- Joined
- Oct 23, 2001
- Location
- Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Hello everyone! It's been a few years since my last post here and a lot of life and experience have been lived and learned. What I am seeking is some advice on testing Logic Boards on a component level to determine which circuit or component is failing. I have several dead and or partially functional Logic Boards here that I have been working on with some success and failure at resolving. Today I purchased a Mastercraft Multimeter Model: 52-0052-2 for circuit testing and am seeking some assistance with finding the trace routes for the power.
Through my searches on the internet I have come across schematic diagrams for the entire board layout but have limited knowledge as to read them and determine where all of the components are on the actual board. What I need is someone who has experience working with the MacBook A1181 and or other types of MacBooks that can help guide me through properly and simply explaining what and where I should be testing.
Most common symptoms that I encounter is a dim green light on the MagSafe AC Adapter and or dim light pulsing green to amber. Many of the MacBooks that I work on have experienced liquid damage of some sort or another. Basic steps taken to resolve the issues have been to clean the boards thoroughly with alcohol and toothbrush which has resolved some of the MacBooks power issues to the point of them working %100 and other times it has rendered no forward moving results.
Yesterday I worked on a particular MacBook that was displaying the dim green AC Adapter light, no power at all, it suffered wine being spilled on the keyboard which lead to the Logic Board. I cleaned a small area of the board that had been saturated by the wine and proceeded with testing and it came to life and appeared to work just fine including normal AC Light being bright green. The test phase did not include having the battery plugged in but I was able to image the system and had it up and running for several hours without any problems. When I tested the system with the battery plugged in the system booted fine until I reached the login screen where it then turned off the back light and went into sleep mode on it's own.
The battery was in a charge status (Bright Amber) and I allowed the charge cycle to complete. Afterwards, I removed the battery and logic board, I then proceeded to clean the other various components that had apparent corrosion buildup in hopes to resolve the battery problem causing the sleep issue during startup. When everything was looking to be in good order I reassembled the MacBook to testing point and plugged in the power to have it return to the dim green light and sometimes blinking dim green to amber.
This has taken many hours of additional troubleshooting and now purchasing the new multi meter in hopes of resolving this and other similar issues.
For the record I build, rebuild and refurbish computers for a living and have been in the industry for 16 years. I have been a member here on ocforums for 10 years.
This is not as simple as re-seating the RAM and clearing the SMC etc... I need someone with advanced/superior technical knowledge to assist me with Logic Board component level issues. I am capable of performing component level repairs aside from some of the micro resistors but if there is a simple way to at least determine which (dare I say common) component is failing I would certainly appreciate the assistance and guidance as to where I can find some answers.
All other basic steps have been taken with verified working parts to determine Logic Board failure for all of the boards I have laying around here. Other systems I have been working on have either been fixed %100 while some have issues such as batteries not being detected or detected and not able to take a charge or only work on battery power and not AC.
Most of the issues that I have a difficult time resolving completely are relating to power weather it be AC, Battery or both.
Through my searches on the internet I have come across schematic diagrams for the entire board layout but have limited knowledge as to read them and determine where all of the components are on the actual board. What I need is someone who has experience working with the MacBook A1181 and or other types of MacBooks that can help guide me through properly and simply explaining what and where I should be testing.
Most common symptoms that I encounter is a dim green light on the MagSafe AC Adapter and or dim light pulsing green to amber. Many of the MacBooks that I work on have experienced liquid damage of some sort or another. Basic steps taken to resolve the issues have been to clean the boards thoroughly with alcohol and toothbrush which has resolved some of the MacBooks power issues to the point of them working %100 and other times it has rendered no forward moving results.
Yesterday I worked on a particular MacBook that was displaying the dim green AC Adapter light, no power at all, it suffered wine being spilled on the keyboard which lead to the Logic Board. I cleaned a small area of the board that had been saturated by the wine and proceeded with testing and it came to life and appeared to work just fine including normal AC Light being bright green. The test phase did not include having the battery plugged in but I was able to image the system and had it up and running for several hours without any problems. When I tested the system with the battery plugged in the system booted fine until I reached the login screen where it then turned off the back light and went into sleep mode on it's own.
The battery was in a charge status (Bright Amber) and I allowed the charge cycle to complete. Afterwards, I removed the battery and logic board, I then proceeded to clean the other various components that had apparent corrosion buildup in hopes to resolve the battery problem causing the sleep issue during startup. When everything was looking to be in good order I reassembled the MacBook to testing point and plugged in the power to have it return to the dim green light and sometimes blinking dim green to amber.
This has taken many hours of additional troubleshooting and now purchasing the new multi meter in hopes of resolving this and other similar issues.
For the record I build, rebuild and refurbish computers for a living and have been in the industry for 16 years. I have been a member here on ocforums for 10 years.
This is not as simple as re-seating the RAM and clearing the SMC etc... I need someone with advanced/superior technical knowledge to assist me with Logic Board component level issues. I am capable of performing component level repairs aside from some of the micro resistors but if there is a simple way to at least determine which (dare I say common) component is failing I would certainly appreciate the assistance and guidance as to where I can find some answers.
All other basic steps have been taken with verified working parts to determine Logic Board failure for all of the boards I have laying around here. Other systems I have been working on have either been fixed %100 while some have issues such as batteries not being detected or detected and not able to take a charge or only work on battery power and not AC.
Most of the issues that I have a difficult time resolving completely are relating to power weather it be AC, Battery or both.
