Let the baking commence!

Sіr. Ηaxalot · May 06, 2011, 11:37:42 AM

So, yesterday I got commissioned to probably the most interesting job yet, to try and rescue the harddrive from a MacBook that have been run over by a car (at least partially). For being run over by a car the computer looks surprisingly intact, except for the display, and when I tried to start it it would just continue to play three loud beeps in a row until I removed the battery. Despite that I managed to extract the HDD, memory and Wi-Fi card which is in my Windows laptop right now and it works just fine!

The computer with the motherboard removed.

The Motherboard (or logicboard, which apple calls it) seems to be intact and there's no visible damage to it. So, the plan right now is to try and bake it in the oven and see if I can bring it back to life. After all, it's a laptop that is worth over $1k. If I can get the motherboard working it's worth the cost to buy a new display and replace it, and then have a fully (more or less) working MacBook!

The motherboard.

My biggest worry is that if it works, will I be able to piece it back together?

Surprisingly enough there was a couple of metallic parts that fell out of it when I opened it, but it didn't seem to be causing any major problems..

Swoka Ikran · May 06, 2011, 12:39:23 PM

Hope it goes well

This does remind me of a PC I was asked to fix once. According to the owner, it fell out of a cargo van while on the highway. It ended up needing a CPU heatsink bracket (tabs broken off by the heatsink), a hard disk, and a lot of work on the (metal) case.

Sіr. Ηaxalot · May 06, 2011, 02:34:30 PM

IT IS ALIVE!

... more or less. The main problem is that I don't know if the cooling fan is working, and the display.

Nyx · May 06, 2011, 03:42:41 PM

How does one manage to run it over with a car? xD

Nice job on saving it though

Swoka Ikran · May 06, 2011, 03:53:50 PM

Good to see it's working

Quote from: Nyx on May 06, 2011, 03:42:41 PM
How does one manage to run it over with a car? xD

I was wondering that as well. Who puts their laptop on the ground near a vehicle?

Sіr. Ηaxalot · May 06, 2011, 04:56:57 PM

Quote from: Swoka Ikran on May 06, 2011, 03:53:50 PM
Quote from: Nyx on May 06, 2011, 03:42:41 PM
How does one manage to run it over with a car? xD
I was wondering that as well. Who puts their laptop on the ground near a vehicle?

Well, I'm not sure how it went down. The facts I know is that the laptop was in a bag, and that the (previous) owner managed to reverse over it. I'm not sure if he drove straight over it, or if he noticed the bump and stopped.

Anyway, the hard part is left: Reassemble everything the way it was and possibly I have to do some additional fixing of the CPU fan, which I'm not sure if it works since I kinda broke the connector by pulling it in the wrong direction when I disassembled it..

Sіr. Ηaxalot · May 07, 2011, 02:32:07 PM

CPU fan is fixed, a faulty memory slot is fixed, with duct tape (no fix is complete without duct tape

)

Swoka Ikran · May 07, 2011, 02:56:51 PM

I'm assuming it's usable with that external monitor attached?

Quote from: Sir. Haxalot on May 07, 2011, 02:32:07 PM
...a faulty memory slot is fixed, with duct tape (no fix is complete without duct tape )

I used duct tape to install a hard disk in March for somebody...system was a Dell, so tool-free case. PC came with no HDD, and as such no drive rails (they threw them out with the old disk). New drive got a piece of cardboard over the PCB for insulation, then was duct taped into the bay.

Sіr. Ηaxalot · May 07, 2011, 03:26:45 PM

Yes, it's fully useable. Just don't poke the second memory slot, that will make the machine reboot without warning ^^

Swoka Ikran · May 07, 2011, 03:56:40 PM

Quote from: Sir. Haxalot on May 07, 2011, 03:26:45 PM
Yes, it's fully useable.

Cool.

Quote from: Sir. Haxalot on May 07, 2011, 03:26:45 PM
Just don't poke the second memory slot, that will make the machine reboot without warning ^^

Random reboots from forceful typing could be a problem...guess you could use an external keyboard when possible.

What exactly happened to the slot? Broken locking tabs? (I had a desktop with this issue, worked fine as long as you didn't move the system around or stand it up.)

Sіr. Ηaxalot · May 07, 2011, 06:55:31 PM

Quote from: Swoka Ikran on May 07, 2011, 03:56:40 PM
Quote from: Sir. Haxalot on May 07, 2011, 03:26:45 PM
Just don't poke the second memory slot, that will make the machine reboot without warning ^^
Random reboots from forceful typing could be a problem...guess you could use an external keyboard when possible.

What exactly happened to the slot? Broken locking tabs? (I had a desktop with this issue, worked fine as long as you didn't move the system around or stand it up.)

The fix is that I've rolled a piece of duct tape and pushed it in between the memory stick and the MB, which will press the memory upwards. Without it the computer will refuse to boot and it's probably the reason why the machine reboots when it is pushed down again.

If I can't solve this and if it becomes a major problem I can always remove the memory from that slot and run on 2GB.

Tiaothi · May 07, 2011, 07:03:59 PM

Nothing like a bit of DIY SMD reworking in an oven. Very useful trick.

Swoka Ikran · May 07, 2011, 07:27:35 PM

Quote from: Sir. Haxalot on May 07, 2011, 06:55:31 PM
The fix is that I've rolled a piece of duct tape and pushed it in between the memory stick and the MB, which will press the memory upwards. Without it the computer will refuse to boot and it's probably the reason why the machine reboots when it is pushed down again.

If I can't solve this and if it becomes a major problem I can always remove the memory from that slot and run on 2GB.

That explains it

Bad connection. As for running on 2GB, what do you plan to do with it? Unless you intend to do video/photo work or other heavy such tasks, I can't see ever needing all 4GB anyway. But then, I also don't know how much memory OSX uses...

EDIT: Unedited post. Got quoted too fast

Sіr. Ηaxalot · May 07, 2011, 07:30:31 PM

Quote from: Swoka Ikran on May 07, 2011, 07:27:35 PM
Quote from: Sir. Haxalot on May 07, 2011, 06:55:31 PM
The fix is that I've rolled a piece of duct tape and pushed it in between the memory stick and the MB, which will press the memory upwards. Without it the computer will refuse to boot and it's probably the reason why the machine reboots when it is pushed down again.

If I can't solve this and if it becomes a major problem I can always remove the memory from that slot and run on 2GB.
That explains it Bad connection. As for running on 2GB, what do you plan to do with it? Unless you intend to do video/photo work or other heavy such tasks, I can't see ever needing all 4GB anyway. But then, I also don't know how much memory OSX uses...

Well,, actually it's not likely to ever run any heavy software. Except maybe Visual Studio it will mostly be for browsing and schoolwork (i.e. Firefox and Office). I'm planning on dualboot Windows 7 and OS X with W7 as primary OS since I've never liked Mac OS, maybe even tripleboot with a Linux dist, because I can

Swoka Ikran · May 07, 2011, 08:03:31 PM

Quote from: Sir. Haxalot on May 07, 2011, 07:30:31 PM
Well,, actually it's not likely to ever run any heavy software. Except maybe Visual Studio it will mostly be for browsing and schoolwork (i.e. Firefox and Office). I'm planning on dualboot Windows 7 and OS X with W7 as primary OS since I've never liked Mac OS, maybe even tripleboot with a Linux dist, because I can

If it's not going to be doing heavy work, I'd say leave the extra 2GB out. The reliability is worth it. Also, never seen a MacBook run Linux before (only Windows). What I have seen though was a PC running Mac OS...

akiwiguy · May 07, 2011, 08:36:36 PM

Quote from: Swoka Ikran on May 07, 2011, 08:03:31 PM
Quote from: Sir. Haxalot on May 07, 2011, 07:30:31 PM
Well,, actually it's not likely to ever run any heavy software. Except maybe Visual Studio it will mostly be for browsing and schoolwork (i.e. Firefox and Office). I'm planning on dualboot Windows 7 and OS X with W7 as primary OS since I've never liked Mac OS, maybe even tripleboot with a Linux dist, because I can
If it's not going to be doing heavy work, I'd say leave the extra 2GB out. The reliability is worth it. Also, never seen a MacBook run Linux before (only Windows). What I have seen though was a PC running Mac OS...

I've done both before.

Swoka Ikran · May 07, 2011, 08:52:58 PM

Quote from: Eltu lefngap 'eveng on May 07, 2011, 08:36:36 PM
Quote from: Swoka Ikran on May 07, 2011, 08:03:31 PM
Quote from: Sir. Haxalot on May 07, 2011, 07:30:31 PM
Well,, actually it's not likely to ever run any heavy software. Except maybe Visual Studio it will mostly be for browsing and schoolwork (i.e. Firefox and Office). I'm planning on dualboot Windows 7 and OS X with W7 as primary OS since I've never liked Mac OS, maybe even tripleboot with a Linux dist, because I can
If it's not going to be doing heavy work, I'd say leave the extra 2GB out. The reliability is worth it. Also, never seen a MacBook run Linux before (only Windows). What I have seen though was a PC running Mac OS...
I've done both before.

Is linux any faster than Mac OS on a Mac? I'd imagine so, but not being a Linux user (and not having a Mac) makes it hard to find out.

In my limited experience with a PC running Mac OS...it blew the socks off a comparable Apple-built system.

Human No More · May 11, 2011, 05:18:07 AM

Apple computers are massively overpriced for the hardware they have, you are really just paying for the case and brand name. I would guess that Linux would be faster if you ran it natively, but not if it was in a virtual machine.

Swoka Ikran · May 11, 2011, 11:53:02 AM

Quote from: Human No More on May 11, 2011, 05:18:07 AM
Apple computers are massively overpriced for the hardware they have, you are really just paying for the case and brand name.

Very true...you pay for the pretty looks and the Apple logo on the side, not the actual hardware that's in it.

When I had access to that MacOS PC (in tech school), we tested it against the highest-end Mac the school owned. PC beat Mac in every test...sometimes by large margins.

Sіr. Ηaxalot · May 11, 2011, 12:54:52 PM

Quote from: Swoka Ikran on May 11, 2011, 11:53:02 AM
Quote from: Human No More on May 11, 2011, 05:18:07 AM
Apple computers are massively overpriced for the hardware they have, you are really just paying for the case and brand name.
Very true...you pay for the pretty looks and the Apple logo on the side, not the actual hardware that's in it.

When I had access to that MacOS PC (in tech school), we tested it against the highest-end Mac the school owned. PC beat Mac in every test...sometimes by large margins.

Well, if I would have $2K to spend on a laptop it would easily be an Apple. Not because I especially like then, I even dislike Mac OS. But they do have premium quality build quality and even if the hardware isn't the best for that price, it's a laptop, I don't need better hardware. I dare you to find a PC with as good build quality, I've failed to do so.

Also, and this is probably the reason why many people that isn't especially tech savvy may think that Apple is worth the price. 90% of the user experience today is decided by the software. Almost all Windows OEMs fill their computers full with a ton of crapware such as Wi-Fi controlling packages, 50 worthless game demos, 3 trail AVs etc... Microsoft needs to introduce strict limits for this imo.

Let the baking commence!

akiwiguy