This week I purchased a 2015 MacBook Pro. After it arrived yesterday, I opened it up to check the internal components. The heatsink stood out; it was obvious too much thermal paste had been applied. I’ve never seen this much thermal paste on a Mac before, so I assume it was done by a careless third party.
I was specifically concerned that the extra paste could flake off over time and short out components in the laptop. With this in mind, I removed the thermal paste and applied a much more modest amount.
Removing the heatsink was an easy process. I followed the well-written guide at iFixit.
After removing the heatsink, it was even clearer just how much extra thermal paste had been used. I used a plastic spudger to gently scrape off most of the paste from the processor and heatsink.
To clean off the remaining paste, I used 91% isopropyl alcohol with Kimtech Kimwipes. It’s best to use a high grade of isopropyl (90%+) for this application since it will have less water in it. Kimwipes are useful for these types of applications since unlike most paper towels, they do not leave behind lint particles.
I was unable to remove all of the thermal paste from the surrounding plastic. You can see silvery smudges around the processor and down the heatpipe.
After cleaning off the surfaces as best I could, I applied a little bit of Arctic Silver Céramique 2. I estimated the volume to be about the same as 2 grains of rice. There are certainly better types of thermal paste available but this was what I had on hand.
To install the heatsink, I lined up the 5 mounting holes and carefully placed it straight down onto the processor. While holding it in place, I started screws at opposite corners of the heatsink, then partially screwed in the rest. Finally, I tightened all 5 screws.
Since reassembling the computer, it’s been running without any overheating issues. If any crop up, I can switch to a different kind of thermal paste or try applying an even smaller amount of paste.