Apple MacBook Pro A1278 with 1 RAM Slot NOT WORKING - Trying to FIX
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- čas přidán 29. 08. 2024
- Hi, in this video I attempt to fix a 2011 MacBook Pro where only 1 of the 2 RAM slots work.
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Remember that this is just for entertainment and I am not an expert in these repairs. The processes in the video may not be the best way, the correct way or the safest way to fix these things. I do love fault finding and trying to fix broken things, so I hope that comes across in this 'Trying to FIX' series. Many thanks, Vince.
I absolutely love your laptop repairs, they're so fun to watch and relax to
Vince ,I must say that your videos show much more than than the insides of a computer and how to fix them ,much more. You are teaching patience ,perseverance and resourcefulness, well done old boy!
THANK YOU! I've been having issues for years and kind of left my MacBook under my bed because I couldn't resolve the issue. I followed your same steps at the start and I realise I needed to add pressure to my RAM brackets and it booted up fine. Tightened the screws and now my MacBook has successfully booted 5 times, which has never happened since 2019!! Thank you again!
There's nothing like a good Vince video when you're not well i'm glad i have your videos it takes my mind away from it and helps me feel that little bit better.
Glad you're getting deep into the A1278, as my old ( not very ) trusty A1286 WILL be headed your way at some point ;) Great video as ever :)
Thanks Mike, I haven't had much luck with this one but it certainly is providing plenty of entertainment. Maybe your one will behave itself more 🤣👍👍👍
Very good,i have the exact same problem,and after seeing that video i think i will just put in an 8gb stick in the slot that is working.I also have fixed many things in the past and not too sure how it all worked in the end.The way you explained everything in your video was very very good.
CPU cooking with Vince: a pinch of flux, a dash of heat and a heaping spoonful of luck.
Vince cook, does Ready, Steady, Fry.
Great video Vince! It was a real pleasure. As you know I don't have much time away from my day job + repairs and CZcams, to actually watch alot of videos, and since I'm sitting at the airport, I have nothing but time! I seen your video, and watched it! Your troubleshooting is excellent 👍 thumbs up from me in the states!
Thanks Chase, enjoy your trip 👍
Great video! I was convinced it was gonna be that dodgy / bent clip shorting out once the board was inserted that you can see in the ram slot at 3:53 mins!
I literally just pressed the ram slot for and screwed it in as tight as I could get it. I couldn't get a boot every try, and it suddenly just started restarting. Well, now it's booting fine. Thanks. you definitely were in the right area. Finicky bit, though.
I take it back! Hmm.. not sure how to make it stick.
I have the same Mac, I'm saving this vid for future reference. Thanks 👍
Maybe you should not buy Macs in the future? :D
Tampatec gets around
I have the same problem with my Mid 2010, the bottom slot doesn't work, it works sometimes but it fails as soon as I move the laptop. Now I'm using only the top slot :(
its not the cpu, its the ram slot pins, but from the bottom side of the board, i have fixed quite a few, its usually from the bottom side the first 3 or 2 pins from the right, like in this video, just solder them and you're good to go
czcams.com/video/58dFwz4AttM/video.html
you need to really put pressure on them one by one to see if they move, sometimes they fool you but its usually those pins
This absolutely worked for me! Thank you jimmys mantzas
@@lucianoserejo129 you're welcome
Very good fix, sometimes you have to be lucky with things, maybe it hadn't cooled down completely yet and the apu pins are making good contact now, sometimes you have to let the current go through it to get those components working again after getting too hot, that's my experience (for resistors, and some). It may well be that this is a forever fix. well done
i liked he video suspense... glad it all worked in the end! my guess is that you were right about oxidization on the memory channel pins to the cpu and a little more time allowed it to break down more. i dont know about board mechanical stress release after heating. but there is no way to verify that, and it is working now!
I have the same Mac and was having a graphics card issue, ironically I fixed it by taking the mb out, cleaning it, and applying new thermal paste. After putting it back together, it booted and I haven't had any graphical issues anymore! Can't say it's a permanent fix, but for now it's working fine. 🙏🙏🙏🤞🤞🤞🍾🍾
Ram slot failures on that model are common, I have a machine or 2 that have that fault also. Its to do with the the bga soldered pins, the risk with trying to fix one slot is that it could kill the other slot too.
Cheers Scott 👍
I love watching ur vids, especially when I just got covid and now have to lay in bed a lot and the ending was as if a movie. U picked a very nice song.
I just love it when Vince takes the risk "hoping it works".
Hi M8 Vince, long time watching first time commenting, I(actually I'm not sure it is the first time but anyways) as I remember from back when I would built my own pc's( by built I mean put together the parts I had purchased, not making them) if you don't have a working ram stick in the first slot you will get a booting error, kinda like its checking the ram and if it doesn't find anything or one that isn't working it stops and doesn't keep checking but I could be totally wrong and I just started typing this as soon as I saw you swaping the ram stick from slot one to slot 2 so I don't really know if you realized this already, anyways love your videos, all of them and thanks for making them M8. Cheers! Edit: just finished watching the whole thing and This is a great video as usual, disregard what I said earlier, glad it worked out good, have some issues with both of my macbooks, can't try what you just did since I don't have the equipment or knowledge as you can see by the statement above, although I could have swear that used to be the case anyways, great video and yes I enjoyed it very much.
I stumbled upon your videos while researching the same behaviour on my MBP Core2Duo Unibody which unfortunately resorted to only 2 GB of RAM after the lower RAM slot close to the keyboard had failed. I tried everything I read before: loosening the screws around the RAM bay, tightening them, cleaning everything, and whatnot.
Then I watched your video, moved the RAM to the non working memory slot and booted the MBP while pressing on the backside of the CPU area: It booted right away!
Unfortunately I was not so lucky with the refluxing of the CPU maybe because I lack the proper tools and it decided to die on me. Good tip anyway!
I miei complimenti per questa riparazione, impossibile per me.
HI.
I have the same problem with an early 2011/13".
unfortunately my English leaves a lot to be desired so I didn't understand if the problem was oxidation (solved by heating the processor), the screws, or if the solution was to insert memories of different capacities in the 2 slots.
sorry for that.
thanks for sharing this video.
eu entendi q o problema foi aperto de todos parafusos. parece q ele so deixou os parafusos essenciais e funcionou.... th nao sei ingles direito mas entendi isso
Love your style vince,if it aint broke try and fix it!
I am pretty sure it was the cpu since the memory controller is in fact in the cpu so a cold solder joint or corrosion might explain only 1 channel working. Nice work on fixing it
I have the same MacBook Pro and these videos are helpful for when mine goes faulty
Looks like I missed this by a day :(
Definitely a reknown signature fault on the A12xx series of Macbooks, and it's because one slot is pin-through soldered, the other is very large size SMD balls at the end of pins. I'd say when you pushed down hard on the CPU it was the force imparted overall that made the contacts for the slot to come good again to the PCB; likewise reflowing the CPU would have a similar shifting-effect for the DDR slot too I would imagine (accidental fix :D )
We end up advising clients to just use the one slot and double up the RAM size.... at least with a SSD they don't see too much of a performance hit from the loss of dual-channels.
hey Paul, love to see you here haha
@@danandrei96 I have to spread my obnoxiousness around :D
Thank you Paul, I was hoping you would see this video. I knew you would have the answers. So when the final screws went in, it must have given it the little extra flex it needed to make a contact. Amazingly it is still working but for how long!!!!!!! Thanks for spreading your knowledge 👍👍👍👍
@@Mymatevince more than welcome - great that you dug in to it trying to find a solution. At least if it does play up again you know what your options are.
Looking forward to your next Macbook repairs to see what else is sent your way.
@@Mymatevince my macbook display glitches and flickers a lot but there seems to be absolutely no flickering when i am logged on to the guest mode. What could be the cause? I hope it isn't an issue with the display screen! Please give me your suggestions! Ty.
Wauw so much trouble with that Mac, I would already sold it as parts,, but I do like that u don't know what giving up is!
Pc3L memory is low voltage memory. Replacing a non L version with an L version works without issues but it won't work if you install regular memory in a motherboard that only supports low voltage memory.
really funny! at the end you have never understood what actually worked incredible but very nice.
Nice, i also have a 2012 mac mini with that cpu problem. Sometimes it dies completely later and wont see any ram anymore. Its quite common with 2012 mac mini and 13” mbp non retinas. The sure way to fix it permanently is to change the balls under the cpu and / or the cpu too. Its not economical anymore. The motherboard is so cheap that is easier to get a replacement one instead. I think i have a 2011 server mini with faulty cpu too. Starts to a white screen.
That Mac just keeps on giving lol! It might seem like the worst kind of repair but it's the exact opposite! Reflowing large ICs like that is never easy =/ I wonder if there are any larger hood attachments for your hot air station? Something that fits around the edges of an IC like that? Great to see it working at the end!!! =D
It is isn't it!!! The laptop made for content creators! I do have bigger nozzles and if I took off the nozzle completely it would have heated a bigger area. My heart wasn't really into the reflow and I chickened out quite early on. It was just pure luck that it is working. Paul Daniels and others have mentioned that it is quite common for the Ram slot solder on the pins to fail. I must have warped the board in the correct way by heating, and the screwing it down just made the final contact. Pushing down on the CPU must have also bent the board and caused the pins to contact whilst testing. It is still working as of now amazingly but IT WILL BE BACK! Cheers Chris 👍👍👍
Really really awesome man
Reheating the cpu worked🤩
Thanks a lot man. Love you and your work😍
I didn't see the outcome of this yet, but 1st 480°C is too much, 2nd you should be using a large tip so you spread the heat more evenly and 3rd should have protected the top of the CPU with capton tape and ando the ram slots.
Also, it not the right equipment, but using a electric grill set to the minimum temperature as a pre-heater prevents the board from warping and helps with the reflow, so you don't stress the Cpu with too much heat.
3:54 i see when you drag it across little metal frag came down here between the two pins
isnt that just a tiny bit of hair or dust?
i highly doubt a string of metal that thin exists in between the RAM slot pins :)
@@VintageCR well for one sue me for miss item calling bad eyes im 50 so no ty for your comment
I love the beat Is So Satisfied
I have thinkpad T42 which develops odd graphical glitches, reseating the ram helps and I have confirmed its not the graphics card, I may need to reflow the joints on both the top and bottom of the memory slots
See you again next week MacBook Pro 😂
Oh joy. An unexpected Sunday treat.
i fixed so many of these mac's man....Great job....sometimes just giving it some love and attention helps :)
my mac flickers a lot but when I login to guest mode there's no flickering. What could this mean? 😢
I have this same RAM issue now and i am not so great in repairing as this guy does.. i tried removing RAM and putting back in place, but the one on top slots doesn't work just as in this video. But when mounted on bottom slot both work well..
What am i supposed to do now ? ☹️
That was a bold move! Glad it worked out.
stupid question i saw you took top ram out then used bottom ram to test top socket idi you use the old top ramon bottom to check if it was ram
i'm very happy you got this mac working again!
however i know for sure, even though you tried which is very brave, you didn't reflow the CPU balls because no visible smoke or flux bubbling occurred in the video (i couldn't see any or maybe didn't notice it or didn't capture it properly)
so either you heated up the CPU for the balls to barely melt and make a proper contact or you ended up bending/warping the board where the CPU sits.
maybe even both of the above.
anyways, succes is a succes!!
Exactly the same thing happened to my Mac Mini. In the end I gave up and it’s working with half the RAM.
Wow just said to the misses, I wounder if my mate Vince is going to upload a video. Awesome!
@4:26
I guess its a faulty connection in the bga. Desktops usually react the exact same when a pin is bent or not making contact.
I had the exact same issue, but with the bottom slot. Bought new ram cause I thought it was ram now both don't work even the old ram. Mine is 2009 Ive had it since I bought it directly from Apple. It served me well for over 10 years but then on the 11th year it started having issues. Since it is not working I might as well try reflowing the CPU which Ive never done but if it don't work nothing lost. And can be practice.
Instead of the alcohol, contact cleaner is way more useful to deoxidize those contacts, they did look a bit old. You're also going a bit hot at 480°. A typical reason for failing RAM slots would be busted capacitors. Maybe you can ask Louis Rossmann😋
The ipa is a better choice then contact cleaner
I used contact cleaner on 5 different electronics and they all got shorted from the contact cleaner
Samsung galaxy advert 22 mins long 🤔 as if you’re gonna watch that lol
Very informative video Vince thanks buddy
Hahaha, still probably only pay 2p for watching the whole thing!!! 👍👍👍
@@Mymatevince lol
The moment you said you woulendn't reflow the CPU because it's working I knew you gonna do it🤣 and it works! Great job. Sometimes you have to take a risk..
I’ve got a 2011 15” MacBook Pro that started to have problems booting, unexpected shutdown and graphics anomalies. Expected it was the dedicated GPU failing. But, for some reason, booting in verbose mode has stabilised it again.
I think these 2011 MacBooks just have Senior Moments now and then.
Does Verbose just run off the integrated graphics chip? If so, that may be why it's booting. I've had my 2011 MBP A1286 to pieces soooooooo many times, heated, revived, used for a while and then back on the blue mat to repeat the process. The last time, the track pad died, I can't figure it out, so it's headed to a MyMateVince Video in the future, once I find enough stuff for the next parcel :p
@@1up_Gaming “verbose mode” just means it shows text on screen that describes each step and check it does as it’s booting up. As far as I know it does nothing different to a normal boot, just let’s you see what it’s doing rather than a progress bar.
only 2:41 in wanted to pause and say when i had this issue i was lucky. My macbook at the time was being weird all i had to do was swap the 2 sticks around boom worked
Vince: I am not gonna reflow the CPU
Everyone else: Oh, he's gonna reflow the CPU
Very good. Thanks bri
Great video Vince!
it shouldn't have worked with mismatched ram size and clm (speed) should always be matched. not a fan of apple products been building computers for 30 yrs 1st time i've seen that work but than it is apple good stuff vince
Is it possible that the top slot will not work unless the larger ram is in the bottom slot?
Great all these trying to fix videos lately
Is it safe to apply pressure/touch the circuit board while the power supply is plugged in?
Great job Vince. Mick👍🍻
Love that BR train horn sound on startup hehehehe BTW you want to try your arm on a Fossil smart watch? Works but fizzles out after a couple hours for no reason, I put a new battery in and battery holds but it just goes down and crashes and cba with the thing lol
Cheers Ian, I've had my 'fill' of watches at the mo, but thanks for offering mate. I have an upcoming video (maybe the next one) on a 1970s Secura and a Bulova Tuning Fork watch. Been doing a few attempted repaired off camera as well. I get a bit obsessed with them and then need to go cold turkey for a while 🤣
My search of my Macbook pro 2012 video had redirected me to your video. My macbook pro 2012 having some weird problem after upgrading the original RAM. When boot up the mac become lagging and take minutes to log in. First i tough it due to incompatibility of new RAM. but when i change back to old ram the problem persist. Upon trouble shooting I found out this problem only happened when i put back the back cover. If i let the mac book without back cover it will load as fast as a new mac. I don t know how to solve it as it seem there is nothing at the back of the panel that could result this
I have this exact same model (typing this on it now) and they have a common fault with the on-board graphics (not to be confused with the integrated graphics). Mine has this fault, and there is slightly convoluted solution to disable the faulty GPU and always use the integrated one. If you ever get screen corruption, look into this solution. Basically the prevailing wisdom is that it's not worth fixing the failing GPU, and frankly the integrated graphics are decent enough for most basic tasks.
Also, it can run Catalina with a hack that's easy to find online!
Happy Mac'ing!
13 inch dont have the second graphics cards...and the 15 inch yeah the amd radeon sucks anyway
This is the 13" MacBook Pro, which only has integrated graphics, there is no discrete graphics. The issue you mention only affects some 15" MacBook Pros with both integrated and discrete graphics.
@@GarthBeagle
Nice
I don't know how I missed that this is the 13" model. Doh!
all 2011 macbooks have the same issues, even the air ones! i bought a 2011 13 inch air and it was ram beeping...ram was soldered on the motherboard. heat on the cpu die helped, DO NOT reflow the whole chip again...only the die, also will it fail again very soon, to prevent this for long period of time use macs fans controls to make custom rpm profile for the fan. My macbook air now works perfectly on my kitchen lol
You got lucky with the CPU, it is very easy to blister the CPU package and destroy it, I certainly don’t recommend anyone does that.
Agreed
Agreed
You're lucky. You bought the perfect macbook board for your channel. I guess the board is near end of life - the solder is cracking under thermal and mechanical stress.
i found out why your method worked just watch this video its very well explained-"rebolling flip chip by louis"
by the way same method worked for me on my Mac book pro mid 2012
Most computers won't boot unless there is working RAM in the first RAM slot. You need to check both RAM modules in the first (bottom) slot.
Only My Mate Vince would say "the laptop that keeps giving" when it's really that crap laptop that keeps breaking down. 🤪
I would say 'well done' but we dont know if it will stay ok.
So well fondled lol :-D
Good job
If the bottom slot is not populated it wont recognise the top slot because power has to go through the first slot to get to the 2nd slot.
I don`t know what CPU is inside this MacBook, but in modern laptops RAM is controlled directly by the CPU. Maybe that`s the reason why reflow actually worked.
Ok, I see it doesn't boot with the original non L ram either AND you had a bong one time with the memory in the upper slot, so it should work. I always wondered how they get these ram slots soldered in...
Brilliant. This is entertainment!
I have this exact problem with my late 11. Don´t have the tools though (heat gun) to try this fix. I´m just using the one working slot for now. An interesting thing though is that the months before my upper slot stopped working my computer was really hot and the fan was always in full vacuum cleaner mode making a lot of noise. Now that I am just using 8GB of RAM in one slot the fan is silent and behaving normally again. I was using 16GB of RAM before which is actually above recommended amount. Don't know if that caused the problem though since I've been on 16GB for years.
Interesting!I have the same kinda problem with my Macbook pro 2012 where the bottom slot isn't working. I've used some sort of card underneath (as many others do) and it is working BUT! But it overheats considerably when using two RAM slots plus the "magic card" underneath the bottom slot. So it looks that the trick with the card is working but not properly because it is getting super hot quite quickly. I am also used to work with 16Gb of RAM and so using only one slot for me is an issue. I was trying researching online but never came across the overheating issue when the faulty slot is kinda working but overheats.
This is going to be interesting
have same trouble! can i put a 16gb memory on one slot? thanks dude
Oooooooooffff... I was so worried for you. That was a lucky shot. Next upgrade is a reflow machine? :D:D
is it safe to touch the board when its connected to power like that ? what is safe and not safe to touch ?
I am so happy for you! The computer that keps giving :) but if i was you i would keep looking for another doner board ;)
Happy you are back on laptop fixing!
Thank you!
Hi Victor
Thanks Anders. Hopefully this one will work for a while now before something else fails!!! 🤣
"He who dares wins"
Me, a long-time viewer: I'm not so sure about that 😆
Anyway, glad it's working, hope it lasts!
Unfortunately a common issue with Macbooks prior to the RAM being soldered on. I've had two instances of it with past MBPs. My solution was just to put the largest single stick of RAM possible and live with it. Not great but at least it worked
33:03 - I was thinking the same thing!
did u try expand the ram with a second one? maybe the front conectror is only for memory upgade and in the back tis is the main memory connector (which always must be in)
Awesome fix
good job mate.
Is it possible to desable the recognition of this second chanel end transform the duan chanel in single chanel?
Yet another great video
Please make a video about how to fix wifi not supported on Nintendo switch,my dad just put up a new wifi just so I could play in my room but wifi not supported
you are a pleasure vince
Vince you're awesome man
I’m no tech nerd but I think the reason why it works is because the ram cannot be miss matched and has to be matching sets. feel free to correct me if I’m wrong!
The thumbnail was blinking at me while scrolling, nice way to attract the viewer, intentional or not 😅
Small tip: This was not even near a reflow that was just damaging the CPU ^^. 480°C is way too much.. For a "Proper" Diy reflow with the Heat gun you need a Heat plate (Like one of those single cooking plates) And Preheat the PCB to ~150-180°C And go with the Hot air at 235°C. That Temperature is "safe" for the CPU because at 235°C is the reflow temp at the Factory and on a reflow you should try to move the CPU a little bit to reconnect broken solder balls through movement but really only a bit!
True but he'd never heat up the CPU to 235°C with that small nozzle he was using and moving it all around the CPU. He'd need special CPU sized nozzle for that, the one you just keep on top of the CPU and don't move it. You can use 480°C with smaller nozzles as long as you keep it moving and don't leave it at the same spot for too long. Moving it around keeps cooling the areas you're not heating anymore. Just because 480°C is coming out from the nozzle doesn't mean the CPU is at 480°C, in reality it's much lower. It takes some loooong time to get such large chip to 235°C without preheater. Try it with a small nozzle, large chip, K-type thermocouple and no preheater,. You'll see what's going on with the temperature, it takes "forever" to get the chip above 200°C.
TBH, I was more concerned about popcorning the board than overheating the CPU. He just went in there full blasting. Normally, I tend to heat it from distance, get it to 100°C or more and then go in.
@@discoHR True that nozzle is doing nothing :D Just dont use a nozzle.. You will get enough heat into the chip.. I repair Graphics Cards and even for a GPU swap i dont use a nozzle.. You dont really need one. I never popped a PCB or Chip (to my suprise :D)
Hi Vince,
my old pal 2011 Mac Mini has the same memory slot issue. Which process exactly solved this problem? I guess it seems to have improved after heat treating the processor, right?
My favorite part of this video was finding out that Vince listens to the Monkees.
I have the same issue so if iwas to get a 16gb ram and put in the bottom slot will the mac a1278 be able to deal with that?
Interesting fix.
de entrada tienes bien húmeda esa tarjeta
just like the old xbox gpu dry joint under . bye removing the glue around the cpu and applying more pressure with the heatshink would help but its not a long term fix