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Model A1286. Released February 2011 / 2.0, 2.2, or 2.3 GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7 Processor

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Can you install any A1286 logic board in 15" Unibody?

I have an Early 2011 MacBook Pro 15 Unibody with a Core i7 2.0 Ghz that recently had water spilled on. Now the Apple Logo comes up but the screen goes black after the system loads. Apple told me it need a new logic board (not under warranty if there is caused by spillage). Being that logic boards are expensive I found a mid 2010 Core i5 Logic Board that is relatively cheap. Can I install it on my Early 2011 A1286 MacBook Pro and have it work?

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It does seem to be the case that the boards fit physically, and I can't think of anything that would make other parts not work.

But it would be nice to know for sure before shelling out the cash.

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Did you get an answer to this? I have about the same problem. I have a mid-2010 15" A1286 2.4ghz with liquid damage. I wonder if I can replace it with a i7 2.66ghz logic board. I can get one for about $500 which is decent compared to my MBP with 500gb disk and HR screen.

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Just an update. I read that since all these MacBook Pros are model A1286 any board should fit being the architecture should be the same. I am not sure. Waiting for an expert answer...

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It is not worth trying to figure out unless you are in the business of rebuilding these for a living, have all the spare parts lying around and just want a test rig for sorting through motherboards. The parts that are different at a quick glance: Uppercase, battery, heatsink, left speaker, bluetooth bracket, airport/bluetooth cable, hard drive cable.

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I had success now replacing my A1286 15", 2.4Ghz i5 with a 2.66Ghz i7. All the parts fit fine. But like mentioned here there is a difference from 2010 to 2011. The lowercase is the same but the let speaker and the plastic bracket with the cables (bluetooth,airport etc.) are different. Still I had no problem getting the 2011 Quad-Core i7 logic board to fit and start up in my original 2.4ghz, i5, 2010.

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+ Did the motherboard mount to the upper case in a slightly different position in the 2010 & 2011 so that everything so that the differences in left speaker, airpor, etc... did not matter? Which battery did you have to use for this, the 2010 or 2011? Thank you.

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The bluetooth/airport housing on the 2010 model has 3 cable contacts + camera cable (http://guide-images.ifixit.net/igi/UoJNE...) whereas 2011 model has 4 cable contacts + camera cable (http://guide-images.ifixit.net/igi/yILuc...).

The physical size of the housing is the same and the screw holes fit so I guess the 2011 has a different cable setup from the screen. You would have to move over the old housing I guess. The camera cable from 2011 may be too short to fit the contact on 2010 board since the camera cable contact on 2011 is closer to the fan.

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The battery, (A1321 in 2010 and A1382 in 2011) , (they increased it from 73wh to 77.5wh from 2010) seems almost the same but 2011 has the contact on top of the board while the 2011 connects from the side. The battery is listed as two different parts for 2010 and 2011 and I think that is because of the cable connector. You can change the cable from the battery to the board but do not buy 62wh or 73wh. I always buy original Apple battery.

So I guess I answered the question to myself that this may not really work well. From my investigation there is not much a price increase from the a 2010 logic board to a 2011 if you look around and I would stick with 2011 logic to make sure everything fits. My conclusion is you can exchange any logic board from the same year (2010, 2011). Sorry if I am confusing here!

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I recently had a logic board accident with my Early 2011 MBP a1286 (my bad) but was thinking of replacing it with a Mid-2012 (non-Retina) board for the CPU/GPU boost (I'm a gamer and a Mac user... figure that one out) as well as the USB 3 ports.

I found a decent deal online but for the life of me I can't find the opinions of anyone who's ever tried it. The iFixit teardowns and logic board replacement guides for both models (2011/2012) seem identical along with all of the tech specs about the wattage/voltage/etc. but the only opinion I've heard is from a repair shop guy on e-bay who says the upgrade wouldn't work (but I think he's just trying to sell me his repair services).

I'm actually amazed that there isn't more information about this kind of thing on the internet (with all the menial stuff like hacking your xbox and tricking out your iphone). For the life of me, I can't see why this 'upgrade' wouldn't work, and you guys have instilled some modicum of confidence in me so since the shop I'm buying from has a money-back guarantee I think I'm going to try it. I'll try to make a video (since there seem to be none concerning this) about it to document my failure/success.

Wish me luck!!

Edit: Placed my order for a logic board but I'm still a bit worried so I got board (hehe) and decided to see if there were any significant differences I should worry about. This is an overlay of the two boards using photos of the iFixIt teardowns (with a grain-extract filter thanks to Gimp) and there seems to be no real connection issues. Apologies for the slight distortion, I imagine the photographer was at a slightly different angle when he/she took the photos:

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Update

Ok, so after a long time waiting, I've actually ordered two separate logic boards and they both finally came on the same day.

There was a minor issue when I was re-applying the heat sinks for the USB controller and the platform controller hub (assuming the heat sinks are necessary on the 2012s). It could have been the supplier I chose or possibly these models don't heat up as much. Either way, I came up with a unique solution where I cannibal-ised my old system, popping off the screw-holders used on the old circuit board and super-gluing them to the new one in the same position. Turns out super glue is non-conductive so it was perfect solution to hold down them down so I could apply some thermal paste.

The rest of the ports, cables and screw holes lined up perfectly. Even the cables to the fan that I had broken (pulled instead of lifted). My system has officially gone from 2.3 GHz > 2.6 GHz, USB 2 > 3, bluetooth 2.1 > 4, Radeon 6750M > GeForce 650M, etc, etc. Not mentioning the previous upgrades I had done to the RAM (16GB) and the hard drive(s) [1TB Hybrid in the SuperDrive bay and a 120GB SSD in the main bay]. So YES, it is totally possible to interchange the unibody logic boards if you are so inclined. I don't think anything in my system (aside from the magsafe adapter, battery, speaker, and display) is the same as when I first purchased it.

Definitely cheaper than purchasing an altogether new system and the upgrade/repairability factor of my unibody (A1826) makes me think I'll have it around for a while longer. When I get better (I recently had jaw surgery so I can barely talk) I may even make a video about my experience as I'm surprised there aren't any on youtube already.

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Asle's correct, the cables are different leading from the display (more pixels, more data to transmit). Theoretically, you could replace the display with a Retina display, but you'd have to replace the logic board as well at which point it would probably be cheaper to buy a new system or a refurbished one from Apple. For a non-Retina display, the highest you could go would be a Mid 2012 A1286, which is no slouch I can tell you.

Personally, I purchased my upgraded board from dvwarehouse.com and depending on what model you select they may or may not have it in stock, but they can order it for you. I can also vouch for the Late 2011 A1286 as being no slouch in performance either. Couple either one of those with an SSD and an optical drive caddy and you're set to go with a solid gaming machine.

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Nice work, this is inspiring! I have the most extreme case that I can see here: a mid 2009 unibody! (MBP5,3). It's an A1286, and I'd love to get it upgraded to the last in the series, but mid 2012 is a 3 year difference. Is there anything you're aware of that could prevent me from doing this?

Thx!

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I also have a A1286 - 2011 - 15'' dusting up, I was actually lucky not to experience the graphical errors because of Apple's production faults,

so I decided to mess it up myself!

I burned a chip on the Logic-board, whilst cleaning the fans, I didn't know

what chip it was, but I closed it up, and remarkably, it restarted & and to my surprise, continued working, until I saw that the battery was not recharging whilst the machine was plugged in.

I found a few cheap offers on eBay for the 2012 Logic board, now I need some

guidance as I have 2 left hands, and not technical to boot!

Could you give me some points to watch out for, the does and don'ts,for me to 1st of all get the right Logic Board, to dissembling it.

Thanks a lot in advance!

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A real answer.

820-2915 2011 is what you have. This is 2011. This board is ok besides the GPU. It will fail every 2 to 3 years, and only get worse as time goes on. The boards available have already been used for 2-3 years, and the replacement chips are harder to find new, so more people will be advertising "repairs" for this board that don't actually work more than 2 months, because they are not using new chips. This board is bad.

820-2850 2010 will fit, but only if you get the older battery. You can just chop up the connector and splice the wires from your battery onto the connector of an older battery, but this is a pain in the @%^. 820-2850 also have rampant kernel panics due to issues with VRAM pgood signals and other that is too much to mention here. Short story before dan calls my sentence noise, 820-2850 is junk to be avoided at all costs. This board is WORSE!

820-3330 2012 will fit but require you mess with the LVDS cable to get it into the connector, which is slightly different. This board is much better. You get a cooler running processor, a cooler running, MUCH MORE durable GPU that will NEVER die on its own, and no stupid random issues. This is also an upgrade in processing power, GPU power, and battery life because this is a more efficient processor. Your present battery will fit this just fine. You may have to replace the LVDS cable for it to fit if you can't jimmy it in there. 99% certain this will have to be replaced.

Any other boards like 820-2330, 820-2523, 820-2532, will not physically fit the machine. Also, these boards do not use the same connectors for wifi, bluetooth, webcam, hard drive, etc - it will all be a mess and not fit at all.

These are the ONLY differences in terms of how it connects and fits into your machine. Make your choice wisely!

P.S.

99% chance Apple is full of $@$* on the logic board issue, I would try booting with a different drive and see if it does the same thing. Apple rarely does real diagnostics in store, just tries to get you to agree to the highest tier of service and politely tell you to F off or buy a new laptop.

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If I use the 820-3330B board in a early 2011 with the hi-rez display, will I still have to replace the LVDS cable?

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with this: 820-3330 2012 board in a macbook pro 2011 hires matt display, would work? DO I have to get a heatsink for this specific model?

And LVDS too?

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Hey Brad, you genius. Could you please help with the reverse situation solution. My mid 2010 mbp pro 6,2 has the horrible 820-2850 mb you have addressed somwhere else on this board, which crashes like crazy due the worn out NVIDIA chip soldering.

I found two deals from where I am (UAE): ne is a fully tested and certified 820-2850-A i5 540 (USD 568) another is the 820-2915-A i7 740 original (USD 680) both from Aliexpress coming directly from original manufacturer in China.

Reading your above real answer, which way shall I go, considering both boards have isues?

TIA

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I also have a A1286 - 2011 - 15'' dusting up, I was actually lucky not to experience the graphical errors because of Apple's production faults,

so I decided to mess it up myself!

I burned a chip on the Logic-board, whilst cleaning the fans, I didn't know

what chip it was, but I closed it up, and remarkably, it restarted & and to my surprise, continued working, until I saw that the battery was not recharging whilst the machine was plugged in.

S

I found a few cheap offers on eBay for the 2012 Logic board, now I need some

guidance as I have 2 left hands, and not technical to boot!

Could you give me some points to watch out for, the does and don'ts,for me to 1st of all get the right Logic Board, to dissembling it

Thanks a lot in advance!

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Could be possible to update a MID 2010 A1286 Logic Board with any upgrade whatsoever ?

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No, read the comments above. You can use any A1286 Logic Board from the same year (series). This is mainly due to difference of the communications board (wifi,BT) and the cables to the display.

The main bottlenecks on the 2010 A1286 is the RAM (1067Mhz) and the SATA bus (3 gigabit).

But if you max out the RAM (8GB) and install a SSD drive this machine is pretty decent work horse.

If you get hold of a cheap i7 2.66Ghz logic board on Ebay I would definitely upgrade as this alone increases the overall speed.

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Same 'year' isn't entirely accurate. 'Series' or 'frame' is probably more accurate. Any A1286 motherboard should be able to fit into another. Just note whether or not your current machine has a Retina display or not as the display connections are not the same (and there is no way to adapt as far as I know). So essentially I believe the rule is if you're upgrading/repairing a Retina, make sure it's a Retina motherboard, otherwise you should be fine. Not sure if there are differences in the RAM requirements but it would be worth checking on.

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Well, I didn't know you could use a Retina display on a A1286 MBP? All the MBPs up to Retina are labeled A1286 while the Retinas as A1398. The main difference I thought was the com.board which changes in form and connections/cables to the display. By 'year' I mean like 'mid-2010'. True all A1286 have the same form factor meaning they drop into the frame without any problem. The problem is the cables and connections to the display.

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So just to follow, I have a mid 2010 A1286 2.4 Ghz i5 (8GB 1067 MHz DDR3) Macbook Pro unibody. It is having the kernel panic issue, which I corrected using gfxCardStatus fix.

Ideally I'd like to update the logic board to one that supports Airplay in order to stream to my Apple TV without a third party app (~$10-$20), since graduating from college my main uses are entertainment streaming and microsoft office applications. Are there any A1286 logic boards that support this that work with my current set up?

If not, according to what Brad and Asle are saying, I could update to a mid 2012 A1286 non retina logic board. I know mid 2010 and some 2011 logic boards have some problems, would I be safe getting logic boards from those models/years?

Just looking for some insight as the best course of action to revamp my macbook so I don't have to get a newer model to suit these needs.

Thanks, Nick

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Hi Nick,

Take a look at what needs to be replaced for a 2011 logic board to fit in a 2010 MBP and you will have a problem justifying the cost compared to buying AirParrot just to stream to your Apple TV. Of course there are speed benefits to upgrading, mainly the higher bus speed. I would consider selling your 2010 MBP and buying a used 2011-2012 MBP. But that is me of course :-)

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Thanks a lot Brad for the very useful info. I had the same early 2011 logic board that suffered from the well known GPU problem. Based on your postings I decided to replace it with a mid 2012 2.6 GHz logic board. The whole operation took me about 2 hours. The most difficult part for me was to connect the LVDS cable, the connector on the mid 2012 board seems a bit smaller.

The board that I received was just the board with all the chips on it but no provisions for cooling of the chips. It was quite easy to transfer the heat pipe of the old board, but nothing was foreseen to cool the Thunderbolt controller and the Intel BD82HM65 Platform Controller Hub (I looked that one up ;-), also no screw holes present. I took both the covers from the old board and 'glued' them on the cooling past on both controller chips. Of course this is a very imperfect temporary solution which is holding now for a week. I'm not sure what the final solution looks like for this. The screw holes mounted on the old board can only be taken off by using a lot of violence - I'm not sure if I will succeed without ruining them. But further I see no room on the mid 2012 board to put the screw holes as there are electronic components scattered around at the spots where the screw holes should be positioned. Even with non-conductive superglue I doubt it is a good idea to fit them on the new board. So I am very curious Brad how you managed to do that!

Either way I am very happy with my 'new' MBP.

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My MBP is working fine except the SSD is giving me headaches. Whenever the MBP sleeps for a longer amount of time - say 1 day - it won't recognize the SSD when waking up. Also a reboot has no success. I already tried both SATA connectors but that does not help.

The only thing that helps is disconnecting and connecting the SATA connector, so could this be an electrical problem?

The SSD is an OWC Extreme 256GB that worked fine before the upgrade. It also works fine when connected via USB in an attachment. So I don't think the SSD or the SATA cables are the problem.

Anyone experienced the same issue, or even better knows what can be done?

Thx, Frank

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Hello,Casagrande, I also have a A1286 - 2011 - 15'' dusting up, I was actually lucky not to experience the graphical errors because of Apple's production faults,

so I decided to mess it up myself!

I burned a chip on the Logic-board, whilst cleaning the fans, I didn't know

what chip it was, but I closed it up, and remarkably, it restarted & and to my surprise, continued working, until I saw that the battery was not recharging whilst the machine was plugged in.

I found a few cheap offers on eBay for the 2012 Logic board, now I need some

guidance as I have 2 left hands, and not technical to boot!

Could you give me some points to watch out for, the does and don'ts,for me to 1st of all get the right Logic Board, to dissembling it, it took you Two Hours??

Thanks a lot in advance!

by

Hi Stevie,

I would advise you to look at one of the dismounting videos on this site, this should help you on the way. Make sure you have the right tools, I bought a good pc repair set on amazon, it costs a few bucks but I am very happy with it.

The MBP is full of many different types of screws, some of them will fit on different positions. As I was very eagerly working towards a result, I did not really look well at which screw came from where. At the end I had two leftovers. The MBP still works well - apart from the issue with the SSD (See below) - but it would have been nice to have everything perfect. So my advice is to mark the screws, make photos or whatever, to make your life easier when you start mounting everything together.

I still haven't done anything to cover the Thunderbolt and Platform controllers, but it is still working fine 3 months later, no system halts or anything like that, so I don't worry too much about that.

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The issue I have with the SSD occurs only when working on battery power. If the device has gone asleep for a longer period of time - e.g. 1 night - then it won't recognize the SSD. There is no problem at all when working on external power. I ordered a new battery but that has not arrived yet. So my MBP it is a bit more like a small iMac now, but I can work with that. I am quite happy it has USB3 now.

Hope this helps you, good luck!

Frank

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great, good to know! Any idea where to get those logicboards? And any idea on whether I can put a retina display into my early-2011 MBP on core i5?

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Sorry, you can not put a retina display in a early 2011 MBP. It will not fit, the cable will not fit and I doubt the logic board has support for it. When they release a model you switch parts within the same model e.g. the 2010 MBP 15" can use a i7 2.6Ghz logic board in a 2010 MBP i5 2.4Ghz.

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Thank you Brad, I have change my early logic 2011 board with a mid 2012 and it works fine. it was pretty stressful and it took all my Sunday to do that. My advices: take the right screwdriver, a magnifying glass. It is not necessary to remove the battery. I am french and i bought my board in US.

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Yesterday I swapped MBP early 2011 logic board to mid 2012 2.3 Ghz board. I had the same problem with LVDS cable as casagrande2407 mentioned. 2012 board was already with heatsink preinstalled (the seller told that it is a brand new logic board ). I watched several videos on MBP 2012 teardown and noticed that there is no heatsinks on Platform Controller Hub and Thunderbolt port controller, so I decided not to install heatsinks from dead board. While I'm writing this the hottest part of the board is CPU and its temp. differs from 33 C to 40 C.

My MBP was lying on shelf for 2 years and now its alive! I'm really glad!

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Great topic guys, too bad I discovered it too late.

Anyways, I'm one of the mid-2010 15" mbp 6,2 with the terrible 820-2850 logic board with the integrated graphics GPU. I knew it was a bad idea ever since it was given to me as a replacement for the previous Apple laptop horror story of the 2008 mbp with the GT 8500 Nvidia card and funny battery that use to blow up sometimes, but I figured if it kept working since 2011 doing cross platform and heavy CAD work without a hitch, I was immune this time around. Well the happy days ended about a year ago when it started crashing on mouse moves in MS Word and from then on every other day nowadays.

Having missed the original Apple MB swap program that ended before I started having troubles with mine, I am going to do a logic board swap, so I read this thread with the greatest interest.

I just ordered from Aliexpress a 820-2850 i7 2.66 logic board that - get this - has the original faulty-solder NVIDIA chip removed and replaced with ADM / Radeon Crossfire technology. It's obviously from or by a serious gamer machine and I'm really curious how this was done and especially if it works well. It was not cheap (USD 480) but I get free shipping and 3-5 days delivery. This motherboard apparently supports 16GB or RAM over the 8 GB I have now, so if it works well and no more crashes I'd consider it a victory, would it not?

I'll come back here and report success or failure after I get my new board up and running.

Thanks to all the pros and power users that contribute here and also to the people that raise the questions that I need.

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Wow. Would really love to hear if this works out. Please keep us posted :)

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Well, what do you know, no CrossFire GPU, just a mix up in the ad text (it's a store in China). So I get same crappy Nvidia 330 GPU. I can only hope that this board has got more life left in it (the seller says it's 90% new, that is unused) than mine, as I am in UAE currently and this is not the place to get a good deal on a used 2012 or newer mbp model.

My troubles only after 3 years of daily use, mostly connected to 24"+ external monitors, TVs, etc.

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July update... after wasting 600 bucks (new battery+fans, shipping and other hassles included) on another bad 820-2850 i7 2.66 logic board, I just ended up buying a second hand late 2011 15", i7 non-retina mbp that had the MB replaced a week ago by an authorized Apple service center (friend of mine). Considering Brad's review below, what are the chances of the new board going bad soon?

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"820-2915 2011 is what you have. This is 2011. This board is ok besides the GPU. It will fail every 2 to 3 years, and only get worse as time goes on. The boards available have already been used for 2-3 years, and the replacement chips are harder to find new, so more people will be advertising "repairs" for this board that don't actually work more than 2 months, because they are not using new chips. This board is bad."

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Hi guys,

Great post! I just got hit with the GPU failure on my late 2011 MBP 15" and would also like to replace its board with the mid 2012 board.

From what I gather the only 'real issue' is the one with the LVDS cable, but not really how you guys 'fixed' this. I read that it looks like the connector on the board is smaller, so, oke, what do I have to do?

Just use more force and jam it in? Or is there some modification to the connector to be done before it'll fit?

Please advice. Much appreciated.

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Or just replace it off-course..... is that what everybody has done?

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I had the early 2011 board - so it's not exactly the same as you have - but I suppose the LVDS connector is identical. I needed to push it a little hard, it is tight but it is working fine since the whole operation took place.

Good luck with it!

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Thanks. As it turns out, I'm eligible for a replacement program Apple has started in response to this known GPU bug. I've submitted my MBP with the store awaiting repairs now... We'll see.

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Lucky you! Too bad this program is gone for the 2010 MBP i7. So I am stuck with a very unreliable MBP.

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I have a late 2010 15" MBP with 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7, 256gb SSD, 8gb RAM & 1680 x 1050 Retina Display (Serial No. W80510NHAGZ). The last year or so it has suffered the usual graphics failures which started well past the end of the 3yr replacement period. Of course Apple won't support this 'vintage' machine, even though it runs well otherwise. I am trying to sort out a replacement MLB - can someone advise what is the most recent board I should look for as a replacement? From what I have read here, it seems like my options are limited - 2012 MLB's only fitting 2011 models onward?? Ideally it would be nice to put in an end of the line A1286...

Thanks in advance for your help!

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Before you go and replace your motherboard, I would suggest checking if its the connection on the LCD that has gone bad. It happened on my wife's 2009 MBP 13 inch and a replacement of the LCD fixed the issue (cost 100$ - DIY). My only suggestion is test it on another non-retina MBP (BTW - yours is not retina).

I can confirm that all parts from a 2010, 2011 and 2012 will fit without issue through all the years on the 15 inch A1286. I replaced the top case of a 2012 with a 2011 and swapped a 2010 with a 2012 (needed to change language layout US->UK) and everything fits fine (i.e. screw holes placements are exactly the same across all three years).

What I cannot confirm is if you can swap a motherboard from 2010 with 2012 and have all the connectors in the right places. My guess is that most of everything should be fine except for maybe the heatsink and bluetooth/wireless and the LCD cables possibly being shorter/longer (already mentioned).

Good luck.

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Hi Nola,

Thx for the reply. The display was the highest spec available late 2010 - it has silver surrounds & a matte finish, not the black glassy display - so whatever that is? I thought it was retina, but that is a while ago.

I did take it to a 'genius' bar & they ran tests & said it was a graphics card failure. The display also has a single red line through it & the genius said this was indicative of such a failure.

The machine does only crash when switching to high load graphics for photo editing etc. I am unsure how to confirm if this is the card or just the switching, or if both have the same outcome (replace MLB)?

So a late 2012 MLB should work? Can anyone list any other bits I may need, so I have everything before doing the replacement? Though I'm not amazing in terms of computer tech, I am confident doing the laptop surgery if things pretty much go back where they were.

If I stuck with another 2010 MLB to be safe, it sounds as though I would experience the same issues in another few years?

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You will not have problems fitting a 2010 screen with a 2012 logic board.

- 2010 screen has 3 cables BT/Airport, 2012 screen has 4. So you must use the 2010 BT/AP board or leave one cable off if you want to use a 2012 BT/AP board. 2012 is BlueTooth 4.0 while 2010 only has 2.1+EDR. Depends if that is an issue for you. The flat cable from the BT/AP to the logic board seems to be the same on both.

- 2010 screen isight cable is longer than on the 2012. The iSight connector on the 2012 logic board is closer to the fan than on the 2010. So at least the camera cable from a 2010 screen will be long enough but not if you connect a 2010 logic board to a 2012 screen.

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My preference would definitely be to fit the most recent (latest 2012) logic board possible. From nola and asle's comments, this sounds like it will work. Does anyone have any other input in terms of things I need to look out for before I pull the trigger?

From this discussion it seems the 820-3330 2012 is the latest workable model I could chase - is this correct? I obviously need to maintain compatibility with the existing screen.

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You may want to check the battery connector. Forgot to say it was different but i believe there are two different batteries for the 2010.

Also you have the 'hi res' screen not retina. The good thing about that is its much easier to change the cables for your BT/airport/isight if needed. Just heat up the silver frame with a hairdryer and gently peel it off. It will expose all the cables that run under the bezel. You can just get some double sided tape to reattach. Just be sure to not bend it out of shape.

Becareful not to heat up your screen too much. You may br able to pry it off without the heat too. Never done it myself but have changes the glass on the glossy screen.

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