What exactly does a "Logic Board Replacement" entail?

[cubedweller]

Apparently my MBP is having it's logic board replaced due to sleeping issues but I was curious as to what exactly is being replaced? Is the logic board the whole mother/main board? Do I get a new GPU or will they just solder the old one onto the new board? I'm kind of clueless when it comes to laptop hardware repairs -- can anyone give me any insight?

Thanks,
~E

 

[Apple Ink]

They will replace the whole logic board but it'll rarely be a new one! Once they take the PCB from another MBP, it travels to china and gets disassembled. All the chips including GPU and CPU are salvaged and tested to check for whats working. The components which work are built up with the replacements to those that dont work and voila.... you have a replacement PCB!

 

[cubedweller]

PCB....what?

Thanks for the quick reply. What is a "PCB"? Is the logic board the WHOLE main board, or just a portion of it? If I had a boot-camped partition with Windows installed and activated, will Windows be able to re-activate? Or will my hardware change sufficiently enough to require me to call Microsoft and complain? (I know Microsoft/Windows talk is blasphemy, but I'm just trying to get a better feel for the work that will need to be done once my MBP is returned)

Mainly I'm just trying to figure out what changed on my system. Will I have to re-authorize iTunes? Will it eat up one of my "5 athorizations?"

Thanks again!

 

[Apple Ink]

Thanks for the quick reply. What is a "PCB"? Is the logic board the WHOLE main board, or just a portion of it? If I had a boot-camped partition with Windows installed and activated, will Windows be able to re-activate? Or will my hardware change sufficiently enough to require me to call Microsoft and complain? (I know Microsoft/Windows talk is blasphemy, but I'm just trying to get a better feel for the work that will need to be done once my MBP is returned)

Mainly I'm just trying to figure out what changed on my system. Will I have to re-authorize iTunes? Will it eat up one of my "5 athorizations?"

Thanks again!

PCB stands for Printed Circuit Board
It essentially what you call the Motherboard (Actually its the colored plastic board which lays the foundation for all chips and resistors and capacitors and stuff).

All activations (windows, iTunes etc.) are stored in your HDD (Hard disk) so as long as that is fine.... it shouldnt be a problem!

P.S.: I recommend you do a reinstall of Windows once you get your MBP back! Mac OS X should be fine!

 

[cubedweller]

Thanks! That all makes sense. I can't wait to get my MBP back! I brought it to the Apple Store on Friday the 12th and it's still reporting: On hold - Part on order (18-Sep-2008)

~E

 

[djgold]

All activations (windows, iTunes etc.) are stored in your HDD (Hard disk) so as long as that is fine.... it shouldnt be a problem!

That's incorrect. The activations may be stored on the HD, but they are identified to your logic board. Change your logic board, and both iTunes and Windows treats it as new hardware = new computer. Yes, you will eat one of your iTunes authorizations. Yes, if your copy of Windows has limited activations, it will eat one of those too.

I've had 4 logic boards in one of my powerbooks and quickly went through all 5 iTunes authorizations. Once you've used them all, the account panel in iTunes allows you to forcibly de-authorize all of them once per year, then you can re-authorize the ones you need. I'm not familiar with the procedure for Windows licenses.

 

[cubedweller]

That's incorrect. The activations may be stored on the HD, but they are identified to your logic board. Change your logic board, and both iTunes and Windows treats it as new hardware = new computer. Yes, you will eat one of your iTunes authorizations. Yes, if your copy of Windows has limited activations, it will eat one of those too.

I've had 4 logic boards in one of my powerbooks and quickly went through all 5 iTunes authorizations. Once you've used them all, the account panel in iTunes allows you to forcibly de-authorize all of them once per year, then you can re-authorize the ones you need. I'm not familiar with the procedure for Windows licenses.

Thanks djgold! This is actually what I thought would happen. So my choice is to either call Microsoft and explain the problem or get around the activation process by some other means.

I believe I'm already at 5 iTunes activations so I guess I will have to do the reset. This is really unfortunate and I believe Apple should be able to update the data on their end as they are the ones replacing the logic board -- their systems should be a bit more connected, in my opinion.

Again, thanks for the help!

 

[The Flashing Fi]

That's incorrect. The activations may be stored on the HD, but they are identified to your logic board. Change your logic board, and both iTunes and Windows treats it as new hardware = new computer. Yes, you will eat one of your iTunes authorizations. Yes, if your copy of Windows has limited activations, it will eat one of those too.

I've had 4 logic boards in one of my powerbooks and quickly went through all 5 iTunes authorizations. Once you've used them all, the account panel in iTunes allows you to forcibly de-authorize all of them once per year, then you can re-authorize the ones you need. I'm not familiar with the procedure for Windows licenses.

As long as they replace the logic board with the same model, there should be no activation issues.

My motherboard in my desktop got fried. I sent it back to ASUS for a replacement, they sent me a new one (the motherboard could not be saved. The entire 5 or 3.3V rail on the motherboard was absolutely fried and it spread everywhere. Eventually all USB ports stopped working, the ethernet stopped working, and eventually the computer wouldn't start). I installed it and I didn't have to reactivate Windows XP.

 

[cubedweller]

As long as they replace the logic board with the same model, there should be no activation issues.

My motherboard in my desktop got fried. I sent it back to ASUS for a replacement, they sent me a new one (the motherboard could not be saved. The entire 5 or 3.3V rail on the motherboard was absolutely fried and it spread everywhere. Eventually all USB ports stopped working, the ethernet stopped working, and eventually the computer wouldn't start). I installed it and I didn't have to reactivate Windows XP.

It's not that changing the logic board will require you to reactivate it is installing a fresh copy of Windows on a machine with a new logic board will require activation in general -- but with Windows, you only get one activation, when it gets the MAC address from the new logic board and attempts to activate it, it will come back as a different computer and fail activation. This, at least, is my understanding.

 

[Macloven]

Logic board replaced on my MBP a few weeks ago, and I had to reactivate windows and all other windows software (quickbooks, office, etc). And I ate an Itunes registration.

mg

 

[Teej guy]

I have a purchased OEM copy of XP Pro which is supposedly more restrictive when it comes to re-activation, but I had my motherboard in my MBP replaced with a completely different model (2.2ghz, 128MB GFX to 2.6ghz, 256MB GFX) and Windows didn't ask me to do anything, nor did my purchased copy of Office 2007.

 

[aquajet]

They will replace the whole logic board but it'll rarely be a new one! Once they take the PCB from another MBP, it travels to china and gets disassembled. All the chips including GPU and CPU are salvaged and tested to check for whats working. The components which work are built up with the replacements to those that dont work and voila.... you have a replacement PCB!

Do you have a link or reference which supports what you are saying? That sounds like a very time consuming and expensive process.

 

[e12a]

Do you have a link or reference which supports what you are saying? That sounds like a very time consuming and expensive process.

i wouldnt be surprised if it were true. Most of the logic boards that came from apple as far as i have seen look like they're refurbished. maybe one or two looked new.

i know they rebuild faulty power supplies for their desktops.