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Bad RAM slot, most likely the bottom one. Unrelated to keyboard repair or battery, just a common failure on this model. Probably works fine until they move the unit, and it will get worse (until slot no longer works at all--three beeps, etc; assuming they deal with the inconvenience until it...

So...does the unit restart without an SSD installed? Gotta eliminate some things first.

That's true, but at the same time, you've got to experiment and get some actual experience in soldering different components, different boards, using different tips, etc. Nothing replaces experimenting and really getting a feel for how these things behave under different circumstances. Can't...

Also keep in mind that if liquid hit that SPI ROM chip, it could be damaged...and symptoms would be very similar to what you describe. Swap over another chip (just for testing!) once you address the obviously damaged stuff.

Ahh man, ok. Well then, in your words, duke--"fuck thunderbolt". Thanks, duke!

I've plucked all of the 3210/3310s from all my 4924/00164/00165/etc boards. Commonly killed due to location, and I'm going to be dry on them soon. They seem to be very similar to CD3211A0RGPR (<2015), same pinout and all, but they don't seem to work when installed on 2015+ boards. I only tried...

We have repaired probably ~150 00165 boards the past ~3 years or so. I have not had a single case of one not powering on with just the AC adapter. Not one. Granted, we've only seen 10 or so of the 2016/2017 versions, but even those had no issue powering with just adapter. We use only 85w magsafe...

Make sure your LCD is good. Seen a ton of these gen1 A1398 units that had bad LCD panels that mimicked a hard system freeze (cursor freezes, etc). Sometimes it would be from motion/movement of the display, other times it seemed to be random. Tricked a ton of our retail customers (would "swear"...

Keep in mind: If the unit was tied to a user's iCloud account with Find My Mac turned on, the board can re-lock itself soon after connecting to WiFi. Simply removing the password from the dump won't suffice if this is the case. Just a heads up and something to keep in mind.

Does SSD have High Sierra installed? If yes, probably APFS issue. Boot to USB or internet restore and see if SSD is showing in disk utility. If it does, then either wipe SSD and install OSX fresh and update to High Sierra, or install 2nd SSD, update to High Sierra so board's firmware is updated...

Thanks, Duke. Yeah I'm going to grab some chips now and will see how that goes. That's a good point about the unit failing during sleep as well. I've noticed that the boards will hardly ever fail in light sleep (s3), i.e. after a few hours or so. It's only when they sleep/hibernate (s4 I assume)...

Yeah I've noticed the inconsistent crashing, too. The most reliable way I seem to be able to reproduce the failure is to put them to sleep/hibernate for a long time (i.e. overnight, or over the weekend preferably, etc). Most that are failing (or failed "enough") will then crash and fans kick on...

That's a good point. I'm going to order some and see...it would seem odd that they'd be bad/defective across 3 years of production. Guess we'll see! I'll order some tonight and update in the next week or so. Thanks, Duke!

Sorry to post about this every month, but I have some potentially additional information about the terrible CPU/board failure of the L2013-2015 A1398 boards. I replaced two customer boards this week with this issue. When inspecting the boards, I found that U7310 had been replaced on both. There...

Thanks, Duke. That's what I figured. I've seen DDRMEM issues that had this behavior, but everything checks out fine there. Going to not waste time and swap it out--thanks, Duke!

Hey duke. Getting the odd reading (before I realized it was an equipment issue) led me to suspect it. I get your point, but it was an odd circumstance. I've had boards in the past (00165) that did the fan on/off/on/off and it turned out to be the clock, so I guess I was hopeful. Tried a new...

Well, this is embarrassing. Turns out my multimeter was fucked. Realized when all my 3.42v rails were reading as 2.7v....but my ppbus was still reading as 8.56v somehow. Checked several boards, and all 3v42 rails showing at 2.7v. Odd. Replaced battery, no change. Found a bracket for one of the...

Got this one resolved; issue was a few poorly-replaced amps (a theme on this board) and a grossly-corroded U6400. Gotta love cleaned and damaged boards! Thanks!

Thanks, smiba. I thought that might be the case, due to the missing traces. I couldn't figure out the purpose of having pins with actual names that imply input/output, but have them go nowhere. I'm sure there's a reason beyond my current knowledge. I stopped troubleshooting to ask this...

Seen this problem a few times, never solved it. Figured it was an issue with the CPU or something, but: working on an 820-00165 board that has vrtc_g3h at 2.7v. Replacing clock did nothing, and board is clean as a whistle. No liquid, no drop, etc. Might try a different BIOS just to see, but...