Chosen Solution

Hello there I work in a small Apple repair shop here in Denmark A customer came into the shop today with a Macbook Air 13” 2013 that won’t boot. I took the computer apart and could not see any visual problems on the board, but figured I would see if the CPU had any signs of overheating. So I took off the heatsink and this is what was revealed

Having only worked on Mac’s for 1 year, I am uncertain what could cause this, I have never in my 20+ years repairing computers (Not Mac’s!) seen a chip fractured like this… Best Regards Jonas

The lack of thermal paste cracked the CPU in this case - the customer didn’t repaste both cores and they took it to a repair shop who missed it. Needless to say, the CPU needs to be replaced and a BGA reflow machine is required. However, that requires advanced experience. For most, it’s easier to replace the motherboard, or the computer. However, if you know how the CPU swap can be worthwhile if you get the chip at the right price. In some cases, CPU swaps are cheaper, but it comes with a very serious tradeoff: the experience required goes from a 1-3 to a 10 instantly. In other cases, the cost is the same and negates this issue of cost as you would replace the motherboard.

Wow! That is a sight! The only thing I can think of is thermal shock. I haven’t seen this happen in quite a few years, I had a chip fail this way when I was over clocking it with Nitrogen for fun. We chilled chip before turning on, as soon as we turned in on bam! As the chip heated up too fast. I’m sure you’ve seen a cars windshield have a stone strike which chipped the glass to slowly turn into a crack as it heats from the sun and cools at night. If you live in the desert area of Arizona or New Mexico where the temp swing can be quick its explosive! Or have a nice wine glass or even an everyday glass with a small chip on its edge fracture when you put it in or out the dish washer. When Intel breaks down the silicon wafer to the discreet chips it uses either a diamond or laser cutter to score or cut out the discreet chip out of the silicon wafer. If the cut was not clean the failure can get to this point.

Sadly, there’s nothing you can do other than replace the logic board.

Power out or to much power ram through the outlet , power surge protector because apple hadn’t put a fuse in the system yet copyright 05/13/1990 OGL,AKL