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leventozler

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 18, 2009
323
151
A few weeks ago, while working, my 2015 12" retina macbook suddenly shutdown. It was plugged in, and was almost warm, not even hot.

I tried holding power button, resetting SMC, trying different key combinations etc., but it was dead. Researched the situation as best as I can, but all I can find were a couple of tips that didn't help.

I waited a couple of hours, tried some more key combinations, and it was still dead. Than I stumbled upon a video from Louis Rossmann.


According to Rossmann "the U4700 USB-C communication controller on the Logic Board fails, resulting in a low input voltage on the PP3V3R3V0_A0N (Always On) rail. The result is a computer that won’t charge or power on."

Just like in the video, when plugged in, the bottom of my Macbook gets warmer (probably from the short). That's when I lost all hope, my 3 years old Macbook, with its 1.5 years old motherboard (it was replaced when graphics failed within ~18 months) was a brick.

Apple quoted me ~$500 to replace the motherboard, but previous two didn't last more than 1.5 years and I don't want to spend almost half of its retail for something probably won't last a couple of years.

Anyway, it took me all day to figure it out, so if your 12" Macbook 2015 A1534 suddenly shuts down and won't turn back on, and its bottom gets warm when plugged, it's probably U4700 IC failure.
 
Wonderful. I just purchased an early 2015 12" MacBook from Swappa a couple weeks ago. I'll have to check if mine is A1534.
 
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Apple quoted me ~$500 to replace the motherboard, but previous two didn't last more than 1.5 years and I don't want to spend almost half of its retail for something probably won't last a couple of years.

How about sending it to Louis ? He would probably charge much less than that and make it a very worthwhile repair.
 
How about sending it to Louis ? He would probably charge much less than that and make it a very worthwhile repair.

I won't be in the States for a while, and I don't trust some local repair shop. I'll wait a couple of months for a repair extension program, but according to this post even Apple doesn't prefer a repair and instead offered replacing it with a 2017 version.
 
if this was an issue with all 2015...i think a lot of people would complain in 3 years.
 
Indeed. My wife's 2015 rMB has run great for over two years, and still does everything she needs just fine.
 
if this was an issue with all 2015...i think a lot of people would complain in 3 years.

Never said all of them have this problem. I wasted half a day trying plugging it in and out, holding power button 30+ seconds and countless different key combinations. I hope the original post would help others diagnose the problem.

BTW, I never experienced the 'touch disease' myself, which doesn't mean there isn't anything wrong with that model.

2015 macbook died twice on me, and I'm not going to spend $500 for a board that might not last another 1-2 years.
 
At work, I have a 2015 MacBook with dead SSD. The Genius at the store said it's very rare to fail liked this. Since it's 4 months out of warranty, not worth the $475 plus $100 labor to extend the life.
 
it's a wonder who these people are that trivialise others misfortune with asinine comments./

No need to get rude. I would rather call it “putting into relation”: with tens (or maybe hundreds) of thousands of these machines sold, it’s a bit harsh to judge the whole product line (and even the whole company) as bad. With industrial production (of consumer products), a certain percentage of production is defective. That’s absolutely normal and expected (doing 100% tests with each machine would drive prices up massively).

As long as a company is solving the problem, I see no real problem (even though it is hard for the people actually affected). Yes, sometimes Apple takes a long time acknowledging a problem and sometimes it also depends on the person one gets in contact with, but I can also understand the company, which is trying (and has to do so!) to prevent fraud, which exposed companies like Apple have to face every day unfortunately.

And sometimes there are also customers who seem to forget all manners once they want support. Makes it harder for the support staff to grant support (especially out of warranty and with goodwill only). After all, the support staff are normal humans as all of us.
 
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I had the same problem with my

Macbook 12” SPACE GRAY/1.2GHZ/8GB/512GB Part#: MLH82LL/A A1534

my first call with apple didn't get me anywhere. i will try to go in and talk to someone. I hope they will issue a recall but not sure if that's realistic. I suppose I could just hold on to it for a while - but on ebay this will sell for $100-$150 just for parts
 
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