Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

EpicA

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 15, 2021
1
0
So I cleaned my Mac Mini mid 2010 yesterday. Basically took everything out of the box cleaned things out (including fan).

It is 4 springs and I think they are to go with the screws that secure the heatsink.

Should they be on top of the heatsink or underneath?

If on top, doesn't this add too much preassure?

Also on contact on the circuitboard came loose it is the one with turquose around it in this picture (far right):

Mini.jpg


I think this goes to the light that shows if the mac is powered on, that is a the right of the CD & DVD at the front of the Mac Mini. Does this connection and the thing attached to it have any other purpose? I mean the Mac Mini works fine without it, it seems.

Also I didn't have any thermal paste and the thermal paste that was attached was very dry. Is it important to apply new thermal paste between the heatsink and CPU & GPU's, or can this wait a bit? Is it better to remove the old thermal paste before I get some new to put there or should I keep the old totally dryed out thermal paste on there? Is there any dangers running the computer without proper thermal paste?


UPDATE

So I changed the position of the screws and it looks better now.

But now the fan seems to be on full speed all the time and it's noisy, so not a great thing.

Could i be the contact that was broken?

Or something else I mean the fan is attached and works the computer works fine I'm using it now.

But also one of the smaller contact (male) that attach to the 3:rd contact on the board (female) seems to not be around i.e. can't find this chord, what is this for? Where does the male contact and chord come from?
 
Last edited:
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.