MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Mid 2012 Heat Sink Replacement

Introduction

Are the gobs of OEM thermal paste causing your MacBook Pro to be sluggish while hot? Use this guide to remove your heat sink and apply new thermal paste.

What you need

Step 1 Lower Case

MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Mid 2012 Heat Sink Replacement, Lower Case: step 1, image 1 of 1

Remove the following ten screws:
Three 14.4 mm Phillips #00 screws
Three 3.5 mm Phillips #00 screws
Four 3.5 mm shouldered Phillips #00 screws
When replacing the small screws, align them perpendicular to the slight curvature of the case (they don't go straight down).

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Step 2

Use your fingers to pry the lower case away from the body of the MacBook near the vent.
Remove the lower case.

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Step 3 Battery Connection

MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Mid 2012 Heat Sink Replacement, Battery Connection: step 3, image 1 of 2

MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Mid 2012 Heat Sink Replacement, Battery Connection: step 3, image 2 of 2

Use the edge of a spudger to pry the battery connector upwards from its socket on the logic board.
It is useful to pry upward on both short sides of the connector to "walk" it out of its socket. Be careful with the corners of the connectors, they can be easily broken off.

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Step 4

Bend the battery cable slightly away from its socket on the logic board so it does not accidentally connect itself while you work.

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Step 5 Fan

MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Mid 2012 Heat Sink Replacement, Fan: step 5, image 1 of 3

MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Mid 2012 Heat Sink Replacement, Fan: step 5, image 2 of 3

MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Mid 2012 Heat Sink Replacement, Fan: step 5, image 3 of 3

Use the edge of a spudger to gently pry the fan connector up and out of its socket on the logic board.
It is useful to twist the spudger axially from beneath the fan cable wires to release the connector.
The fan socket and the fan connector can be seen in the second and third pictures. Be careful not to break the plastic fan socket off the logic board as you use your spudger to lift the fan connector straight up and out of its socket. The layout of the logic board shown in the second picture may look slightly different than your machine but the fan socket is the same.

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Step 6

Remove the following three screws securing the fan to the logic board:
One 7.2 mm T6 Torx screw
Two 5.3 mm T6 Torx screws

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Step 7

Lift the fan out of its recess in the logic board, minding its cable that may get caught.

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Step 8 Logic Board

MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Mid 2012 Heat Sink Replacement, Logic Board: step 8, image 1 of 2

MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Mid 2012 Heat Sink Replacement, Logic Board: step 8, image 2 of 2

Use the tip of a spudger to pull the right speaker/subwoofer cable out from under the retaining finger molded into the upper case.
Pull the right speaker/subwoofer cable upward to lift the connector out of its socket on the logic board.

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Step 9

Disconnect the camera cable from the logic board.
The camera cable slides out from its logic board connector. If your cable feels fragile, use a spudger to walk the cable out from the metal tabs on each side of the connector head.

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Step 10

Disconnect the following four cables:
AirPort/Bluetooth cable
Optical drive cable
Hard drive cable
Trackpad cable
To disconnect the cables, use the flat end of a spudger to pry their connectors up from the sockets on the logic board.

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Step 11

MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Mid 2012 Heat Sink Replacement: step 11, image 3 of 3

Use your fingernail to flip up the retaining flap on the keyboard ribbon cable ZIF socket.
Be sure you are prying up on the hinged retaining flap, not the socket itself.
Use the tip of a spudger to pull the keyboard ribbon cable out of its socket.
The cable may be difficult to insert. If you are having trouble, temporarily attach a piece of tape to the cable to help you guide the cable into the socket.

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Step 12

If present, remove the small strip of black tape covering the keyboard backlight cable socket.

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Step 13

MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Mid 2012 Heat Sink Replacement: step 13, image 3 of 3

Use the tip of a spudger or your fingernail to flip up the retaining flap on the keyboard backlight ribbon cable ZIF socket.
Be sure you are prying up on the hinged retaining flap, not the socket itself.
Pull the keyboard backlight ribbon cable out of its socket.

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Step 14

Use the flat end of a spudger to pry the sleep sensor/battery indicator connector up from its socket on the logic board.

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Step 15

MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Mid 2012 Heat Sink Replacement: step 15, image 3 of 3

Grab the plastic pull tab secured to the display data cable lock and rotate it toward the DC-In side of the computer.
Pull the display data cable straight out of its socket on the logic board.
Do not lift up on the display data cable, as its socket is very fragile. Pull the cable parallel to the face of the logic board.

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Step 16

Remove the following nine screws:
Five 3.6 mm T6 Torx screws
Two 4.3 mm T6 Torx screws
Two 7.2 mm T6 Torx screws
In some models the screws may be slightly shorter as follows:
Five 3.0 mm T6 screws
Two 3.6 mm T6 screws
Two 6.7 mm T6 screws

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Step 17

Remove the following two screws:
One 8.6 mm Phillips screw
One 5.5 mm Phillips screw
Remove the display data cable retainer from the upper case.

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Step 18

Use the tip of a spudger to gently peel the microphone off the adhesive securing it to the upper case.

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Step 19

Minding the many connectors near its edges, lift the logic board from the end nearest the optical drive.
Without flexing the board, maneuver it out of the upper case, minding the flexible connection to the DC-In board that may get caught in the upper case.
Remove the logic board.

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Step 20 Heat Sink

MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Mid 2012 Heat Sink Replacement, Heat Sink: step 20, image 1 of 1

Remove the three 8.4 mm #1 Phillips screws securing the heat sink to the logic board.
Don't lose the springs held under each of the screws.

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Step 21

Carefully remove the heat sink from the processor.
If the heat sink seems to be stuck, it may be helpful to gently pry it off the processor with a plastic spudger. Be careful not to break any surface mount components on the processor while prying.
Be sure to clean off the old thermal paste and apply a new layer before you reinstall the heat sink. We have a guide that makes it easy.

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Conclusion

To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.

160 other people completed this guide.

Author

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Andrew Optimus Goldheart

Member since: 10/17/09

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12 Comments

Thanks, you’re a lifesaver! It’s much easier than I imagined. Used this to replace the old thermal past with some Arctic Silver 5. Temperature differences are surprising. During the break in period it went from 60 degrees Celsius idle to 50 degrees and from max 105 degrees Celsius under heavy load to about max 90 degrees. Now after a 24 hour break-in period it went down to 45 degrees idle and 85 max under heavy load. Will update if there’s any changes after the full 200 hour break-in period specified by the manufacturer.

Rob Kruit - Dec 27, 2017 Reply

Reporting back. Temperatures now @ 41 degrees Celsius idle and under full load between 81 and 85 degrees. System is stable again like before. This really solved a lot of problems for me!

Rob Kruit - Jan 16, 2018 Reply

Seems I’m facing with same issue. I’m testing temperature with “Intel Power Gadget“ application. Idle temperature is about 65-70 degree and during high load is about 100. Hope changing old thermal past will help me.

dmitrybalabka - Oct 2, 2018 Reply

After I have changed the thermal paste now it is possible to see 100% process utilisation and stable 3.4 GHz usage (Macbook Pro 2012 Mid i7). I’m still getting 100 degrees but seems it is ok now. To see the difference I suggest to check “Intel Power Gadget” application charts before and after thermal paste change. I did not run any special benchmarks just run some heavy task which utilise all cores (e.g. IDE code indexing)

dmitrybalabka - Mar 30, 2019 Reply

Andrew, thanks a lot for this guide!! In my machine the fan was spinning a whole lot, even with a load of only 10%. After replacing the thermal paste the machine is now completely quiet. Thanks again for this great and detailed instruction, I appreciate it.

Oliver - Aug 10, 2019 Reply

MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Mid 2012 Heat Sink Replacement

Introduction

What you need

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