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A1708 / EMC 2978 — Released October 2016, this entry-level MacBook Pro retains its traditional function keys (as opposed to the OLED Touch Bar). The function key version packs an Intel Core i5 and two Thunderbolt 3 ports.

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Identifying Caps - Any help appreciated :-)

Hello lovely iFixit Users and mods,

I was trying to fix my aunts Macbook as her little son spilled a little bit water over it. As I always wanted to fix a water damaged macbook once in my life I thought I give it a try. I bought an ultrasonic device and the right cleaning solution and cleaned it with it.

Now I inspected the board visually after all the white blueish things went away and saw that a few caps have no silver solder on their ends, instead you can see the ceramic part of the caps exposed. I want to change these but I am not sure how to find out which ones would suite it? Could anyone identify these?

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I also need the same ones on the backside of the logic board (they look the same 100%).

Thank you all for your contribution :-)

Update (10/28/2017)

@reecee thanks again for your input on this. I will check the caps once my new multimeter will arrive. I will also try your tip with the detached keyboard etc. (I checked the keyboard, trackpad etc on another machine tho and all these parts seemed to work fine).

I also took picture of the logic board before I began to clean it. Here are they

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Might help with understanding the current state more. This is the only area that was affected by the liquid spill as far as I could see as the water indicator on the other side was white but these two on the charging port side where marked red and that region had that blueish white stuff around the smd parts too.

I took pics of different angles too so if you need a specific area, name or mark it and I try to find out if I have pictures of it.

Thanks again for the help!

Cheers

Update (10/29/2017)

@oldturkey03 Sorry for the late reply, I somehow missed your comment. Yes here is a picture of these caps I am talking about (I only took a picture of one side but the other side looks the same with the same problem).

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Upon further inspection I found this cap that is missing it's silver contact pad too (the cap in the red circle)

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And these Inductors (i think these are inductors, sorry if i am wrong here) don't seem to be happy as well

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un edited pic

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Cheers

Update

The two chips mentioned by @reecee appear to have corrosion under them which can clearly be seen in this picture bellow:

The two chips up close

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Different angle

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According to iFixit these are 2x Texas Instruments CD3215B03 66AQ8YW G1 that are nowhere available?

So a reflow with some flux should maybe remove the corrosion under these chips I guess?

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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13 Comments

@md20 post some images of this "rows of caps and both of them have caps that are missing the silver contact pads for the solder to stick." Let's see what is going on with that.

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@md20 I do not see any issues with the caps you've pointed out. I do see a lot of corrosion ;-)

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The capacitors highlighted do not look bad enough to cause a problem (in most cases) and the inductors are fine; these are for the CPU voltages anyway I believe.

At the moment, it is very difficult to diagnose these boards since there are no schematics or board view files available for them; we only have the files for the touchbar model, which is different. I'm lucky enough to have a donor board for this model, so I can swap out parts without checking values, otherwise I could not definitely say what each component's values/purpose are for the most part.

From the pictures in your other answer, the main areas affected are the backlight driver area and the backlight sensing circuit. There are 2 big black chips in the 2nd picture and one of these has corrosion underneath. I believe these deal with the DC in and communication for the thunderbolt ports (one per port).

It's difficult to diagnose something online, especially when no schematics are available. May be better to wait until files are available :(

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@reecee man you already helped me out soo much, in fact I feel even more enlighted then before! I feel you on the online diagnosis thing as it is not really possible.. Could you maybe take the picture with the two chips and mark them? I uploaded a few pictures now and I am not sure which you mean exactly.. Also is there a way to measure these chips or do I have to replace them because of the corrosion? Maybe a re-work with some flux and heat can fix it underneath? Also is there a way for you to sell me the chip you where talking about with the corrosion of of your donor board? I think the best thing that could happen is when that chip/these chips are universal products that can be bought online through a wholesalers page like when you would buy smd capacitors etc. If there is a way link me or give me a hint please :-)

Cheers

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@oldturkey03 I am so glad to hear that these are fine as I can not even measure their value atm.. Can you maybe highlight me the things you see like corrosion so I know what to maybe rework? I am still pretty new to this and I do not plan on doing this as a bussiness thing because I just want to help out my aunt :) I normaly change iPhone, Laptop etc. Screens for my relatives and friends and do other basic things. I fixed a water damaged iPhone too but not like you professionals with heavy duty equipment :D Isopropyl alcohol and a gentle toothbrush helped me through this and a bit of luck :)

Cheers to you brilliant minds!

-Musti

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2 Answers

Chosen Solution

What is the issue with the MacBook? If it is not booting at all, these capacitors will not be the issue (unless both sides are shorted to ground).

Unfortunately there are no schematics available for this model, but these set of capacitors are most likely in the PPVOUT_S0_LCDBKLT circuit, for screen backlight functionality.

Looking at the schematics for the 2015 13" and 2016 13" touchbar model, these capacitors should be of the following specification, but I obviously can't guarantee this since there are no schematics available for your model to confirm this;

2.2UF 10% 100V 1206

Again, if it is not booting and these aren't shorting the line to ground, these won't be the cause of the issue.

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4 Comments:

Hi Reece, thanks for the reply!

The macbook is not booting.. Both sides have these rows of caps and both of them have caps that are missing the silver contact pads for the solder to stick.

My multimeter is missing too hence why I can not test anything yet... But I can give you maybe a hint or information about the water spill. The water came in between the LCD Lid and the Keyboard Top Case slit where the air intake holes are. So only the parts next to the charging/usb-c ports seen water. The rest of the board was in magnificent state when I opened it. Also the ssd is missing because my aunt sees it as a write off and she sent the ssd to some repair shop to retrieve it's data from so I am not sure if the new macbooks give any sign of life without the ssd installed? But normaly at least the backlight and keyboard should work right?

Thanks again for your time!

Cheers

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@md20 yes these boot to a folder with question mark without the SSD installed; it will prompt boot if the charger is plugged in with the battery disconnected. Try connecting the charger with only the trackpad connected, to see if another part (like the keyboard) is preventing it from booting. The trackpad will click if it is getting into an S4 state, and there is a good chance the MacBook is going to boot if this is the case.

Get a multimeter and check these caps for a short. If there is no short, the issue is elsewhere on the logic board; likely power is not getting to the board if it was damaged in the areas next to the charging ports

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By the way, is there any harm if these caps are missing the silver spots on top of them? I marked them in this pic http://prntscr.com/h3j38g

Because as far as I know as long as they are not shorted to ground they should still work as good right?

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== UPDATE ==

Still nothing even after a reflow of these chips .. Beginning to loose hope in this one, because first no schematics available and second the new way they implement the USB-C Ports for everything is something that makes it not easier...

== UPDATE 2 ==

After plugging in both, the charger and connecting the battery, I can feel some sort of magnetic and electric field whenever I go over the batteries with my fingers. Is that normal? Or is there something that controlls the voltage that is now shorted and sents all the power to the batteries without regulations what so ever? Or what is going on?

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UPDATE

To the Mods: Please do not add this to the first post of this thread as this should be a seperate post and it should have it's own comments

So my multimeter came today and I meassured these tree Inductors (bellow marked in red) and they are shorted to ground (both diode mode and capacitance mode verrified this). Is this normal? As the other inductors for example show a reading and do not beep for example in diode mode.

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They are located here on the logicboard next to the heatpipes:

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I hope this doesn't mean an dead cpu :( This was a quick measurement but I also meassured some other inductors and they all had a reading. I haven't meassured the backside yet too as I'm short in time but I will update it here.

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This line goes to the CPU, which is naturally low resistance to ground.On this board, it usually measures around 5-8ohms resistance

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@reecee oh okey, but my multimeter showed 0.00 so I am still thinking it is shorted or is it just out of the range?

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If it's in range, it shouldn't be that low. Inject 1V or less on this line, and if the CPU is getting hot, it has a short inside the CPU (i.e., it can't be fixed)

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@reecee Thanks for the reply and sorry for the late reply was really bussy. I never injected voltage somewhere so I am not sure where to inject it the best.. Do you have skype or something? I will soon meassure what the other macs inductor in the same place outputs so I can compare it with the dead logic board..

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Just inject a low voltage (nothing over 1V) at this point, and feel around to see what gets warm. Put a bit of isopropyl over the CPU, and an area of it will evaporate after a bit.

I have a reference board for this model and before replying to you, checked resistance at this point; it is not normal and is far too low

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