{"id":304,"date":"2018-03-08T12:16:12","date_gmt":"2018-03-08T17:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimandnoreen.com\/?p=304"},"modified":"2018-03-08T12:16:12","modified_gmt":"2018-03-08T17:16:12","slug":"13-retina-macbook-pro-retina-wont-boot-fan-running-full-blast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimandnoreen.com\/?p=304","title":{"rendered":"13″ Retina MacBook Pro Retina won’t boot, fan running full blast"},"content":{"rendered":"

So this repair is mildly interesting. \u00a0The user’s late 2012 MacBook Pro just wouldn’t start up one morning. \u00a0It would get as far as a “missing boot disk” icon and shortly thereafter the fans started running full blast.<\/p>\n

Apple Diagnostics recognized that an SSD was installed but was unable to determine any of its attributes like capacity, etc.<\/p>\n

The computer would boot from an external USB drive but it ran very, very slowly and mouse cursor movement was erratic.<\/p>\n

So the first task at hand was to attempt to recover the user’s data before trying anything else. \u00a0Some quick research on ifixit.com<\/a>\u00a0revealed that Apple really doesn’t want its customers repairing or upgrading this laptop. \u00a0I thought I had every conceivable security bit in my kit, but nope, I had to part with $8 \u00a0for a P5 Pentalobe driver kit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Adding insult to injury, for a very short time in 2012-2013, Apple used a proprietary SSD in the Pro and Air laptops. \u00a0Just for giggles, it uses the same connector as an industry standard mobile SATA drive but has a different pinout. \u00a0There are only a couple of options for replacement\/upgrade SSDs and they are really expensive. \u00a0But at least you won’t spend a lot on RAM for this machine because it is not user replaceable.<\/p>\n

So there went another $16 for a\u00a0SSD HDD to SATA 22Pin adapter<\/a> that may never get used again.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some good news! \u00a0I hooked up the SSD to another Mac and it was 100% fine. \u00a0I backed up the user’s files to flash drive so he could get back to work while I investigated further. \u00a0The initial diagnosis was that the logic board had gone bad and we agreed to a maximum repair budget of $300.<\/p>\n

Upon initial inspection, there was no evidence of physical or liquid damage anywhere inside the notebook.<\/p>\n

Halfway through the disassembly process, I found one possible symptom source. \u00a0When I removed the heat sink from the logic board, I noticed a small spot of rust on the surface of the CPU. \u00a0Could this be interfering with good thermal transfer between the CPU and the heat sink, causing the CPU to overheat?<\/p>\n

Next problem: \u00a0when I removed the I\/O board data cable, I noticed some white corrosion on the cable connector and socket opposite the logic board. (See step 12<\/a> of the logic board replacement guide on iFixit.)<\/p>\n

It took a bit of time under a large magnifier with some sharp dental picks, but I was able to clean all the corrosion off the cable and I\/O board connectors.<\/p>\n

It appeared that a very small amount of liquid (probably plain water given no evidence of stickiness) had been sucked in by the left fan and blown across the I\/O cable and between the CPU and heat sink. \u00a0The user never noticed how or when this happened. \u00a0Perhaps the laptop was being used on a surface where something had spilled or was briefly used in the rain.<\/p>\n

I carefully reinspected the MacBook and found no further signs of liquid or corrosion so I decided to just clean up the CPU and heat sink with some solvent and gave both a light polish with a new dollar bill to remove the rust. \u00a0I put a dab of Arctic Silver<\/a> thermal paste on the CPU, reinstalled the heat sink, and reassembled the MacBook.<\/p>\n

Bingo! \u00a0Everything works normally now. \u00a0So for $24 for tools and $0 for parts, the laptop was revived.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So this repair is mildly interesting. \u00a0The user’s late 2012 MacBook Pro just wouldn’t start up one morning. \u00a0It would get as far as a “missing boot disk” icon and shortly thereafter the fans started running full blast. Apple Diagnostics recognized that an SSD was installed but was unable to determine any of its attributes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[7,4,5],"tags":[48],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8sNNV-4U","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":307,"url":"https:\/\/jimandnoreen.com\/?p=307","url_meta":{"origin":304,"position":0},"title":"Resurrecting a 17\" MacBook Pro with a heat gun","date":"March 15, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"So the dreaded day came when my beloved \"late 2011\" 17 inch MacBook Pro died.\u00a0 The screen wigged out while it was in use, then it would only boot halfway before stopping at a gray screen.\u00a0 From experience, I knew that it was suffering from the dreaded AMD GPU logic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Apple"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12,"url":"https:\/\/jimandnoreen.com\/?p=12","url_meta":{"origin":304,"position":1},"title":"Reviving a drowned laptop","date":"July 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"My friend spilled a glass of water into her 13\" MacBook Pro.\u00a0 She had tried (unsuccessfully) to dry it out by sticking it in a bag of rice, followed up by a blast from a blow dryer.\u00a0 The laptop would not turn on at all.\u00a0 The battery was installed but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Apple"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jimandnoreen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/macpro-logicboard-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":69,"url":"https:\/\/jimandnoreen.com\/?p=69","url_meta":{"origin":304,"position":2},"title":"Did you hear about the Rabbi who didn't charge for circumcisions?","date":"August 1, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"He only took tips! I don't charge friends for repairing their electronics, which I'm always glad to do and genuinely enjoy. \u00a0But I'll happily accept a bottle of wine as a token of appreciation. \u00a0Sometimes people are\u00a0really happy to get their stuff fixed. Look at the pile of swag that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Apple"","img":{"alt_text":"Booty!","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jimandnoreen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/20130801-133502-768x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":347,"url":"https:\/\/jimandnoreen.com\/?p=347","url_meta":{"origin":304,"position":3},"title":"Why Backups Matter (even when they don't matter)","date":"May 30, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Apple continues its multi-year assault on my beloved \"late 2011\" 17 inch MacBook Pro. First by shipping it with a famously defective logic board, which I learned to repair by periodically baking and now by stymying my efforts to to restore backups to it. When the 17-incher's hard disk started\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Apple"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":331,"url":"https:\/\/jimandnoreen.com\/?p=331","url_meta":{"origin":304,"position":4},"title":"Reflow Madness","date":"August 12, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the past several months, I did a few more reflow repairs with my trusty heat gun.\u00a0 I successfully resurrected a Beats Pill bluetooth speaker but it failed again after a few weeks.\u00a0 Another Pill is still working okay.\u00a0 I rescued a 15\" MacBook Pro with video problems but had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Apple"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":178,"url":"https:\/\/jimandnoreen.com\/?p=178","url_meta":{"origin":304,"position":5},"title":"Microsoft Surface Pro 3 first impressions","date":"January 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"My office is replacing its aging fleet of HP 620 notebooks with Surface Pro 3\u00a0 (256 GB, Intel Core i5) tablets. \u00a0Each tablet will be deployed with an optional keyboard cover and docking station. \u00a0This is the middle-of-the-road model, which is powerful enough to run most business applications but not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimandnoreen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimandnoreen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimandnoreen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimandnoreen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimandnoreen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=304"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jimandnoreen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":306,"href":"https:\/\/jimandnoreen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304\/revisions\/306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimandnoreen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimandnoreen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimandnoreen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}