Chosen Solution
My laptop isn’t letting me charge the battery, and as far as I can tell, that’s the only thing wrong with it (And the chargers are fine, one is even new). I don’t know anybody else with the same kind of laptop, and both my working batteries are dead now, so can’t charge them that way. Before anybody asked, yes, I’ve reset the SMC. I’ve also replaced the DC In (which definitely needed the replacing). Looking at the logic board, it’s pretty clean (though I plan on doing a more thorough job soon) there’s no apparent damage or corrosion, everything appears to be plugged in, the only thing that really catches my eye is one spot where the dots seem a little browner than the rest (I can post pics later). A little history, the laptop’s been having issues charging for a little while. It started with one charger when I noticed it would only charge if the computer was off. I bought a new charger and that worked for a while, but then it decided it didn’t want to charge at all, so I had to go back to only charging when it was off. Then the first charger stopped working entirely, and the battery ran out. After that, I replaced the DC In, but it still wouldn’t work. Pretty sure everything’s connected right. I’m very much on a budget right now, but I’ve got a multimeter I’m learning to use and might know some people who can help me with soldering if that’s what it needs. Guess I’m just wondering what the problem’s most likely to be, if the browner dots are where I should be focused and how you’d fix that if so. Basically I’m still new to dealing with the logic board but I really want to save my laptop if I can. EDIT: Pictures! (Hopefully this works right…)
Should be two halves of the logic board, plus a close up on the area with the dots that might be browner. The chip right next to them is labeled ‘LSI L-FW643E-2 BAN312MN NNAA8062 1131T’ if that helps at all.
Plus, the back, if that helps. Nothing that looks obviously wrong as far as I can see.
Got this very model machine in two days ago with the same symptoms. I ran Coconut Battery http://www.coconut-flavour.com/coconutba… It had a brand new aftermarket battery. 0 cycles and not charging. Dropped in a used original battery and everything was fine. In the last 3 months I’ve seen about four machines come in that use the A1322 battery. All had been replaced with knock offs and all were fixed by an original battery. I’d pick a used OEM battery with 500 cycles anyway over a knock off. Your best friend with diagnosing battery issues is Coconut Battery. I learned this eight years ago thanks to @rdklinc. I use it everyday.
Your issue will most likely be with this chip or this chip and the current sensing resistors near it. You can replace this chip but you NEED a microscope. If you screw up soldering this chip you will cause a lot of issues. You will need a hot air station, Some flux and a microsoldering iron. Here to help if needed.
I suggest you check out this video on how to replace this chip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr1UVPsE…
You really should find some boards that you don’t need or don’t mind if anything happens to them and practice heating and pulling various components off from it and eventually you will get a very good idea of exactly how much heat you need to remove components without causing damage to the board. Keep practicing until you can remove them without scarring or burning the board and practice cleaning areas with solder removal rope.
