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A comment on How to Improve MacBook Pro Performance and Thermals. Parent comment

Re:How to Improve MacBook Pro Performance and Thermals by j79 on Sunday April 07, 2019 @10:44PM (#19601537)
OMG! You were not joking about the "felt" like appearance of the dust!

My MBP seems to always have the fans on. I do occasionally run compressed air across the vents (from the outside) but decided to open it up thanks to this thread.

As I was cleaning, I noticed that when blowing compressed air into the vents, one of the fans was not turning (indicating no air reaching?) I grabbed some precision tweezers and pulled this out: https://i.imgur.com/aIPSRdi.jpg

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Re:How to Improve MacBook Pro Performance and Thermals by fafl on Monday April 08, 2019 @03:40AM (#19603012)
Nice find, but please don't blow compressed air into a fan without blocking its rotation. It will induce currents and can cause damage to your mainboard.
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Re:How to Improve MacBook Pro Performance and Thermals by yulaow on Monday April 08, 2019 @05:36AM (#19603615)
Even more important: do not blow air in the opposite direction of the one the fan is made to rotate. If you are unlucky you'll damage it, if you are very unlucky it will stop working enterely. Source: I broke a lot of them
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Re:How to Improve MacBook Pro Performance and Thermals by sundvor on Monday April 08, 2019 @05:57AM (#19603703)
I'm pretty sure I managed to blow dust into the screen of an XPS 12.. So yeah, it pays to exercise caution.
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Re:How to Improve MacBook Pro Performance and Thermals by jmiserez on Monday April 08, 2019 @05:31AM (#19603594)
Seems like a problem a simple diode would fix. Is this really an issue?
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Re:How to Improve MacBook Pro Performance and Thermals by LeonM on Monday April 08, 2019 @08:59AM (#19604749)
Most motherboards (but not all) have basic protection for this, so it's quite unlikely that you break your motherboard electronically that way.

That said, blowing compressed air at a fan will spin the fan much faster than what it was designed for. So you still risk breaking the fan mechanically. Always hold the fan when blowing compressed air at it.

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Re:How to Improve MacBook Pro Performance and Thermals by leonardmh on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @12:05AM (#19611701)
Almost certainly not an issue on Apple hardware. Maybe on discount motherboards.
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Re:How to Improve MacBook Pro Performance and Thermals by appleflaxen on Monday April 08, 2019 @06:59AM (#19604002)
that's a really good point. thank you for pointing it out. I've cleaned many a fan, and have never thought about this.
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Re:How to Improve MacBook Pro Performance and Thermals by phosphophyllite on Monday April 08, 2019 @03:38AM (#19603003)
Compressed air effective against little dust particles. But in case of fabric pieces or hair-like things it only making things worse.
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Re:How to Improve MacBook Pro Performance and Thermals by LeonM on Monday April 08, 2019 @03:41AM (#19603019)
Glad I could help!

Enjoy your now silent and non-thermal-throttling laptop =)

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Re:How to Improve MacBook Pro Performance and Thermals by viraptor on Monday April 08, 2019 @02:51AM (#19602751)
I love that it looks literally like a dust bunny.
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Re:How to Improve MacBook Pro Performance and Thermals by thatssosid on Monday April 08, 2019 @02:57AM (#19602777)
wow! That's a lot of 'felt'.
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