This is a usual beginner's mistake!! There is on the CPU, the GPU and the chipset 5 to 6 fold too much thermal paste!
The thermal paste is there to ensure a tight contact between the electronic components and their dedicated cooling system, in other words it has to be as thin as possible. If there is too much of it, one will get 2 problems:
- a thick layer as shown on photos will behave as a thermal insulation while it was suppose to enhance heat transfer between the component and its cooling system, as a consequence, the cooling system will be less efficient and will probably have to fully active most of the time even for moderate CPU load.
- the thermal paste used for the MacBook Pro contains silver (Ag), an excellent additive to enhance thermal transfer, but also a good electrical transfer material. In other words, if the thermal paste brings into contacts several components, one might have serious electrical microcircuit created leading to hardware instability (crash, problem to boot, freeze ...). It could explain the reports of “sudden switch off events” experienced by some MB Pro owners.
