⟐ Commented May 21, 2013 at 1:25 am -0700

I'm working on a friend's late 2010 Macbook Air that's had liquid spilled on it. Some of the pins coming out of the logic board to the video socket have melted away due to presumably shorting out from the water.

I've successfully run the system on an external monitor and the rest of the system seems to work OK.

I've attached an image. It's the best shot I can get with the cameras I have access to.

Any chance fixing these pin(s) is a DYI job, or do I have to send it somewhere. If I have to send it somewhere, does anyone have a reputable shop? Is a replacement board a better idea?

Thanks!

⟐ Edited May 17, 2013 at 11:59 am -0700

before opening it up, i wanted to see if the non-invasive drying worked. it starts up, but not by pressing the power button. when i pressed that, i got no response. so i just touched all the keys just to test the keyboard and it randomly powered on.

when i got to the login screen, i picked the account and was able to enter 3 letters of my password, then it stops and a few seconds later, shuts down.

any ideas what part needs to be cleaned/replaced? the magsafe port seems ok, it goes bright green and then amber to indicate its charging. SSD seems fine since it boots and appeared relatively unscathed. my guess would be logic board, but for obvious cost reasons, i am hoping there are simpler/cheaper fixes i can attempt first

⟐ Commented May 15, 2013 at 12:39 pm -0700

⟐ Answered May 15, 2013 at 11:07 am -0700

Thanks

⟐ Answered May 15, 2013 at 7:47 am -0700

I just repaired the fan of my Macbook Air '13.

Now I have another issue. The cable won't insert into the logicboards connector!! After lifting the "flap" i can only get it in halfway. The white line on the cable is where it stops inserting! Please help, my fan doesn't run at all !

⟐ Edited May 14, 2013 at 10:22 am -0700

⟐ Answer accepted May 14, 2013 at 9:24 am -0700

I have a late 2010 MBA which occasionally pops up a dialog box asking "if I want to shut down" then turns off by itself. I can not interrupt the shutdown sequence. The laptop was bought used, although in great cosmetical shape and with a 256 Samsung SSD. On software side it's running Mountain Lion with all software and firmware updates installed.

Now I know enough to conclude this is some intermittent electrical issue, probably a power button short. What is interesting, the shutdown dialog doesn't appear if I hold the Fn key pressed. Now I literally need to put something heavy on it all the time because the frequency of this issue has increased to many times per minute. Note there has been a similar issue on the stackexchange forum: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions... and top case replacement was suggested.

I took the laptop to a private person who specialises on Apple gear here in Vienna and he did some diagnostics, tried running with disconnected internal battery etc.

What we noticed with case open is that the cpu is getting really hot. He concluded it is most certainly not a keyboard, but thermal issue and recommended renewing thermal paste. However, running temperature monitor I see that idle cpu is 55C degree hot, with youtube paused about 77C degrees, under load 85-90C degrees.. which is pretty hot, but not extreme so I am not convinced.

If replacing the grease doesn't cure the problem I'm not sure this person will be able to help me, so I'd rather find someone who has more extensive experience before paying $$. I'm gonna run some kind of memtest overnight, but I don't really expect it to find something. Yes, I got a BSOD a few times, but this started happening after enabling FileVault encryption and I attributed that to incorrect shutdown.

1. What do you think is the problem? Shall I attempt to get the keyboard cleaned or replace thermal grease? I'm not 100% sure about either option. The 0 and [ keys have been sticky when I got it, the power key however seems perfectly clean.

2. How difficult is it to replace thermal grease on MBA 2010? I did that on Lenovo laptops a few times but have no tools for Apple. Shall I pay 50 EUR for the job or attempt to do it myself?

3. I'm searching somebody specialising in MacBook repairs ideally from Germany or Austria. I know there is remacberlin on ifixit, but I have no idea how to contact him..

⟐ Commented May 13, 2013 at 4:20 pm -0700

My Macbook air 13" mid 2011 model is having problems after I spilled some water on it. It boots fine, can access the intered and all that jazz, but some keyboard keys don't work, or do other things. Also, the air isn't charging, but when I plug the charger in it comes up not charging, and the light on the charger doesn't illuminate. Lastly, after about 20 seconds of use, left clicking becomes right clicking and it's impossible to left click, even with a mouse. This can be fixed by closing the screen and reopening it, but the effect doesn't last.

Thanks!

⟐ Commented May 7, 2013 at 7:40 am -0700

⟐ Answer accepted May 6, 2013 at 11:17 am -0700

I forgot to mention that I did pay someone to open up the computer and clean out the fan about a week before the problems started. Could this be related?

⟐ Commented May 6, 2013 at 5:08 am -0700

The title is pretty much self-sufficient.

More precisely: when trying to clean the dust in my MacBook Air 13" (late 2010 model), I stupidly destroyed the fan connector for the fan. And by destroyed, I alas really mean it: two of the pins have been ripped away (only soldering points remain)!

Is there any chance to fix this, without having to change the whole logic board?

Edit: here are some photos of the broken connector; they are of poor quality, but they should nonetheless show you the problem...

Edit2: Agh, I knew these crappy photos wouldn't do. I managed to make some better shots with a borrowed camera:

You can compare it with the normal state of the connector herafter (from the photo of step 6 of the "MBA 13inch 2010 replacement for logic board" guide) to see what it should be like...

⟐ Answer edited May 4, 2013 at 1:51 pm -0700

I seem to have mangled my Air's 'G' key. From where should I buy a replacement? Thanks!

⟐ Answer deleted May 1, 2013 at 10:35 am -0700

2. if yes then can u recommend what brand of ssd we should get and anything we need to take notice before we buy the ssd?

Thanks and best regards : )

⟐ Answered May 1, 2013 at 10:13 am -0700

Also, is it possible to get a replacement screw?

⟐ Answered April 29, 2013 at 6:03 pm -0700

BUT, not for ever, just today it has been turned on and oh-magic it has actually turned on.

Battery is dead, but other than that everything seems ok. BUT not, it is not ok, it is terribly slow.

My question is, how can I know what is causing the problem? I will open it ASAP but there are 2000 km between us right now. I am having access remotely to it. Is there anything I can do to point to what part has been damaged and is causing this very significant decreased velocity?

UPDATE:

So, finally we got the computer back and could open it. I attach the images of what we saw, it did not seem that bad. We used a cleaning spray (also photo attached) to clean the coffee rests, and assembled everything again.

And surprise surprise, speed was back :) Battery was dead but the computer was completely recovered in terms of usability. Pretty surprising giving the fact that the Apple technical service wanted to just replace everything (asking for more money than a new air).

After that, we have ordered a battery from here (this is the only place in the world that you can buy spare parts of macs? If so, you HAVE to open a "shop" in Europe!), and once assembled everything has returned back to normality.

Not necessary to say that we are very happy :)

Thanks all of you for your comments!

⟐ Edited April 26, 2013 at 1:36 am -0700

⟐ Edited April 22, 2013 at 7:09 pm -0700

Thank you.

⟐ Answered April 20, 2013 at 8:51 am -0700

my first generation macbook air 13 won't recognize any internal hard drive. I tried to boot

from macos x disk to repair through disk utility but nothing is showing.

pleeeeeeeeeeeeease help

⟐ Commented April 19, 2013 at 8:35 am -0700

⟐ Commented April 16, 2013 at 6:18 pm -0700

I just bought the 120gb Samsung HDD from IFixIt for my 2008 A1237 Macbook Air because the original 80gb HD died. I followed the install instructions implicitly and no matter what I have tried I can't get the HDD to be recognized by disk utility. I have checked the cables and made sure everything is secure and I still get nothing. Any tips on what I am missing or could try?

⟐ Commented April 16, 2013 at 5:52 am -0700

1. Spilled half a cup of water on the top right side of my MBA keyboard a week ago. Immediately pulled out charger but was unable to shut the system down and throughout the day it erratically turned on and off. When i believed it might have been ok i did plug a charger back into it (i know very very dumb) for a second or two but the indicator did not turn on.
2. Left it in a bag of sealed rice for 3 days
3. took it to a apple store (some rice got into the machine) and they opened it up, cleaned it, and told me there was some very minor corrosion damage but nothing worth replacing parts. otherwise working fine
4. brought it home and the computer wouldnt charge (X over the battery symbol). I shut down and reset the SMC and it fixed the issue but then brought on the real trouble.
5. the cpu started slowing down immediately the next time i turned it on (even though it was working fine after the apple guys opened it up). I saw in the activity monitor that kernal_task was taking up 170%. I tried resetting the SMC and PRAM a few times but to no avail. I received the 3 beep Ram Integrity error twice on startup.
6. Left the computer running all day and night while charging as i read that this process indexes the mac and it could take time
7. the next day the cpu was running well however iStat informed me that the CPU was over 60 degrees celsius(140F). once a day for the next couple days it would slow down like crazy after a reboot but be fine after 20 minutes.
8. yesterday i was using the mba in the morning in my bedroom with my charger and shifted to another room, unplugged the charger and moved to another outlet and suddenly the charger stopped working and the computer wouldn't charge
9. switched to my friends charger and the indicator on the magsafe would only stay green and the mba couldn't start up. let it stay plugged in for a few hours but nothing.then unplugged for a few hours
10. upon plugging back in the magsafe turned orange and it was able to start up again! for some reason istat couldn't tell me any temperature or fan details... (the fan sounded like it was running at 10k) decided to let it charge overnight
11. when i woke up over 8 hrs later the indicator was still orange. it starts up fine but the fan is still blowing and now there is an X over the battery. the computer is still running after not being plugged in to an outlet for over half an hour (still showing X)

i apologize for the long long issue but its been a stressful confusing week. i think its certain there is some hardware issue but am hoping its just the battery or connectors and the logic board hasn't been fried.

can anyone make any sense of this? all help is appreciated, i will return to the apple store today and let you know what they say. just posted here in case they do say I need to make over $500 of replacements.

thanks again

⟐ Answered April 15, 2013 at 9:43 am -0700

I booted from a Mountain Lion flash drive and ran Disk Utility, but it does not see the hard drive. I also tried booting from the network recovery with the same results and ran the Apple Hardware Test, which showed no problems.

I haven't been able to check if something happened to the connection between the drive and the logic board due to the pentalobe screws (I already ordered a set of drivers). Is it possible the the hard drive is not completely dead and the information can be recovered? (It's still in warranty and I could take it to the Apple store). Could it be the connector or logic board? Is there any other test I can run without tearing it apart?

If I manage to pull out the drive, is there an enclosure that I can use to test if the issue is not with the drive itself? If I take to Apple and they replace the drive, will they give me the old one to try and recover data?

Thanks for any ideas you can provide.

Fernando

Edit. Found the OWC case and will order it if there's a chance of recovering the data.

⟐ Answer accepted April 13, 2013 at 8:31 am -0700

I had A1304 2.13GHz MacBook Air but LB burned out. Can I install A1237 logicboard to A1304 case? are they fully compatible?

Thanks,

⟐ Answered April 12, 2013 at 10:54 am -0700

After a wine spill on a 2011 Macbook air (A1369 EMC 2469) the backlight isn't working anymore.

The MacBook works fine, lcd is still functioning. Connected to a external display it also works fine, so it is probally not the graphic chip.

Did some research online, and found some hits about the fuse.

Does anyone have documentation about this fuse or what the problem could be.

⟐ Commented April 11, 2013 at 8:41 pm -0700

⟐ Answered April 10, 2013 at 7:21 pm -0700

It has been a week now and my mac is dead with no response. The only sort of thing which works is that when I connect the charger, it shows as green for the first 5-10 seconds, then it turns orange.

I have just placed an order for a T5 screw driver, a Pentalobe screwdriver, and a spudger. How should I proceed ?

⟐ Answered April 9, 2013 at 12:47 pm -0700

⟐ Answered April 8, 2013 at 6:24 pm -0700

⟐ Answered April 7, 2013 at 10:30 pm -0700

What part could be causing this? Is it the cable that attaches the hdd to the motherboard, or could it be the motherboard itself?

thanks~

⟐ Commented April 7, 2013 at 5:07 am -0700

Like so many other have reported, my MacBook Air (late 2010, A1369) doesn't wake from sleep. And when it starts from cold, the realtime clock is reset (to 1 Jan 2000).

When it is asleep, attempts to wake it (keyboard, trackpad, open and close clamshell) seem to have no response. After perhaps 20 seconds, the fan starts spinning at full speed (and the CPU gets hot), but there are no other signs of life. It will stay in that state for at least 30 minutes; the only thing that has any effect is a forced shutdown. It doesn't seem to matter if it is running on batteries or power.

After lots of reading, and trying every purported solution I came across, I am suspecting a problem with the SMC, or perhaps some other part of the main logic board. I've run Apple Hardware Test and found nothing. I've done a SMC reset. I've reinstalled OSX (Lion, but I don't think that matters). I've set the startup disk. I've deep-cycled the battery. I've opened the case and blown all the dust away. I've removed the battery and reinstalled it. I've tried various settings for pmset -a hibernatemode. I've deleted sleepimage. And plenty more beside...

I think I've done everything I can reasonably do, and it looks like a hardware fault - probably with the main logic board (MLB) and quite possibly with the SMC. Everything else seems to work fine. (I would be getting errors about the clock being set to before 2008, except it is finding my WiFi network and running nntp fairly early on in the boot process).

Before ordering a replacement main logic board (or sending this one to be fixed), are there are any other tests I can run, or things I should look at?

⟐ Commented April 6, 2013 at 3:12 pm -0700

also whats the most amount of ram i can solder in ?

⟐ Answered April 4, 2013 at 6:23 am -0700

⟐ Answer edited March 28, 2013 at 3:27 am -0700

I went to the service center. They said that logic board died so you buy it to reuse your macbook air.

But it is so expensive about 900$

Are there another solution about this? Please help me!

⟐ Commented March 24, 2013 at 7:10 pm -0700

⟐ Answered March 23, 2013 at 11:39 am -0700

On power up, my MacBook Air beeps three times continuously.

beep beep beep (short break) beep beep beep (short break)....

Any ideas.

thanks.

Frustrated!!

Update

I feel really ripped off! I bought the macbook Air 13" shortly after the warranty expired. The thing is practically perfect. Now I come to find out that the ram is bad and there's not a thing I can do about it. I tried to to Hold Command +P+R and still nothing.

JC

⟐ Answered March 22, 2013 at 12:44 pm -0700

⟐ Commented March 19, 2013 at 1:25 pm -0700

In mid august I bought the new Macbook air 13" Intel Core i5 for education use. And for the last 2 months I have been using it fulltime at the university. This means I have a lot of very emportent and irreplaceable notes and papers on my hard drive.

So here is the thing! Last week my Mac had a water damage in my computer bag and the screen is now burned out.. My insurance won't cover a new one and before I have the money, I need to recover all my files from my hard drive because I need them i school! I have looked for an adapter that I can use to connect the hard drive to another machine but because of the new product it is impossible to find!

Can anybody help me? I am desperate to find a way to get to my files!

From a hopefull Mac-user!

Frederik Jansen (Denmark)

⟐ Answer deleted March 15, 2013 at 12:37 am -0700

⟐ Commented March 12, 2013 at 8:23 pm -0700

⟐ Answered March 12, 2013 at 11:56 am -0700

⟐ Answered March 10, 2013 at 7:31 pm -0700

The inductor in question is the large one right next to the SSD connector.

The numbers on the inductor are:

4R7

226

Y69

Can anyone tell me what these numbers mean so I can find a replacement? I'm thinking the 4R7 means 4.7uH but I can't be sure. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

⟐ Answered March 10, 2013 at 11:14 am -0700

Thanks,

Cody

⟐ Answered March 9, 2013 at 2:38 am -0700

⟐ Edited March 8, 2013 at 11:23 am -0700

I also have a new 10.6 installation disk but I can't get the 10.5 disk out of the external drive.

Why am I getting the "cannot install on this computer" message and how do I correctly install the 10.5 software?

How do I eject a startup disk from the external drive when the install disk is not available to Eject or the Drive itself cannot be ejected because the disk could not be unmounted?

Thank you

⟐ Answer edited March 7, 2013 at 4:01 am -0700

I've already read a lot of questions about replacing the keyboard in MBAs but nothing about switching from a non-backlighted keyboard to a backlighted.

Are there any solutions like switching the keyboard with a keyboard from a new generation or a MBA 2008 or 2009?

Maybe you know about other solutions if the ones on top don't work.

Thx for support.

⟐ Answered March 6, 2013 at 6:26 am -0700

⟐ Answered March 4, 2013 at 8:26 am -0700

i just got an old macbook air first generation and there is no sound out from internal speaker or headset.

i have checked to system preferences and i've found in output device there is a dialogue box said no output device found.

and i also have check to the system profiler to the audio section and there is on the dialogue box said

Intel High Definition Audio:

Device ID: 0x106B00A2

Audio ID: 0

please help me, is it a hardware or software problem?

and how do i fix it?

my best regard

⟐ Commented March 1, 2013 at 11:36 pm -0700

Someway or another I have managed to broke the connector of the temp sensor on my macbook air A1237.

Now I want to repair it, and solder all the cables back to the connector, but I don't know where they should be soldered as it is not clear.

I have marked the cables on the board with 1,2,3 and 4.

Can someone please tell me where to solder them, see picture:

Thank you very much in advance for your help !

Kind regards,

Benwake

EDIT:

⟐ Edited March 1, 2013 at 11:42 am -0700