Macbook Fan Died

[Daren]

My MacBook circa 2006 (or was it 2007?) has lost it's fan and now over heats in a matter of minutes. I got a laptop fan stand and that certainly helps, but if I run more than 2 apps at the same time, it suffers those horrible heat-related shutdowns. So where is the best (or cheapest) place to get it fixed? I live on New Petchburi Rd near Thonglor so Pantip is one option but the big Mac Repair place in there wants 1,000B just to look at the thing, plus parts and labor... Seems like a rip off.

Are there any Apple repair shops that offer fair prices for decent service?

Thanks folks!

[negreanu]

maccenter rama 3 next to tesco lotus. You will be looking at 3k+ tho standard charge.

Or find the part on ebay or ifixit.com and do it yourself. Easy job to replace a fan on a macbook.

[Daren]

Negreanu, thanks for that. Dunno why I didn't think to do it myself. I've checked for the part online, and it seems that the going rate is around $35USD plus international shipping @ $30USD.

That's 2,000B total for the part, seems a bit steep. Is there no where to buy parts in Thailand?

[REDRAM]

I had the same thing happen to mine so I brought it to the tech place in Khorat...and guess what the fan just needed to be cleaned and oiled up a bit.....100 baht!

Negreanu, thanks for that. Dunno why I didn't think to do it myself. I've checked for the part online, and it seems that the going rate is around $35USD plus international shipping @ $30USD.

That's 2,000B total for the part, seems a bit steep. Is there no where to buy parts in Thailand?

[Daren]

Hmm... I could do that myself! Will give that a look... good tip, REDRAM!

[negreanu]

actually if you take the fan out and take a walk round fortune or pantip and show some of the shops you might be able to pick one up.

You can also just order the Apple part number from mac centre and you do the install.

[Daren]

I've never been to Fortune, always go to Pantip, are they pretty much the same?

[CobraSnakeNecktie]

The install part is pretty easy depending on your model. The local Mac reseller here did mine as a favor for free but they would only charge 300 baht.

I took my MBP apart and replaced the speakers recently and the fans are even easier.

The ebay method in the US and shipping with post works out a lot better than ordering the part thru the reseller.

As others have mentioned it might just need to be cleaned or connections checked. The bearings in the MBP fans are not service accessible. You might be able to get a little lube from the side but it does not last very long. I gave mine a squirt with some spray lube and they quieted down for almost a year before burning out.

If your fan just stopped and is not turning with noise then it might be a connection or even a board issue.

Edited April 30, 2010 by CobraSnakeNecktie

[Daren]

Thanks for the post, Cobra. The fan seems to have just up and died a silent death - so it maybe be an electrical malfunction if some sort, but I guess I won't know until I pop the sucker open, eh?

I checked eBay but the three auctions with the correct fan only shipped to USA, UK, Aus and CA... I guess I could send them an email though.

Thanks again!

[CobraSnakeNecktie]

Daren

check your sensors and see if your machine thinks the fan is there and if it thinks its turning.

a program like Istat (free) can read your sensors.

[negreanu]

Thanks for the post, Cobra. The fan seems to have just up and died a silent death - so it maybe be an electrical malfunction if some sort, but I guess I won't know until I pop the sucker open, eh?

I checked eBay but the three auctions with the correct fan only shipped to USA, UK, Aus and CA... I guess I could send them an email though.

Thanks again!

pay with paypal and open a shipito.com service.

[Daren]

That's not prohibitively expensive?

[negreanu]

no. They have discounted rates on fedex and other methods to ship to thailand.

Edited May 1, 2010 by negreanu

[bubba]

If you decide to take it to a shop rather than replace it yourself, I'd highly recommend this shop:

http://www.machomeservice.com/

I've been using them for years and had three repair jobs done there on different Macs. Very reasonable rates, and a very friendly family shop that knows what they are doing. From my experience, they have no charge for diagnosing your problem, although I've always had them finish the job. Last time I was there I had a hard disk replaced in a Macbook Pro and the labour cost was less than 1000 baht.

By the way, not much English spoken there, so if you can't speak Thai, it would be helpful to have a Thai speaker on hand to explain the problem, or else give them a call before you take your MB in.

[noahvail]

If you decide to take it to a shop rather than replace it yourself, I'd highly recommend this shop:

http://www.machomeservice.com/

I've been using them for years and had three repair jobs done there on different Macs. Very reasonable rates, and a very friendly family shop that knows what they are doing. From my experience, they have no charge for diagnosing your problem, although I've always had them finish the job. Last time I was there I had a hard disk replaced in a Macbook Pro and the labour cost was less than 1000 baht.

By the way, not much English spoken there, so if you can't speak Thai, it would be helpful to have a Thai speaker on hand to explain the problem, or else give them a call before you take your MB in.

Thanks very much for the tip! My son gave me a MacBook Pro back when I lived in New Zealand. It only has the English back-lit keyboard. I was hoping to get one from Apple, but they said 2,300 baht and we need the machine for 2 weeks! They get their parts from Singapore, so it seems.

Anyway, I thought if I can get my wife talk with them, maybe they can source a keyboard in eng/thai, then I could EMS my machine to them, they could make the swap and dust out the inside, maybe back in just a couple of days. Worth a shot!

Thanks again :-)