'Jump starting' a Unibody MBP by shorting the Mobo

[JoeSayerUK]

Hey guys, registered especially in order to ask this question so I hope at least one of you may know the answer! Although it is kind of a long shot

My sister destroyed a brand new 15" unibody MBP with a glass of wine, thankfully, insurance have already paid for a replacement.

Now it's up to me to try to resurrect the machine from the dead before I sell the intact parts.

I've completely disassembled the machine, cleaned all the parts, reassembled it, and it still won't boot.

I'm almost certain the power button is to blame, the power button's cable appears to go straight through the keyboard's circuit, which having received the lions share of liquid, is completely ruined.

So now I've taken it all apart again, this time removing the keyboard so I have access to the top of the logic board whilst it is still assembled. Which brings me to my question...

I remember on the previous generation MBP's you could boot the machine by shorting two jumpers on the logic board, bypassing the button.

I expect a similar trick to be possible on this unibody macbook pro, but I've no idea where I would need to short the board to achieve this.

I would desperately like to know how to do this, if I am able to boot the machine, then all I would need to do is replace the top case and I would have a fully functional machine free of charge!

Thanks,

Joe

 

[midgetsanchez]

Out of curiosity, what specific insurance brand did you have...

 

[JoeSayerUK]

Out of curiosity, what specific insurance brand did you have...

Unfortunately I don't know, my Sister lives up in Glasgow and somebody else did all the communication with the insurance company. I'll edit the post if I find out

But I know, good of them for covering accidental damage!

 

[CDL0012]

I've done it on my plastic macbook logic board (intel core 2 duo). I'm not too sure if its the same on a Unibody, but it doesn't hurt to share my experience.

On my macbook logic board there is a lable on the board which says PWR BTN. You will have to ground the solder point under the W or B to either one of the points in the red circle as pictured below.

The location in the above picture is circled in the picture below.

Hope this helps and that the Unibody has a similar layout!

 

[JoeSayerUK]

Thanks for your reply CDL0012, unfortunately the motherboard setup appears to have been radically redesigned for the unibody casing, there's nothing with the 'PWR BTN' tag, or anything resembling it, thanks anyway though.

I'm currently downloading the service manual for the machine, I'm sure it will mention it there, I'll report back on my findings.

 

[JimboJones97]

For the late 2008 15" macbook pro

 

[JoeSayerUK]

For the late 2008 15" macbook pro

Thanks man, I'd just found it the night before, but I was too tired to post it, I'll have a go at reassembling the machine today and see if it boots up, the power is operating fine, with the battery charging and the indicators lighting up all as you would expect. I'm quite hopeful.

Thanks for the help though, I'm sure it will come in handy for other's with the same problem!

I'll report back if I am able to resuscitate the machine.

Joe

 

[Consultant]

On really old apple keyboards say iMac first few versions, the keyboards have a power button.

That might work. What about washing everything in distilled water?

 

[JoeSayerUK]

It lives!!!

After several fruitless cycles of reassembly, the system now turns on!

I've removed the keyboard, so there's no power switch, but the system turns on normally by shorting the pins on the mobo in the aforementioned spot.

Haven't installed an OS, I'm going to format that old 2.5" SATA drive I have kicking about and get the system up and running. If I don't find any major hard problems, I'll buy a new top case, and I'll have a top of the line 15" MBP courtesy of my Sister's clumsiness and my insurance company!

Again, I'll report back on any developments.