Dead Logic Board?

[Kams]

Alright, so out of no where, the Logic Board on my faithful 3 year old Mac Mini just randomly died!:wallbash:
So I took it to the Apple store and they said a new one would cost $400!! So I decided just to take out the hard drive and put it in an enclosure so that I wouldn't loose all m stuff. Does anyone know what would cause this?

 

[andysetra]

Maybe a poor power supply (dirty voltage), but most likely nothing, it just died. This happens to motherboards in PC's often - many times caused by bad (bulging or leaking) capacitors. In the early 2000's alot of motherboard manufacturers started buying cheapo caps for their boards. I can't remember the whole story but I think one capacitor company stole another company's proprietary manufacturing techniques, but didn't get all the info - and ended up making a bunch of bad capacitors:

I would go on ebay (if you want to fix it) and you'll probably be able to find a replacement logic board, or even the whole shell of one. Just make sure that if you only buy a logic board - it's the same as the one you're replacing. Good luck :biggrin:

 

[Mr Alex]

I finally know what capacitors are, I thought thats what they were, but I never totally knew, why I didn't just google image search, only god knows.

 

[andysetra]

Yup, those little buggers are responsible for so many problems with consumer electronics. I've fixed a bunch of TV's where the capacitors start to go (their capacitance value wavers) causing stress / overheating in other components. Usually if I fix, for example, the power supply in a TV, I'll replace all the caps in it as well, just in case.

For example, here my motherboard from about 4 years ago. The caps were all bad on it, and it caused so much overheating in the power section of the board, look what happened:

 

[boogalah]

Oooh, those little ****ers caused one of my compies to act really strange before. It would randomly reboot or shut down. I unplugged it and quit using it for a while, but when I finally opened it up to dust it out, I noticed all the capacitors around the processor's heatsink were bulging out like that. Needless to say I ditched that mobo and got a new one.

Hope you fix your computer Kams!

 

[Spirit]

The bad capacitor problem is slowly starting to become less important, my motherboard has all solid caps and they don't wriggle or anything.

I don't think I've ever had a problem with capacitors, but I think one of them on an old motherboard may have vented very slightly.

 

[recovery]

Replacing capacitors seems to be a little bit of a faff. And isn't it better to replace them all, because it would only be soon for another old one to pop like that.

And as for power supplies, to paranoid to shock myself . I guess you could go round and drain each one. But I feel that buying a whole new one is better, then you know it will work and comes with a renewed guarantee/warranty.

But if you want a cheap easy Fix, as Andysetra Said, go on ebay.

 

[andysetra]

The bad capacitor problem is slowly starting to become less important, my motherboard has all solid caps and they don't wriggle or anything.

I don't think I've ever had a problem with capacitors, but I think one of them on an old motherboard may have vented very slightly.

Yes, the problem is less common now in motherboards, because those 'bad' brand caps haven't been used in years. But...good brand caps can still cause problems in a switching power supply (see computer psu and most all consumer electronics). I just figure that for $12 and a little soldering, I can be sure they won't cause me any grief.

 

[Point]

Heheh, I thought this was a suggestion for a new board where you were allowed to do nothing but debate things with the most critical logic and reasoning... Other than that, I has no business here!

 

[Tigger]

I had a capacitor explode right in my face once, scared the livin shit outta me:shocking:

 

[Kams]

I don't know if this is weird or not, but I couldn't find any capacitors! You search these pictures and tell me if you see one I missed.

 

[andysetra]

Hmm, you're right. Oh well, the capacitor thing was just a suggestion from my experience with PC motherboards. I would check ebay for a logic board from the same mac mini you have.

 

[Kams]

Oh well, I needed a faster computer anyway since I do large amounts of HD video editing. I'm looking to get a new iMac or a used MacPro.

 

[andysetra]

iMac FTW. Unless you can find a really good deal on a used MacPro, but to be honest, the iMac is powerful enough, and only lacks upgradability (which is expensive as hell on the MacPro anyway.

 

[Kams]

Even a MacBook Pro would be much faster. Oh well, in the end I know I'm definitely getting a Mac. Although I was just about to give the Mac Mini to my mom since I couldn't stand helping her with her buggy and awful PC

 

[andysetra]

Heheh....I'm still kickin' it oldschool (well 2years old I guess) with my 12" G4 powerbook. It's the last series they made, before they moved over to Intel and dropped the 12" size.

 

[Kams]

Heheh....I'm still kickin' it oldschool (well 2years old I guess) with my 12" G4 powerbook.

Oh yeah! I Got one of those too :tongueout:
Well the enclosure for the hard drive should have been here by now, so I'm still waiting for that :sad: