4 ms·
Two distinct possibilities: 1. Conductors with different thermal expansion coefficients and/or cold solder joint/s. BGA chips (ie graphics) especially. Reballi
by the_fonz 8y ago
Two distinct possibilities:
1. Conductors with different thermal expansion coefficients and/or cold solder joint/s. BGA chips (ie graphics) especially. Reballing BGAs is no simple procedure to prevent popcorning, thermal damage and cold joints.
2. Condensation - I have an A1278 non-Retina MBP that I'm donating that, for 5 years now, refuses to recognize the boot drive if it's warmed up too quickly. I suspect corrosion resistance and/or a short from condensation somewhere along the SATA path or a signal feeding a chip that provides it. I've tried using a pencil eraser on the male and female SATA connector contacts to no avail. I bet Louis Rossmann could fix it for $180-350 but I already bought a Lenovo T480.
- ericabiz 8y agoFor your A1278, have you swapped the SATA cable? It’s such a common point of failure that we keep them in stock at our repair shops. A new cable is pretty cheap (~$20, proprietary, of course.) I find that many of these “intermittent boot failure” scenarios can be fixed just by replacing the cable. Of course, I would also take this time to upgrade to a SSD if you haven’t already. :)
- dehrmann 8y ago> Reballing BGAs is no simple procedure Anyone remember the Xbox 360 Towel Trick? The idea was to wrap an Xbox with a specific error code in a towel, allowing it to overheat to the point that it resoldered a bad connection.
- rasz 8y agoNo, you could never resolder anything like that. What this did was warm motherboard to the point it was able to bend and release accumulated (from thermal cycling) stress _temporarily_ fixing broken solder joints.