In pictures: successful 2015 MBP battery replacement and thermal paste refresh

[Andrey84]

Dear users of vintage MacBooks,

I wanted to share with you that it’s very easy to DIY-replace the MBP 2015 battery and thermal paste.

Apple quoted me "£250-£600" to replace the battery a month ago! I’ve done it for £58.

I was initially discouraged to do this, as the iFixIt guide has 46 steps. However, it includes the way-over-the-top solution to remove the adhesive tape, which makes 40 steps unnecessary!

Results

1. Too early to say about the battery performance. My previous battery lasted for about 2 hours with a mix of YouTube / Forums / Googling. This one seems to be better, however not by much. I haven’t charged it yet though, I’m typing right after the upgrade. I’ll need to test it over a month and update the post.

2. Thermal performance & noise - a MASSIVE improvement. When Sequoia loaded after a restart, it used to spin the fans up loudly each time. I’ve now turned the laptop on off and on twice, and it didn’t happen! I never thought it’s possible to get such good results with such simple steps.

Products I used:

1. ASMARK Macbook Pro A1398 Battery Replacement for 15-inch, £58 on Amazon
2. ARCTIC MX-4 Premium Performance Thermal Paste, £4.5 on Amazon

YouTube videos I used:

1. Battery Replacement Guide for 2015 15-inch MBP
2. Thermal Paste Replacement Guide
3. Thermal Paste and Fan Cleaning Guide (I didn’t take the fans off)

Some photos:

1. After opening the Mac - 9 years of dust. You can see clumps of dust sticking out from where the fans meet the heatsink. There was A LOT of dust in there.

2. The process of removing the old battery. It's fastened by the double-sided sticky tape. After 9 years the tape was weakened, so it wasn't as difficult to remove as in the video.

3. Both battery and heatsink removed. I had to be very careful with the trackpad cable.

4. Shiny CPU, old thermal paste removed. Not sure what's the smaller rectangular chip to the right - Platform Controller Hub (PCH)?

5. Applying the new thermal paste (update: I agree it's too much paste)

6. New battery installed, dust removed, heatsink screwed back on. Need to re-connect the trackpad cable. Then, ready to close up and test!

 

[raythompsontn]

Nice that you were able to accomplish the task. That does appear to be too much paste. Only a thin layer is required. That excess will squeeze out and may cause dust to attach to the excess. Fortunately the paste is non-conductive.

 

[Andrey84]

Nice that you were able to accomplish the task. That does appear to be too much paste. Only a thin layer is required. That excess will squeeze out and may cause dust to attach to the excess. Fortunately the paste is non-conductive.

Yes I also thought that it's too much paste when I saw it initially. I decided to keep it - the excess will just flow to the sides and won't cause any harm.

 

[xboxbml]

I'm gonna do the thermal paste on my machines soon. 2012 really needs it bad. It throttles up the fans pretty quick..

 

[curnalpanic]

Nice. Looks like you need a bit more thermal paste though.

 

[Frieg]

The thermal paste replacement was only a success if you do not experience severe pump out starting after approx. two weeks, so watch the temps closely. in my experience all desktop grade pastes perform very bad in laptops, only the PTM7950 works for me in my 2015. I tried the MX-4 and I had dream temps the first days and then rising rapidly until I had to repaste after 2 weeks. horrible.

 

[Scoot65]

Interesting post, thanks for posting! Hope it all continues to work fine fro you.👍

 

[Madhatter32]

I did this about 4 years ago on my 2014 MBP. Just make an X with the thermal paste and you'll be good to go. It will spread by itself. Made a decent performance improvement but I am not sure if it was the thermal paste or a thorough cleaning of the dust from the fans and other internals. Too much paste is not optimal from a performance point of view from what I read at the time.

 

[Andrey84]

The thermal paste replacement was only a success if you do not experience severe pump out starting after approx. two weeks, so watch the temps closely. in my experience all desktop grade pastes perform very bad in laptops, only the PTM7950 works for me in my 2015. I tried the MX-4 and I had dream temps the first days and then rising rapidly until I had to repaste after 2 weeks. horrible.

Wow, thanks for that. Will monitor!

I did this about 4 years ago on my 2014 MBP. Just make an X with the thermal paste and you'll be good to go. It will spread by itself. Made a decent performance improvement but I am not sure if it was the thermal paste or a thorough cleaning of the dust from the fans and other internals. To much paste is not optimal from a performance point of view from what I read at the time.

Yes there was A LOT of dust, especially where the air from the fans meets the heatsink. Clumps of dust. You can see some sticking out in the first picture.

You're right, it's hard to tell which action - de-dusting or thermal paste refresh - had more of the effect.