Looking for some very technical help with a repair.

[DevinPitcher]

Hey guys, I'm looking for somebody who can maybe help me with an issue I have, from a technical point of view, and not a consumer view, if you get what I'm saying. I'm looking for reasons, not "It'd dead." or "Take it to Apple."

On to the issue...

I found on Craigslist an ad for a white MacBook, 2.0Ghz Core Duo. Broken. $175 OBO. I figured, heh, somebody with a dead battery or a bad OS install. I'll check it out. 45 min drive away, not too bad. Offered him $150 and he said sure. He bought a new one anyway, so he didn't care.

Pick it up, and boy this thing is in rough shape. Not clean at all. The normal top-case cracks, etc. $150? Can't complain. Well, try to boot: nothing. No chime, no HD noise, nothing. Not even a white sleep LED. Tear it apart and look for the obvious: water damage, coffee spill, cracked in half logic board? Nothing that I could see. I figured maybe bad RAM, but it doesn't seem to make a difference. Well, I did find one thing.

In a very quiet area, when I hold down the power button, I hear a faint "tick" sound. No hard drive installed, so it's not the drive. I listen around, and it appears to come from the processor, which I have never heard of happening.

So what I'm hoping is somebody might have an idea on the issue? I mean, yeah, it's a logic board issue, but what exactly could it be?

 

[Bill Gates]

The tick sound is probably a relay. One of the voltage rails could be shorted to ground or open and the board may be shutting itself down due to a fault. Honestly if you don't have expertise in this area I see little chance of you being able to fix it on your own.

 

[DevinPitcher]

The tick sound is probably a relay. One of the voltage rails could be shorted to ground or open and the board may be shutting itself down due to a fault. Honestly if you don't have expertise in this area I see little chance of you being able to fix it on your own.

I have no issues repairing, I just don't know where to start. Relay does sound like a possibility though.

 

[Bill Gates]

I have no issues repairing, I just don't know where to start. Relay does sound like a possibility though.

The problem is you don't have a schematic to follow and no way to talk to the board directly. Start by making sure that it is in fact a relay on the board that you're hearing. You could then start by checking each rail (3.3V, 5V, 12V, and possibly others) for shorts.

 

[DevinPitcher]

Figured out the issue. Seemed to be an issue with the temp sensors. I read that the old Sudden Shutdown Syndrome was because of the wires melting and shorting, and I decided to ponder, and while the cable were fine, I reseated them and it seemed to work fine!

I now have a $150 MacBook. Rough shape, but it runs! Just need some new thermal paste now.

 

[Bill Gates]

Figured out the issue. Seemed to be an issue with the temp sensors. I read that the old Sudden Shutdown Syndrome was because of the wires melting and shorting, and I decided to ponder, and while the cable were fine, I reseated them and it seemed to work fine!

I now have a $150 MacBook. Rough shape, but it runs! Just need some new thermal paste now.

That's why you can only get so far with advice over the internet. Sometimes it's enough to simply have the computer in front of you.

 

[DevinPitcher]

Oh of course.

I also did read about baking the logic board, which was aimed more at the MBP NVIDIA 8600GT issues, which I did have on my old MBP, but I decided to try it on this board. It didn't do anything, and I had almost given up at that point. It was more of a "I'll do anything to make this work" than a honest possible solution. Then I searched one last time and I reseated it, and plugged in the MagSafe, and I saw the fan spin up, and my face lit up like a Christmas tree. I was so happy.

I gave it to my 14 year old brother to enjoy, seeing as I have no use for a laptop with 64mb of video RAM as a huge Photoshop user. Plus, I don't need 2 laptops.

Here it is, running great! Hot, but great!

You can see the cracked palm rests. Its also stained yellowish, and the top of the bezel of the LCD is cracking off.

And the logic board waiting to be baked, which clearly was a waste of time.

 

[GlynJones]

Oh of course.
You can see the cracked palm rests. Its also stained yellowish, and the top of the bezel of the LCD is cracking off.

Take it to Apple as these should be replaced for free as it's a design fault. Can't remember the apple document but you will find a lot of people have had the keyboard area and bezel replaced for free even out of warranty.

 

[DevinPitcher]

Take it to Apple as these should be replaced for free as it's a design fault. Can't remember the apple document but you will find a lot of people have had the keyboard area and bezel replaced for free even out of warranty.

Really? Awesome! I'm going to call them first.