We all know how frustrating it is when hardware goes wrong, wears down or doesn’t perform the way you want. One man, fed up with his MacBook Pro’s performance, took matters into his own hands when it finally went kaput.
He put it in the oven.
A programmer for iFixit, Sterling Hirsh documented the entire dilemma on iFixit’s blog:
“My model of MacBook Pro is notorious for running too hot,” he wrote. “And I run mine pretty hard: I’m a programmer for iFixit, and in my spare time, I game and make electronic music.
On an average day, my laptop hovered between 80º and 90º C. One time I saw it climb as high as 102º C—hot enough to boil water.
After what seemed its ultimate death, Hirsh got a bit of inspiration from an Xbox fix he’d read about:
“I cracked open the back of my laptop, disconnected all eleven connectors and three heat sinks from the logic board, and turned the oven up to 340º F. I put my $900 part on a cookie sheet and baked it for seven nerve-racking minutes.
“After it cooled, I reapplied thermal paste, put it all back together, and cheered when it booted. It ran great for the next eight months.”
Thing is, it broke again. So Hirsh baked it again. And decided to drill holes in the bottom: “The speed holes worked: The boot chime rang. The screen glowed. The fans blew.”
While we’re glad that everything worked out, we don’t advise this course of action for the common user. However, if you’ve got an old laptop kicking about that’s depreciated to the cost of dirt, maybe it would be a fun afternoon science project.
Also, Apple take note: More air holes in the bottom might prevent the overheating thing altogether.
