Chosen Solution
I have an Early 2011 MacBook Pro 15 Unibody with a Core i7 2.0 Ghz that recently had water spilled on. Now the Apple Logo comes up but the screen goes black after the system loads. Apple told me it need a new logic board (not under warranty if there is caused by spillage). Being that logic boards are expensive I found a mid 2010 Core i5 Logic Board that is relatively cheap. Can I install it on my Early 2011 A1286 MacBook Pro and have it work?
I had success now replacing my A1286 15", 2.4Ghz i5 with a 2.66Ghz i7. All the parts fit fine. But like mentioned here there is a difference from 2010 to 2011. The lowercase is the same but the let speaker and the plastic bracket with the cables (bluetooth,airport etc.) are different. Still I had no problem getting the 2011 Quad-Core i7 logic board to fit and start up in my original 2.4ghz, i5, 2010.
This is a slight edit considering I browsed through my old answer and even I found it a little confusing: I had a logic board accident with my early 2011 MBP, model a1286 and was thinking of replacing it with a Mid-2012 (non-Retina) board for the CPU/GPU boost (I’m a gamer and a Mac user… figure that one out) and the upgrade from USB 2 to USB 3 ports. I found a decent deal online but I couldn’t find anyone who ever tried it. The iFixit teardowns and logic board replacement guides for both models (2011/2012) seem identical along with all of the tech specs about the wattage/voltage/etc. I heard from a repair shop guy on e-bay who said the upgrade wouldn’t work (but I think he was just trying to sell me his repair services). I was actually amazed that there wasn’t more information about this kind of thing on the internet (with all the menial stuff like hacking your xbox and tricking out your iphone). For the life of me, I can’t see why this ‘upgrade’ wouldn’t work, and the iFix it forums have instilled some modicum of confidence in me… I decided to try it! I placed my order for a logic board; but I was still a bit worried so I got board (hehe) and decided to see if there were any significant differences. This is an overlay of the two logic boards using photos of the iFixIt teardowns (with a grain-extract filter thanks to Gimp) and there seem to be no real connection issues. Apologies for the slight distortion, I imagine the photographer was at a slightly different angle when he/she took the photos:
So after a long time waiting, I actually ordered two separate logic boards and they both finally came on the same day. Issues A minor issue popped up when I was re-applying the heat sinks on the USB controller and the platform controller hub (assuming the heat sinks are necessary on the 2012s). It could have been the supplier I chose or possibly these models don’t heat up as much, but the new board didn’t have screw holders like the old one did. Either way, I came up with a solution. I cannibal-ised my old system, popping off the screw-holders used on the old circuit board and super-gluing them to the new one in the same position. Turns out super glue is non-conductive so it was perfect solution to hold down them down so I could apply some thermal paste. The rest of the ports, cables and screw holes lined up perfectly. Even the cables to the fan that I had broken (I pulled instead of lifted). Needless to say, I was very happy with my current array of upgrades: 2.3 GHz > 2.6 GHz, USB 2 > 3, bluetooth 2.1 > 4, Radeon 6750M > GeForce 650M, RAM: 16GB and the HDD(s) [1TB Hybrid in the SuperDrive bay and a 120GB SSD in the main bay]. So YES, it is totally possible to interchange the unibody logic boards (at least early 2011 to later 2011 or 2012) if you are so inclined. I don’t think anything in my system (aside from the magsafe adapter, battery, speaker, and display) is the same as when I first purchased it. Mine was a 15in display, but I don’t see why this process couldn’t work with a 13in (you can never research too much). Definitely cheaper than purchasing an altogether new system and the upgrade/repairability factor of my unibody (A1826) makes me think I’ll have it around for a while longer. Update I did have this system around for a while after I wrote this and recently gave it away to my cousin’s kid. I honestly wish I would have kept it since my new MacBook Pro (a 2016) is actually inferior in the graphics department. The intel iris 550 kinda… sucks at 3d graphics. But live and learn, I suppose. My next system will definitely have a dedicated graphics chip.
A real answer. 820-2915 2011 is what you have. This is 2011. This board is ok besides the GPU. It will fail every 2 to 3 years, and only get worse as time goes on. The boards available have already been used for 2-3 years, and the replacement chips are harder to find new, so more people will be advertising “repairs” for this board that don’t actually work more than 2 months, because they are not using new chips. This board is bad. 820-2850 2010 will fit, but only if you get the older battery. You can just chop up the connector and splice the wires from your battery onto the connector of an older battery, but this is a pain in the @%^. 820-2850 also have rampant kernel panics due to issues with VRAM pgood signals and other that is too much to mention here. Short story before dan calls my sentence noise, 820-2850 is junk to be avoided at all costs. This board is WORSE! 820-3330 2012 will fit but require you mess with the LVDS cable to get it into the connector, which is slightly different. This board is much better. You get a cooler running processor, a cooler running, MUCH MORE durable GPU that will NEVER die on its own, and no stupid random issues. This is also an upgrade in processing power, GPU power, and battery life because this is a more efficient processor. Your present battery will fit this just fine. You may have to replace the LVDS cable for it to fit if you can’t jimmy it in there. 99% certain this will have to be replaced. Any other boards like 820-2330, 820-2523, 820-2532, will not physically fit the machine. Also, these boards do not use the same connectors for wifi, bluetooth, webcam, hard drive, etc - it will all be a mess and not fit at all. These are the ONLY differences in terms of how it connects and fits into your machine. Make your choice wisely! P.S. 99% chance Apple is full of $@$* on the logic board issue, I would try booting with a different drive and see if it does the same thing. Apple rarely does real diagnostics in store, just tries to get you to agree to the highest tier of service and politely tell you to F off or buy a new laptop.
Yesterday I swapped MBP early 2011 logic board to mid 2012 2.3 Ghz board. I had the same problem with LVDS cable as casagrande2407 mentioned. 2012 board was already with heatsink preinstalled (the seller told that it is a brand new logic board ). I watched several videos on MBP 2012 teardown and noticed that there is no heatsinks on Platform Controller Hub and Thunderbolt port controller, so I decided not to install heatsinks from dead board. While I’m writing this the hottest part of the board is CPU and its temp. differs from 33 C to 40 C. My MBP was lying on shelf for 2 years and now its alive! I’m really glad!
Thanks a lot Brad for the very useful info. I had the same early 2011 logic board that suffered from the well known GPU problem. Based on your postings I decided to replace it with a mid 2012 2.6 GHz logic board. The whole operation took me about 2 hours. The most difficult part for me was to connect the LVDS cable, the connector on the mid 2012 board seems a bit smaller. The board that I received was just the board with all the chips on it but no provisions for cooling of the chips. It was quite easy to transfer the heat pipe of the old board, but nothing was foreseen to cool the Thunderbolt controller and the Intel BD82HM65 Platform Controller Hub (I looked that one up ;-), also no screw holes present. I took both the covers from the old board and ‘glued’ them on the cooling past on both controller chips. Of course this is a very imperfect temporary solution which is holding now for a week. I’m not sure what the final solution looks like for this. The screw holes mounted on the old board can only be taken off by using a lot of violence - I’m not sure if I will succeed without ruining them. But further I see no room on the mid 2012 board to put the screw holes as there are electronic components scattered around at the spots where the screw holes should be positioned. Even with non-conductive superglue I doubt it is a good idea to fit them on the new board. So I am very curious Brad how you managed to do that! Either way I am very happy with my ’new’ MBP.
Thank you Brad, I have change my early logic 2011 board with a mid 2012 and it works fine. it was pretty stressful and it took all my Sunday to do that. My advices: take the right screwdriver, a magnifying glass. It is not necessary to remove the battery. I am french and i bought my board in US.
Great topic guys, too bad I discovered it too late. Anyways, I’m one of the mid-2010 15" mbp 6,2 with the terrible 820-2850 logic board with the integrated graphics GPU. I knew it was a bad idea ever since it was given to me as a replacement for the previous Apple laptop horror story of the 2008 mbp with the GT 8500 Nvidia card and funny battery that use to blow up sometimes, but I figured if it kept working since 2011 doing cross platform and heavy CAD work without a hitch, I was immune this time around. Well the happy days ended about a year ago when it started crashing on mouse moves in MS Word and from then on every other day nowadays. Having missed the original Apple MB swap program that ended before I started having troubles with mine, I am going to do a logic board swap, so I read this thread with the greatest interest. I just ordered from Aliexpress a 820-2850 i7 2.66 logic board that - get this - has the original faulty-solder NVIDIA chip removed and replaced with ADM / Radeon Crossfire technology. It’s obviously from or by a serious gamer machine and I’m really curious how this was done and especially if it works well. It was not cheap (USD 480) but I get free shipping and 3-5 days delivery. This motherboard apparently supports 16GB or RAM over the 8 GB I have now, so if it works well and no more crashes I’d consider it a victory, would it not? I’ll come back here and report success or failure after I get my new board up and running. Thanks to all the pros and power users that contribute here and also to the people that raise the questions that I need.
Hi guys, Great post! I just got hit with the GPU failure on my late 2011 MBP 15" and would also like to replace its board with the mid 2012 board. From what I gather the only ‘real issue’ is the one with the LVDS cable, but not really how you guys ‘fixed’ this. I read that it looks like the connector on the board is smaller, so, oke, what do I have to do? Just use more force and jam it in? Or is there some modification to the connector to be done before it’ll fit? Please advice. Much appreciated.
Going backward in years will be challenge, 2 or 3 connectors are moved an inch or two on the motherboard making the cables a little short. I replaced a Mid 2010 MBP 15 logic board with a Mid 2012 board. Those connectors moved to give me a little slack in the cables. The video cable had a fitment issue and i was hesitant to take file to the outside edges of the male end, but I filed a little plastic of each side of the connector and it fit perfectly, but the latch would not latch completely. (it fits snugly enough for this not to be a problem). The other challenge was the battery. I had to snip the the outside 6 wires on the connector, then splice them on the opposing sides. The outside wires are 3 + on one side and 3- on the other, and the must be switched while not moving the center 3 wires. after this mod, I had to clear the memory (SHIFT, CTRL, OPT, PWR) and reboot the get the computer to pick up the battery as normal. Now I have the perks of airplay, I went from an i5 processor to i7 and other upgrades.
great, good to know! Any idea where to get those logicboards? And any idea on whether I can put a retina display into my early-2011 MBP on core i5?
Could be possible to update a MID 2010 A1286 Logic Board with any upgrade whatsoever ?
Had success on replacing my Early 2011 with faulty GPU with a Mid 2012. Tested with 8+ hrs of GPUBench with 3D rendering and everything was ok. I didn’t had big issues on putting LCD cable on logic board, just bent a little bit the external housing using a nipper. Board was used from eBay, just replaced thermal paste with an Artic one, I’m happy I resolved this thing :) Thanks for this discussion, this was my inspiration for resolving this problem, now I have a brand new MBPro :)
I have a late 2010 15" MBP with 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7, 256gb SSD, 8gb RAM & 1680 x 1050 Retina Display (Serial No. W80510NHAGZ). The last year or so it has suffered the usual graphics failures which started well past the end of the 3yr replacement period. Of course Apple won’t support this ‘vintage’ machine, even though it runs well otherwise. I am trying to sort out a replacement MLB - can someone advise what is the most recent board I should look for as a replacement? From what I have read here, it seems like my options are limited - 2012 MLB’s only fitting 2011 models onward?? Ideally it would be nice to put in an end of the line A1286… Thanks in advance for your help!
Before you go and replace your motherboard, I would suggest checking if its the connection on the LCD that has gone bad. It happened on my wife’s 2009 MBP 13 inch and a replacement of the LCD fixed the issue (cost 100$ - DIY). My only suggestion is test it on another non-retina MBP (BTW - yours is not retina). I can confirm that all parts from a 2010, 2011 and 2012 will fit without issue through all the years on the 15 inch A1286. I replaced the top case of a 2012 with a 2011 and swapped a 2010 with a 2012 (needed to change language layout US->UK) and everything fits fine (i.e. screw holes placements are exactly the same across all three years). What I cannot confirm is if you can swap a motherboard from 2010 with 2012 and have all the connectors in the right places. My guess is that most of everything should be fine except for maybe the heatsink and bluetooth/wireless and the LCD cables possibly being shorter/longer (already mentioned). Good luck.
