Attempting To Fix My Computers (HIGH FIRE RISK!)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ก.พ. 2024
- * This video is a little bit different from my typical content, because lately, my computers have been struggling to export some of my longer videos, and honestly, they've all been down on performance for quite some time. So today, I'm attempting to repair my laptops in hopes of getting a computer upgrade. And don't worry, I've got a BIG project dropping next week, so stay tuned!!*
Hi. Self taught repair person here who has done that exact repair on a 2015 15 inch MacBook. Here are my comments.
-Overall, great video and solid high quality repairs. I would have definitely bought these laptops from you and not worried about anything failing. You also have great energy and music choice!
-The fires you alluded to generally happen if a battery is sufficiently charged before you attempt a repair. Discharging the batteries completely before handling is the best way to prevent catastrophic failure.
-On the 15 inch battery you had, I also bought a battery with a “skirt,” I just folded it down and ran the trackpad cable over it. Didn’t feel the greatest but the computer still works. So the first battery was correct, but It’s more important that you feel comfortable working with the parts you have and the second battery was definitely easier to install.
- When you blow fans out, it is important to hold the blades in place just to ensure they don’t spin too fast while blasting them. I highly doubt you did any damage to your fans but it’s always best practice.
-On the 15 inch, the overheating issue has nothing to do with your laptop battery. Those fans were being suffocated by all that dust! And the thermal paste was likely dry as well from years of work. Good job taking care of both issues! And nice job spreading the paste with the spatula. That’s the best way to ensure proper application!
-When ripping off the battery protective film, I would have removed the trackpad cable again. The ribbon part is what’s fragile and I’ve ruined them before by being lazy and not disconnecting.
-Great job protecting the screen too! That specific screen has a coating which can be damaged easily.
-Lastly I loved how delicately you handled the computers. You took many steps to ensure things stayed organized and that you were careful with the components leading to no damage being done. You also demonstrated proper recycling of the dead batteries which is incredibly important.
Oh yeah. One more thing. If the batteries didn’t work when reconnecting your laptop, there are a few keyboard shortcuts that would allow you to reset some low level system functions to get them working again. Google “Reset SMC and PRAM” to learn these shortcuts.
This is a perfect explanation, thank you! I've pinned it to the top so that others can benefit from this information.
@@Meg.August I was pretty much gonna say the same thing as he did. You remind me of myself at your age.
I’ve owned a computer repair company specializing in Apple computers for a long time now. I was definitely going to tell you to hold the fans down with your finger. And then use the canned air full blast, both the fans, and the heat sinks. Changing the thermal paste was not totally necessary, but it’s definitely a good thing to do when you have it. I wish we had a Battery Recycling place near me. Unfortunately, our batteries go into the trash. Hope you enjoy your new MacBook Pro! I’m using a new 16 inch M3 max now myself. As well as a new Mac mini at my desk. We have custom PC desktop computers at each desk for diagnostics at the office.
Great explanations!
The concern with spinning up fans too fast isn't(just) damaging the fans, it's damaging the mainboard because they will act as a power generator. Nowadays I'd hope that all fans and/or mainboards have protection against that though.
That sums up all the little things that can be improved for the next time!
Overall, very good job from Meg, especially if she's new to this!
This is what Right To Repair tries to accomplish, for people like you and me, that we can change out consumeable parts like the battery and the ssd, but since apple started to glue in batteries and solder ssds to the logic board, i stopped buying their machines, i still own a 2012 unibody (non retina) just because it does everything i need a macbook to do, and i love the repairability of that machine. Great video! You show us that even a person with no knowledge can tackle this!
Sad indeed. From being able remove the battery with just a coin (my old PowerBook G4) to everything being soldered and glued in (fast forward to my 2019 MBP)
@@yega3k They came from everything for the Pro user like opening the entire machine through a door with a latching handle, one door swing away and you could upgrade what you wanted, or lifting up the keyboard to get acces to everything, need more power? Just wack another pack in the laptop, 10 hours of batterylife for the Pismo PB? You got it! They forget the pro users, the tinkerers, and they focus on how do we extract more money out of our users? If the ssd dies in my 2012 unit, i am 12 screws away from taking it out. If macos ever stops supporting intel completely, i switch over to linux for good on that mac, no need to upgrade for me. I got out when they went to soldered on ram, this was the reason for me not to buy anymore apple laptops
It's great to be able to repair your machines yourself, but yes I've heard the same thing about the newer models. Thanks for watching!
If you do a lot of repairs around your house or looking to get into DIY repair with all your belongings (or as many as possible) then you should DEFINITELY get an iFixit screwdriver set. The best one comes in a velcro container that unfolds.
These are a strong recommend for all DIY-ers.
Thermal paste fills in the microscopic gaps between the CPU IHS and heatsink to provide the best contact for thermal transfer. Paper towels or coffee filters work best for cleaning with alcohol. Also good to blow out the dust from the CPU fans once in a while.
Thanks for the tip and for watching!
If you use paper towels, make sure they don't leave a bunch of stuff behind so you want a fairly strong paper towel.
I tend to use a few cotton swabs cause then I can precisely scrub the surface and get into nooks/crannies around the die.
Standard!
Carefull with the compressed air. If you spin the fans fast enough, it will generated eletricity from its motor and can fry some things. Its rare and difficult to do, but knowing it can happen its enough to prevent a dead computer :)
@@altairtodescatto This is not true. Fans have diodes built in to give directionality to the flow of electricity and therefore cannot go anywhere but to ground.
It's good to see someone who doesn't look like a tech person tackle this kind of parts replacement/maintenance. With proper preparation and patience you can achieve a lot.
Thank you! Prep and patience is such a huge factor in it (and I'm always learning how to improve on that lol)
As a former Apple repair technician, this was an incredibly charming video. You did way better than most would. Right to repair is supposed to not only make everything repairable but also EASILY repairable. These were some of the last macbooks that were
"easily" repairable.
This was a fun watch, nice bit of nostalgia!
So glad you enjoyed this video! Thanks for watching
When cleaning the fans with compressed air just hold the fans with your fingers and spray away. The compressed air can make them spin well beyond what they are capable of and break them.
Good to know, thank you
@@Meg.Augustalso using compressed air without holding them can cause them to turn into a generator, sending voltage down into the motherboard, and potentially fry components on the motherboard. otherwise excellent video :)
Well done!
Lots of good practices being shown: take your time, read and reread instructions, don’t force things, plan the work and workspace, BE SAFE!
I think it’s great to show how approachable these jobs can be if you’re just thoughtful and careful. TH-cam already has plenty of cavalier idiots breaking stuff because their macho dial is set to 11 😊
Thank you, Kev! Yes, so much of it is proper research and preparation! Thanks for the ongoing support!
It seems like you have no professional knowledge at all. Did you miss how she did not protect her eyes, face, upper body and arms?
@@_TheDudeAbides_ Well it’s true that when I learned how to bring the spindle speed on an ST506 back into spec using an oscilloscope Lithium batteries hadn’t been invented.
Whoever did the music is a genius!
Thanks! I edit all my videos myself
Well done Meg, glad you did not have any fire, was worried when you showed the battery being taken out with a metal screwdriver lol. Just a little tip for next time, you don't have to put the thermal paste on both the heatsink and the cpu/gpu. Just spread it on top of the cpu/gpu, It's not a problem with non conductive paste, the excess will push out when the heatsink is put on, but its less messy that way. Hope you enjoy your new laptop!😀
Thanks very much! I'm also glad I did not have a fire! And thanks for the tip, there was lots of conflicting information online so I went with this method. So far it has been working great and keeping it nice and cool. I'm also loving the new laptop!
@@Meg.August 😀
Nice work Meg! Way to show that with a little elbow grease and determination, you can do many things that you may have thought impossible. Knowing how to service your own electronics is an invaluable skill.
Thank you! I'm enjoying learning these new skills to have in my 'toolbox'!
Sweet!
Great job, thats gotta feel acomplishing knowing if you sent them out to be fixed how much it would have costed you.
Love the diy mindset!
Thanks, yes, it's great to try and learn these skills for yourself to save money!
So so love the choice of music in the editing...especially when a crucial moment is about to happen...you ROCK mademoiselle...keep those coming...Next week on Meg August DIY, Meg replace her house foundation....hahaha...have a great week
Thank you for the kind words! Have a great week as well!
but you are so welcome...@@Meg.August
I just stumbled upon this video, so if this is the first time you're doing this kind of repair, you did an amazing job! Dealing with fluffy pillows is always nerve-wracking, especially if you don´t really know what you're doing. Patience (and a decent amount of isopropyl alcohol) is key, and you did a great job with that.
Thank you so much! Yes, the swollen batteries were very nerve-wracking. I'm amazed at how helpful the isopropyl alcohol was. If I were to do it again, i would get one of those little squeeze bottles that were shown in the instructions that came with the battery so I could 'inject' more isopropyl under the batteries - I feel like it would have helped a ton!
Great stuff Meg, too many people are too scared to take on things likes this, the money you can save is incredible when it comes to laptops.
Thank you! It can be nerve-wracking for sure! I do a lot of research before diving into these projects to build up my courage. The skills you take away, the feeling of accomplishment, and the money saved is very motivating!
For future reference, 99% isopropyl alcohol (which is what you really should use on electronics) is not conductive and does not leave deposits, so it's save to spill in your laptop. Heck, you can pull the motherboard and wash it with warm soap and water as long as you let it dry completely after.
I love your patience with everything and that you take time to study the instructions and always staying positive 👍🏼
Amazing Barbie ❤
If i may give tou a little advice: Next time when you undusting your fans, hold them still. They generatie electricity when they spinn while blowing them out. I got so much luck with my system for not shortcuit my motherbord. JayzTwoCents made a video about it, that blowing the fans causes to generate energy what it's backing into your motherbord and "could" fry or shortcuit the components. And Macintosh is really expensive to repair or replace 👍. Further all nicely done for replacing the batteries.
That's a great tip, thank you! And thanks for watching
1. lifebrand, eh. "Tell us you're Canadian, without telling us you're Canadian."
2. When you blow out the air (in the future), please hold the fans. Not doing so, could spin them beyond rated speeds, and damage the lil motors in 'em.
nice job not many novice people would attempt a battery replacement and mini service/clean on a laptop but your video clearly shows the do's and dont's and how to do it well !! Great content. also excellent responsibility on battery recycling and not just throwing them in the normal trash,,
Thank you! Yes, it is very important to properly dispose of these batteries because they're so at risk for explosion/fires!
Great video Meg. Couldn't help thinking about the 4 or 5 laptops I've binned thinking they were broken! Maybe they were salvagable? Too late now, lol
I must say I’m very impressed. You did a risky job carefully and didn’t wreck it so well done. Found your channel and already enjoying your content so keep it up. I know you usually work on vehicles but it shows you can literally turn your hand to anything. Looking forward to even more challenging repairs, on whatever you choose to fix.thank you.
Thanks for the kind words! I plan to tackle a bunch of projects that would have once intimidated me, so I will keep the videos coming!
Just goes to show it’s the state of mind that defeats people so good on you for conquering that aspect. Now looking forward to more great videos. @@Meg.August
Meg, I enjoyed watching you doing the job of a computer technician!
I love watching anyone Do it Yourself (DIY); specifically your older laptop computers!
Congratulations on selling your old laptops to then upgrading to a newer, more powerful MacBook Laptop Computer.
Well done, Meg!
Thanks very much Robert!
@@Meg.August It would be so wrong to soooo right to jump scare you as you are doing that.... :):)
Ya made my morning! Thanks for the vid and happy Saturday
Thank you! Have a great weekend!
It is truly amazing to see someone like yourself with no experience or knowledge of anything you're tackling. Taking on any kind of project you can potentially want to fix. No hesitation, reasons, or mainly excuses of why you can't! You simply get ready, set & go! Im sure you do some research, but unlike most men & women, you don't find excuses as to why you can't! I wish you nothing but the best & continued success in all that you set out to accomplish! My hope would be to find your twin somewhere in my area of living. Lol
Tony 🇺🇸
Thanks, Tony! Yes, there is a ton of research and backend work that I do prior to diving in to a project because my fundamental knowledge of these projects is still quite limited but I learn more each time and getting more confident with every project.
Well, that was an excellent outcome!! It just goes to prove that a positive attitude wins through!
Thanks very much, Bernard!
I work on these macbooks on a regular basis and do battery replacements. You lucked out on yours as the battery that was in there initially more than likely was a aftermarket battery. OEM batteries aren't as easy to take out. I personally use pallet knives to remove them, but can appreciate that you as a novice are using plastic cards. One suggestion is to also do a SMC reset and PRAM reset for them. Overall well done with the batteries. With the thermal paste you definitely put too much, but it probably is still better than Apple's thermal paste. All you need is a thin spread on the CPU. Too much thermal paste does reduce the effectiveness of the thermal transfer to the heat sink.
You're right the one battery was an aftermarket battery, and the other one (on the 15") was original. Thanks for these tips, after all the comments I've realized I put too much paste on but thankfully it's staying way cooler than it was before.
Those bulged batteries are called (Spicy Pillows) in the computer world.
Lol! Good to know!
Good on you for repairing your own laptops :D Very clean precise repair.
Got to say you are a breath of fresh air. Hope to see more in future. Please keep up the great content. 😊👍❤
Thanks very much, I appreciate that! I'll keep the videos coming!
Great job Meg, You are definitely a jack of all trades.
Thanks! I like to think of myself as a Jill of all trades 😉
Absolutely @@Meg.August
Great job!!! Incredible video. One tip though. Always hold the fans when blowing them out with air. Turning them too fast turns them into generators and they can send enough electricity into the system to harm some components.
lol the welding gloves and the casserole dish is correct but couldn't help but chuckle out loud lol!!!
Lol! 😊
Talented on your DIY repairs and you make it fun 🤩
Thank you!
Good for you 👍 good job taking on something new and challenging.
Thank you, Jeremy!
great job meg just watched all 11 videos they where all great really enjoyed watching them keep up the good work
Thank you so much, Craig! That's great to hear. Really appreciate the support
As a repair technician who has worked on hundreds of computers including many MacBooks, I think you did really well!
The sole idea of fixing this and not buying one of these garbage M1+ or T2 chip equipped MacBook, is something I can respect! (they have many soft locks and firmware on a soldered SSD so that the Mac dies when the SSD reaches end of life. They're built like smartphones basically)
Lovely video, and i realy like that you challanges yoursself to do stuff you never done before!
Thank you! I'm really enjoying the challenge
Good job, I have a few additions:
That particular 15 inch hasn't got a dedicated GPU, they have the EMC2909 and "MacBookPro11,4" designation while those with a dedicated additional GPU have EMC2910 and "MacBookPro11,5".
The thermal paste usually is there to equalize that the chip die and the heatsink contact plate aren't perfectly smooth and even so the paste fills that up; for chips with very low heat (for example on VRAM modules, controller ICs, VRM stages on consumer mainboards etc.) there are also thermal pads they're less conductive but still okay for that job and from the overclocker scene there's liquid metal, it contains the metal Gallium (melting point around 30°C, so at the reference ambient temperature of 20°C it's solid but if you take it into your hand - the inner temperature of the human body is 37°C it melts) much more thermally conductive than paste, that can compensate a weak thermal design partially, because it conducts the heat away nimbler, however you have to carefully apply that, from factory it was only in some enthusiast (high-end) gaming laptops a few years ago and now on a large scale in the PS5.
To improve cooling I recommend to install Macs Fan Control, it can show the temperatures on the status bar and you can also adjust the fans to rev up earlier (Apple is letting the fans begin to spin very late - around 80°C on some MacBooks and then rather slow while others already really ramped up).
You should also re-calibrate to the new battery: www.lifewire.com/calibrate-macbook-air-battery-2260856
tl;dr: Charge it fully up and keep it on AC for at least two hours, then disconnect the charger and continue working/using it for a few hours on battery until it gets empty and shuts down and then keep it discharged for at least five hours (maybe over night?) before connecting it again to the charger and fully charge it.
Hope to see some more tech stuff in the future, some soldering would be nice for example to replace faulty (bulged) capacitors.
I myself repaired a 24" 1080p LCD TV around a year ago, it didn't fail with smoke, but didn't power on at all, then checked some parts and found out on the web that someone had that issue on the exact same model and the diodes of the power supply were faulty, after changing these it worked again, I checked the diodes and bingo! they were faulty, ordered new ones, replaced them and it works fine again.
And I got a bunch of softmodded gaming consoles in my collection and also two hard modded, a PS1 with common modchip so it can play burned CDs and a Xbox 360 I sent to a specialist to RGH it, in November I got a GameCube with failing DVD drive so it was cheap and I modded it with Picoboot (it uses a off the shelf Raspberry Pi Pico instead of classic custom built modchips), so now it runs Swiss so I can play ROMs from SD card.
Great video! How much did you get the new laptop for?
Another great and informative video!!! Great content and very interesting!!! Keep it up and have a great day!!!
Thanks very much, Terry! Happy Sunday!
Nice job, I do love your f150!
Thank you! I love it too
Hi Meg 👋🏻 You did an amazing job 👍🏻 way to go my friend 🙂 Perseverance and patience goes a long way, stay safe and take care .
God Bless 🙏🏻 Appreciate you!
Thank you very much! Have a great week!
@Meg.August Thank you, you as well 🙂👋🏻
I randomly saw your video for the first time and wanted to close it because I was looking at another video and then I saw that you were driving a manual car. At the 1st minute, I watched the video until the end, it was an excellent video, only the thermal paste seemed a bit too much, ahahah I subscribed, nice videos, I will watch all of them, keep going :)
Glad you enjoyed the video! Manuals are the best! Thanks for the sub and for watching
And just when you think this girl is good, she breaks out the intricate work of dealing with a laptop and blows your mind. I have not one but two inoperable macbooks collecting dust because I thought I could fix...... you're a superstar Meg
Thank you, Rob! That's very kind
Awsome Job, Meg. I like to see all of your videos. Greetings from bavaria, Germany
Thank you, Alex!
You nailed it. Great Job!
Thanks very much!
Hi!
Great video for somebody like you, who's attempting this for first time. A few things I'd suggest
1. Very important: always hold fans with you fingers. These are basically motors that it given electricity would spin, but the opposite is also true. If spinned, they PRODUCE electricity. Hence the motherboard may blow due to them spinning.
2. Always first check for the parts you are swapping. They should look the same, like the battery in thid case.
3. Thermal paste is used to fix the 'irregular surface ' of the heatsink. If you get a chance then zoom into the heatsink gou will find its extremely uneven but not actually visible to the eye. Thermal paste fixes this issue.
4. This shouldn't actually happen, but in case a screw doesn't open, do not force it. First open the laptop and keep the keyboard in such a way that you actually dont put the pressure on screen as jt can break too.
5. The way you removed the battery is actually veey much okay, in case it still wont come out, use a dropper or syringe to drop a few drops under the battery by wedging the card in between.
6. Never ever use screw drivers or something metallic to:
Remove a battery
A connector.
Last but not least, you should always disconnect the battery as the first thing, no matter whst you do.
your reactions made the videos way more entertaining 😁.. but i wanted to say truely great job for doing that 👏
Thank you, appreciate that!
Excellent job, both on the work you did and your battery handling precautions. (FYI, the main risk of batteries catching fire, whether they're swollen or not, comes from tearing or puncturing a cell. But the way MacBook batteries are glued in, the chances of either of those things happening are high.) Only one pro tip (and yes, I am a professional computer technician and IT consultant with over 30 years of experience): If you plan to do more laptop repairs, get yourself a set of good small-head screwdrivers in flat blade, Phillips, Torx and, for MacBooks, pentalobe. The ones that are included with parts you buy online often have poorly made heads that can ruin your screws. One can certainly splurge for an iFixit set with every bit you might ever possibly need, but it's not necessary to that kind of money on this. I mostly use a pair of Husky 8-in-1 mini screwdrivers with replaceable bits, one that has 4 sizes of flat blade and 4 sizes of Phillips, and the other has 8 sizes of Torx. I bought both of those for about $9 apiece at my local Home Depot. I only had to shop an online specialty store for my pentalobe driver, and even that wasn't more than $10.
Anyway, your video came up in my feed because I subscribe to a number of tech-related channels. I've subscribed to yours because I see you do a lot of DYI on your vehicles, so maybe you'll teach me a thing or two about keeping my elderly motor vehicles in good working order.
Thanks for the comment and for the feedback! Appreciate the sub, and I hope you enjoy the upcoming videos!
Really glad I found your channel. I’m new to home tech repair and I’m just about to replace the battery on my 2014 MacBook Pro and I’m nervous as the iFixit website classes it as Difficult.
What batteries did you buy? The ones in the cardboard boxes looked professional with instructions, tools etc
That's great to hear! I bought the batteries off amazon and just found the ones that had the best reviews for my year and model off the back of the computer lid. I'm not sure about the 2014 but my 2015 had multiple battery types, so you may have to look at the battery model number too which would require opening up the back of the computer lid (10 tiny screws which requires the Mac specific Pentalobe Screwdriver). Some battery kits include the tools some don't, but definitely try and find the ones with the tools because I personally wouldn't have been able to do this job without those plastic cards (you don't want to use anything metal)! Best of luck! You got it!
It's good practice to run the battery dead before removing it. Not mandatory but if you're worried about it catching fire that'll help.
I respect this. I'm the type of nerd that would happily spend a day taking a desktop apart and working on it, I don't think I'd take a laptop apart though. because they're so customised, the chances of me being able to fix more than only a few issues is minimal.
One quick note, when you blow the fan remember to hold it and prevent it from spinning so it won't generate electricity back to the computer
Thank you, will do that next time!
@@Meg.August Anyway keep up with the good work, and keep exploring
Just a bit a of advice for the future, when it comes to putting on the thermal paste all you need to do is put it on the processor side, when you put the copper plate back on it will spread even, but as a first time replacement you did a fantastic job!
Thanks for tip! After all the comments, I've definitely realized I put too much on, but hey, it's working better than it was and I'll definitely remember that for next time. Thanks for watching and for commenting!
I applaud you for repairing & cleaning your items before selling them. I sell my items on fb very easily due to this.
It's so worth it! The little bit of detailing and maintenance prior to selling really pays off.
I hope your back what doesn’t catch on fire Mac book 🙏🙏🙏
If that was a cheaper battery, it will only last about a year before losing a lot of its total charge capacity over a few months. It doesn't matter much to you, since you sold them, but for anyone else looking to replace their batteries, just be warned. I've been using NewerTech batteries for over 20 years and they work great.
I love batery replasment. And batery recovery 🙂
I should open up my Alienware laptop and do all the same stuff. Some of my keys are getting a little non-responsive, and last time that happened while I was still under service contract it was because the battery was swelling up.
Lithium is so crazy!! Worth it to look up the video's of people tossing raw lithium or sodium into a pool! I am not a chemist, but this is why there aren't naturally occurring versions of either of them, they are always combined with something like Sodium Dioxide, where the 2 oxygen atoms stabilize the sodium into something crazy useful and a lot more stable.
Lithium is crazy! Before doing this project I watched a few videos of people mishandling them and wow, they aren't something to be messed with that's for sure!
Good luck with your laptop! Hope it goes well
btw, me being an IT tech that went to college, never try to replace macbook batteries when they are charged. Run the laptop till it doesn't have a charge. It takes the energy out of the battery when replacing to prevent battery explosion.
Just an FYI, Do not blow a fan and make it spin, it will send voltage back through the wire and could fry something. always hold the fan blades while blowing.
It's so funny so many people have commented that here and I never once came across that tip when I was doing my research before doing this project!! Next time I'll definitely hold the fans! Thanks for watching and for the tip!
Awesome and professionally performed repair
Thank you!
just leaving footprints for the youtube algo, great video
Absolutely right what you said - anyone can learn the skills - taking the first step is the scariest thing 👍👍
Indeed! I'm currently working on my hardest project yet and really having to repeat this to myself!
Good job Megatron
Great job on the repairs. Your approach to safety and taking your time worked out well. My only critique is not to clean your screen when the computer is turned on. Again, great job.
Thanks for the tip and the support!
17:47 GoPro beeping I'm sure that to you it sounded like a gunshot 😂☠️ Heart racing lol
It scared the heck out of me!
Never doubt yourself. Always give it a go (within reason).
Thank you!
My MacBook same as your 13inch it sometimes when it’s not logged in won’t show it’s charging on the lock screen but when I log in it does so it’s not something to stress about because at the end of the day as owners of Mac’s we just have to listen to what it wants so all is good I’m happy you did it to your Mac books to replace the batteries that’s impressive
Pro advice , when you use compressed air hold a fan so it does not spin, when it spin it create voltages and it could potentially break motherboard (if spins too fast)
It's so funny, I never came across this tip before doing this project but so many people have said the same thing! Very good to know! Thank you!
spicy pillows. most of the time it's people going too fast and not taking care while swapping them. metal tools rather than plastic spudgers. also macs have tighter tolerances than PCs, which means it's far more common for a random to get in there and move a cable 1mm too far and crack something.
I definitely wanted to take my time with this one!
Great video!
May I ask where you order the battery 🔋 and the feet for your MacBook?
On amazon!
I literally had a battery catch fire on me when I used a metal tool. At that point I had repaired at least 50 iphones. I was getting a little cocky and I said this is totally fine (remote job).
I am just glad that I did not suffer severe burns outside of some ouchies on my finger.
It's awesome seeing a woman doing this for herself and setting an example for other women and girls.
Thank you! I appreciate that!
In reference to what the other commenter said in refrence to the fans he was definitely right about holding the blades so the bearings didn't burn out being spun by the compressed air. Another important thing to know is if those fans spin fast they will act like a generator and feed electricity into the computer potentially damaging components
One time I had a computer that would get hot really easily, so I kept blowing out the fans and it only seemed to help a little bit. Eventually I got frustrated and completely removed the fans and dissambled them and found that the fans had trapped so much dust and lint inside that they had created a layer of felt, like on clothes dryer lint trap screens. I guess that brand of laptop was known for having poorly designed fans. Had I not completely removed and dissambled the fans, I never would have known because the felt was inside the fans under a layer of tape. They looked great from the outside, but were hiding the true problem right below the surface. My laptop ran very cool after I removed the felt blockage.
As an aside, you mentioned that the computer screws don't need to be torqued to specification as critically as when dealing with cars. When you do car repairs, do you use the shop manuals that are recommended by the manufacturer to get the torque specs? I purchased them for my vehicle and they were such a confidence boost, especially when I'm working on systems that I have never worked on before. I'm the only one I've ever heard of that uses them outside of mechanics at dealerships though, so I was curious if you used them too?
Thermal paste works by filling in gaps on surfaces to allow for better heat transfer. At the microscopic level, the two metal surfaces look like sand paper. Imagine squishing two pieces of sand paper together, sand side to sand side. Because they aren't perfectly smooth, some of the bumps on each piece of paper would touch and some wouldn't so the total amount of area touching between the two pieces would actually be much less than the total area of the pieces of sand paper. In short, there would be small gaps between the sheets of sandpaper. The thermal paste works like putting toothpaste between the two pieces of sand paper. The toothpaste would flow between and around every bump on each rough surface of the two pieces of sand paper when pressed together so no matter if the bumps on each side touched or not, they would be connected via the toothpaste. It would be like if the two pieces were truly smooth, even at the microscopic level. Now the total area connecting the two pieces of sand paper would be equal to the size of the pieces of sand paper. More area means heat can more quickly flow between the two surfaces, ie processor to heat sink. Faster heat flow away from the processor means cooler temperatures means better performance. I think that you also applied too much thermal paste to your CPU, because usually the instructions say to put a little dot in the middle and let it spread when it is compressed, not to squgee it out all over the processor like you did, like making a PB&J, but maybe your instructions said otherwise? I think this is the recommended practice as to make sure the thermal paste spreads out evenly over the two metal surfaces so that one part of the CPU or GPU don't cool unevenly. I think it should still work better than the old thermal paste that was not too healthy anymore though. There are a lot of varied opinions about which practices are best when applying thermal compound, so I was curious if the instructions that came with your package were different than the dot method?
Love your attitude that if other people have been trained to do something, so can you! Someone out there had to build it at some point, so it must be possible to do it again. Thanks for posting!
Thanks for taking the time to leave this comment, and for watching! I do a bunch of research before diving in to these projects and note down my torque specs online. With regards to thermal paste, there was lots of conflicting information online, so I went with this approach, and hopefully it will keep it nice and cool and so far it has worked much better than it was previously.
Hey Meg, awesome work! Just to let you know, feel free to dress for the part if you can. Can't wait to see what you bring to the table!
Thanks! I just dress in what's comfortable for me, which is what I wear everyday lol
Meg, you are very impressive intellectual,highly, motivated, and great confidence. Keep it up, as we go through lifespan learning is has no limits. Just know when working with laptop computers always ground yourself to the laptop with a strap to your wrist.
Thank you!
Hey Meg, You have done an amazing job. 😊
Thank you!
Good work and not being afraid to try something new. With the thermal paste just to the die, shiny part. No need for it on the heat sinks. Also macbooks will run full speed for temperatures but also missing sensors, possibly even a failed battery. But you gave them new life and not a landfill so yay
Thanks for the tip! And yes, definitely need to dispose of those properly!
I used to own a macbook pro retina 2015 but had to sell it because the motherboard got fried. It was still working but not that fast. I now own an HP pavilion x360 touchscreen notebook.
Wonderful fix! Did you get the MacBook M1 Pro max from marketplace too? I have same color as you but M1 Pro non max variant. It’s fast and though I don’t use full potential, it’s my best computer albeit being very expensive. Also, my main computer is a Lenovo laptop. Not as fast, but still going strong almost 7 years. I got my Mac on sale from local best buy little over 2 years 💻
No cooler has an arbitrarily smooth and flat bottom surface, so without thermal paste you'd get lots of tiny air pockets underneath, and still air is an extremely poor conductor of heat - the windows and insulation in your house can probably attest to that. If your effective contact area looks like Swiss cheese, you also run the risk of local hotspots developing, which can degrade system stability or even cause damage.
Thermal paste still isn't hugely thermally conductive but beats air by a country mile, and realistically it shouldn't need to fill any large voids anyway. You generally need very little of the stuff, a skim coat of the two dies would have been just fine and you could have skipped the contact surface.
I haven't heard of anyone lapping their laptop CPU cooler contact surface, but I guess it is something that one could do. I imagine things being non-parallel or flexing under mechanical stress may be a bigger problem in practice though.
Crusty dried-out thermal paste is not only a poor thermal conductor but with a bit of relative movement can actually make contact even poorer than if you had none at all. It's an issue that can also affect thermal pads as used e.g. under motherboard VRM heatsinks, some first-gen AM4 boards seem to be affected for example (Gigabyte?). I suspect the pads may have been less like the silicone pads you can buy and more like the preapplied thermal paste patches that some CPU cooler brands ship with.
Thanks for this information! There was lots of conflicting information online about the best applications of thermal paste so I went with this method. Thankfully it has kept the computer nice and cool so far, but good to know!
Nice going on the cleaning and sales of the systems.
Thanks very much!
As someone who has changed hundreds of these batteries, I am impressed. Well done.
Appreciate that, thank you!
Great job on your first laptop repair
Thanks very much!
The 'High Fire Risk' got me.
well done,this is a job i need to do as well
Thank you! It wasn't too hard of a job per se, just had to take it slow and steady as the risk was high!
glad to see fix your own stuff I do the same as part of my hobby and don,t like see things to waste
Fixing macs is way harder than fixing other laptops and you did it very well.
Thanks very much! It was a bit tricky for sure, just had to take it slow
The new battery on the 13 one, how long does it last for light work?
Meg your fast becoming Mrs Fix It. Great job keep going love the videos ❤
Thanks very much!
Niche level 12 right here. What not to like? A beautiful, fun , engaging woman doing things. Keep it fun and real Meg!
Thanks! Will do
Make sure you take those camera covers off you MacBooks. The tolerances for closing the screens on the MacBooks is so small that you can actually crack the screen if you put enough pressure on the case. You want to just use tap to cover the lens
Anything newer than the 2015s you're 100% right, on my M1 I would never put a camera cover on it, but luckily these older ones have a bit more tolerance
Very nice I enjoy watching you Meg
Just so you all know, if you have a older Mac laptop like the ones shown in this video, there’s a tool called open core legacy patcher that allows these Mac’s to run the latest software. Great for saving money and keeping great computers out of the bin!
Thanks for sharing!
2:07 we have the same gloves I use them everyday ...
Great video Meg
17:56 😆😆😆
For a Minute I though it was a Smoke Alarm going off!