What is wrong with the screen?

Question

MacBook Pro 15" Unibody Mid 2010

Released April 2010 / 2.4, 2.53 GHz Core i5 or 2.66 GHz Core i7 Processors

591 Questions View all

Question Closed

jamesp @jamesp19954

Rep: 77

4

1

Posted: Apr 7, 2015

Options

What is wrong with the screen?

I'm repairing a MacBook Pro 15" Unibody Mid 2010. There is an odd screen issue. The screen is not broken at all however it will not work. I opened the computer to see if there were loose display cables but there were not. The computer has been dropped a couple times because of a chipped corner. I don't want to order another screen without knowing if it's the screen. It could be the motherboard that is broken. What shall I do in order to figure out the issue? I have also had the screen come on once in the case that it was fine. After I rebooted the computer, back to normal.

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

Is this a good question?

Yes No

Score 0

Add a comment

2 Answers

Chosen Solution

Dan @danj

Rep: 479.3k

Self employed contract worker

35

329

971

Posted: Apr 7, 2015

Options

Try plugging in an external display, does that work? If it does what happens when you shine a flashlight though the lid Apple logo. Can you see the icons of your desktop (faintly)

If both work, I would focus on the the checking the backlight fuse links and WLED driver. Check out this IFIXIT post: Whats the location of the backlight fuse. Let us know what you discover. Good Luck!

Was this answer helpful?

Yes No

Score 1

1 Comment:

Found out the issue. It took forever to come on and once it did it wanted to reset the password. After I reset the password, the computer was fine. It takes a little time to login after the password due to the Yosemite software. That's it! Thanks!

Apr 14, 2015 by jamesp

Add a comment

Found out the issue. It took forever to come on and once it did it wanted to reset the password. After I reset the password, the computer was fine. It takes a little time to login after the password due to the Yosemite software. That's it! Thanks! — jamesp

zzz @zzz30021 Rep: 7.6k zzz 13 22 11 · Answer 1 · 2015-04-07T21:38:25-07:00

First few things to check for are if the LCD cable and the RAM are seated properly. Unplug battery, reseat the above, then plug it back in, and see if it turns on.

I see from your description, this is a 15" from 2010. This is scary. Open the bottom case. By the wifi/webcam cables, you will see a number starting with 820.

If it is 820-2850, toss in the trash. They have lots of video issues due to vias in the board. No video, random kernel panicing.

Apple supported it for a very short period of time but they could never figure it out. See here. https://support.apple.com/en-is/HT203554

Replacement boards supplied all had the same issue and to this day no independent component level repairer has been successful in fixing this $@$* board.

If this is dropped, which is the most miserable type of laptop motherboard damage to fix(crack in PCB or solder ball can be ANYWHERE), I would junk it. This is one of the very few motherboards that I would indeed advise you to put in an oven, and turn to a temperature far higher than that required to melt solder. ;)