MateBook X Pro Slow Charging: Reason & Fix

Problem

Forget CPU and GPU thermal throttling — charge rate throttling is now a thing.

Exposed charging circuit with shielding cover peeled off. Plugged in, CPU idle.

• The charging circuit doesn’t have enough cooling and tends to overheat.
• Since the charging circuit and the CPU use the same heatsink, the heatsink already warmed by the CPU does not have a low enough temperature to efficiently cool the charging circuit.
• The charging rate is temperature-dependent, but the charging circuit doesn’t seem to have a temperature sensor, so Huawei might have gone super conservative about protecting the charging circuit and modeled its temperature after the CPU temperature.
• Therefore, even when the CPU is a little bit warm, the charging rate thermal-throttles.

Solutions

1. Add 1mm-thick thermal pad to the circled area of the motherboard’s backside.
2. Replace the existing thermal pads on the charging circuit components with better pads, 2mm and 0.5mm.

If you want to improve the MateBook X Pro’s overall thermal performance (CPU, GPU, etc), see the full mod guide.