UPDATE: S/N in the NVRAM is not a match for the bottom plate of the chassis; so "highly likely" we've had a board swap. Happy to report that I've been permitted to share the history of the device... * Fell off my bed and would then not power up. * Just left is for around a month. * Booked a trip to overseas and a friend over there said he knew someone that may be able to fix it. * Took it over and left with my mate to take to some electronic place to have a look at. * Few days later it came back as unfixable. * Brought it back to Aus and has been sitting here for 6-8 months * Saw your video on TH-cam and thought hey let an Aussie expert have a go.
@@theParticleGod Yes! Now that you mention it, I too have seen some high end HF Transceivers and HF Amplifiers (HAM Radio equip) connected to antenna towers directly hit by lightning strike. They were a mess. Exploded and melted stuff all over the place absolutely unrepairable total loss on all equipment involved. Serious carnage.
That is what happens when a friend knows a friend that knows a friend and so on. Customer is not to be blame but the friend. My advice ----My friend, PAY UP
This autopsy was very interesting. Seems that the overseas friend knew someone who was a scumbag who kept his board and put in this wrecked one. Maybe the original board was repairable and said scumbag fixed it and sold it. Very little integrity in the world now, so many will cheat and lie now for a few dollars.
Microwaved, that's a Great Theory. The other "repair" shop, took the customers board for parts, and put this disaster of a board, into this customer's case/chassis. I've seen that done with tv's and other electronics, when i worked at a national retailer, that had it's own national repair shops, and affiliate repair shops. Great Video! Thank You Mr. D!!
Someone swapped the PCB before sending it off to you - lack of signs on the chassis. Looks like malicious damage, there was serious external current applied.
I would bet if the ssd was recovered it would not be your customers data. They probably thought, no one will fix this (whatever was wrong with the original board), so they threw this old board in there and kept the customer's board for donor parts.
Wow! in all the years watching your content this one stands out as a wtf! Maybe we will need you to show us what a microwave can do to a board, just to back up the theory and for science!!! ....Awesome and very interesting vid Paul 😉
Maybe someone thought of giving this board a quick reflow in a microwave in grill mode and somehow screwed up and literally microwaved the board... Melting a ceramic capacitor like that requires a LOT of power and, by the looks of it, it was very localized, like in a microwave hotspot.
Yes, the result looks really like this was a microwaved electronics. Also notice the tiny spots on the metal shields and the large ferrites. Plus its all over the place - so I am 100% sure.
This should be the poster child for all manner of visible faults on a PCB! Wow! I concur that this board and chassis are not of the same computer, and that this board was nuked in the microwave. I cannot think of another scenario where the carnage isso complete and spread about.
I work in it as a repair technician sometimes last time I saw something like this it was a case where someone was trying to destroy a laptop to hide illegal stuff they had on it so they opened it up and stuck 120v on various connections
Could it be something as simple (naive?) as someone attempting voltage injection but having set the voltage on the power supply too high by accident, not noticing until it was waaaay too late?
It looks like deliberate high current injection applied at several points on the board. I've worked on boards damaged by lighting and even in those cases the damage is always localized to a small area. Usually a component or trace burns away and protects the rest of the circuit from damage by becoming a fuse.
That's a strong reason why I'm thinking a microwave could be a possibility, because of all the unrelated arcing areas; as you've mentioned about your experience, with lightning damage it's usually a turned-to-ash TVS/Polyfuse at the front end and some track lifting beyond that from heat and some carbonisation of the PCB but beyond that area other than dead components the rest doesn't usually *physically* look like this board.
I agree with the microwave conclusions. Many of those parts look like they failed by burning from the inside - the CD3215 with the hole in it, that cap that looks like something was emerging from it, the burnt trace and the seemingly random burn points.
Is the board small enough to fit in a microwave? My 15.6" laptop motherboard will not fit into my 350mm wide microwave *unless* it goes in on the diagonal. 🤔 Apologies for the double post but I know if I edit the other one it can get lost in the clutter.
"What the hell" and "Holy shit" are always appreciated .... LOL... that was epic. Microwaved, I think, as it would cause high voltage spikes in ferrite loops popping the caps and the localized pitting is from arcing. Mayhap the last repair person was Thor?
@@pldaniels I can tell you some Urdu or Thai explicatives lol .... but I love that honest content more than anything! Thanks for making good videos that are instructive, entertaining and interesting. Your skill set is pretty amazing. I did component level repair on locomotives the boards were the size of the laptop you were repairing and the caps and resistors were the size of pencils. Much easier! Lol peace out sir.
I Guess the fine folks at the Apple recycling centre saw your last stream and decided to take it up a notch! 100% microwave damage, especially after seeing those traces. Damages far too concentrated in small areas for lighting damage. Nice to see you back on making videos Paul.
I would try and read the serial number of the board to see if it matches the bottom case. That logicboard has definitely been swopped. I've been repairing Macbook's for over 15 years and every time i see burnt components there is always some marking on the case. I would hook up U6100 to a programmer and see what the serial number really is...
Was the postmark on the packaging from Austin, Texas by any chance. Wouldn't put it past him to troll you like that. Bloody funny if he or someone else has. Need to keep a photo of that melted from the inside capacitor coz that is something special just like your unique _bug_ capture and its ablutions. *Thank you* for the video Paul. 👍👍
Paul, I once saw on someone's video while doing a voltage injection to find a short the voltage was 45 volts instead on the normal less than 1 volt. The arc indication on all of those inductors leads me to think that an unskilled tech tried to find a short and caused all of the damage.
Wow, a professional intro, logo and on to the show. I think Paul is ready for prime time on cable TV. 😀 I would say "Overvoltage" since the difference of potential controls the amount of current flow. p.s. I agree with JCT4647 "Someone swapped the PCB"
I would say more like overpower or more like overenergy since it's energy that matters at the end of the day ;) You can have some very high voltage, but if it can't supply current it wont do that kind of damage. Also even if you have high voltage and high current like in the case of ESD it won't still melt the tracks ;) Time also matters ;) Just nit picking ;)
I really wish I'd videoed some of the laptops I've had come in. Some of them have been truly horrendous and people say "it just stopped working" while neglecting to mention 6 other people have tried to repair it and the customer has taken it to bits 5 or 6 times. This laptop is a classic example of the "I dropped it and it stopped working" excuse🤣🤣🤣
Hi Paul, Last time I seen that kind of damage was due to a severe power spike from mains power, probably did damage to other appliances as well. By the way I may not be able to whatch you live as much as I used to but when I get the chance I do whatch all your video's and enjoy them. 👍 Your end comment about microwaved the board. If that was the case there would be a hell of a lot more damage, more traces burnt out, more chips with metal componants inside blown out, and you would find rather large holes blown through the board, practicallyall componants would show signs of distruction. Jus saying.
Fortunately for you I've not been doing much in the way of live streams lately, just too difficult to get the timing right. Certainly a lot of energy has gone through this board and what's interesting is that I'm fairly sure those fuses haven't blown.
Repaired, cleaned then stuck in the microwave oven to dry? Wow, what a mess. Nearest I have seen to that is lightning damage but that made a mess of the case as well. I read your update, someone swapped the original PCB.
That's a Chipmunk; it monitors the USB voltages and data lines and gives you an idea of what's happening with red/green LEDs. It's a "simple" device but it's exceptionally handy. There's USB-C and USB-A variants. www.cmizapper.com/products/usb-tester.html
Paul I reckon your client sent it elsewhere and whoever was working on it knew it wasn’t repairable so they swapped out the board for parts thinking the owner would never notice. That type of damage can only come from an angry tech who has spent hours getting nowhere and was simply fed up or perhaps someone wanted to make sure their data could never be pulled off this board before sending it off to recyclers. If the glove don’t fit you must acquit… yer good luck with getting the original board back.
humid weather and lightning strike hit the client, knocking them into the laptop. perhaps thought the person with them was amazing, but the stars they saw were from the shock
If a switching mode power supply goes really bad, it can send mains down to the computer. Or I had USB devices that malfunctioned and sent voltage back to the motherboard, which could explosively evaporate the motherboard too.
Microwaved board would also explain why there are no corresponding marks on the chassis. The board wasn't in the chassis when that damage happened, it was in the microwave.
Maybe this laptop was sold as working on Ebay or FB marketplace and the buyer swapped in this old board for a nice new one and then said "this laptop I bought isn't working" and got a refund. They get a new board and it costs nothing and we all know there are people out there who would pull this stunt. The original owner then sends it in for repair not knowing the original board has been swapped out but I guess we'll never know.
Someone used a probe with more than 100V and injected voltage onto the capacitor, coils, and other components on the board. As a result, you don't see any visible damage on the casing because the board was removed when the voltage was applied.
Absolutely whack. It's obvious when you consider that the mobo go microwaved - but like, who would be expecting that?! Why would someone do that?! I agree with the others that it must be someone trying to make sure that it definitely wouldn't be fixable. Either for insurance, or someone playing the "I don't want to get upstaged by the next shop, so I'll _make sure_ they also fail..."
I'm leaning towards the "someone had fun with the board" theory - when you put high voltage with a power supply on a short it arcs (hence the burns on coils), So someone was going around the coils seeing what would happen if you inject ex: 30V to the 3V coil or 1V Coil and so on, What do you guys think about that? but it's also not the customer's board that's for sure.
Yes, that would be about the only other thing I can consider as feasible possibility; I've seen "localised lightning" damage where a strike on the fence about 20m from the equipment had occurred, though that was 20 years ago now - will try nuking a board or two in the next few days to see if I can replicate this.
I was going to comment "dropped from the bed into a induction oven..." then you pop up with the microwave theory 😄 Nice video though. Hope you'll get some more answers. Maybe from some microwaving experiments. Does the board match the chassis, numbers wise?
Not sure on the S/N yet, might be able to find that out later. For now, I am preparing to do my own testing to see if I can replicate this sort of damage.
I have a simple question for you, Paul: does your ultrasonic machine has degassing? I have mine (22 L), with no degassing, and I was curious, because mine does not work as well as I desire. I use 50% isopropanol (99%) an 50% of distilled water. Thanks in advance! (BTW, horrible Mac PCB...). EDIT: Regarding the absence of burnt maks between case and PCB, my suspicious is that somebody changed the PCB to this machine. Somebody just before you, by this destroyed one.
I do believe my unit does have a degassing facility, though I confess I've never used it. I use ~15 litres of deionised water + cleaning solution mixed in, no IPA/alcohol. When I've done both sides of the board I rinse in more deionised water, then blast out any water from under the large chips & connectors with my small airbrush compressor; finally I place the board in to a controlled oven at 120'C for 20 minutes.
@@pldanielsthanks a lot! I saw a bit of your cleaner's front panel, and it seems to have the “degas” membrane in between the temperature and the timer (but I’m not sure). The million dollar question is: could you tell me what solution you are using instead of isopropyl alcohol? TIA!
@@fichambawelby2632 sure, the stuff I'm using is called "Ambersil" ( au.rs-online.com/web/p/ultrasonic-cleaning-fluids/7457494?srsltid=AfmBOop-nnoYtYGsRndbpaZ1dx2i0pI4xHDI13yeIdQ9lZaoFM9jQuCM )
11:31 Bones:Australia. Special agent Paul Daniels does forensics on leftovers of a Macbook which apparently got struck by lightning, run over by a bus and washed in city's laundry
That spark marks on the coils and knocked components tells me someone was searching for a short, but maybe with 5A or more? Wtf? Maybe they enraged after not finding something and destroyed what was left in the microwave oven? My mouth fell open countless times while looking at that video
No visible dents on chassis. No port damage . No crack screen. Missing fan shrouds . Rounded screws. Classic case of blame some else by swapping logic board and the person hoping to see it on a LIVE to be relieve of guilt. Lucky Paul Records his repairs . Just got caught with evidence
wtf, now i have seen a some interesting things from lightning strike imac. but i think your right, microwave is the only thing i have ever seen melt things i didnt think could be melted.
Given that it was only a couple of days in their workshop I'd err strongly towards it being deliberate. Was likely a good board with maybe not even anything electronically wrong ( maybe just disconnected the battery dataflex ).
I never forget years ago , a Samsung Galaxy S3 I was given to diagnose and asked why it wasn’t turning on ? I asked “what happened to it?” The response was “it fell off my knee “ This phone was in a top notch (for the time) bumper case . looked mint , not a mark on the screen! So I shone my phone torch onto the screen and said loudly, “THIS SCREEN HAS BEEN SMASHED TO BITS , THROWN HARD” the LCD had more cracks than baked desert mud. She instantly went bright red! As I handed it back , I knew exactly what she did to that phone 😂😂.
It always amuses me when people try to slip damaged phones off to you attempting to get you to fix them again "under warranty" when you know the look of so many types of damage from years of experience, from the "butt pocket sitdown" to "tile {carpet} floor benchtop drop". The 6" drop on to carpet claims always make me shake my head.
Hi Paul, yeah look like a swap board from a previus attempt to repair failed...and maybe a joke to test you... Let know US what said the customer... Bye Francesco Timpano from Florence Italy
First (overseas) repair guy must have forgot to readjust his PSU and injected high voltage at high Amperage in the board. He then inhaled all the magic smoke himself.
if this was recent damage you should be able to smell it. Seems like someone had a try at repairing it, failed and put a dead board in there to declare it no-fix.
I failed to mention but good to see you thought about it, but no, there's no smell and it's something that was a little odd to me too, because as you are inferring, damage like that you should be able to smell for months.
It would be interesting to see if this could be reproduced... whether a single high-voltage injection site would do the trick, or whether *multiple* HV Attacks would be needed. ;-)
This sure looks like some sort of trickery. No way that chassis is that clean with that extensive damage to the board. It virtualy looks like someone connected line voltage directly to the board and fried everything - particularly that *ceramic* cap... In my 56 yars of servicing electronic gear I have never seen a ceramic do such a thing.
Please to hear that it's not just me who's "never seen a ceramic do such a thing". I'll be performing some tests with donor/test boards to see if I can replicate.
Too much damage for one of those in this instance. They'll blow out the TVS input protection diodes, often physically cracking/damaging them and maybe the controller, but beyond that there's just not enough joules of energy in the delivery to do this sort of damage.
UPDATE: S/N in the NVRAM is not a match for the bottom plate of the chassis; so "highly likely" we've had a board swap.
Happy to report that I've been permitted to share the history of the device...
* Fell off my bed and would then not power up.
* Just left is for around a month.
* Booked a trip to overseas and a friend over there said he knew someone that may be able to fix it.
* Took it over and left with my mate to take to some electronic place to have a look at.
* Few days later it came back as unfixable.
* Brought it back to Aus and has been sitting here for 6-8 months
* Saw your video on TH-cam and thought hey let an Aussie expert have a go.
@@pldaniels It would appear the laptop's owner was scammed.
I've seen damage that looked exactly like this on devices that were struck by lightning.
@@theParticleGod Yes! Now that you mention it, I too have seen some high end HF Transceivers and HF Amplifiers (HAM Radio equip) connected to antenna towers directly hit by lightning strike. They were a mess. Exploded and melted stuff all over the place absolutely unrepairable total loss on all equipment involved. Serious carnage.
That is what happens when a friend knows a friend that knows a friend and so on. Customer is not to be blame but the friend. My advice ----My friend, PAY UP
This autopsy was very interesting. Seems that the overseas friend knew someone who was a scumbag who kept his board and put in this wrecked one. Maybe the original board was repairable and said scumbag fixed it and sold it. Very little integrity in the world now, so many will cheat and lie now for a few dollars.
Microwaved, that's a Great Theory. The other "repair" shop, took the customers board for parts, and put this disaster of a board, into this customer's case/chassis. I've seen that done with tv's and other electronics, when i worked at a national retailer, that had it's own national repair shops, and affiliate repair shops. Great Video! Thank You Mr. D!!
It's a possibility I'm exploring along with they f-d it up in the workshop. Checking the NVRAM data may help here.
Microwaved was somehow my first idea also.
Thanks!
Someone swapped the PCB before sending it off to you - lack of signs on the chassis. Looks like malicious damage, there was serious external current applied.
Yes, that was my first thought.
I wonder if is insured.
My thoughts exactly just before Paul said it, i was thinking, that's never from that chassis, lol
My exact thought. Someone worked on the original board and sold it
He cancelled Apple Music, Apple strikes back
I would bet if the ssd was recovered it would not be your customers data. They probably thought, no one will fix this (whatever was wrong with the original board), so they threw this old board in there and kept the customer's board for donor parts.
Wow! in all the years watching your content this one stands out as a wtf! Maybe we will need you to show us what a microwave can do to a board, just to back up the theory and for science!!! ....Awesome and very interesting vid Paul 😉
Maybe someone thought of giving this board a quick reflow in a microwave in grill mode and somehow screwed up and literally microwaved the board... Melting a ceramic capacitor like that requires a LOT of power and, by the looks of it, it was very localized, like in a microwave hotspot.
Was certainly one of my thoughts - "Did they use the wrong mode?"
Yes, the result looks really like this was a microwaved electronics. Also notice the tiny spots on the metal shields and the large ferrites. Plus its all over the place - so I am 100% sure.
This should be the poster child for all manner of visible faults on a PCB! Wow! I concur that this board and chassis are not of the same computer, and that this board was nuked in the microwave. I cannot think of another scenario where the carnage isso complete and spread about.
It's definitely one that I'll be remembering and cherishing for all the wrong reasons.
I work in it as a repair technician sometimes last time I saw something like this it was a case where someone was trying to destroy a laptop to hide illegal stuff they had on it so they opened it up and stuck 120v on various connections
Could be a loose-wired brushing over the board of high voltage I suppose. I'll be trying the microwave test too still as well.
That board is rooted! I can only imagine the firework display as it went up in smoke!
It certainly would have been quite a show
This board is such a horror show, I'm going to have nightmares for months after watching this
Could it be something as simple (naive?) as someone attempting voltage injection but having set the voltage on the power supply too high by accident, not noticing until it was waaaay too late?
It looks like deliberate high current injection applied at several points on the board. I've worked on boards damaged by lighting and even in those cases the damage is always localized to a small area. Usually a component or trace burns away and protects the rest of the circuit from damage by becoming a fuse.
That's a strong reason why I'm thinking a microwave could be a possibility, because of all the unrelated arcing areas; as you've mentioned about your experience, with lightning damage it's usually a turned-to-ash TVS/Polyfuse at the front end and some track lifting beyond that from heat and some carbonisation of the PCB but beyond that area other than dead components the rest doesn't usually *physically* look like this board.
I agree with the microwave conclusions. Many of those parts look like they failed by burning from the inside - the CD3215 with the hole in it, that cap that looks like something was emerging from it, the burnt trace and the seemingly random burn points.
brilliant video Paul i must admit i was chuckling at all the possible permutations of WHAT THE...........
Felt the same myself when I was saying them... "How much further can I escalate my drama voice?"
Is the board small enough to fit in a microwave? My 15.6" laptop motherboard will not fit into my 350mm wide microwave *unless* it goes in on the diagonal. 🤔
Apologies for the double post but I know if I edit the other one it can get lost in the clutter.
Someone commented elsewhere that maybe it was one of those combo convection/microwave ovens, they can be big enough, and they selected the wrong mode.
"What the hell" and "Holy shit" are always appreciated .... LOL... that was epic.
Microwaved, I think, as it would cause high voltage spikes in ferrite loops popping the caps and the localized pitting is from arcing. Mayhap the last repair person was Thor?
Aye, I try to keep those explitives to a minimum, or convert to Afrikaans ;)
We'll see how the microwaving tests go in a few days.
@@pldaniels I can tell you some Urdu or Thai explicatives lol .... but I love that honest content more than anything! Thanks for making good videos that are instructive, entertaining and interesting. Your skill set is pretty amazing. I did component level repair on locomotives the boards were the size of the laptop you were repairing and the caps and resistors were the size of pencils. Much easier! Lol peace out sir.
I Guess the fine folks at the Apple recycling centre saw your last stream and decided to take it up a notch! 100% microwave damage, especially after seeing those traces. Damages far too concentrated in small areas for lighting damage. Nice to see you back on making videos Paul.
Why does it look like the Mobo was held over a fire?
Wonder what state the microwave was in ? Perhaps it will be the subject of another video!
I would try and read the serial number of the board to see if it matches the bottom case. That logicboard has definitely been swopped. I've been repairing Macbook's for over 15 years and every time i see burnt components there is always some marking on the case. I would hook up U6100 to a programmer and see what the serial number really is...
Planning to try do that soon as I get some more time... also, a shiny new microwave has been purchased... :)
Was the postmark on the packaging from Austin, Texas by any chance. Wouldn't put it past him to troll you like that. Bloody funny if he or someone else has. Need to keep a photo of that melted from the inside capacitor coz that is something special just like your unique _bug_ capture and its ablutions.
*Thank you* for the video Paul. 👍👍
It would have been hilarious if Rossmann had sent it as a joke, but no, this was a domestic job
How many fuses didn't blow? also looks like microwave damage.
Most of that damage looks like probe points. My guess is some one was using high volt/amp to find shorts and just burnt everything.
Might have watched a few too many "It's easy to fix" type videos and went full crank on the short-killer path
Paul, I once saw on someone's video while doing a voltage injection to find a short the voltage was 45 volts instead on the normal less than 1 volt. The arc indication on all of those inductors leads me to think that an unskilled tech tried to find a short and caused all of the damage.
We're going to have a shot of making our own diasater board with a brand new microwave soon.
Wow, a professional intro, logo and on to the show. I think Paul is ready for prime time on cable TV. 😀
I would say "Overvoltage" since the difference of potential controls the amount of current flow.
p.s. I agree with JCT4647 "Someone swapped the PCB"
I would say more like overpower or more like overenergy since it's energy that matters at the end of the day ;) You can have some very high voltage, but if it can't supply current it wont do that kind of damage. Also even if you have high voltage and high current like in the case of ESD it won't still melt the tracks ;) Time also matters ;) Just nit picking ;)
I really wish I'd videoed some of the laptops I've had come in. Some of them have been truly horrendous and people say "it just stopped working" while neglecting to mention 6 other people have tried to repair it and the customer has taken it to bits 5 or 6 times. This laptop is a classic example of the "I dropped it and it stopped working" excuse🤣🤣🤣
It's definitely a blessing having the video capture running for all the jobs - saved my backside a couple of times.
Hi Paul, Last time I seen that kind of damage was due to a severe power spike from mains power, probably did damage to other appliances as well.
By the way I may not be able to whatch you live as much as I used to but when I get the chance I do whatch all your video's and enjoy them. 👍
Your end comment about microwaved the board. If that was the case there would be a hell of a lot more damage, more traces burnt out, more chips with metal componants inside blown out, and you would find rather large holes blown through the board, practicallyall componants would show signs of distruction. Jus saying.
Fortunately for you I've not been doing much in the way of live streams lately, just too difficult to get the timing right.
Certainly a lot of energy has gone through this board and what's interesting is that I'm fairly sure those fuses haven't blown.
Dam that's nasty! All i can say whoever worked on that board before needs to never ever touch electronics.
Feeling the same way - sadly I've been getting a solid portion of my queue with machines that have been touched by people who shouldn't touch.
Looks like they put a cadaver board in that case to punk you?
Has been to another (chop) shop before me. Either they butchered it, or they swapped it and kept the good board.
A laptop dying by getting dropped even though it doesn’t have a HDD: Think Different.
did they inject too much at that melted cap
Repaired, cleaned then stuck in the microwave oven to dry? Wow, what a mess. Nearest I have seen to that is lightning damage but that made a mess of the case as well. I read your update, someone swapped the original PCB.
What is that USBC device you have plugged in the beginning?
That's a Chipmunk; it monitors the USB voltages and data lines and gives you an idea of what's happening with red/green LEDs. It's a "simple" device but it's exceptionally handy. There's USB-C and USB-A variants.
www.cmizapper.com/products/usb-tester.html
Paul I reckon your client sent it elsewhere and whoever was working on it knew it wasn’t repairable so they swapped out the board for parts thinking the owner would never notice. That type of damage can only come from an angry tech who has spent hours getting nowhere and was simply fed up or perhaps someone wanted to make sure their data could never be pulled off this board before sending it off to recyclers. If the glove don’t fit you must acquit… yer good luck with getting the original board back.
It has been confirmed that the machine has gone "elsewhere". It's going to be curious to see what the S/N is.
humid weather and lightning strike hit the client, knocking them into the laptop. perhaps thought the person with them was amazing, but the stars they saw were from the shock
It fell off the bed???
If a switching mode power supply goes really bad, it can send mains down to the computer. Or I had USB devices that malfunctioned and sent voltage back to the motherboard, which could explosively evaporate the motherboard too.
Laptop with a very dodgy history. Great bit of PCB forensics Paul
Hopefully we'll dig in to it a lot more in the next few days with some more tests on other boards
This feels like someone tries to scam you - sending a totaly catastrophe in a "trojan horse" to you...
Microwaved board would also explain why there are no corresponding marks on the chassis. The board wasn't in the chassis when that damage happened, it was in the microwave.
This isn't the first time I've seen a board that's been microwaved, but it's certainly one of the more creative ones.
Maybe it took a glancing blow from an interocitor ?
Like the repurpose of the baking mat 👍🕺
Works a lot better than many of the specifically-made silicon mat solutions for electronics; cheaper too.
Maybe this laptop was sold as working on Ebay or FB marketplace and the buyer swapped in this old board for a nice new one and then said "this laptop I bought isn't working" and got a refund. They get a new board and it costs nothing and we all know there are people out there who would pull this stunt. The original owner then sends it in for repair not knowing the original board has been swapped out but I guess we'll never know.
Someone used a probe with more than 100V and injected voltage onto the capacitor, coils, and other components on the board. As a result, you don't see any visible damage on the casing because the board was removed when the voltage was applied.
Damn, def a lighting strike i think. came in from everywhere
Could you try an old board ( unrepairable stock ) in your own microwave.
Please film the action.
Duly planned. Microwave oven already purchased... need to find some Lab coats
Absolutely whack. It's obvious when you consider that the mobo go microwaved - but like, who would be expecting that?! Why would someone do that?!
I agree with the others that it must be someone trying to make sure that it definitely wouldn't be fixable. Either for insurance, or someone playing the "I don't want to get upstaged by the next shop, so I'll _make sure_ they also fail..."
That's just crazy. Wow.
Nice to see paul ❤
I'm leaning towards the "someone had fun with the board" theory - when you put high voltage with a power supply on a short it arcs (hence the burns on coils), So someone was going around the coils seeing what would happen if you inject ex: 30V to the 3V coil or 1V Coil and so on, What do you guys think about that?
but it's also not the customer's board that's for sure.
Looks like lightning, same things happens to 2ways, when get a near by hit.
Yes, that would be about the only other thing I can consider as feasible possibility; I've seen "localised lightning" damage where a strike on the fence about 20m from the equipment had occurred, though that was 20 years ago now - will try nuking a board or two in the next few days to see if I can replicate this.
“Fell off of the nightstand“ … Right…
That's either lightning or somehow mains voltage got in there. What a mess.
A mess it most certainly is.
I would ask the customer if they sent the correct laptop. But I also wonder if the laptop came too close to a powerful electromagnet or RADAR.
I was going to comment "dropped from the bed into a induction oven..." then you pop up with the microwave theory 😄
Nice video though. Hope you'll get some more answers.
Maybe from some microwaving experiments.
Does the board match the chassis, numbers wise?
Not sure on the S/N yet, might be able to find that out later. For now, I am preparing to do my own testing to see if I can replicate this sort of damage.
That's a they were getting out of the hot tub and they dropped it and then the power brick followed it in right up to the AC wire and then pop.
That’s a complete car crash 😳
That's what my cat, Hewlett said. The nightstand did it!".
If the cat said it, then it's true.
@@pldaniels I agree. The only problem is I don't own a nightstand...
I have a simple question for you, Paul: does your ultrasonic machine has degassing? I have mine (22 L), with no degassing, and I was curious, because mine does not work as well as I desire. I use 50% isopropanol (99%) an 50% of distilled water. Thanks in advance! (BTW, horrible Mac PCB...).
EDIT: Regarding the absence of burnt maks between case and PCB, my suspicious is that somebody changed the PCB to this machine. Somebody just before you, by this destroyed one.
I do believe my unit does have a degassing facility, though I confess I've never used it. I use ~15 litres of deionised water + cleaning solution mixed in, no IPA/alcohol.
When I've done both sides of the board I rinse in more deionised water, then blast out any water from under the large chips & connectors with my small airbrush compressor; finally I place the board in to a controlled oven at 120'C for 20 minutes.
@@pldanielsthanks a lot! I saw a bit of your cleaner's front panel, and it seems to have the “degas” membrane in between the temperature and the timer (but I’m not sure). The million dollar question is: could you tell me what solution you are using instead of isopropyl alcohol? TIA!
@@fichambawelby2632 sure, the stuff I'm using is called "Ambersil" ( au.rs-online.com/web/p/ultrasonic-cleaning-fluids/7457494?srsltid=AfmBOop-nnoYtYGsRndbpaZ1dx2i0pI4xHDI13yeIdQ9lZaoFM9jQuCM )
@@pldanielsthanks a zillion, Paul. And kind regards from Madrid
11:31 Bones:Australia. Special agent Paul Daniels does forensics on leftovers of a Macbook which apparently got struck by lightning, run over by a bus and washed in city's laundry
oh boy that Logic board looks like someone injected 220V into it on purpose
That spark marks on the coils and knocked components tells me someone was searching for a short, but maybe with 5A or more? Wtf? Maybe they enraged after not finding something and destroyed what was left in the microwave oven?
My mouth fell open countless times while looking at that video
It's definitely one of the most interesting/shocking ones for me; to get me swearing openly on the last one pretty much meant that my mind was blown.
it was done on purpose. someone was connecting cable with high voltage to the coils
5:58 that's a hole lot of trouble
It is never good when Paul opens a laptop looks at it and says oooof. It looks like that pwb was in a microwave.
It's possible they had it out of the chassis, were troubleshooting, using a beefy bench power supply, shorted it, then put it back in after.
No visible dents on chassis. No port damage . No crack screen. Missing fan shrouds . Rounded screws. Classic case of blame some else by swapping logic board and the person hoping to see it on a LIVE to be relieve of guilt. Lucky Paul Records his repairs . Just got caught with evidence
Has been confirmed it's been at another location "for repair" before coming here. Now to see if we can find the S/N of the board.
I have 3 possible theories, troll, microwave or lightning strike. Could also be a mix of any two or all three.
I was thinking microwave, too.
Going to find out in a few days when I find myself some time....and a labcoat
This was definitely a current-test-board from Apple, and it somehow made its way out of quarantine. 😂
wtf, now i have seen a some interesting things from lightning strike imac. but i think your right, microwave is the only thing i have ever seen melt things i didnt think could be melted.
We'll see how things fare in the next video ... will work on that tomorrow
Someone has a repairable board out of this Mac.
Indeed that has been revealed now, or at least *someone* got a repairable board.
Wow! Probably someone tried diagnosing the board using a power supply and set it too high?
Went to a disreputable repair center and they put a donor board in (maybe by mistake).
Given that it was only a couple of days in their workshop I'd err strongly towards it being deliberate. Was likely a good board with maybe not even anything electronically wrong ( maybe just disconnected the battery dataflex ).
I never forget years ago , a Samsung Galaxy S3 I was given to diagnose and asked why it wasn’t turning on ?
I asked
“what happened to it?”
The response was
“it fell off my knee “
This phone was in a top notch
(for the time) bumper case .
looked mint ,
not a mark on the screen!
So I shone my phone torch onto the screen and said loudly,
“THIS SCREEN HAS BEEN SMASHED TO BITS , THROWN HARD”
the LCD had more cracks than baked desert mud.
She instantly went bright red! As I handed it back ,
I knew exactly what she did to that phone 😂😂.
It always amuses me when people try to slip damaged phones off to you attempting to get you to fix them again "under warranty" when you know the look of so many types of damage from years of experience, from the "butt pocket sitdown" to "tile {carpet} floor benchtop drop". The 6" drop on to carpet claims always make me shake my head.
If i was feeling malicious id be saying that back case is new from the previous repair shop. No way that doesnt have singe makes on it.
Hi Paul, yeah look like a swap board from a previus attempt to repair failed...and maybe a joke to test you... Let know US what said the customer... Bye Francesco Timpano from Florence Italy
Has been confirmed it's gone to another place, so at least we now know it's not from the original drop
it fell from the night stand, but forget to say the nightstand was in Valhalla
Looks like a spot welder.
With beginner-style pigeon-poop trashy welding technique :)
The very first thing I said to myself is this board came out of a different case!
First (overseas) repair guy must have forgot to readjust his PSU and injected high voltage at high Amperage in the board. He then inhaled all the magic smoke himself.
I think the customer has replaced the case parts so you couldn't see burn marks.
The shop they sent it to originally seems to have done a naughty and swapped the board.
Someone went fault finding with the mother of all short killers ? Possibly a mig welder .
Looks like someone took a power supply at 19v and put voltage in places they suspected were short lol
Maybe add a zero at the end of that voltage :D
Someone had a go at the board with a spot welder...
if this was recent damage you should be able to smell it. Seems like someone had a try at repairing it, failed and put a dead board in there to declare it no-fix.
I failed to mention but good to see you thought about it, but no, there's no smell and it's something that was a little odd to me too, because as you are inferring, damage like that you should be able to smell for months.
That doesn't looks like it was dropped lol, or it was drop in a thunderstorm
Looks like a board swop! It's unfortunately an electronic John Doe :(
I would like to give you a good opinion on my theory but I’m speechless.
It would be interesting to see if this could be reproduced... whether a single high-voltage injection site would do the trick, or whether *multiple* HV Attacks would be needed. ;-)
Have purchased a microwave, will be testing soon...
Id hate to think what was connected to the same circuit as this, its all fucked it if didnt trip the circuit.
Looks like someone deliberately was touching a welding electrode against all the parts to blow it up so badly as a joke or testing you.
For sure this was a swap. Maybe a parts board in a new chassis.
This sure looks like some sort of trickery. No way that chassis is that clean with that extensive damage to the board. It virtualy looks like someone connected line voltage directly to the board and fried everything - particularly that *ceramic* cap... In my 56 yars of servicing electronic gear I have never seen a ceramic do such a thing.
Please to hear that it's not just me who's "never seen a ceramic do such a thing".
I'll be performing some tests with donor/test boards to see if I can replicate.
THAT is a really destroyed board. Maybe someone spilled something on it and tried to dry it of in a microwave?
Could be. Will be doing experiements to find out.
@@pldaniels Haha, don't forget to check the camera before recording 😀
none of that damage could have occurred whilst in the chassis, prior repair attempt gone very bad and they've tried to hide it.
6:02 it's not a hole! it's legitimate magic smoke vent
The original board has been replaced with this one!
Correct, verified about an hour ago now, S/N's do not match
Killer USB Stick?
Too much damage for one of those in this instance. They'll blow out the TVS input protection diodes, often physically cracking/damaging them and maybe the controller, but beyond that there's just not enough joules of energy in the delivery to do this sort of damage.
@@pldaniels
Thanks. I wasn't sure (hence the question mark) but it did strike me as a possibility.