Skip to main content

Left Fan Cable came off logic board

I am replacing the left fan following the perfect instructions. When lifting the cable to disconnect, the bracket attaching it to the logic board came off as well. Is it glued or soldered on? I don't see any solder marks.

How can I repair this so the fan will run?

Block Image

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

Is this a good question?

Score 1
Add a comment

2 Answers

Chosen Solution

They are soldered to the logic board, but the solder joints are very small and hard to see unless you have proper light and magnification or, even better, a suitable microscope.

With proper tools you should be able to see and solder back 4 solder joints on the connector it was mistakingly lifted and on the board.

Was this answer helpful?

Score 3

4 Comments:

Hey Abraman,

Thanks for the answer! It was what I suspected, but I did run across another threat where they had used superglue and it worked.

I'm a newbie and don't have a soldering iron or the expertise to take out the logic board, but I will if I absolutely have to (unless I don't have the lift out the logic board, just be sure I don't fuse a nearby connection). It's a 2008, so I'm sure some of those sockets are getting loose.

by

Those silver Pros are still very nice machines, but suffer their age much more than first unibodies only a few months younger in some cases. Plastics are fragile and a bit brittle in many cases and need extra care.

If you want to try a DIY repair without soldering and removing the board I would avoid using superglue as if things go wrong you might damage irreversibly the board itself and maybe make further repair attempts impossible. Furthermore superglue is not conductive thus you should rely just on surface contact between parts. Try and get yourself a proper conductive glue or silver paste to do the job, you can easily get them on ebay or specialized online shops and don't forget a magnifier and good light ;)

by

Hi Abraman,

I responded to @oldturkey03 before I read this ... sorry about that. I understand what you are saying about the glue now. This is my first venture in laptop repair. I figured if I could replace a damaged screen on an iPhone 5 this wouldn't be much more difficult. The instructions from ifixit made it super easy.

Yeah, it is an old, but I've not had any problems until now --it's a good machine. I had to erase the hard drive recently and it wouldn't let me reformat it, so I figured while I had it opened up to replace the drive I would replace the noisy fans too.

Thank you both very much for your response and wisdom.

by

@riotango "it is an old, but I've not had any problems until now --it's a good machine" bravo to you. that is the true iFixit spirit. Keep it going, do not let something as straight forward as this discourage you.

by

Add a comment

@riotango the answer by @arbaman is absolutely correct. Just wanting to add to it. Glue is never an option. You need to purchase a new fan connector (available at places like Amazon.com or even ebay.com) then carefully align the connector with the solder pads on the board and try to resolder them. This will of course depend on what the pads and traces look like. For that you can post some images with your question. Use this guide for that. If the trace are damaged you can always run jumpers . Again, this will depend on what it all looks like. I popped off the fan connection from the logic board...Fix? a great demonstration on how to do it.

Was this answer helpful?

Score 2

1 Comment:

Thank you for your feedback! :)

by

Add a comment

Add your answer

Donna will be eternally grateful.
View Statistics:

Past 24 Hours: 0

Past 7 Days: 0

Past 30 Days: 0

All Time: 119