Chosen Solution
BEFORE: running High Sierra (thanks to http://dosdude1.com/) MBP running very often hot, not overheating, just hot. Often even in sleep mode and most of the time when idle. NOW: running minimal Debian 10 server (no graphical interface). no aditional software installed - CPU is running on <1% and is 51°C warm while the GPU is 71°C hot. Removed the bottom cover and touched the heat sink next to the fan - its burning hot. I never removed the logic board but blew the dust out just like this. My conclusion: The problem is not with the OS but something with the system management or even hardware is wrong. Does anyone of you have a idea what the problem could be? I like to use this MBP as my home Nextcloud server but as long as it gets as hot as this it’s a total waste of energy.. I’m in Indonesia, its already warm enough in my house I don’t need a heater. thanks
mmm… I’m sure your heatsink thermal paste needs refreshing given the age of your system. So that is one of the fist things I would do following this guide to get the heat sink off MacBook Pro 15" Unibody Mid 2009 Logic Board Replacement. You’ll need to fully clean the old paste off and them apply a good paste. Here’s the details How to Apply Thermal Paste Arctic Silver ArctiCleanArctic Silver Thermal Paste Your systems heat sink maybe bad as well! before you remove it inspect the pipes as sometimes a pin hole can develop so the coolant leaks out. look for stains on the logic board and any white crusts near the heatsink and the uppercase where the logic board sits. As far as OS’s … While DosDude is one way to test out a new OS (High Sierra) on an older system, its not really that useful on a Core 2 Duo based system as the CPU & GPU have to work much harder (heat) and the performance of the apps are limited by the small memory footprint this system has. The last time I used Debian it didn’t have a dedicated GPU driver for NVIDIA GeForce 9400M this system has. So the generic NVIDIA driver is used. Frankly I would just install macOS El Capitan (10.11.6) and call it a day. At least that version allows a good thermal monitoring app like TG Pro that way you can really see what’s happening!
