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Mid 2006 / Model Number: A1181 / black or white case / 1.83 or 2.0 GHz Intel Core Duo processor

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Shuts down on external power, runs fine on battery.

Macbook Core Duo 13" A1181 (820-1889 logic board)

On battery power my Macbook runs normally. With magsafe connected, no light appears on the plug and the battery does not charge.

With the battery removed, magsafe plug shows green led and machine will boot from cold and run for about 15 mins, then shutdown. Restarting immediately results in a shutdown during or just after the chime(!).

However, removing the magsafe for a few seconds and replacing allows about 2 mins before shutdown, and disconnecting for longer periods before restarting gives longer run times up to a maximum of about 15 mins.

Thinking at first it was a temperature issue, I have done the following:-

complete strip down and cleanup;

new thermal paste;

replaced heatsink (old one had cracked board at the sensors);

renewed and re-routed the heat sink temp sensor leads;

PRAM reset;

SMC reset;

HD check and repair permissions;

RAM reseat.

Also tried swapping in known good magsafe board and battery connectors from a working machine, and running with all ancillaries disconnected.

iStat reports normal temperatures throughout, and the shutdowns happen no matter how many programs are running, or how much the processors are working.

Any ideas?

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Can you cool down (refrigerate) or heat up (heating blanket) the system? If you can see if the system reacts the same way. Also try turning down the displays brightness to the lowest that you can still see the desktop and see if that alters anything.

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Tried refrigerating down to 5 deg C and turning the backlight to minimum. Made no difference.

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What happens when you heat it up before you turn it on?

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Interesting. Tried heating with an a electric blanket. Would not start up either on external or battery power. Left it to cool for 20 mins and it started (with battery disconnected) and ran for 4 mins only. Replaced battery and it started again and has been running happily for an hour.

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Bob - Sounds like you have a cold solder joint on one of the power control component or one of the components is about to fail.

If you have a good soldering iron, some flux and solder try retouching the power transistors. They are the four - four & one leaded chips in this picture on the right. If you see any corrosion on the logic board make sure to clean it off.

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Thanks Dan. I'll give that a try tomorrow.

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Retouching the power transistors didn't make any difference. Machine booted and ran for 15 mins, as before. Looking carefully with magnification at the solder joints, they all seem good. Is there any test I can do to check if one of these components is failing? I notice four sets of test pads next to them. I've had a quick look for replacements - they are labelled 2165 6E2 - but not found any yet. Is there an equivalent in the same form?

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Without a schematic to work off of and with the needed tools I wouldn't be to quick in trying to swap parts out. From the symptoms we know the issue is power. But, that doesn't mean it's in the power switching area (which is what these transistors do), it could be some where else. This is the beginning of the circuit and the it branches off of here to the other areas.

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One approach you could use is getting a can of freeze spray for electronics. With it you can cool a component down to isolate the fault. But again without the schematics and component layout diagrams to work off of this is a shot in the dark tactic. And even then some of the parts are difficult to get once you isolate it down.

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So what to do? Replacing the logic board is one option, the other is seeing if you can find someone with the needed tools to isolate the defective solder joint or part. Sorry I can't give you more here.

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You probably have logic board failure. If you tried both the battery and magsafe connector replacements, it must be logic board.

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Jack - You should try reading the details more carefully and review what has been offered. Quick responses that don't offer anything meaningful isn't helpful. Don't misconstrue what I'm saying here, we (I) do encourage your involvement. But, how about sitting back a bit and read though some of the dialog of others who offer help, so you have an idea on what type of answers people are looking for.

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Jack - You are correct Bob has a logic board issue. The first steps to isolate this down was cooling and heating the system to see if it reacted differently. Note what Bob stated in did not boot up at all when it was warmed up in the heating blanket. As to the battery or mag-safe power adapter these clearly weren't involved. Yes, the connection internally in the power switching area likely was which is where we are focused now. It's also possible the problem is down wind of the switching area the different power feeds. Bob needs to figure out the next move as only he knows what he can do and what is the best direction given the resources he has.

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Thanks Dan. I'm not sure where to go from here. I have some experience with SMD and have a hot air station but lack the knowledge to go any further on the diagnosis. The schematic is easy to find, for example at:-

http://zeto.com.ua/web/uploads/shema/fil...

Reading it and relating it to the board is another matter! Thanks again for your suggestions.

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Yes, it's not easy translating the schematics to what you have and then figuring out where to look. BTW - So you can read russian to even find this site ;-} Please rate the best answer and mark it as resolved (accepted) Thanks!.

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Bob will be eternally grateful.
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