Introduction
Dust can accumulate in all corners of a MacBook Pro, significantly affecting cooling. With some compressed air and a few screwdrivers, however, you can easily clean it out, reducing your CPU temperatures, fan noise, throttling, and power consumption.
If your fan assembly is relatively clean, you can skip the In-Place Fan Cover Removal steps. If, however,
- The fan blades are visibly caked in dust
- You need easier access to the heat sink for cleaning
- You suspect there might be clumps of dust in the fan assembly that are too large to blow out with air
Then you can remove the fan assembly cover for full access—without having to remove the heat sink and worrying about reapplying thermal paste—by following this guide.
Tools
Parts
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Remove the following ten screws securing the lower case to the upper case:
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Two 2.3 mm P5 Pentalobe screws
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Eight 3.0 mm P5 Pentalobe screws
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Wedge your fingers between the upper case and the lower case.
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Gently pull the lower case away from the upper case to remove it.
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Use the flat end of a spudger to lift the battery connector straight up out of its socket on the logic board.
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Use the tip of a spudger to push on either side of the the iSight camera cable connector to walk it out of its socket on the logic board.
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One of the screws holding the top shell of the fan assembly is hidden just behind the I/O board cable.
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Remove the two 2.1 mm T5 Torx screws securing the I/O board cable bracket to the logic board.
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Remove the I/O board cable bracket.
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Use the flat end of a spudger to pop the I/O board connector straight up off its socket on the logic board.
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Remove the following screws securing the fan assembly cover to the rest of the assembly:
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One 5.0 mm T5 Torx screw.
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3 Phillips #000 screws.
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The inside of the case plate will likely have dust caked on. Since this piece has no delicate electronics, you can simply wipe it with your Anti-static brush, or even better, a used toothbrush.
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If there is only a light amount of dust in the heat sink and fan assembly, you can blow it out without removing the fan assembly cover, as long as you hold the fan steady.
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Remove the fan assembly cover; it should come off with no resistance at all if you removed all 4 screws
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Use a brush to loosen caked on dust.
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You should have a less obstructed view of the heat sink fins. Loosen any caked dust with an anti-static brush before blasting loose dust out the back vents of the case with compressed air.
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Blow away any loose air from the interior of the fan assembly.
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Inspect the rest of the interior of the computer for stray dust that may have landed, and clear that away before closing everything back up.
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To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
For all the screws you use the P5 pentalobe screwdriver?
Carlos -
Pentalobe is only for the screws on the bottom cover. The Torx screw driver is for the remainder.
Fredrik -