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A2289 (820-01987) Strange powering issue

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PCSWILTS

New member
Hi, I'm new to board repairs but have been dealing with them and sending them to other companies for about 7 years. This year I put myself on a micro soldering course and have been building myself up from console repairs, laptops, iphones and and now macs. So - sorry if I sound a bit noob.

This is a strange one so I'll try and provide as much info as I can. Mac came in because it is not powering on. When I plug a metre/power into it it pulls 19.8-20v and cycles through the amp draw as if it is booting normally and at around 1.11a draw the Apple logo is seen and the mac boots perfectly (without pressing the power button to turn it on) and also works perfectly when logged in.

If you leave the mac at the login screen eventually it will power off, pressing the touchpad shortly afterwards turns the mac back on and it boots fine.

If you shutdown the mac it will not power on using the power button and it is drawing 0.01a at 20v.
At this point if I disconnect the battery and reconnect the battery the mac will switch on and boot fine as soon as you plug in the power cable. If power cable is not plugged in, pressing the power button doesn't turn the mac on.

I have tested a new battery but the problem remains exactly the same. Battery is seen and charges to 100% and discharges as you would expect during use - once the mac is powered on it will run on battery fine. If I hold the power button down when the mac is switched on it will switch the mac off.

Board is immaculate, no sign of any damage.

In summary, the mac powers on by plugging in the power cable only after disconnecting and reconnecting the battery. Power button doesn't power the mac on at any stage but will power it off.

Thanks in advance.
 
2informaticos

2informaticos

Administrator
Staff member
First of all, welcome to the forum!

All iCore MacBooks power on automatically when charger is connected, if battery was disconnected.
This doesn't happen again, once machine was properly turned off from macOS.
If disconnect the battery, will occur again the same behavior.

All T2 MacBooks also turn on directly pressing any key, or trackpad; without touching power button.
It will go off if remains too much time in password screen.

If machine turns off holding down the power button for 4-5s, the button is good.

Your machine, may have a hardware issue, but first step for ALL T2 machines is trying DFU mode.
You can go directly for Restore option, if no important data on its SSD.
If need to preserve the data, choose Revive; it will not erase the SSD.
 
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2informaticos

2informaticos

Administrator
Staff member
Follow the DFU tutorial steps.

HOW TO collection

I hope this "How to" collection will help our members. I will possibly modify this post in time, if updates available. Trigger SMC_ONOFF_L (PMU_ONOFF_L): It reffers to simulate power button function, when the keyboard is not connected. We need to do this when we work with the board...
boards.rossmanngroup.com boards.rossmanngroup.com
 
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PCSWILTS

New member
Hi, sorry for the delay, I had to purchase a T2 mac and have been waiting for that to arrive. I loaded up Monterey on the new mac. This morning I managed to revive the target machine but after around 70% completed of stage 4/4 the screen went black , I left it for about 5 minutes before putting it back into DFU mode. However, Apple configurator now shows a padlock rather than DFU and no AC functions work. The target device I have checked for EFI password which it doesn't have and the security settings are disabled. Any advise would be appreciated - FYI currently no change to original problem.
 
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PCSWILTS

New member
OK - So, I've created a time machine backup. I've reinstalled Big Sur - and updated to Monterey. DFU mode is working now but revive didn't solve the issue. I clicked restore which went through but now when turning the mac on I get the Globe asking me to connect to a wifi network which I do but then nothing happens - It eventually provides with an error. Am I correct in thinking I've exhausted the options Apple configurator can offer?
 
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PCSWILTS

New member
No it's not installing from the net. I left the host Mac dowloading ipsw files yesterday. I'm going to try installing those using AC2. Will let you know how that goes.
 
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PCSWILTS

New member
Cannot install IPSW files onto the Mac either. I've downloaded every Monterey and Big Sur file (not including Beta files) and I get the same error (see attached) every time. Mac won't boot to anything but the connect to a network screen and does nothing from there. So, now my concern is that we cannot install and operating system. Any advice at this stage would be great 🤣😭
 

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2informaticos

2informaticos

Administrator
Staff member
It should install original macOS from Internet recovery.
Do not try installing from USB.

Start the machine in Target Disk mode and see if is possible to check its SSD.
 
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PCSWILTS

New member
OK, so the mac won't boot to recovery or from USB - it only boots to the "select WIFI network" mode with spinning globe. If I connect to a network it does nothing and eventually error's (see attached) - I don't believe there is an issue with the SSD as prior to erasing it with Apple Configurator I had already taken a time machine backup and clean installed Monterey without issue. Is it still possible to boot to target mode on this device as it is? I did some digging and target mode seems to no longer be a thing on these M1 - seems you have to boot to recovery and "share" which I now can't do?
 

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2informaticos

2informaticos

Administrator
Staff member
Better to take it to Apple.
This machine should be in warranty.

Apple does hard work to produce unfixable machines actually...
 
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