How To Repair A Macbook Pro 2010 Logic Board

Cooking the Books (or, Baking My MacBook Pro Logic Board)

Well, it's taken me a little while to get this post up—not to mention the fact that its taken me a long while to go whatever posts upwards—but I idea this i was worth it just as an encouragement for anyone else who might exist dealing with a fried MacBook Pro logic board that is out of the AppleCare warranty coverage. I likewise needed to get this post upward before I forgot almost of the details.

Equally a petty groundwork, I put my MBP (17″ 2.5GHz-early 2008, Model A1261 to be exact for y'all that are searching) to sleep by closing it up for the night, which I've washed for the past 2+ years with no problems. The next morning time I noticed that the glowing power light on the latch release was off and thought it strange and then went to open up and wake it and nothing happened. Later futilely trying to wake information technology by varying degrees of banging on random keys and quickly pressing the power push I waited several minutes before I committed to powering it down. After powering it down, I tried to offset it support. While I could hear the hard drive spin up and the optical bulldoze go through its start-upward whirrings, there was no start-up chime and no endeavour to brandish annihilation on screen. I tried all the get-go-upwardly key combinations to start in safety-way, reset PRAM, start diagnosis—zero worked. Tried to insert original system install disk and boot from that, all to no avail.

Afterward going through the Apple Back up boards, I could non decide a culprit and since there are no Apple tree Stores closer than the 330 miles to Seattle notwithstanding (soon in Spokane I hear), I resorted to taking my system to the only certified Apple Repair shop in Spokane. We were hoping that it would fall under the Nvidia Graphics chip consequence so that Apple would cover the replacement (note to self: on time to come MacBook Pro purchases: Get the full three-twelvemonth AppleCare coverage!). Since the system would not even get by the initial kicking phases, there was no way to even diagnose whatever other problems. Which AppleCare concluded that it would not autumn nether the Nvidia replacement program. Which that meant it would be in the neighborhood of $yard-1200 to replace logic board ($800 logic board + labor)—which is not much less than the $1200-1400 my system in skillful status was going for on ebay. I've since gathered the necessary courage (and tools) to do information technology myself, so I could save the labor charges in the future. I as well found a resource that I might consider likewise if I had to face the effect of replacing the logic board again; DT&T Service claims they can replace my model logic board with a refurb for $450. Maybe next fourth dimension…

I was faced with trying to sell the dead MBP on Craigslist or ebay whole for $600 or attempt to recover more than by dismantling it out and selling the parts on ebay and mayhap be able to make up to $800. I determined that the time and effort involved in managing that many auctions wasn't worth information technology and posted it on Craigslist. I got exactly 2 calls on it—i by one of the techs at the shop who diagnosed information technology originally to ask if I'd ruled-out the Nvidia outcome (doh!) and the other by a guy who was tempted to buy it to endeavour to fix it, merely just didn't have the time—he asked if I had considered "baking the logic lath". He quickly countered my skepticism with a plea to Google the term and that I'd find a plethora of advice on how to do it. (Update: when I wrote this, I couldn't find the contact info for him but just recently plant it. Here'southward his link: http://www.spokanepcrepair.com/) So I did and he was right-there's a bunch of crazy gamers out at that place resurrecting dead graphics cards, Xboxes and logic boards.

I've never been afraid to become under the hood and swap out RAM, replace a hard drive or optical drive, but removing the logic board from an expensive laptop (at least when it was bought), was a petty beyond my comfort zone. Figuring I had nothing to lose if I messed upward the logic lath I found some helpful videos on YouTube that showed how to detach my MBP and remove the logic lath. Afterwards running out to get a better selection of Torx screwdrivers, I establish this video helpful (with the exception of the backing music):

Afterward successfully removing the logic lath, I then proceeded to prep information technology for inserting it into the oven. Now if getting into the guts of a $3K+ estimator doesn't brand you nervous enough, then actually taking the most of import and expensive chemical element out and sticking it into an oven should do the trick. I of the things that nobody covered very carefully, was how much of the boosted plastic parts should be removed earlier inserting into the oven. I was initially fearful after reading several posts where the user would actually remove ANYTHING that was plastic and re-solder it dorsum on afterwards. I wasn't actually committed or prepared to practise that. I was well-nigh nervous about the USB, DVI and Firewire ports considering there was no mode I was going to exist able to remove those and put them back on. I concluded that they have to exist made upward of at least heat-resistant plastics, and I hadn't read or seen anything that lamented melted ports and that I should be OK.

I was careful to remove a piece of foam cushioning that is attached to the board and placed it back on afterward.

Hither it is after I removed the foam slice:

I thing (actually two) that I did not remember to remove were the two sleeves for mounting screws that are located at the summit of the board (run into circled areas in image below). I idea they were metal, but they turned out to be not-so-heat-resistant plastic and I unfortunately learned that lesson the hard manner. They are no longer the best office of the securing organization of my logic board. I managed to recover ane, but the other was toast.

The instructions I followed for blistering came mostly from this mail on Overclockers. I preheated my oven to 375° F (helpful marital tip: coordinate with spouse if attempting to do this anywhere close to dinner fourth dimension—trust me on this). I placed the lath on rolled-up balls of foil (not certain why—only doing what I saw in the other pics) on tiptop of cookie sheet covered with foil (to catch the grease drippings, or melted plastics I suppose—thankfully at that place was neither).

Fourth dimension to accept a deep jiff… At this point, information technology should be noted that nosotros really gathered the whole family around to pray for God's mercy and that He might bless this endeavor in that information technology was affecting my ability to provide for the said whole family. It was time to start baking…

Afterward reading through numerous posts (well over twenty or and then) most different temperatures and times to broil for, I settled on 7m:30s at 375°F for these two reasons: one is that about of the realistic sounding posts hovered betwixt vii and 8 minutes so I thought 7:thirty should practise it. And the other was later on reading several posts that 375° would exist sufficient to soften the soldering joints to just barely the melting point allowing them to reseat better and where anything over 400°F would cook the soldering too much—along with all the other plastics and burn down the stickers.

It'southward not like shooting fish in a barrel belongings your breath for over seven minutes, merely with prayer, we persevered (it was a family result at this point). Later on letting the board cool for about ten minutes (I recall "residual" is the proper cooking terminology), it was now time to offset on the process of putting the board back in the case.

One matter that helped immensely in the re-assembly procedure was that I took pictures with my digital camera of all the critical assembly points so that I could reconstruct it all back together to the original condition. With the exception of the ofttimes-pointed out melting of the mounting spiral sleeves, everything went dorsum together smoothly and with all the family unit gathered around (actually they were out watching a moving-picture show because it was pretty boring watch me put the machine dorsum together) to hear the delightful start-upwardly chime and scout the screen flicker to life and post a question mark because I hadn't put the original difficult bulldoze back in. But that question mark was a beautiful thing, because it meant that information technology was live and looking for a suitable, bootable drive. I had removed the hard drive and placed it in an external enclosure so that I could access it from my older organization to at least be able to become some piece of work done and likewise to initially rule out that it was a hard drive issue. I wasn't worried about losing my information, as I use Apple'southward Time Machine and had my drive backed-up. Putting the hard drive dorsum in was fairly quick to do, and afterwards that was in, the organisation booted upwards beautifully.

Well, I don't take any pics or video of it coming to life but suffice it to say, that I'chiliad typing this mail service on information technology and have been working on it happily for the concluding (almost) thirty days and thankful to the Lord in showing His mercy. I've read that there are no long-term guarantees with this fix and to not look it to final forever. How long that turns out to be, I'll be sure to post in the future, simply I'm taking the precaution of planning for its imminent replacement (hoping my system doesn't have that terminal argument personally).

There does seem to be a casualty afterwards the blistering in that since I've made the fix, information technology looks like I lost one of my USB ports on the left side closest to the power plug. It provides power to the device, but the device (both input and deejay) is not recognized. That and the fact that I had to re-enter all my passwords as once the board's battery is disconnected, the OS 10 Password Keychain is wiped. So, that'due south a bummer, but well worth the trade-off of having a working system back.

If I could recommend annihilation to anyone in the hereafter of how to gear up before an event like this happens is, in addition to keeping your drives backed upward (at least with Time Machine), is to accept a skilful password manager with all your passwords stored—specially if you have multiple email accounts and website accounts in Dreamweaver that y'all manage.

And finally, be certain to give a hearty and heart-felt cheers to a gracious Lord who has shown us mercy indeed! Hallelujah!

(Update on Aug. 24, 2022: Afterward hearing of so many success stories of others inspired by this article and baking my MBP six times [5 more times later on this article], one of the important steps that I did not perform during this bake and therefore did not include in this article is to be certain to make clean the erstwhile thermal paste off of the processors and the corresponding heat sinks. And so to re-apply a quality thermal paste to the processors and heat sinks. The first 5 bakes lasted for various durations betwixt one calendar month and four with the average being two to three months earlier having the problem again. Each time, I failed to make clean the onetime and apply new thermal paste. On the sixth bake, I finally did that and accept not had to bake once again since Feb 24, 2022 [exactly 6 months so far]. I accept detailed this in my post: My MBP is Officially Hexed—But There's Promise, delight read that in addition to this mail before blistering. Also, as of today, I have counted a total of at to the lowest degree 22 people who have successfully cooked their books and posted back on 1 of the "Baking the Books" manufactures—so hopefully, that will give you hope.)

How To Repair A Macbook Pro 2010 Logic Board,

Source: http://russell.heistuman.com/2010/04/27/cooking-the-books-or-baking-my-macbook-pro-logic-board/

Posted by: dickersonwhathe.blogspot.com

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