keyboard connector issue a1398

grmacs

Member
I replaced a keyboard connector on a1398 board and everything works except a couple keys: enter key, question mark, backslash, p, zero keys. I've zoomed in on pins and can see clearly no bridges on pins, all pins are solid to board and inside the connector the distances between the top and bottom pins are the same with door closed on the connector. Figured it must be the keyboard and tried a new keyboard and same keys are not working... could this be board trace on one of the pins?
 

grmacs

Member
tried reflowing j4813. will run a new trace if I can verify it's not there had to get different boardview.
Keys not working:
esc
f10
f11
zero
hyphen
p
backslash
colon
return
question mark
 

grmacs

Member
Also to note:
this runs slow unless in Safe Mode... almost like its getting inputs that arent there? theres often a lag between key press or mouse movement and visual change on screen. This mac had a liquid spill and when i got, however looked at it prior broke the keyboard connector and the fan connector. Board had been cleaned as there was no evidence of liquid visible.
 

2informaticos

Administrator
Staff member
I think my layout note is from an A1502 machine.
All mentioned keys are connected to pin 9 there.

Use a tweezer and make contacts between pin 9 and one of 10-12, 15-19, or 20-24.
If you get the above characters, then the problem is the connector.
Pins 11, 20, and 22 maybe don't generate anything (with pin 9).
 

grmacs

Member
It would've helped had I ran a trace to pin 9 and not pin 10!!!! Apparently I couldn't count to 9 yesterday. Keyboard works with jumper to pin 15 of u4820.
Something is scrambling this Mac though. As stated before it runs right on Safe Boot but regular boot there's a lag. Fresh install of Catalina. I tried booting off external El Capitan and same lag so it doesn't appear to be related to SSD.

Any suggestions? This had liquid damage but only noticeable evidence of that is red dot on battery and feedback from seller. Board had to have been at least cleaned. No noticeable residue. I believe the fan connector and keyboard connector were damaged by previous tech as prior owner said it worked some prior to taking it to repair shop. I assume then they broke the connector and then it appeared it was dead as the power button wouldn't have worked.
 

2informaticos

Administrator
Staff member
Run corresponding EFI ASD (if possible) and see if any error pops up.
You may need to clean ME in BIOS.
 

grmacs

Member
I didn't note this previously but this is 00138 board.
Tried clean ME still high fans and runs sluggish.

Can't get diagnostics to finish. It freezes. USB lights go off when it's frozen, BUT... hardware monitor says CPU Power Supply 2 is drawing 3 amps
 

grmacs

Member
New battery, no change. High fans and slow, delay in mouse, keyboard response.

Attached readings from HW monitor...
 

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2informaticos

Administrator
Staff member
New chinese battery???

Try another trackpad board/flex and RIO board/flex too.
Also try disconnecting webcam.
 

grmacs

Member
Tried swapping out many of the external to logic components and disconnecting to see what was different. Had one fan that was producing weird voltage on pin 4 of connector when plugged in. Replaced that and no longer have the strange voltage there but no difference. It still lags and runs high fans. but it did finally get the hardware test to finish and gave me 3 results:
power management system ppn001
SMC PFM006
Camera NDC 001 (running without camera plugged in makes no difference in performance. The camera does work. I might be able to plug one in from different screen if it is worth trying but does it matter if it's a 2013early screen camera? I don't think I have a 15" 2013L, 2014 or 2015
 
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