GRRRRR Steve Jobs Is A &$%*@!
This story could also be called another reason why Macs do require IT people for support.
After more than a decade of not owning a Mac (I was in Linux land for six years, and my current job involves being a Microsoft slut) I came back to Apple land with the purchase of a new 15.4" MacBook Pro. The machine is great- I love it, it runs both OS X Tiger and Vista which I need to have on there for work.
The laptop worked great plugged in, but then I got it home and it was discharged from being used without the power plugged in for a while. So I plugged the MagSafe connector in, and the notebook (Apple claims it's "not a laptop" if you call them about this issue...) immediately became unusably hot. It left a red mark on my leg. To be fair, I had heard horror stories about the MagSafe not being quite so safe after all. But after my totally positive iPod nano experience I had faith in Steve. This faith was misplaced. A friend of mine refers to him as The Old Dirty Bastard, apparently with good reason.
So I resigned myself to having to dissect my MacBook Pro. It took me four hours, but I finally discovered absurd amounts of what could only be described as nonconductive gray wax on the three conductive pads of the heat pipes, and the cores of the video, northbridge and CPU. I'm amazed the northbridge actually still works- the glob of wax was half on and half off of the core, and the half of the core that was exposed was discolored! So I scraped that crap off of the cores and the heat pipe, and applied a thin, even layer of nice silver bearing thermal compound to the cores. It took me another two hours to put everything back together, but it works and it now runs much cooler.
BONUS UPDATE
Cook an egg on your MacBook! This guy prefaces this as a joke. Rest assured, you could actually do this.
After more than a decade of not owning a Mac (I was in Linux land for six years, and my current job involves being a Microsoft slut) I came back to Apple land with the purchase of a new 15.4" MacBook Pro. The machine is great- I love it, it runs both OS X Tiger and Vista which I need to have on there for work.
The laptop worked great plugged in, but then I got it home and it was discharged from being used without the power plugged in for a while. So I plugged the MagSafe connector in, and the notebook (Apple claims it's "not a laptop" if you call them about this issue...) immediately became unusably hot. It left a red mark on my leg. To be fair, I had heard horror stories about the MagSafe not being quite so safe after all. But after my totally positive iPod nano experience I had faith in Steve. This faith was misplaced. A friend of mine refers to him as The Old Dirty Bastard, apparently with good reason.
Luckily there is extensive documentation of this issue. The ODB has tried to threaten Something Awful for posting pictures of the service manual for the MacBook Pro, which shows the recommended slathering of thermal grease, which is way too much.
So I resigned myself to having to dissect my MacBook Pro. It took me four hours, but I finally discovered absurd amounts of what could only be described as nonconductive gray wax on the three conductive pads of the heat pipes, and the cores of the video, northbridge and CPU. I'm amazed the northbridge actually still works- the glob of wax was half on and half off of the core, and the half of the core that was exposed was discolored! So I scraped that crap off of the cores and the heat pipe, and applied a thin, even layer of nice silver bearing thermal compound to the cores. It took me another two hours to put everything back together, but it works and it now runs much cooler.
Thanks, Apple, way to think differently.
BONUS UPDATE
Cook an egg on your MacBook! This guy prefaces this as a joke. Rest assured, you could actually do this.
posted by Nick at 11:59 AM
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