Although reapplying the thermal grease in a MacBook Pro has been successful in curing the overhearing problems for some users, James Davidson of MacDevCenter found out it wasn't actually the paste that was causing the heat problems.
When James tried the process to reapply the paste, he found it only lowered temperatures by 2 degrees. Not only that, when he opened it up again and accidentally disconnected the heat pipe sensor, he found that it made the fans run all the time, which in turn cooled down the system tremendously. After a while, he got tired of hearing the fans run so reconnected the sensor, which made the temperature spike again.
His analysis, after the jump.
From all this, James deduced that many people accidentally disconnected the sensor when reapplying their paste and thus made their laptop cooler. Apparently, Apple engineers traded heat for not having the fans run all the time, which can be annoying. The solution: Apple's recent firmware update, which users say increased fan usage and decreased temperatures.
How are our MacBook Pro readers faring with the firmware update? Have you seen lower temperatures and louder fan noise? Let us know in the comments or in tips.
Cooling your MacBook Pro may be easier than you think [Ars Technica]