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Model A1286. Released February 2011 / 2.0, 2.2, or 2.3 GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7 Processor

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MacBook Pro 15 early 11 overheating problem.

Hello friends,

I own the Macbook of the title and i think the temperatures are high enough. Idle is about 50º and after some time browsing with 3 tabs it goes to 80º on 2000rpm.

If I open more tabs on safari or watch a movie the temperature will increase. Whenever it exceeds 80º i set the fans to full rpm.

Backgrounds apps usually running from startup are Viber, Mac fans control and Microsoft outlook app.

I’ve changed the thermal paste with Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut.

After this there was a temperature drop about 4-5º average.

My 15” Macbook early 2011 specs:

  • 2 GHz Intel Core i7
  • 16 GB 1600 MHz RAM
  • Samsung 850 EVO 256GB SSD with 28GB free
  • Dual graphics cards,
    • AMD Radeon HD 6490M 256 MB
    • Intel HD Graphics 3000 512 MB.
  • Optical Drive is connected.
  • Running macOS High Sierra

Also the battery is aftermarket and its nearly dead.

Charger is also aftermarket (Powertech).

GPU I think has a problem, 6 months ago and after logging in to my user a green screen was appeared and stopped there. I heated the chip and after that it runs fine

But! I’ve not tried to use heavy apps like PhotoShop or SketchUp, just browsing and running movies on Netflix and Strem.IO.

If there’s a solution for lower tempratures or if its normal let me know.

Thank you for reading.

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A tired battery will add a bit of stress to the system as the charging logic has to work a bit harder. So I would look at replacing the battery.

I would also replace the SATA cable as its known to also force the system to work harder as errors cause CRC errors which then needs a retransmission of the data. Think of it this way trying to have a dialog with someone who is hard of hearing… You said what? What? What? repeating over and over again. Here each block of the data move goes through this so when lots of data is being moved the more CRC’s. SSD’s also push the cable harder too.

In addition, Apple originally installed a SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) drive even though the system could support a SATA III (6.0 Gb/s) drive as the system had a SATA III interface. But Apple didn’t qualify the cable to run at SATA III its only rated to run at SATA II. At the end of the series run Apple moved to a SATA III HDD. Even still the quality of the cable was not very good! When the 2012 models came out Apple finally addressed improving the cable MacBook Pro 15" Unibody (Mid 2012) Hard Drive Cable and here’s the guide MacBook Pro 15" Unibody Early 2011 Hard Drive/IR Sensor Cable Replacement. Lastly, I place a strip of electricians tape on the uppercase as we’ve found the rough aluminum can damage the cable as well.

Here’s a bit more: Your Hard Drive Cable Is A Ticking Time Bomb

I also find a lot of cables damaged by people putting in a replacement cable. They crease it at the bend point which damages the thin foil wires. Don’t crease it! Instead find an old BIC ballpoint pen to get the ink straw out, we’ll use it as a forming brake. Using it to create the clean arcs where the cable needs to bend around the corners, its radius is as tight as you want the cable to bend.

While I’ve gone over the hardware side of things you still likely have corruptions on the drive. Hopefully you still have a bootable drive. If not, you’ll need to install a fresh OS. There are a few different ways to do this. The first is to leverage internet recovery which if your system has the newer firmware should be able to gain access to it. With your drive installed restart your system and hold the Option, Command (⌘) and R keys to enter into Internet Recovery making sure you have internet access via WiFi or better via Ethernet to install a fresh copy of OS onto your drive. First making a full backup of your user accounts, apps & data.


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MacBook Pro 15" Unibody (Mid 2012) Hard Drive Cable

$19.99

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Is 2012 macbook cable compatible with my model ?

Do you think upgrading the sata cable will have big impact to the temprature?

Also in activity monitor cpu idle is 80-90% with the use i do and if i push it more it goes to 60%. its hard to fall under 50% and ram has always 8 gigs free. i see that its laggy but i cant see what causes it. do you think that the sata 3 will solve this too?

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Yes! The 2012 cable is what I use in the 2011 & 2012 models. It's the best cable Apple made for this series.

And Yes! It will improve things! But you also need to reformat the drive as your Virtual RAM space is likely corrupted.

1 - Replace battery

2 - Replace cable

3 - Reformat drive and install a fresh copy of OS (ideally Sierra) Don't go with anything higher as APFS is not well suited on older SATA based systems.

If you really want to run Photoshop upgrade your logic board to a 2012 version. For reference the system I'm working on right now was a 2011 model which I fitted a 2012 logic board. It's a direct drop in with only one very minor alteration needed to the LVDS cable. The NVIDEA GPU is much better than the AMD Radeon as the systems cooling is just not powerful enough for the AMD GPU.

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in the sata info it says

Intel 6 Series Chipset:

Vendor: Intel

Product: 6 Series Chipset

Link Speed: 6 Gigabit

Negotiated Link Speed: 6 Gigabit

Physical Interconnect: SATA

Description: AHCI Version 1.30 Supported

doesnt that mean that i allready have sata 3?

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I have a Maserati which can go 193 mph does that mean I can drive on a busy highway that fast?

The device is able to go SATA III (6.0 Gb/s) and the systems SATA port is able to support a drive at SATA III (6.0 Gb/s) but the connection between them is the issue here that HD SATA cable. Its either not rated for SATA III or is worn so it can't support the data running across it at SATA III speeds.

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In addition to all that Dan said, sometime the heat sinks spring a leak. Overheating has not been an issue with this model. The heat sinks may leak on the crimped ends. Look for a telltale oily type of residue on the logic board right at the tips as show is step#23 of this guide:

MacBook Pro 15" Unibody Early 2011 Heat Sink Replacement

The heat sinks are also very cheap, and it wouldn’t hurt to just replace it.

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Get TG Pro I know what I’m talking about! I have an Early 2011, had 3 GPU meltdowns before I found this app.

Wasted years!! Get TG Pro. I don’t work for the company. gotta go

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Yes! It's the goto for me as well to monitor the systems thermals!

@toliss21 (apostolos) never came back to tell us how it went after replacing the HD SATA cable. Her clearly needed to also fix the battery issue and the GPU might have failed all together.

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