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Grant
Honorary Master
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2007
- Messages
- 60,621
A friend had an old 2007 mbp (with the dodgy nvidia card) which has been living in a box for a few years and was about to visit the trash.
I suggested a little cooking experiment prior to binning.
The aspect of the entire process that concerned me the most was the disconnection of the various cable connectors on the logic board.
Although there are plenty of instructions available as to how to bake an apple, none of them detail as to how the various cable connectors are disconnected. The very last thing you want is to snap one of these off the logic board.
Some are very obvious, others - the small square plastic ones (for the fans etc) show no real sign as to how they disconnect.
After much close inspection with a magnifying glass under a very bright light i discovered the only way they could disconnect was in a upward motion.
Many cable connectors on electronic devices pull out horizontal to the board, others have a little flap which is lifted to release the cable prior to pulling out - also in a horizontal motion.
These lift straight up, but seemed rather tight - which again made me a little nervous.
So, i grabbed an old credit card and cut a strip off it about 5mm wide. I then slid it under the wires going into the plug and used a gentle uniform pressure to tilt the wires (where they entered the plug) upwards.
And there it was - they all unplugged in an upward motion.
This was not a direct upward motion, as the lifting of the wires connected to the plug results in the plug tilting upwards at an angle of about 15 - 20 degrees prior to releasing.
The other tricky bit was extracting the logic board.
The power connection is underneath the board on the left side, however, the board need to be lifted up from the left in order to lever it up and out of the usb / firewire / network ports, and over the speaker on the right side of the chassis of the machine.
But while the power cable is connected one can only lift the logic board about 10cm or so.
Essentially while lifted those 10cm or so, one has to disconnect the power cable from the board from underneath in that small gap. The power cable simple pulls out in a horizontal motion to the board.
Now with the board out, i could see there was virtually no thermal paste between the processors and heat sink, just a few dried and crispy crumbs left.
The next step was the oven.
As per the various instructions on the net, the oven was heated to 190degrees.
While it was heating i set about removing the old thermal paste, and hauling the vacuum cleaner out to remove all dust from the board, fans & fan exhaust outlets.
With all the dust gone, i cleaned the processors & heat sinks with isopropyl alcohol.
This was it, masterchef baking time.
Set the timer for 7.30 minutes, popped the logic board into the oven, hauled out our prayer mats and assumed the appropriate position before the oven door and watched like hawks.
I'm not entirely sure what we were expecting to see, but all we saw was a logic board sitting on top of 4 aluminum balls in a baking tray in the oven - nothing else, that was it - no sparks, no flames, no smoke - nothing.
Timer starts beeping, so i turn the oven off and open the door slightly - this was to make sure the board did not continue heating up in the residual heat in the oven, after a couple of minutes i opened the oven door fully for about 2 minutes and then slid the oven rack out and left it there for another couple of minutes before removing the baking tray containing the logic board. I did this in order to try avoid thermal shock to the already fragile solder.
Now for the reassembly.
If anyone reading this post attempt baking their logic board, here is the big tip.
Prior to applying the new thermal paste, practice getting the board back into the chassis a few times.
The board has to be levered into the slots for the usb / firewire / network ports on the right side of the chassis.
The speaker presents a bit of a problem as it protrudes higher than the level of the slots.
So one has to slide the board in between the speaker and the slots the gently wiggle it into place before lowering it enough to reconnect the power cable then dropping in down into place.
Invariably a cable or two will land up under the board resulting in you having to start again - not a good idea when thermal paste has already been applied.
So practice getting that board in a couple of times - practice properly, including reconnecting the power cable underneath the board and getting it seated correctly before applying thermal paste.
When you are 100% certain you have it right, check that the processors and heat sinks are still clean. I found in my practice rounds little bits of dirt got onto them - so clean them again.
Then the thermal paste - there are a few schools of thought as just how to correctly apply thermal paste.
Most seem to feel pea sized blob of thermal paste should be applied to the centre of the processor / s, then drop down the logic board - this will cause the paste to spread evenly.
However, one must keep in mind, in this case, the board cannot go straight down, it has to drop at an angle - this has the potential to start squeezing the paste out in the direction the board is being lowered, possibly leaving a gap where there is no thermal paste. I decided to apply a drop and then spread over the complete surface of the heat sinks in order to eliminate the above happening.
Reassembly complete, it was time to fire up the mbp.
Hit the power button, and heard the characteristic noise from the superdrive as the machine usually starts up - but then nothing. Lifted the upper part of the case (containing the keyboard) and peeked underneath, there was power & the fans were running, but that was it, display was dead and no startup chime.
Hmm.
Removed battery & power cable, reset smc, put battery back in, reconnected the power cable, hit power and there it was - she fired up immediately.
Logged into user account - got a warning that the clock was set to 01 jan 1970 (or something like that) reset clock, and that was it.
She's been running flawlessly.
Running temp (browsing net, mail etc) is about 35degrees, watching youtube videos - about 40 - 42 degrees.
I suggested a little cooking experiment prior to binning.
The aspect of the entire process that concerned me the most was the disconnection of the various cable connectors on the logic board.
Although there are plenty of instructions available as to how to bake an apple, none of them detail as to how the various cable connectors are disconnected. The very last thing you want is to snap one of these off the logic board.
Some are very obvious, others - the small square plastic ones (for the fans etc) show no real sign as to how they disconnect.
After much close inspection with a magnifying glass under a very bright light i discovered the only way they could disconnect was in a upward motion.
Many cable connectors on electronic devices pull out horizontal to the board, others have a little flap which is lifted to release the cable prior to pulling out - also in a horizontal motion.
These lift straight up, but seemed rather tight - which again made me a little nervous.
So, i grabbed an old credit card and cut a strip off it about 5mm wide. I then slid it under the wires going into the plug and used a gentle uniform pressure to tilt the wires (where they entered the plug) upwards.
And there it was - they all unplugged in an upward motion.
This was not a direct upward motion, as the lifting of the wires connected to the plug results in the plug tilting upwards at an angle of about 15 - 20 degrees prior to releasing.
The other tricky bit was extracting the logic board.
The power connection is underneath the board on the left side, however, the board need to be lifted up from the left in order to lever it up and out of the usb / firewire / network ports, and over the speaker on the right side of the chassis of the machine.
But while the power cable is connected one can only lift the logic board about 10cm or so.
Essentially while lifted those 10cm or so, one has to disconnect the power cable from the board from underneath in that small gap. The power cable simple pulls out in a horizontal motion to the board.
Now with the board out, i could see there was virtually no thermal paste between the processors and heat sink, just a few dried and crispy crumbs left.
The next step was the oven.
As per the various instructions on the net, the oven was heated to 190degrees.
While it was heating i set about removing the old thermal paste, and hauling the vacuum cleaner out to remove all dust from the board, fans & fan exhaust outlets.
With all the dust gone, i cleaned the processors & heat sinks with isopropyl alcohol.
This was it, masterchef baking time.
Set the timer for 7.30 minutes, popped the logic board into the oven, hauled out our prayer mats and assumed the appropriate position before the oven door and watched like hawks.
I'm not entirely sure what we were expecting to see, but all we saw was a logic board sitting on top of 4 aluminum balls in a baking tray in the oven - nothing else, that was it - no sparks, no flames, no smoke - nothing.
Timer starts beeping, so i turn the oven off and open the door slightly - this was to make sure the board did not continue heating up in the residual heat in the oven, after a couple of minutes i opened the oven door fully for about 2 minutes and then slid the oven rack out and left it there for another couple of minutes before removing the baking tray containing the logic board. I did this in order to try avoid thermal shock to the already fragile solder.
Now for the reassembly.
If anyone reading this post attempt baking their logic board, here is the big tip.
Prior to applying the new thermal paste, practice getting the board back into the chassis a few times.
The board has to be levered into the slots for the usb / firewire / network ports on the right side of the chassis.
The speaker presents a bit of a problem as it protrudes higher than the level of the slots.
So one has to slide the board in between the speaker and the slots the gently wiggle it into place before lowering it enough to reconnect the power cable then dropping in down into place.
Invariably a cable or two will land up under the board resulting in you having to start again - not a good idea when thermal paste has already been applied.
So practice getting that board in a couple of times - practice properly, including reconnecting the power cable underneath the board and getting it seated correctly before applying thermal paste.
When you are 100% certain you have it right, check that the processors and heat sinks are still clean. I found in my practice rounds little bits of dirt got onto them - so clean them again.
Then the thermal paste - there are a few schools of thought as just how to correctly apply thermal paste.
Most seem to feel pea sized blob of thermal paste should be applied to the centre of the processor / s, then drop down the logic board - this will cause the paste to spread evenly.
However, one must keep in mind, in this case, the board cannot go straight down, it has to drop at an angle - this has the potential to start squeezing the paste out in the direction the board is being lowered, possibly leaving a gap where there is no thermal paste. I decided to apply a drop and then spread over the complete surface of the heat sinks in order to eliminate the above happening.
Reassembly complete, it was time to fire up the mbp.
Hit the power button, and heard the characteristic noise from the superdrive as the machine usually starts up - but then nothing. Lifted the upper part of the case (containing the keyboard) and peeked underneath, there was power & the fans were running, but that was it, display was dead and no startup chime.
Hmm.
Removed battery & power cable, reset smc, put battery back in, reconnected the power cable, hit power and there it was - she fired up immediately.
Logged into user account - got a warning that the clock was set to 01 jan 1970 (or something like that) reset clock, and that was it.
She's been running flawlessly.
Running temp (browsing net, mail etc) is about 35degrees, watching youtube videos - about 40 - 42 degrees.
