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John

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John
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  • Just to follow up, I came across a liquid-damaged 13" Pro i5, and I can definitely now say that there are differences that would present issues. The connector on what is probably the iSight cable is smaller and completely different, which mean…
    in put i5 logic board into 2009 A1278? Comment by John January 2012
  • Sorry, I misunderstood. I agree, I don't think there are SMC resets on unibody machines, at least as far as I've ever been aware. I think your board is damaged beyond my abilities. Never hurts to clean it up again and cross your fingers though --…
    in 13" Macbook Pro issues, water damage.. Comment by John January 2012
  • They should be just above the left edge of the keyboard cable connector and just to the bottom-left of a chip, and they are positioned vertically, one above the other. There are other "pads" in the area, but these are the biggest in the a…
    in 13" Macbook Pro issues, water damage.. Comment by John January 2012
  • Just an FYI, this site has user-to-user messaging, so you can click on the Inbox at the top, and then click "Start A New Conversation" to send someone an e-mail.
    in solder lifespan Comment by John January 2012
  • Good to hear about the successful repair! I have witnessed this phenomenon too, but I've never attempted the particular repair myself. I'm pretty bad a soldering, unfortunately. I'm not an expert at this, but the way I understand it, there is one…
    in solder lifespan Comment by John January 2012
  • They are usually just right above the very leftmost edge of the keyboard ribbon cable. If it doesn't work, try disconnecting the ribbon cable, and then try again. Good luck!
    in macbook jumpstart Comment by John January 2012
  • Hi! Sorry to hear about your thumb...you can get a nice little screwdriver kit at Home Depot or pretty much any hardware store for $10, so I'd really recommend picking one of those up, not only for your own safety, but because you're going to scrat…
    in jump start 17 inch unibody Comment by John January 2012
  • No problem, and I'm glad to hear it worked out!
    in How do you boot Macbook Pro 15" without keyboard? Comment by John December 2011
  • I dug around some, and it looks like procedure on this model is a little different, in that it may not have the two power-on pads that most unibody machines do...I'm not sure why they would deviate from the standard for one model, but it looks like …
    in How do you boot Macbook Pro 15" without keyboard? Comment by John December 2011
  • The optical could have liquid damage, or the optical cable could be bad, or the board could have power issues due to liquid damage, causing it to not power the optical. I would try disconnecting the optical cable, just to see if the optical is keep…
    in MacBook Pro mid 2010 no chime no screen no dvd Comment by John December 2011
  • When you say it turns on, does the screen light up? I've been assuming you have a black screen. If it behaves the same when you bridge the pads and you have the keyboard cable disconnected while you're doing it, you probably don't need a new topca…
    in MacBook Pro mid 2010 no chime no screen no dvd Comment by John December 2011
  • You can disconnect the keyboard cable, and bridge the power-on pads on the logic board with a metal object. This is an alternate means of powering on the computer, and bypasses the power button (which is often non-functional due to liquid damage). …
    in MacBook Pro mid 2010 no chime no screen no dvd Comment by John December 2011
  • I wouldn't clean the board unless you see corroded areas...there's no reason to clean a clean board, and doing so just runs the risk of causing unnecessary damage. That's odd that it came with a 60W...I wasn't aware any Pros came with 60W ACs. I w…
    in MacBook Pro mid 2010 no chime no screen no dvd Comment by John December 2011
  • Hi! Make sure to try powering on with one slot empty, and then the other slot empty, if you haven't tried that. Yes, it should technically beep with no memory installed, but depending on the problem it might not, so I wouldn't worry about that so …
    in MacBook Pro mid 2010 no chime no screen no dvd Comment by John December 2011
  • Looks like both tests worked! Target mode will show the target icon that you saw. The battery icon at the bottom means you are on battery power. Option mode shows the bootable devices available, and since it didn't show any hard drive icons, it m…
    in Powerbook G4 Problem Comment by John December 2011
  • Strange. I would test option and target mode to see if those function normally. Hold down the option key while powering on, and see if it takes you to the option menu. Also, hold down "t" while powering on to see if it shows the target …
    in Powerbook G4 Problem Comment by John December 2011
  • The keyboard cable is the ribbon cable that connects to the lower edge of the board. It's the one that's about 3/4" wide. It's sounding like your machine has board defects related to power, in addition to the liquid damage on the topcase/keyb…
    in Need help finding Power Pads to boot MacBook Pro without keyboard! Comment by John December 2011
  • Yeah, me neither. :-) But it can be worthwhile to bridge the connection with a pair of tweezers and power on, just to verify if that is in fact the problem or not.
    in Liquid Damage on the top left of keyboard. Penryn Model Comment by John December 2011
  • I was looking around and found this: http://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/16492/Backlight+dead+and+something+fried+on+the+mainboard+-+Please+help! You may want to see if your board has the same or similar markings as this one, and if you can bridge …
    in Liquid Damage on the top left of keyboard. Penryn Model Comment by John December 2011
  • That's the problem with liquid damage -- there's an infinite number of ways to kill a board with liquid. You can probably get $30-$50. Someone with an electrical engineering background might take a stab at repairing it.
    in Liquid Damage on the top left of keyboard. Penryn Model Comment by John December 2011
  • Yup, like I mentioned, the backlight circuitry on the board can definitely be faulty. It's less likely the connector itself than a cracked trace, or a bad component. Many MacBooks have microfuses that control the backlight and which can be repaire…
    in Liquid Damage on the top left of keyboard. Penryn Model Comment by John December 2011
  • I think I'm getting all your machines confused. But anyway, if you've tried the resets and you still have no backlight, but you do get external video, that proves the video chip is not the problem. The problem could still be the board's inverter c…
    in Liquid Damage on the top left of keyboard. Penryn Model Comment by John December 2011
  • It's hard to say -- did you do the resets I mentioned, test the RAM slots, etc.? It would have made more sense to do all of this first. If the problem is just that the brightness is all the way down (fixable via a PRAM reset) or that there is a ba…
    in Penryn Macbook 2.4 Ghz won't turn on Comment by John December 2011
  • Reset PRAM and PMU/SMC, but the first thing that comes to mind is a bad RAM slot. Pull one of the two modules and power on, and then if that doesn't do anything, put RAM in the empty slot and pull the other module. Lots of these machines have one …
    in Penryn Macbook 2.4 Ghz won't turn on Comment by John December 2011
  • Very cool, glad to hear it! Let me know how it goes! It's always fun to hear how things turn out. By the way, if you like the site, tell your friends about it! :-) I'd love to get more traffic on here, and even have other people answering quest…
    in Liquid Damage on the top left of keyboard. Penryn Model Comment by John November 2011
  • Thanks! To reset the PRAM, power on the machine and *IMMEDIATELY* hold down option-command-P-R. Keep all four keys held down until you hear the chime sound twice, which can take about 20 seconds, or 10 seconds between chimes. Then release the key…
    in Liquid Damage on the top left of keyboard. Penryn Model Comment by John November 2011
  • There's no difference between black and white -- they are A1181s, and the color does not indicate anything, or any particular specs. "Penryn" is a specific high-end model of the Core 2 Duo processor. Some A1181s have Penryns, and some no…
    in Liquid Damage on the top left of keyboard. Penryn Model Comment by John November 2011
  • Hi again! Welcome back! :-) By Penryn MacBook, I'm assuming you're talking about a white non-unibody A1181 model. When a machine has no backlight but you can see a faint image, it can be the screen itself, the inverter, the inverter cable, or th…
    in Liquid Damage on the top left of keyboard. Penryn Model Comment by John November 2011
  • What version OS does your machine have, and do you know what this specific Apple update was called so I can look it up? As I mentioned before, you might try disconnecting the keyboard ribbon cable before trying to jump the machine. It also couldn'…
    in Need help finding Power Pads to boot MacBook Pro without keyboard! Comment by John November 2011
  • On the 2009 unibody Pro 17", it appears the power-on pads are just to the left of the memory slots. So if you pop the back of the machine off and then position it so that the memory slots are facing you, you will see two vertical black screws …
    in Need help finding Power Pads to boot MacBook Pro without keyboard! Comment by John November 2011