Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How I resurrected my MacBook Pro by putting it in the oven

ales.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 204 posts

Re: How I resurrected my MacBook Pro by putting it in the oven

#121

Post by rob »

mgkimsal wrote: post #35

"with people having apparently similar but in reality completely unrelated problems" Not sure what he was reading - this is a known problem with at least many early 2011 MBP - I had one (still do - it's in the closet). Apple is refusing to acknowledge this as a problem, and will offer to replace the motherboard (or something like that) for ... $300 and approximately 5 business days. From what I've read, whatever they…

Wow, thanks for that link.

I have an early 2011 MBP and last year the same thing as OP happened. Ended up bringing it to Apple and did their repair depot option for $300. At least they extend the warranty for 90 days.

Not looking forward to this happening again, though. Especially since last time it came back with a couple of scratches on the bottom case that weren't there when it was sent out. I guess we'll see.

Re: How I resurrected my MacBook Pro by putting it in the oven

#122

Post by batoure »

stinos wrote: post #14
jonmrodriguez wrote: post #3

How does this work? Is the idea that there's a loose chip, and you're reflowing the solder to re-attach it? Relatedly, one of my friends successfully revived a bricked playstation by heating up the motherboard with a heat gun.

Not sure if it is real reflow, doesn't seem warm enough. Maybe some contact point was not optimal, and by heating everything and the expansion resulting from it there was some repositioning causing the contact to work properly again. I'm assuming this because we had a similar, but inverse situation once. There was a small soldering problem that would only manifest after the PCBs got heated >50C. But in the end it all…

>>My MBP had a swollen battery, wouldn't dare putting that thing in an oven

The title of the article is misleading the only thing the author actually put in the oven was the mainboard.

Re: How I resurrected my MacBook Pro by putting it in the oven

#123

Post by spartango »

uptown wrote: post #61
Kliment wrote: post #2

You might want to get rid of that Vertex 2 as soon as reasonably possible. It has an issue where at some point when switched on or resumed from sleep it will corrupt all your data and refuse to boot. Some have a different bug where it will silently corrupt some of your data and the only way to find out is by the HDD light being on for longer than usual. Back up your data and get rid of it. I had it happen to me twice…

Any idea if the Vertex 3 is in danger of this as well? I've been running it since April, 2011 without a problem - and have good backups - but I'd hate to waste the time trying to recover.

Vertex 3 with the latest firmware seems relatively stable.

Re: How I resurrected my MacBook Pro by putting it in the oven

#124

Post by malyk »

cones688 wrote: post #115
School-Cotton wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The benefit of Macs is that they're high-end unix workstations optimized for usability. As far as I know Apple is the only company still making anything by that description.

Thinkpads?

That takes care of the hardware, but not the UI/UX.

Re: How I resurrected my MacBook Pro by putting it in the oven

#125

Post by ja27 »

kevinchen wrote: post #120
fnordfnordfnord wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your electronics are RoHS compliant (they are), there is no lead.

Apple's laptops are RoHS, so the melting point of that lead-free solder should be even higher than 183 C.

And all the joints look like cold solder joints instead of nice, shiny but toxic, lead-filled goodness.

Re: How I resurrected my MacBook Pro by putting it in the oven

#126

Post by dfc »

malyk wrote: post #124
cones688 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thinkpads?

That takes care of the hardware, but not the UI/UX.

Ihe UX of OSX is not that of a high end unix workstation. High end unix workstations do not need homebrew. High end unix workstations do not provide the miserable, second class Xwindows experience that is found on OSX.

Re: How I resurrected my MacBook Pro by putting it in the oven

#127

Post by jmpe »

danmatan wrote: post #108
jmpe wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds like a BGA issue. They also had the on PS3/4 and XBox if I'm not mistaking. The chip has a grid of small solder balls on the bottom instead of pins sticking out. Due to thermal differences during operation some rows can experience mechanical stress due to uneven heating of the device. When there are cracks the contact disconnects from the board. Some images here: http://www.playbackups.com/Playstation3-xb…

And from a manufacturing/engineering point-of-view (which I am neither), I guess it's really hard to solve this problem. You have some unpredictable 1/100 or 1/1000 defect that occurs long after production and sale. Just how do you go about isolating the cause, and testing a solution? Make 5 changes, and put through a production batch of 1000 units, and then do accelerated testing? If 5 fail from one batch, and 2 fro…

There are PCB design/layout rules that deal with BGA. I'm not saying it's a 100% guarantee, but (much like EMC/EMI design rules) there are a lot of solid pointers that remove 90% of the issues. The remaining 10% are (again, much like EMC/EMI) subject to the layouter's level of experience.

Currently on mobile, can't link a PDF right now but if you Google " BGA PCB layout guidelines" you'll get a ton of documents.

Lastly: PCBs go through several optimization cycles, some occur after release for high volume stuff. There are always revision numbers of the silkscreen, sometimes they catch an issue like this after x1000 devices in the wild and do an update.

Re: How I resurrected my MacBook Pro by putting it in the oven

#128

Post by dfc »

batoure wrote: post #122
stinos wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if it is real reflow, doesn't seem warm enough. Maybe some contact point was not optimal, and by heating everything and the expansion resulting from it there was some repositioning causing the contact to work properly again. I'm assuming this because we had a similar, but inverse situation once. There was a small soldering problem that would only manifest after the PCBs got heated >50C. But in the end it all…

>>My MBP had a swollen battery, wouldn't dare putting that thing in an oven The title of the article is misleading the only thing the author actually put in the oven was the mainboard.

Of course it is misleading, its a link baity title for a puff piece.
Post reply on HN