Any resource on how to repair MacBook logic board?

I run independent repair shops for a living, and we do board-level repair.

In general, when training techs I tell them to start with the easiest possible solution and work up from there. Since MacBooks are so heavily-integrated (so much is on the logic board), it’s the last place I look.

First order of MacBook repair when it won’t turn on: Start with a SMC reset. It usually doesn’t fix the problem, but occasionally it does. (If it does, I don’t charge the customer.)

Second step: Try a known-good battery. It is more commonly a battery issue than a logic board issue.

Third: Inspect the board for signs of water damage.

With PC laptops (and in general, laptops that are easier to repair), there are more steps here. But with MacBooks, this is about it.

We fix MacBook logic boards, but I would also recommend Tim Herrman over at https://www.tcrscircuit.repair/ for logic board repair. He has a YouTube channel where he talks a lot about MacBook logic board repair as well, and he’s been on Louis Rossman’s channel a few times too.

https://www.youtube.com/user/rossmanngroup

But be warned, repairing a Pentium desktop motherboard and repairing a recent Apple laptop are 2 different leagues. I did repair a lot of capacitors / magic_smoke on old desktop/vintage motherboards. You just need an acceptable soldering iron (with real temperature control, not just any junk), a tabletop EE heatgun (not the ones looking like a hair drier), a solder suction pump, your eyes and your nose.

However for modern laptops, you need a digital oscilloscope, logic analyzer, microscope, large reflow oven, vacuum chamber a dozen screw drivers and 5-15k$ worth of professional tools. Good luck with that. In my case, I can't even get my hands steady enough to do the smaller surface mount jobs. There is some wizards on the net who did it so many time they can do away with half of the tools, but unless you did it 500x time on the same model, you wont.

i just recently (last month) repaired my mbp logic board (screen backlight circuit issue). i had very little experience (have never even taken a circuits class) but i was able to successfully perform the repair (with a little help).

the first step is obviously to get a multimeter (which you probably already have).

the second and thirds steps are to get the boardview and schematics for your logic board

1. boardviewer http://boardviewer.net/

2. boardview and schematics files https://www.apple-schematic.se/board-ids/

the boardview shows you all of the traces on the board and the schematics match components with labels on the boardview (resistor/capacitor values and IC numbers).

once you have these things you can try to debug your issue. i did this buy watching a lot of louis's videos and googling (my issue happened to be common but yours might be as well). i narrowed my problem down to the brightness step-up circuit by finding a ground fault where the shouldn't have been one. i then ordered replacement capacitors from https://www.mouser.com/ (guessing that the dielectric probably broke down on one of them) for all the caps on the circuit an the fuse (values for which i found in the schematics).

the hardest part was actually desoldering/soldering existing caps because they're surface mount (as almost all of the components of modern logic boards are). for this you need a "hot air rework station" - quite an expensive tool. luckily i'm still in school and found someone in my ECE department that not only had one but was pretty handy with it. he did the desoldering and then i did the soldering. when the screen lit up both of us were pretty shocked the operation had worked :) anyway i can't give much more advice than this because i got pretty lucky! but there are forums where you can ask questions and people do discuss these things (louis also has a discord https://discord.gg/kPTwD3 where you can get more real time advice from various people). good luck!

I recently repaired the logic board on my 2013 MacBook Air by baking it in the oven to reflow the solder. I thought I was being trolled when I first came across the advice on a forum but it worked! However the fix only lasted around 2 weeks before the issue came back and the laptop wouldn’t turn on anymore. Now I’m probably going to buy a second hand logic board off eBay and swap it out, they look to be selling for around £100

It can sometimes be a much simpler issue. For example twice a connector came off on my 2012 MacBook Pro that meant it wouldn’t power on. Both times Apple reseated it for me for free. Although sadly Apple stores aren’t open right now.

With regards to board repair though that certainly happens quite a bit and if you wanted to understand that better I’d suggest watching Louis rossmans videos on YouTube.

Can you give some context as to why you believe it's a logic board issue? And things you've tried to get it running again?

As others have mentioned, macbook logic boards are basically the hardest out there in the consumer world. Was it a spill? spark? Localized? which part is damaged?

You're being a bad customer. This isn't how it works. When it breaks, you take it to the Apple Store and pay your dues. Apple will not succeed if people like you try to game the system.

Can’t offer any resources on home repair, but I’ve used Rossman’s service before with good results.

i would have thought miniaturisation would make this basically impossible without thousands of dollars of specialist equipment. I’ve never known a mac repair shop to do anything other than replace the whole bosrd. the thing is smaller than a raspberry pi.

spend enough time on hacker news and you’ve seen many srticles complaining specifically about how unrepairable macs are. especially newer ones, that cryptographically brick themselves if they detect tampering.