Broke my Logic Board IR Sensor Clip

I Did This Too...

I went to upgrade the hard drive in my Mid 2011 base model Mac Mini from a 500 GB drive to a 1 TB drive. I did everything pretty well until I got to the IR connector. Damn that stupid connector. I got the drive in and sealed the Mini back up. I have no IR Receiver and no power light (As someone else posted, that gets REALLY annoying but you learn to live with it.). Otherwise the Mini works well.

I'm thinking that I may replace the system next Summer at some point after the 2013 or 2014 Mac Minis come out.

In the future, I'll pull the connector from the back, not the front. It's a ****** design.

philipma1957 said:

Torx 6 and Torx 8

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One of the four Mac minis was Torx 6 and Torx 9, the other three Torx 6 and Torx 8.

Not to suggest that it is always the case in above mentioned postings but I do not feel sorry for those who break something just because they did not study the instructions and went in half baked. I suspect they did not take anti-static precautions either.

I did the same thing to mine trying to add a second hard drive to my 2012 Mac mini. The IR housing came off the logic board, very easily. The mini is still under apple care until March this year. Is it worth bringing it into apple to fix under the warranty or will they figure it out it's been messed with? I put everything back as it was so nothing will look modded, and was going to tell them that the remote doesn't work and the power light doesn't come on anymore. Thoughts?

I bought a refurbished 2011 Mac Mini server awhile back. I don't think the power light ever worked. I don't know if the IR receiver works. I never use it. Now I know why. I thought these refurbished units were supposed to be back to 100% when purchased. Apple probably won't replace or repair it, will they? I've had it for over a year now.

Will the Apple store install SSDs for me? It looks like this is a project you can easily screw up. I'd rather pay someone to do it for me than cause further damage.

Aries326 said:

I bought a refurbished 2011 Mac Mini server awhile back. I don't think the power light ever worked. I don't know if the IR receiver works. I never use it. Now I know why. I thought these refurbished units were supposed to be back to 100% when purchased. Apple probably won't replace or repair it, will they? I've had it for over a year now.

Will the Apple store install SSDs for me? It looks like this is a project you can easily screw up. I'd rather pay someone to do it for me than cause further damage.

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They will fix it if its still under warranty. Apple technicians here in the Philippines can install an SSD in a mini for a small feelike $10-15

DO NOT FEEL
BAD, I JUST DID THE SAME DAMN THING. IR SENSOR? HA, NEVER USED IT, NEVER WILL.

Go to Mouser or Digikey and buy a new one. Find a friend with a nice soldering station and a 12X microscope.
Let him impress you with his mad surface-mount skills.
You might well be able to buy a surface soldering setup for yourself for less than the cost of a new logic board.
It'll come in handy the next time you knock a 4.7 microHenry inductor off a critical HD, or just need to replace a microUSB port.

I just broke my ir connector off of the motherboard as well. Can I just use eletrical tape to tape the connector back to the motherboard?

waloshin said:

I just broke my ir connector off of the motherboard as well. Can I just use eletrical tape to tape the connector back to the motherboard?

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No.

MacTech68 said:

Depending on what's broken, somebody with decent soldering skills could replace the connector. If tracks or pads have been lifted, that makes it more difficult, but not impossible.

For reference, it looks like it might be a Molex "Pico-EZmate™" connector.

http://www.molex.com/molex/products...oducts&chanName=family&pageTitle=Introduction

For the 5 pin connector on the logic board, you'd bee looking at part number:

78171-0005

Without one here, it's difficult to know for certain. Pin pitch and dimensions can be compared to the drawings at the above URL.

RS Components UK have the 4 pin connector. P/N 700-0836

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I broke apart the male connector on the cable and purchased a 78172-0005, the counterpart to the above mentioned part and just wanted to left everyone know that they do in fact match the original connectors.

I bought it from www.arrow.com for less than $0.25 and free shipping for a single unit. Sure beats the $50.00 people are asking for whole IR replacement boards...

Hope this helps someone else looking to repair one of these brittle connectors.

kas23 said:

There are many Wifi remotes out there that could work for you. They actually work much better and are more versatile.

I feel for you with the IR sensor. There are many horror stories with the removal of this part. You are not the only one. I hope someone will learn from your mistake in the future.

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I've done this tear down for the dual SSD scheme many, many times. Today, I had a brain fart and simply forgot to disconnect the cable. Luckil, only the pins came out, but once reinserted, the connector itself won't stay seated on the logic board. The Mac works fine as a VSL slave. It just doesn't have a power-indicator light nor IR ability. Maybe I'm saving juice. It never sleeps anyway. To replace the IR assembly and cable or not? Hmmm.

JamesPDX said:

I've done this tear down for the dual SSD scheme many, many times. Today, I had a brain fart and simply forgot to disconnect the cable. Luckily, only the pins came out, but once reinserted, the connector itself won't stay seated on the logic board. The Mac works fine as a VSL slave. It just doesn't have a power-indicator light nor IR ability. Maybe I'm saving juice. It never sleeps anyway. To replace the IR assembly and cable or not? Hmmm.

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UPDATE: Forgot to check back in: I ended up replacing the IR board and cable on my Mac Mini. It has a really tight tolerance and no fun to do. Lesson learned: "Slo y'ass down, fool!" The first replacement IR board I received from a seller sent me an item from the wrong build-year. Things are not always as advertised, so know your connector-sizes, etc.

I've found another 2012 2.6 i7 that I'll turn into another VSL/VEP6 slave. I had a nMP for several weeks and it ended sadly. It could have been great were it not for those kernel panics.