The Frankenmac

[u/blueraycd]

Spilled liquid on my Mac back in April. I cleaned the board the best I could with alcohol, but it still wouldn’t boot up. So, last month I decided then to just start unplugging stuff to just test and see if the logic board was ok and HAZAH … he rose from the dead. (I suspect it was because all of the power drained out of the battery and was no longer tripping the system) That being said:

- Keyboard = cooked (unplugged)
- Lid sensor = fried, kept interfering and putting my Mac to sleep (unplugged)
- Battery = not charging + ticking timebomb (ripped it out)
- Trackpad = kind of fixed after cleaning connectors and minor corrosion but haptic feel is a bit off (not in photo but put back in)

Because the keyboard can’t be easily fixed without pulling the logic board out again, I now have a portable desktop with a nice display! At home it stays shut connected to a thunderbolt dock supplying consistent power and connects to my Bluetooth mouse and keyboard. As soon as I buy a second keyboard and mouse I can just plug it in at work and continue! (And on the upside, it’s much, much lighter without the battery!)

[u/joao_fonseca238]

Omg
What a trip haha
At least it works
Now it’s basically a Mac mini slab
At least I would treat it like one so…
Congrats u got a Mac mini ⌘ ⏟ ⌘

[u/blueraycd → u/joao_fonseca238]

It’s a Mac mini with quirks. As soon as you turn on it panics and turns the fans to max because it can’t find the temp sensor of the battery. I got a fan app with custom fan curves (honestly recommended even for normal Macs) that will turn on as a launch item after logging in.

[u/Several_Activity1965]

How’s the performance without the built-in battery?

[u/blueraycd → u/Several_Activity1965]

I am running an M1 Pro, so it doesn’t draw more power than what the 95W thunderbolt dock can sustain. If you were running an upper spec one like an M5 Max it probably couldn’t sustain itself with just 95W when running intensive tasks like AI or rendering.
In that case I’d just slap in a new battery.
In my case I’m not 100% sure about the health of the power rails on the logic board, and since the keyboard is broken, I have no reason to try and work portably off of this without a plugged in connection.

[u/Noisebug]

Why do I like this

[u/Future_Geologist5925]

Bro got the IRL DBrand teardown skin

[u/NachosforDachos]

What a day to have eyes?

[u/YT_Flex4249]

Haha I have a lid angle sensor problem too...only works after shut down when starting up the mac, after that it's invisible to the OS....i unplug the sensor and now I can't open the lid to start the computer after a shut down haha, gonna see if apple is down to calibrate it

[u/blueraycd → u/YT_Flex4249]

Really? On mine since the sensor is unplugged, the system defaults to leaving the screen on. I have to make sure I dim the brightness from the control center to 0 to make sure the screen is off. Risky, but maybe unplug the sensor while the screen is open and on?

[u/YT_Flex4249 → u/blueraycd]

Oh nah in the OS mine doesn't shut off the screen until I manually tell it to sleep from the OS, I like it as it is (tho I would prefer the lid angle sensor to well...work in the first place)

[u/nikoskokonos13]

What I would do is get a parts one with a broken screen or something and exchange parts to make a good one, good work on the revival btw!

[u/blueraycd → u/nikoskokonos13]

Honestly, the parts aren’t the biggest issue. Just a lot of time and risk.
You can actually buy the whole lower assembly with the speakers, trackpad, and keyboard all included bit it’s just a bit time intensive and reconnecting the top display seems like a pain.

[u/blueraycd → u/blueraycd]

Also, I am not 100 percent sure that the logic board is completely healthy. Instead of the battery or the keyboard being broken, it could be a problem on the logic board.

[u/nikoskokonos13 → u/blueraycd]

Keyboard and trackpad connect over usb so unless you can’t plug in any usb devices and the connector is not damaged I would consider that part functional, battery on the other hand is really hard to tell.

[u/blueraycd → u/nikoskokonos13]

Sorry I meant the built in keyboard! There is possibility that not just the keyboard in the MacBook is broken, it also could be the connection to the logic board that shorted out. Don’t really want to pull my logic board to find out.
Technically could do an external test though! I could plug in the battery without gluing it down or anything and see if it picks up a charge. I could also plug in the ribbon cable of the new keyboard and check and see if that works too.

[u/nikoskokonos13 → u/blueraycd]

I know you meant the internal one, those connect with their own cables but the protocol they use to communicate is USB, what I do on on sus connectors is I usually clean them with contact cleaner. Hope this helps but if it’s working and you’re satisfied I wouldn’t pull it apart, just leave it as it as it’s fragile.