For a long time I have been suggesting that a hammer is the best cure for all things which emerge from the Apple Cargo Cult, but it turns out that I might have been wrong and it is better to put them in the oven.
Sterling over at iFixIT was having huge problems with heating problems on his MacBook Pro. Apparently, the geniuses at Apple decided that people would pay more money for a laptop which sets your groin on fire.
While most Apple fans are happy to live with this poor state of design rather than get a real computer that works, Sterling spent the weekend trying to improve on Apple’s design instead. Now since this is considered heresy in the Apple world, where you are not even allowed to replace a battery without permission from Steve Jobs without voiding your warranty, it is fairly clear that Sterling did not care. On an average day, his laptop hovered between 80 and 90ºC. One time he saw it climb as high as 102 C which was hot enough to make a nice cup of tea. Apple fanboys would tell you that this is an additional feature.
In March, in living proof that you get what you pay for, it died and his novel answer was to reflow it. This involved heating it up until the balls of solder melt back into their assigned spots.
He disconnected all eleven connectors and three heat sinks from the logic board, and turned the oven up to 340º F. He baked it for seven minutes.
After it cooled, he reapplied thermal paste, put it all back together, and cheered when it booted. It ran great for the next eight months.
Then, two weeks ago, it died again so he rebaked it and it ran again.
