2006 Mac mini Possible fix for no power to logic board

I am also trying to revive a 2006 mac mini. I have desoldered the same three capacitors. 2 of the capacitors show 10uF and one only a few nF. If I measure resistance over the capacitors still on the board I measure 0.0 Ohm (short circuit). Was this also the case with your mac mini? Are these 5 capacitors
all in parallel to get to 50uF?

Thanks,

Paul

Add me to this club! I have two Mac Mini logic boards that have the same symptoms - no power at all. Power supply confirmed working with a G4 Mac Mini. As soon as you attempt to power either hosed logic board, the PSU doesn't even power the known working Mini, until the mains is removed and the PSU reset.

Any thoughts? I've multimetred the bank of caps mentioned in this thread and on one of the boards the caps are all short circuit. I've not removed them though, they're still on the board.

Any help would be appreciated.

Hello !

I am in the same shoe, with a Mac Mini 2006 that doesn't turn on.

Checked the capacitors like the one on the first post, but they are working.

I have random values all around the logicboard... some 5.5 ohm , some 11 ohm, some 100ohm..
I have removed many and many capacitors but they are all working..

Unfortunately it looks impossible to find a schematic for this product, so we can reduce the range of where to find the short...

There is some information on this buried deep on this forum and elsewhere. Many, Many 2006-2007 owners have run into the same failed logic board issue over the last 2-3 years. It seems like it was a design defect that resulted in a shortened lifespan for an unusually high number of the minis.

If you can put together a strong guide, you may really have something. Minis from this generation with failed boards are selling on ebay and craigslist for very little in many cases. You might make a health profit for yourself in the process.

laptopmd said:

Unfortunately it looks impossible to find a schematic for this product, so we can reduce the range of where to find the short...

Click to expand...

Yup. It's one of the schematics ( 820-1900-A ) I just CAN'T find (which would confirm what caps were originally used).

freebasen said:

Sorry guys, I haven't check the forums here in a while. I have since revived 5 or the 7 mac minis I've found with the same problem. If you put your meter on the continuity test setting and check across the caps, you should not hear the "beep". If it beeps that means that the connection has been shorted somewhere, meaning one of the caps is bad. You can actually just pry off the bad cap and run without it once you've isolated it. So how to isolate which one is bad? Take a lab power supply and connect the black side to a common ground and the red side to the positive side of one of the capacitors. Very slowly sweep the voltage from 0 to ~5V. In between steps use your fingers to detect heat from the capacitors. The bad ones will heat up significantly. Remove them and the system should start right up. After you have verified it works, I would recommend replacing them with 10uF replacements.
----------
Also, yes these caps are connected in parallel.
----------
I should also mention that the bad cap(s) could be in any one of the 4 10uf banks.
----------
And finally, my personal mini has been running daily since December with no problems after applying this fix.

Click to expand...

This entire thread has been excellent info.

I have a question or two before I proceed:

What voltage is present across these caps?

And are we certain they're all 10uf, 1206 sized ceramic caps?

I'm looking at just replacing them all since they seem to fail randomly.

BTW, I found another source confirming all that is mentioned here, just for reference:

http://blog.helpmymac.ru/?p=3585

EDIT: (much later) Found my culprit on the top side of the logic board in a bank of 4 next to the airport card connector. So that's at least FIVE locations they can be found. More to follow...

The voltage across each bank of caps (top and bottom of the pcb) on my MacMini is 18.3 volts. The AC Adapter is rated at 18.5 volt output.

Be careful substituting these with 1206 sized 6.3, 10 or 16 volt caps.

You can get 1206 sized caps in 25, 35 and 40 volt. 35 volt sounds like a good choice but they're a little harder to get than the 25 volt. I'll guess that it's 25 volt ones that are failing.

Out of interest, my main board serial number label begins with "J58" and ends in "LDA" is finished goods 630-0494 and is code named M40B. This label is at the front edge adjacent to the battery holder, but is partially obscured by the felt, self adhesive airflow blocker. Maybe if enough of these labels are collected, and a pattern appears, we could establish a bad batch of caps - though it seems unlikely since the fault is fairly common.

Here is my contribution.

I have found that the biggest short in my board was on this capacitor.
My mac will not even start up.



But the problems are not finished yet.
My mac now show a white led blinking, i hear the superdrive that reset, and nothing else.

I have already tried to change ram modules... but nothing.
I measured another little short, near the southbridge... my feel is that this chip is shorted somewhere. When i have time, i will desolder it, reball and resolder back to the board to check if this is the failure...

Same problem with Mac mini late 2009

Although it is a bit off-topic I would like to note that I had the same sort of trouble with my late 2009 Mac mini. Fortunately, Google found this thread here ...

The Mac mini just stopped working completely. After disassembly and trying a new power supply cable I was certain that the cause had to be on the logic board.

I was lucky and found the defective ceramic capacitor (size 0805) on the bottom side straightaway. It caused a short on the 18.5 V supply rail. Because of that the external power supply went into shut-down (just as it is supposed to).

After removing the defective capaitor I noticed that one of the two green LEDs on the top side of the logic board came on again as soon as I plugged in the power supply cable (indicating the presence of 3.3 V standby power).

Since I wasn't able to get my hands on a 35 V ceramic capacitor I replaced the defective one with 1 uF / 50 V. Then I reconnected the power button and tried to power up the naked logic board. And it worked normally again (the other green onboard LED lit up), but only after I had put back in place the onboard battery (model BR2032).

Doing some voltage measurements I found out that there are quite a number of these capacitors connected to 18.5 V on both sides of the logic board. But I left them in place and reassembled my Mac mini which is now working fine again.

testing the cap?

how exactly you test the cap, do you apply 0-5 volt of a 5 amp power supply, and check each for heat?. all my caps show a short, so one or more of them may be bad. Maybe I should just take away all of them and check out of the board?.
Thanks.

freebasen said:

Have not tried it on my dead mini yet, though ...

Waiting for the christmas holidays to fix it.

Anyone can confirm this method ?

Thanx

Success Story: Fixed my NO POWER 2006 iMac 1,1

Adding a tip of things to try, this fixed mine just when I was going to give up on it.

If you have a bad SMC Reset button on the Mother board, where the failure is that the button is in the constant "depressed" position. The board will behave exactly as this NO POWER condition.

Root cause was most likely self inflicted, during an upgrade or other disassembly reason the button was pressed either purposely or by accident, or just out of shear curiosity. Either way, it failed. And by reading the service manual it would appear this condition is well known.

From Service Source Manual (mac_mini_early_late_06.pdf ) pg. 125:
"Warning: Do not press the SMC reset switch a second time because it could adversely affect the SMC chip."

It is clearly not a component that has many cycles before failure.

The fix does't require a soldering iron, at least not in my case. I simply PRYED off the button with a small flathead (it was quite easy, almost a simply as taking off that Modem with the springy thing underneath it).

Was a GOOD DAY AND LONG LONG LONG time in the making.

MacTech68 said:

EDIT: (much later) Found my culprit on the top side of the logic board in a bank of 4 next to the airport card connector. So that's at least FIVE locations they can be found. More to follow...

Click to expand...

Hi MacTech, my mac mini has the exact same issue. I've removed the cap and it now has a steady light coming from the led. However, I want to replace the cap. Did you succeed in fixing yours? And if so, what 1206 cap should I get? You mentioned the 35v one, but would the 25v one be good as well?

This page has helped me out a lot so far! Thanks to all for that

aart said:

Hi MacTech, my mac mini has the exact same issue. I've removed the cap and it now has a steady light coming from the led. However, I want to replace the cap. Did you succeed in fixing yours? And if so, what 1206 cap should I get? You mentioned the 35v one, but would the 25v one be good as well?

This page has helped me out a lot so far! Thanks to all for that

Click to expand...

I didn't replace the cap, although I did add them to an order and received them (I have a saved basket with farnell that I add to over time to get my minimum order value over the threshold).

The machine itself has been running 24x7 ever since I posted that fix WITHOUT a new cap in it's place. No problems noted. Next time I open it up I will put one back in. I did order the 35V but technically a 25V should work. I'm just unsure if these ceramics at 25V on an 18V rail with the heat in these machines is perhaps a little too close for comfort, but that's PURELY speculation on my part.

The one I got is Farnell P/N 1889298

http://uk.farnell.com/murata/grm31cc8ya106ka12l/cap-mlcc-x6s-10uf-35v-1206/dp/1889298

BUT, like I said, I haven't fitted it as yet.

Hello!

2007 Mac mini stopped working halfway through a film.
Now will not even start.
Can hear disc drive noise when power button pressed but nothing else.

Gone through all logical steps now looking at logic board.

When testing the condensers how quickly will the broken ones heat up?

Thanks,

Andy

MacTech68 said:

I didn't replace the cap, although I did add them to an order and received them (I have a saved basket with farnell that I add to over time to get my minimum order value over the threshold).

The machine itself has been running 24x7 ever since I posted that fix WITHOUT a new cap in it's place. No problems noted. Next time I open it up I will put one back in. I did order the 35V but technically a 25V should work. I'm just unsure if these ceramics at 25V on an 18V rail with the heat in these machines is perhaps a little too close for comfort, but that's PURELY speculation on my part.

The one I got is Farnell P/N 1889298

http://uk.farnell.com/murata/grm31cc8ya106ka12l/cap-mlcc-x6s-10uf-35v-1206/dp/1889298

BUT, like I said, I haven't fitted it as yet.

Click to expand...

Hello!

2007 Mac mini stopped working halfway through a film.
Now will not even start.
Can hear disc drive noise when power button pressed but nothing else.

Gone through all logical steps now looking at logic board.

When testing the condensers how quickly will the broken ones heat up?

Thanks,

Andy

AndyC87 said:

Hello!

2007 Mac mini stopped working halfway through a film.
Now will not even start.
Can hear disc drive noise when power button pressed but nothing else.

Gone through all logical steps now looking at logic board.

When testing the condensers how quickly will the broken ones heat up?

Thanks,

Andy

Click to expand...

Very quickly. However, I don't believe that this is the fault you have. When these components fail, nothing powers up. No lights, no hard drive, no fan, nothing.

MacTech68 said:

Very quickly. However, I don't believe that this is the fault you have. When these components fail, nothing powers up. No lights, no hard drive, no fan, nothing.

Click to expand...

The noise heard from the drive literally sounds like a small click. Nothing else happens from there.

Any other ideas of the potential problem?

Thanks,

Andy

AndyC87 said:

The noise heard from the drive literally sounds like a small click. Nothing else happens from there.

Any other ideas of the potential problem?

Thanks,

Andy

Click to expand...

Try eliminating everything else. Remove RAM, hard drive, Airport/Bluetooth card, CD Drive. Make sure the speaker is plugged into the motherboard and the power switch is plugged in too. If it gives you a monotone beeeeep when you power on, try adding one of the removed modules starting with the RAM.

MacTech68 said:

Try eliminating everything else. Remove RAM, hard drive, Airport/Bluetooth card, CD Drive. Make sure the speaker is plugged into the motherboard and the power switch is plugged in too. If it gives you a monotone beeeeep when you power on, try adding one of the removed modules starting with the RAM.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips reall appreciate it!

I'll have a look and get back to you.

Andy

MacTech68 said:

Try eliminating everything else. Remove RAM, hard drive, Airport/Bluetooth card, CD Drive. Make sure the speaker is plugged into the motherboard and the power switch is plugged in too. If it gives you a monotone beeeeep when you power on, try adding one of the removed modules starting with the RAM.

Click to expand...

Tried the above, but no monotone.

Power supply is fine.

Now thinking about where the problem may be.

Again thanks!

Andy

MacTech68 said:

I didn't replace the cap, although I did add them to an order and received them (I have a saved basket with farnell that I add to over time to get my minimum order value over the threshold).

The machine itself has been running 24x7 ever since I posted that fix WITHOUT a new cap in it's place. No problems noted. Next time I open it up I will put one back in. I did order the 35V but technically a 25V should work. I'm just unsure if these ceramics at 25V on an 18V rail with the heat in these machines is perhaps a little too close for comfort, but that's PURELY speculation on my part.

The one I got is Farnell P/N 1889298

http://uk.farnell.com/murata/grm31cc8ya106ka12l/cap-mlcc-x6s-10uf-35v-1206/dp/1889298

BUT, like I said, I haven't fitted it as yet.

Click to expand...

Ok, thanks for the info. I did remove the bad cap, and ever since then I'm getting a solid white light from the led when powering the mini on. So some result there, as it was completely dead before. Nothing else happens when powering on though, no disk spinning up, no chime. So I suspect a boot-rom failure. Bypassing SMC powers the mini with fans at full speed.

Memory has been checked, and it works fine, the same with the HDD. I'm a bit lost atm, might it be another smd component failing? Such as a tantalum cap?

aart said:

Ok, thanks for the info. I did remove the bad cap, and ever since then I'm getting a solid white light from the led when powering the mini on. So some result there, as it was completely dead before. Nothing else happens when powering on though, no disk spinning up, no chime. So I suspect a boot-rom failure. Bypassing SMC powers the mini with fans at full speed.

Memory has been checked, and it works fine, the same with the HDD. I'm a bit lost atm, might it be another smd component failing? Such as a tantalum cap?

Click to expand...

Tantalums are pretty easy to spot when they fail. They usually blow themselves apart and/or have a small hole in the top (and quite often will short).

Where was your failed cap? Pic ?

Also, I'm curious, How do you bypass the SMC?

I've been measuring the black/blue caps, but havent found a bad one.
The cap that was faulty was actually the same one as yours

What I do to bypass the smc, is I unplug the power, press and hold the power-button for 5 secs and then insert the powerplug whilst keeping the power-button pressed. Then I release and press the power-button a second time.
That causes the board to power on and the fan(s) start spinning at 100%.

It's a similair method to how it works for my macbook pro 2010. So my guess was that this method bypasses SMC, as the fans spin at 100%.