2009 MacBook booted with black screen, now not booting after cleaning logic board

[bream88]

Hi,

A couple years ago a friend gave me a non-working MacBook Pro 13" Mid 2009. If I remember correctly she said she spilt some water or coke on the keyboard. The laptop kept running as usual for a couple days then stopped working for good. Just recently, I decided to charge it and try to power it up. To my surprise it made the apple sound when you first boot a macbook and seemed to be running, but the screen remained black. Anyone I talked to and everything I read suggested the logic board needed to be replaced.

Before buying a new one, I decided to try removing the logic board and clean it by applying some isopropyl alcohol (99%) with a toothbrush. I also removed the heat sink and after everything was dry, re-applied the thermal compound (Arctic MX-4). I followed procedures very carefully to ensure I was doing everything correctly. After putting everything back together, I tried booting the laptop to see if the screen would light up; however, nothing happened - it now no longer boots at all. I tried resetting the system management controller but still no luck.

I'm now a bit skeptical to buy a new logic board. I figured even if cleaning the old logic board with alcohol didn't work, it would still boot up with a black screen like it had before. Does anyone know where I might of went wrong or what might have caused this? Would putting too little or too much thermal compound for the heat sink straight up cause the computer to stop booting when it was booting just prior to taking the logic board out?

Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[jimmyco2008]

It's possible you discharged some static electricity when you went to take apart the MacBook... Or you were too liberal with the Alcohol/ it didn't completely dry before you reassembled it.

Thermal compound, if it's decent (and anything Arctic is), will have virtually no conductivity. Still, it's hard for something like silver-based thermal paste to not have some conductivity, and so you definitely want to be careful with how much you use. It should have been about the size of a grain of rice, maybe a dime.

Either way, you needed a new logic board, so I wouldn't worry about it too much, especially since you won't be cleaning the new board. Just mind the thermal paste, as I'm sure you are, and ground yourself (touch something metal, like the MacBook's outer case) to get rid of any static electricity, before touching the electronics.

 

[bream88]

It's possible you discharged some static electricity when you went to take apart the MacBook... Or you were too liberal with the Alcohol/ it didn't completely dry before you reassembled it.

Thermal compound, if it's decent (and anything Arctic is), will have virtually no conductivity. Still, it's hard for something like silver-based thermal paste to not have some conductivity, and so you definitely want to be careful with how much you use. It should have been about the size of a grain of rice, maybe a dime.

Either way, you needed a new logic board, so I wouldn't worry about it too much, especially since you won't be cleaning the new board. Just mind the thermal paste, as I'm sure you are, and ground yourself (touch something metal, like the MacBook's outer case) to get rid of any static electricity, before touching the electronics.

Thanks for the response.

If I ended up discharging static electricity, would that affect more than just the logic board? Like I said before the computer would boot, but the screen wasn't coming on - it would stay black. Now it doesn't boot at all. Would getting a new logic board even work now?

 

[jimmyco2008]

So with static discharge, you would usually feel that, like if you touched a door and it "shocked" you.

In any event, the logic board is the main component in a MacBook, the only other components you could ruin are the hard drive and the SuperDrive. Maybe the display?... but that only connects via a cable, I would imagine that's fine.

So, I mean I'm not there, I can't say for sure, but I would guess that you'd be fine with a new logic board. Still, why not just get a new MacBook? Replacement logic boards tend to be overpriced.