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The laptop has a burning smell after it’s been running for a while. I opened the case and examined the motherboard for anything that looks off. Could anyone tell me what the marked item in the picture is ? Any suggestions on what to do about it would be appreciated as well. Thanks in advance!
That’s just a plastic pin for positioning the connector before soldering it to the board, nothing that could prevent or influence your Mac functioning. Looks like the plastic got melted, probably that board has already been previously repaired as it looks the nearest port has some solder blobs that do not look like machine done. You’ll have to look somewhere else for burnt components, of course on board flip side too.
These are metal pins which are part of the ports metal shell. They are often press fitted to offer stability of the connector and the forces applied. It looks like when it was damaged during manufacturing (fractured).
Are you encountering any other issues with your system?