A Baked Apple

I was happily working along last week when much to my chagrin, my trusty Macbook Pro just kind of froze.  "No big deal," I thought to myself, and went to reboot it.  It didn't come back.

Arrrgh!

I tried everything, resetting the PRAM, muttering under my breath, but to no avail.  To make a long story short, the technicians who ultimately got their hands on it said that Apple wanted $700 to fix it because the logic board was no good.

Double arrrgh!

So, I was talking to my local Mac expert colleague, and he turned me onto the idea of baking the logic board.  Reflow the logic board.  "Search for it, it's a thing.  People bake their logic boards."

Really?  Could this be?  A quick Google search found an entire collection of links like this.  There were enough hits that made it seem like a thing indeed, and the description as to why baking the board works.  Apparently the key is to get the solder warm enough to melt slightly and fill in the microfractures, thereby reestablishing connectivity.  Fair enough.

How far wrong could this go?

Another colleague lent me the appropriate tools, and I set off to bake the board.  Disassembly wasn't too difficult, thanks to these instructions on ifixit.  It was a fun thing to do, and my son was a great help.

Once the board was out, I cleaned the CPU and GPU thoroughly, scraping off the old thermal paste.  Then, I took employed some 91% alcohol and Q-tips to finish the job.  Pretty soon, the back of the CPU and GPU looked like mirrors.  The heat sinks looked like fresh copper.  Great.

I took a baking tray, covered it in foil, and made little foil balls for the logic board to rest on.   I ended up baking the thing three times (don't ask) for 7.5 minutes each at 375 Fahrenheit:

Each time I took out of the oven, the logic board looked like this:

After letting the logic board cool overnight, I reversed the ifixit instructions, careful to use fresh Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste:

I then screwed the machine back together.  Taking a deep breath, with my skeptical family around me, the moment of truth had arrived.  I pressed the power button, and much to my delight:

No idea how long it will last, but it's great to have a hot spare!

Prior to today, I didn't personally know a single person who had tried this.  Now I do.

Oh yes, and don't try this at home - it will most certainly void any form of warranty you may have...

It's official - Bun Burner Gold!

For those of you following along at home, you'll note that I attempted a Bun Burner Gold this past August.  The start of that adventure I wrote up here.

After waiting patiently for months for the Iron Butt Association to certify my ride, I was thrilled to come home today and find a package addressed to me from the IBA.

After spending 10 minutes carefully opening the heavily-taped package, I happily read:

Looks like I have a new bike project for the winter - swapping out the license plate backing for this!!!

Although it was a long wait, it was totally worth it.  I appreciate the diligence the IBA puts into certifying rides.

The most interesting thing from my perspective is odometer error.  The IBA mileage came in at 1562.  Plenty of cushion over the 1500.  My odometer came in at 1580 or so.  Just goes to show you, map carefully, run GPS if you can, and always presume you're going to have to ride farther than your motorcycle thinks.

Happy winter to all!