A logic board with water damage is generally regarded as e-waste because, unless some people can salvage the components, it’s as good as useless. However, one Redditor didn’t lose hope when his M1 Max motherboard suffered a burn hole as he decided to perform a “transplant” of the Apple Silicon using a donor board. The problem is that these chipsets are typically locked to their original board, but luckily, the adventurous tinkerer had a workaround for this obstacle.
The donor board would not recognize the M1 Max, so every important component on the original board was transferred to the new one
Let us start by saying that it’s a Herculean task for any repair expert to get their hands on a donor board for the M1 Max. Considering that the M1 Max is now five years old, it was unlikely that spare boards were lying around. Fortunately, a Redditor with the username “zerogpk” was counting his lucky stars because he procured one through AliExpress.
However, the problem simply didn’t revolve around heating the M1 Max, separating it from the original logic board, and transplanting it to the donor part. That’s because the chipset is locked to the original motherboard, meaning the repair expert had to transfer the SEP EEPROM, Wi-Fi, and Touch ID from the first board to the second to avoid any hiccups when the M1 Max wasn’t recognized after powering on the MacBook Pro.
However, these replacement parts don’t come cheap, as an M1 Max board with the part number “A2485” will set you back by AU$600 (around $429.60), with an entire MacBook Pro configuration going for AU$1,500 (around $1,073). As you can see in the images, the M1 Max is larger, in part because its unified memory is integrated with the chipset rather than placed separately on the board. As for the entire process, zerogpk provided a summary below.
“Due to water damage near the trackpad connector, the internal board layers shorted and burnt a hole. The only option was to find a suitable host for the M1 Max SoC and paired components. Transplanted the components to a suitable donor board and the M1 Max SoC got a new life and back in action. 8 hours of stress testing completed with CPU, GPU and Memory put to the limit.”
It was the smart move to stress test every aspect of the MacBook Pro so that no problem sprouts during regular use. Also, even though Apple has kept a lid on the price for its portable Macs, an M5 Max MacBook Pro configuration can still burn a hole through your wallet, because even after a $250 discount on places like Amazon, the premium portable Mac is still listed for $3,649. In short, some people go the extra mile to maintain their savings as much as possible, and if you’re skilled in micro-soldering, you can make plenty of bucks too.
News Source: Reddit
About the author: Omar Sohail is a reporter and analyst for Wccftech's mobile section, specializing in the technology and business of the mobile industry. His expertise lies in the intricate hardware supply chain, covering developments in semiconductor manufacturing, chip lithography, and camera sensor technology.
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