I'm a macnoob who just received a broken mac.

[JasonG1187]

Hello everyone.
Last week my friend gave me their macbook for free and told me it had a fried logic board. I took it just because I wanted the learning experience.
I'm a freshmen learning engineering, so if soldering/de-soldering is needed I should be fine. I'm wondering how to figure out what is wrong with the logic board, ie. if it got water damage because I was thinking maybe I could try to get replacement components for the logic board.
Also it came with a 60gb hard drive, but i was wondering if I could upgrade that.
I know I need a 2.5 sata drive, but i was wondering if i had to get the hard drive from apple or if i could just go on newegg and buy any hard drive that has 2.5" sata connection.

Please don't flame, I'm just a scrub with macs.

 

[chrismacguy]

Hi. The biggest problem youll encounter is that the Logic Board is a proprietary design, with absolutely nothing that will let you diagnose the fault apart from giving it to Apple for paid diagnostics. It is unlikely to be the solder, but more likely to be a broken component, of which many are apple SOCs (System on a Chip) which cannot be bought or replaced apart from a Apple Reseller or from Apple (Which will not sell it to private individuals)

Any 2.5" SATA Drive is compatible (its a standard interface), however until you have the LogicBoard working I would recommend not bothering buying any form of HD. Mainly as it could turn out to be a costly repair to fix the MacBook (The only Macs that are easily "repaired" are the older ones, and thats only because theyve been around so long that engineering diagrams have appeared, or because a whole new Logic Board is only about £30 on ebay.

 

[old-wiz]

The boards are assembled by machines, and trying to repair them is way too difficult. When they get a dead logic board, it just goes into the recycle bin; it costs more to find the problem and fix it than it does for a new logic board.

 

[JasonG1187]

i mean, there must be a common component on the logic boards that is the common problem. I don't think it's worth it to buy a whole new logic board when most of the components on this logic board are fully functional. Plus, there are local shops that can repair the old logic board.

 

[pastrychef]

Does it do anything at all when you try to turn it on? What vintage is the MacBook?

 

[AlphaDogg]

Does it do anything at all when you try to turn it on? What vintage is the MacBook?

Do you mean generation instead of vintage? I, too am curious, because it will help to expedite the readiness of our help.

i mean, there must be a common component on the logic boards that is the common problem. I don't think it's worth it to buy a whole new logic board when most of the components on this logic board are fully functional. Plus, there are local shops that can repair the old logic board.

Not really... They are all proprietary Apple parts. You may be able to find some capacitors or other parts that are compatible, but really it requires extreme precision.

 

[iThinkergoiMac]

i mean, there must be a common component on the logic boards that is the common problem. I don't think it's worth it to buy a whole new logic board when most of the components on this logic board are fully functional. Plus, there are local shops that can repair the old logic board.

Whether or not most of the components are working is irrelevant. If it costs $200 for a new board or $180 for the component pieces to fix it (or, quite possibly, $220 for the components) which is more cost-effective?