Grant
Honorary Master
So it's a 2011 macbook pro - the one with the bad graphics chip.
The logic board was replaced during the period apple admitted to the problem, it was used a few times then replaced with a new macbook pro.
About a year back, for some reason i wanted to get it's drive out - being lazy, i never disconnected the battery having done this on more occasions i could remember.
Alas, the tip of the screwdriver dropped out and onto the logic board.
This was met with a pretty spark and traditional puff of smoke.
The machine was dead, every conceivable attempt was made to get it to boot - all attempts failed, even the most unorthodox.
Nothing happened, no fans spinning on at powering up, sleep indicator led did nothing, i tried changing ram, hard drive etc etc . .
About a month later i took it in for repair - if possible.
I followed up about a month after that to check on progress - i was told it was beyond resurrection, which i fully expected.
It sat at the repair shop for ages - nearly a year, when i eventually decided to collect it.
After a few days i decided to take one last look at it.
I then discover it has been cannibalized and stripped for spares - the entire battery / hard drive housing was gone - along with the battery.
The 2 x 4GB ram had been removed and replaced with one single 2GB module.
The rubber feet on the case were gone, the trackpad had a big crack, and the body had a severe ding.
That aside, i thought i would try firing the thing up.
I pop in a hard drive and hit the power button.
I hear the fans spin on, the sleep led indicator flashes 3 times, then comes the startup chime.
The screen remains black (backlight not coming on), but using an external light source i can see the folders etc - so the graphics seems fine.
I connect to an external display and all seems good - except no backlight for its display - and all the components missing that were stripped from the machine.
So now i'm puzzled, is this the machine i sent in, or does it belong to someone else ?
The mbp i sent in had no dings, cracked trackpad etc - but was utterly dead.
I normal know my way about these machines, but the guy who works on my macs has a stellar reputation for resurrecting the dead - both of us failed to get any sign of life out of it.
More curiously - how did it get life again ?
It has been rebooted a couple of times - on 2 occasions the backlight came on briefly during the boot process.
There could be 3 problems
1) logic board
2) backlight fuse on logic board
3) backlight driver chip on logic board
Given the backlight has come on a few times, one can eliminate the fuse.
The machine has been driven real hard with the purpose of overheating it to replicate the typical symptoms of logic board issues on this model.
All that remains is the backlight driver chip on the logic board.
Anything else i may be missing ?
The logic board was replaced during the period apple admitted to the problem, it was used a few times then replaced with a new macbook pro.
About a year back, for some reason i wanted to get it's drive out - being lazy, i never disconnected the battery having done this on more occasions i could remember.
Alas, the tip of the screwdriver dropped out and onto the logic board.
This was met with a pretty spark and traditional puff of smoke.
The machine was dead, every conceivable attempt was made to get it to boot - all attempts failed, even the most unorthodox.
Nothing happened, no fans spinning on at powering up, sleep indicator led did nothing, i tried changing ram, hard drive etc etc . .
About a month later i took it in for repair - if possible.
I followed up about a month after that to check on progress - i was told it was beyond resurrection, which i fully expected.
It sat at the repair shop for ages - nearly a year, when i eventually decided to collect it.
After a few days i decided to take one last look at it.
I then discover it has been cannibalized and stripped for spares - the entire battery / hard drive housing was gone - along with the battery.
The 2 x 4GB ram had been removed and replaced with one single 2GB module.
The rubber feet on the case were gone, the trackpad had a big crack, and the body had a severe ding.
That aside, i thought i would try firing the thing up.
I pop in a hard drive and hit the power button.
I hear the fans spin on, the sleep led indicator flashes 3 times, then comes the startup chime.
The screen remains black (backlight not coming on), but using an external light source i can see the folders etc - so the graphics seems fine.
I connect to an external display and all seems good - except no backlight for its display - and all the components missing that were stripped from the machine.
So now i'm puzzled, is this the machine i sent in, or does it belong to someone else ?
The mbp i sent in had no dings, cracked trackpad etc - but was utterly dead.
I normal know my way about these machines, but the guy who works on my macs has a stellar reputation for resurrecting the dead - both of us failed to get any sign of life out of it.
More curiously - how did it get life again ?
It has been rebooted a couple of times - on 2 occasions the backlight came on briefly during the boot process.
There could be 3 problems
1) logic board
2) backlight fuse on logic board
3) backlight driver chip on logic board
Given the backlight has come on a few times, one can eliminate the fuse.
The machine has been driven real hard with the purpose of overheating it to replicate the typical symptoms of logic board issues on this model.
All that remains is the backlight driver chip on the logic board.
Anything else i may be missing ?
