Thermal paste on an old Mac

[ancient_mariner]

So a couple of months back I replaced the thermal paste on my late 2008 Macbook, but on attempting to reboot nothing happened. I traced that back to the keyboard connector (which is a thin but wide ribbon cable that's difficult to get into its slot) and with power connected (battery completely dead) it booted.

So the good news was that it started up in half the time I remember it usually taking, and even from 'cold' boot it was distinctly more responsive. Brilliant I thought - the piece of junk could be a useful computer again. Then there was a quiet 'click' and a few moments later everything went dead. Charger light doesn't light up on the magsafe adapter & I can't find my spare charger to see if that's where the fault lies.

Point of the post - just as with Windows machines, Macs need thermal paste replacement too, but if yours is old like mine was, it may not survive the transplant.

 

[gman]

So a couple of months back I replaced the thermal paste on my late 2008 Macbook, but on attempting to reboot nothing happened. I traced that back to the keyboard connector (which is a thin but wide ribbon cable that's difficult to get into its slot) and with power connected (battery completely dead) it booted.

So the good news was that it started up in half the time I remember it usually taking, and even from 'cold' boot it was distinctly more responsive. Brilliant I thought - the piece of junk could be a useful computer again. Then there was a quiet 'click' and a few moments later everything went dead. Charger light doesn't light up on the magsafe adapter & I can't find my spare charger to see if that's where the fault lies.

Point of the post - just as with Windows machines, Macs need thermal paste replacement too, but if yours is old like mine was, it may not survive the transplant.

Found this if it helps. Could still be related to that keyboard ribbon as you mentioned?

Sorry, took a while to get things squared away... but I am typing this from my Macbook so... Good news everybody!

Thermal paste used was the Arctic Silver and cleansers that ifixit sells.

I did try powering it on via the connector, but that didn't work for whatever reason. There are apparently also 'jump points' on the board you can use to power the Mac on, but I didn't muck with that.

However, the issue appears to have been damage to the keyboard ribbon cable at some point during the initial repair process. On another site, for a different model Macbook Pro, I saw mention that the power button is tied to the keyboard and replacing that helped that person.

So, I went to an electronics recycling place found an untested upper assembly for $10 and got my computer working again after installing my internals into the new upper.

Credit Link

 

[ancient_mariner]

Thanks Graham. It was working, then suddenly stopped as though a relay tripped or fuse went - I'm hoping it's the PSU, but until I try another I won't know.