getting the screws undone? I looked at disassembly guides and the screws on their heatsink seems to be larger than mine.
I'm going to hunt for a #0000 Phillips tomorrow. But this whole thing is really getting me down.
I tried to perform this procedure, but I'm stuck at the step of removing the heatsink. The screws are simply too small. I've gone all the way down to a #000 Phillips and I still cannot unscrew the heatsink.
I have a bad feeling that I may even have damaged the screw heads. Did you have any problem getting the screws undone? I looked at disassembly guides and the screws on their heatsink seems to be larger than mine.
I'm going to hunt for a #0000 Phillips tomorrow. But this whole thing is really getting me down.
Some pics on oiling the Mac air fan
http://picasaweb.google.com/franssauermann/HowToOilANoisyMacbookAirFan#
http://picasaweb.google.com/franssauermann/HowToOilANoisyMacbookAirFan#
To anyone having troubles with a hot/noisy Macbook Air!!! Solution!!!
I'm new to macs and battled with this temp issue for ages. Kept getting temps up in the 70/80 degrees celsius.
After trying everything I could think of (including modding the heatsink) I decided to check what processes were running and found one printer management app chewing up 40% of my CPU load. I killed the application and my temps dropped and the fan fell silent! I wish I had written down the name of it now because I can't remember it but it was something to do with the printer. Just sort by CPU usage and you will find it!
Hope this helps someone!
I'm new to macs and battled with this temp issue for ages. Kept getting temps up in the 70/80 degrees celsius.
After trying everything I could think of (including modding the heatsink) I decided to check what processes were running and found one printer management app chewing up 40% of my CPU load. I killed the application and my temps dropped and the fan fell silent! I wish I had written down the name of it now because I can't remember it but it was something to do with the printer. Just sort by CPU usage and you will find it!
Hope this helps someone!
I'd also like to know how they'd respond. Seems like this is a trick they could teach the Geniuses to do easily enuf, but a normal computer consumer should not have to crack open his/her machine and carefully spread goo around
Ditto.
I have a strong suspicion that this would improve the performance of my MBA too (idle CPU temp is between 55 and 60 degrees Celsius) but I really don't think it's a good idea for all of us who want better performance to be taking apart our computers and playing around with goo.
We wait and see...
Never had any major issues, but had a really really noise fan problem which prompted me to take my air apart this week, I have a rev A so slightly different to the pics above, but the same in practice, oiled that up so now the bloody irritating noise has gone and my Air is back to virtually silent again.
Anyway, whilst i took the heatsink/plate off, have the same amount of thick gunk, not even spread evenly across, so i've ordered some AS5 due in a few days and will carry out the mod and see what benefits it brings. Fingers crossed!
Never had any major issues, but had a really really noise fan problem which prompted me to take my air apart this week, I have a rev A so slightly different to the pics above, but the same in practice, oiled that up so now the bloody irritating noise has gone and my Air is back to virtually silent again.
Anyway, whilst i took the heatsink/plate off, have the same amount of thick gunk, not even spread evenly across, so i've ordered some AS5 due in a few days and will carry out the mod and see what benefits it brings. Fingers crossed!
I switched to a Thermal Pad instead of Thermal Paste. Currently, Im at 36 deg C CPU temperature with 1800RPM fans and a 59 deg F ambient room temp.
Today I tried AS5 on my 09. week 10 refurb RevA air. The first time I apply just on the 2 chips, i guess the paste is too thin and the contact to heatsink is not enough. The cpu temp got up 80 quickly. I reapply again on both the chips and heatsink. This time looks better.
But after watched a whole 720p mkv movie, cpu still got 65C and fan speed run at 6200rpm. Overall, i didn't feel there is dramatic difference.
When CPU got up 60C, the fan will start to speed up.
But after watched a whole 720p mkv movie, cpu still got 65C and fan speed run at 6200rpm. Overall, i didn't feel there is dramatic difference.
When CPU got up 60C, the fan will start to speed up.
Well i did my AS5 mod last week, and whilst under high CPU load the fan does launch up to 6200, but this is quite rare, not to mention I set the fan to run at a minimum of 3200rpm which is basically silent and it never budges when watching youtube.
All in all a success!
All in all a success!
okay, listen up: I found this and this works real nice!
It lowers the fan to a rate you like (3500-4500 must be fine for most)...just test it:
http://horstr.blogspot.com/2008/04/dont-throw-your-macbook-air-out-just.html
The idea is to change some parameter in SMC with Terminal:
/Applications/smcFanControl.app/Contents/Resources/smc -k F0Mx -w $(python -c 'print hex(4500 << 2)[2:]') << copy paste, enter
You will hear the fan lower imediately!!!!!!
What I wonder is the folowing:
How can I make a script to do this line everytime I restart the mac. I think I have to do this, or?
Ányone can write me the script??
It lowers the fan to a rate you like (3500-4500 must be fine for most)...just test it:
http://horstr.blogspot.com/2008/04/dont-throw-your-macbook-air-out-just.html
The idea is to change some parameter in SMC with Terminal:
/Applications/smcFanControl.app/Contents/Resources/smc -k F0Mx -w $(python -c 'print hex(4500 << 2)[2:]') << copy paste, enter
You will hear the fan lower imediately!!!!!!
What I wonder is the folowing:
How can I make a script to do this line everytime I restart the mac. I think I have to do this, or?
Ányone can write me the script??
okay, listen up: I found this and this works real nice!
It lowers the fan to a rate you like (3500-4500 must be fine for most)...just test it:
http://horstr.blogspot.com/2008/04/dont-throw-your-macbook-air-out-just.html
The idea is to change some parameter in SMC with Terminal:
/Applications/smcFanControl.app/Contents/Resources/smc -k F0Mx -w $(python -c 'print hex(4500 << 2)[2:]') << copy paste, enter
You will hear the fan lower imediately!!!!!!
What I wonder is the folowing:
How can I make a script to do this line everytime I restart the mac. I think I have to do this, or?
Ányone can write me the script??
I've had this since my first MacBook Air that I bought about 2 months after it came out. Use automator to create a shell script.
if I am having heat problems with my BlackBook do you think it could be the same kind of problem??
Thanks for your reply. Since Im no good in these thing. Can you tell me how to use this automator with these lines of script?
And to use it at startup as well?
thanks