Macbook Pro 15 Core 2 Duo Model A1211 Heat Sink Replacement Repair Guide

Difficulty

Very difficult

Steps

Time Required

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Sections

Battery
1 step
RAM Shield
2 steps
Upper Case
7 steps
Optical Drive
3 steps
Logic Board
11 steps
Heat Sink
2 steps

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BackMacBook Pro 15" Core 2 Duo Model A1211
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Introduction

What you need

Step 1

              Battery

Use your fingers to push both battery release tabs away from the battery, and lift the battery out of the computer.

Use your fingers to push both battery release tabs away from the battery, and lift the battery out of the computer.

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Step 2

              RAM Shield

Remove the three identical Phillips screws from the memory door.

Remove the three identical Phillips screws from the memory door.

Step 3

Lift the memory door up enough to get a grip on it, and slide it toward you, pulling it away from the casing.

Lift the memory door up enough to get a grip on it, and slide it toward you, pulling it away from the casing.

Step 4

              Upper Case

Remove the two 2.8 mm Phillips screws in the battery compartment near the latch.

Remove the two 2.8 mm Phillips screws in the battery compartment near the latch.

Step 5

Remove the following 6 screws:
Two 10 mm T6 Torx screws on either side of the RAM slot.
Four 14.5 mm Phillips screws along the hinge.

Remove the following 6 screws:

Two 10 mm T6 Torx screws on either side of the RAM slot.

Four 14.5 mm Phillips screws along the hinge.

Step 6

Remove the four 3.2 mm Phillips screws on the port side of the computer.

Remove the four 3.2 mm Phillips screws on the port side of the computer.

Step 7

Rotate the computer 90 degrees and remove the two 3.2 mm Phillips screws from the rear of the computer.

Rotate the computer 90 degrees and remove the two 3.2 mm Phillips screws from the rear of the computer.

Step 8

Rotate the computer 90 degrees again and remove the four 3.2 mm Phillips screws from the side of the computer.

Rotate the computer 90 degrees again and remove the four 3.2 mm Phillips screws from the side of the computer.

Step 9

Do not yank the upper case off quickly. The case is attached to the logic board via a ribbon cable.
Lift up at the rear of the case and work your fingers along the sides, freeing the case as you go. Once you have freed the sides, you may need to rock the case up and down to free the front of the upper case (there are some hidden plastic clips that need to be clicked off).

Do not yank the upper case off quickly. The case is attached to the logic board via a ribbon cable.

Lift up at the rear of the case and work your fingers along the sides, freeing the case as you go. Once you have freed the sides, you may need to rock the case up and down to free the front of the upper case (there are some hidden plastic clips that need to be clicked off).

Step 10

Disconnect the trackpad and keyboard ribbon cable from the logic board, removing tape as necessary.
Remove the upper case.

Disconnect the trackpad and keyboard ribbon cable from the logic board, removing tape as necessary.

Remove the upper case.

Step 11

              Optical Drive

Disconnect the orange SuperDrive ribbon cable from the logic board, removing tape as necessary.

Disconnect the orange SuperDrive ribbon cable from the logic board, removing tape as necessary.

Step 12

Remove the following 4 screws:
Two 3.3 mm silver Phillips screws on either side of the SuperDrive.
One 4.7 mm silver T6 Torx screw from the top left corner of the drive
One 6.2 mm black Phillips screw at the top right corner of the drive.

Remove the following 4 screws:

Two 3.3 mm silver Phillips screws on either side of the SuperDrive.

One 4.7 mm silver T6 Torx screw from the top left corner of the drive

One 6.2 mm black Phillips screw at the top right corner of the drive.

Step 13

Lift the optical drive up and out of the computer.

Lift the optical drive up and out of the computer.

Step 14

              Logic Board

Disconnect the hard drive and ExpressCard connectors from the left side of the logic board.

Disconnect the hard drive and ExpressCard connectors from the left side of the logic board.

Step 15

Disconnect the iSight and display data cables from the logic board by sliding the cables out of their connectors, removing tape as necessary.

Disconnect the iSight and display data cables from the logic board by sliding the cables out of their connectors, removing tape as necessary.

Step 16

Disconnect the eight indicated connectors by placing a spudger beneath each cable and lifting up.

Disconnect the eight indicated connectors by placing a spudger beneath each cable and lifting up.

Step 17

Remove the silver T6 Torx screw securing the ground loop in the display data cable to the casing.

Remove the silver T6 Torx screw securing the ground loop in the display data cable to the casing.

Step 18

Remove the single T6 Torx screw securing the clear plastic shield over the right ambient light sensor.
Lift the clear plastic shield off the right ambient light sensor.

Remove the single T6 Torx screw securing the clear plastic shield over the right ambient light sensor.

Lift the clear plastic shield off the right ambient light sensor.

Step 19

Peel up the orange Kapton tape securing the right thermal sensor cable to the logic board.

Peel up the orange Kapton tape securing the right thermal sensor cable to the logic board.

Step 20

Remove the following 15 screws:
One 4.4 mm black Phillips screw to the right of the ram slot.
Eight 4.7 mm silver T6 Torx screws securing the logic board to the lower case.
One 6.2 mm black T6 Torx screw on the right side of the left fan.
Five 9.4 mm silver T6 Torx screws securing the left and right fans.

Remove the following 15 screws:

One 4.4 mm black Phillips screw to the right of the ram slot.

Eight 4.7 mm silver T6 Torx screws securing the logic board to the lower case.

One 6.2 mm black T6 Torx screw on the right side of the left fan.

Five 9.4 mm silver T6 Torx screws securing the left and right fans.

Step 21

Hold the logic board down with one hand and use your other hand to lift the left fan up from its housing. There is a piece of black tape securing the fan to the heat sink. Carefully peel this tape up from the heat sink as you lift the fan up.
Place the fan above the Airport card. It is not necessary to remove the fan from the computer entirely.

Hold the logic board down with one hand and use your other hand to lift the left fan up from its housing. There is a piece of black tape securing the fan to the heat sink. Carefully peel this tape up from the heat sink as you lift the fan up.

Place the fan above the Airport card. It is not necessary to remove the fan from the computer entirely.

Step 22

Lift the right fan up and carefully peel up the tape securing the fan to the heat sink as you go.
Remove the right fan from the computer.

Lift the right fan up and carefully peel up the tape securing the fan to the heat sink as you go.

Remove the right fan from the computer.

Step 23

Lift up the left side of the logic board and disconnect the gray and black power cable from the bottom of the board.

Lift up the left side of the logic board and disconnect the gray and black power cable from the bottom of the board.

Step 24

Grasp the logic board at the left side and at the thin section, and rotate the logic board out of the lower case.
To properly reassemble your MacBook Pro, you’ll have to clean off and replace the old thermal compound. Use our Applying Thermal Paste Guide to prepare the processor and heat sink surfaces.

Grasp the logic board at the left side and at the thin section, and rotate the logic board out of the lower case.

To properly reassemble your MacBook Pro, you’ll have to clean off and replace the old thermal compound. Use our Applying Thermal Paste Guide to prepare the processor and heat sink surfaces.

Step 25

              Heat Sink

Lift the heat sink out of the computer.
If you need to mount the heat sink back into the laptop, we have a thermal paste guide that makes replacing the thermal compound easy.

Lift the heat sink out of the computer.

If you need to mount the heat sink back into the laptop, we have a thermal paste guide that makes replacing the thermal compound easy.

Step 26

Peel back the orange Kapton tape covering the left thermal sensor.
Use a spudger to pry the left thermal sensor off the heat sink.
Heat sink remains.

Peel back the orange Kapton tape covering the left thermal sensor.

Use a spudger to pry the left thermal sensor off the heat sink.

Heat sink remains.

To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.

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                    iRobot

Member since: 09/24/2009

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chdorr - Sep 24, 2014

As usual, ifixit nails it. I just got done replacing the thermal paste on my MBP A1211. This beast had been unable to deal with any video for more than two minutes without sputtering and failing, the fans were screaming and it was so %#*@ hot. One benefit of doing the teardown was cleaning out the mass amount of crud in the fans which obviously was a big problem. Anyhow, the most difficult part of this process was getting the tape off of the left fan, other than that, piece of cake and it fired right up, can’t even hear the fans and I’m ten minutes into a full screen movie and no issues. Whoo hooo!!!!

Oh yes, the egg carton for the screws was perfect. I labeled 8 bins for the steps with screw removal as follows (multiple step numbers means they were combined in one egg bin; for step 20 I made three bins separated by color):

2,4

6,7,8

17,18

20 - orange

20 - green

20 - red, yellow

Martok Bulls - Jul 30, 2016

This tutorial is pure gold. With very little money for thermal paste and a pressured air can (i already had the necessary tools), i freed my computer from tons of dirt and hairballs which clogged either both fans and the heat sink. I renewed the thermal paste as well. All in all it took me two hours to do so. My MacBook Pro runs now twenty(!) degrees Celsius cooler than before, cooling fans fire up rarely and all is quiet inside the casing. Performance is just like it was when the computer was new. Before the cleaning and thermal paste renewal, performance was very poor with system crashes, freezed programs and a heated casing you could barely touch. But now it’s like i had a new computer again.

Thanks again!

Introduction#

What you need#

Introduction

What you need