15 Inch Mid 2012 to Early 2013 A1398 Graphics Repair

If the screen on your Retina 15" MacBook A1398 is randomly turning black or the MacBook sounds like it is turning on but nothing appears on the screen, it may be suffering from a common graphics issue.

The Fault:

The issue is very commonly misdiagnosed as a faulty graphics chip or GPU and some shops will go about 'heat gunning' the chip trying to 'reflow' it.

The NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M chip is actually extremely reliable, the issue is actually with its power chip.

The power chip is normally badly soldered from the factory and its location on the back of the GPU only exacerbates the solder joints causing them to crack and fail.

Apple recognised this as a manufacturing fault and offered replacement logic boards for many years after original purchase. Their repair was to swap the logic board like for like with the addition of a small patch of rubber on top of the Graphics power chip (maybe to dampen shock - who knows?). This program has now ended.

 

 

Symptoms:

  • Black Screen on Startup
  • Random Restarts while using the MacBook
  • Kernel Panics
  • Random Black Screens when using the MacBook
  • Black Screens and Restarts when the MacBook is knocked or moved.
  • Graphical Glitches (Caused by power rail fluctuations)

     

    Models Affected:

    Apple MacBook Pro 15-Inch "Core i7" 2.3 Retina Mid-2012 - MC975LL/A - MacBookPro10,1 - A1398 - 2512

    Apple MacBook Pro 15-Inch "Core i7" 2.6 Retina Mid-2012 - MC976LL/A - MacBookPro10,1 - A1398 - 2512

    Apple MacBook Pro 15-Inch "Core i7" 2.7 Retina Mid-2012 - MD831LL/A - MacBookPro10,1 - A1398 - 2512

    Apple MacBook Pro 15-Inch "Core i7" 2.4 Retina Early 2013 - ME664LL/A - MacBookPro10,1 - A1398 - 2673

    Apple MacBook Pro 15-Inch "Core i7" 2.7 Retina Early 2013 - ME665LL/A - MacBookPro10,1 - A1398 - 2673

    Apple MacBook Pro 15-Inch "Core i7" 2.8 Retina Early 2013 - ME698LL/A - MacBookPro10,1 - A1398 - 2673

     

    Our Fix:

    We remove as much of the lead free solder as possible and manually solder each pin of the power chip under the microscope using micro-soldering with fresh leaded solder. The logic board is then ultrasonically cleaned and dried in a PCB Oven.

    This repair also includes a fan and heatsink clean out + fresh thermal paste. We also perform dust removal of the case internals.

    Once the MacBook is repaired we perform an intense 3D test on the GPU for 1 Hour and then leave the MacBook testing for a day.

    How Much Does it Cost?

    This is a component level repair and so we charge our standard 2012/2013 logic board repair price of £229 inc VAT

    Warranty:

    We offer a 6 Month Warranty with our logic board repairs covering the Issue that we have fixed.