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Hey All! Got a 13" 2019 i7 that reboots after sitting idle for about 5 minutes. It does not fall asleep -- it just goes...
Read moreHey All! Got an M1 Air question. I have one that is basically perfect, but if it sits for a few minutes and the screen...
Read moreHey All! So this is a weird one -- recently acquired from recycler a dozen 2018 Airs. All great shape, all power on, all...
Read moreHey All! Been a while, hope everyone is doing well! I have a question that's been driving me nuts: 2020 MacBook Pro,...
Read moreHi All! I should know the answer to this but apparently I don’t: I’ve shipped a lot of 2011 Pros to customers with Sierra,...
Read moreHi All! Got an MD101LL/A with audio icon greyed out, i.e. "no audio devices found". Usually this would be resolved by...
Read moreHi All! What does it mean when the microphone works fine when using the back video camera, but when you switch to the...
Read moreHi All! I've come across a large quantity of 2011 11" MacBooks Airs, and most of them have a strange line on either the...
Read moreHi All! In my travels repairing A1181s, I've come across dozens of topcases with "soft" buttons -- buttons that do not " t...
Read moreHello! I have a laptop, serial F8V, that has an intermittent backlight -- sometimes it's not on when the laptop powers on,...
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Answers
Todd, that is not actually how to reset the SMC on your model laptop. That method only works for early 2009 and older, whereas you have a 2010. This is how it's done (from the Apple website): "1. Shut down your Mac. 2. Using the built-in keyboard, press Shift-Control-Option on the left side of the keyboard, then press the power button at the same time. Hold these keys and the power button for 10 seconds. 3. Press the power button again to turn on your Mac."
Read moreWas this laptop behaving correctly when it was in your possession, or was it like this when you got it? If it worked at one point, was there a particular event after which the behavior started? I would remove the battery entirely -- when troubleshooting, it's necessary to eliminate extraneous components, and since it works on battery power, we know it's not the battery. My gut tells me it's a board issue, but as someone who doesn't repair boards, here's what I would do: Verify you get the same behavior with another charger. If this was a 15" machine, I'd verify you have an 85W charger (15" won't power on with 60W), but this is a 13" machine, so that shouldn't be the problem. Once the charger is ruled out, I'd take out the board, eliminate any dust and corrosion you find, and then I would disconnect the DC-in, let the DC-in and board sit separately and disconnected from power for a few hours, and then put the machine back together. Sometimes a DC-in will acquire what I think of as a "bad charge", and...
Read moreYou need to determine whether it's a keyboard issue or a board-related issue. Pull the keyboard cable and jump the laptop with the power-on pads on the board. If it stays on, you have a bad keyboard. If it still shuts off, you're likely dealing with a board issue. The fact that "holding a key" allows it to stay on suggests you probably have a bad keyboard with a stuck key. Often in that case, holding in a key can temporarily counteract the effect of the stuck key.
Read moreThermal paste has nothing to do with whether or not a laptop powers on initially. Way too much paste or no paste can cause overheating, but it should power on at least initially and stay on for a minute no matter how well or badly you applied the paste. Once the board is really hot, it will shut off in less time, i.e. the 5th time you power it on it might shut off in ten seconds, since it's already warmed up. Therefore, the board installation is most likely the culprit. Take the board out and re-install it carefully. Make sure you are using the correct screws in the correct places and nothing is getting shorted. As far as thermal paste, you only need to use a tiny drop the size of the head of a small screw. Any more than that, and the paste will spread too far and conduct heat where it shouldn't go. Make sure the previous paste has been completely removed and cleaned away with alcohol.
Read moreThe particular video defects you describe are usually a result of a bad connection between the video cable and the board. The first thing to try is to re-seat the video cable as securely as you possibly can, and that often resolves the problem. Make sure the cable is fully seated into the connector, and that the clasp is all the way down. You can also clean the video connector and the socket, but be very careful. If none of that does it, it's generally the video cable itself (not the board or the screen panel).
Read moreThe OS would not normally be linked to your serial number, so I would not expect this to be the situation. Do you happen to have FileValue enabled (encryption)? What indications were you getting that the board was going bad? Is it possible that you aren't typing the password that you think you are, and have a bad key from liquid damage? I would type the password in a visible space just to verify. I would boot the laptop from an external bootable volume, which will allow you to see your internal drive as a secondary drive and get at your data, etc. You can do this by connecting an external drive and powering on with the option key held down, which will display the boot options...I would be curious to see if you do get the boot options and not a padlock (which indicates a firmware lock on the new board). Boards with firmware locks can behave in strange ways, so I would want to rule that out. Another idea is to follow these instructions and create a new admin account: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/432...
Read moreDon't get liquid on the heatsync unless you plan on re-applying thermal paste. Have you booted to an external drive to see if you can wipe the SSD in Disk Utility and do a fresh install? If the SSD is not visible in that scenario I would re-seat it and try again before resorting to cleaning the entire logic board. And even then, I would examine the entire board for corrosion and just remove the corrosion before I arbitrarily starting scrubbing down the whole thing. (I'm assuming you don't have an ultrasonic cleaner.) Personally I use 99% alcohol. 85% alcohol is 15% water....
Read moreI would take out the board again and re-assemble, making sure all the connections are secure and that you didn't miss any. But first I'd disconnect the video cable and re-attach it, making sure the latch is in place, because sometimes even a slightly loose video cable will cause no video or no backlight. When it powers up do you see a faint image (shine a flashlight through the Apple symbol from behind)? If you do, then you likely either have a bad screen panel (bad bulb) or a blown backlight fuse on the board. But the fact that the power LED is not working points to bigger issues, which is why removing the board again makes sense. While you have it apart, I would disconnect the DC-in from the board and let the two sit for an hour to discharge...sometimes allowing a "bad charge" to dissipate can cause normal behavior to be restored.
Read morePersonally I would run both the board and the I/O board through my ultrasonic cleaner. There's probably still gunk/corrosion causing these issues. If the board or I/O board have been damaged, an ultrasonic cleaning won't help, but the first step is to remove the gunk and verify that's not the problem.
Read moreBattery issues more often than not are caused by a bad battery. Replace the battery with one that you know is good, and that will tell you the answer -- if it works, the battery was bad, and if it doesn't, you know it's the computer, and we can proceed further at that point.
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Guide Comments
The third screw in from the right (close to the middle of the laptop, by the optical drive bay) needs to remain empty because it will eventually be filled when you attach the lower casing. If you put in a screw as shown in this picture, you will then be unable to put in a screw through the lower casing.
rdklinc
@rdklinc
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Hi! I'm John, and I have a Minneapolis company called RDKL, Inc. (pronounced "roadkill incorporated"). I repair/refurbish Apple laptops that I buy from electronics recyclers. I also buy broken MacBooks at my site, rdklinc.com. Thanks!
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