How to Cook Your Mac

How to Cook Your Mac

on Nov 27th 2012 with 12 comments
Tutorial Details
  • Topics: Hardware, Repair
  • Difficulty: Advanced
  • Estimated Completion Time: 90 Minutes

Between May 2007 and September 2008 it was found that in Macbook Pro Laptops, NVIDIA’s GeForce 8600m GT graphics processor had a higher than normal failure rate, resulting in premature laptop display issues such as distorted or scrambled video on the computer display. If you’re one of the many who has witnessed display issues with your Macbook Pro then watch this tutorial as Mactuts+ and Audiotuts+ author Jonah Guelzo shows you how to save yourself a costly repair by learning how to reflow your graphics processor all on your own utilizing a few simple tools and a household oven.

It goes without saying, but we are in no way responsible for what happens if you stick your Mac in the oven. This is meant as a last ditch effort to potentially fix a Mac that would otherwise be nearly worthless. Proceed with caution, know that you’re crazy for trying, and leave us a comment if you’re lucky enough achieve success!

Say What Now?

If the words “Macbook Pro” and “Oven” make you a little nauseated, be rest assured that Jonah, having purchased a defective Macbook Pro himself, undergoes this treatment on his own costly laptop, reviving it to full functionality. His Macbook Pro has been going steady now with no issues for over a month as of the posting of this tutorial.

Leave a comment below if this method worked for you as it has for countless others and spread the word of hope.

Screencast


How to Cook Your Mac
 
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  • KH

    So much of this is just plain wrong.

    The first mistake was going to an Apple Authorized Service Center and paying any sort of fee. The Genius Bar at Apple Stores exist for a reason. You can go there and get diagnostics run on your machine for free, regardless of whether it’s in warranty or five years outside of it.

    As far as the issue of the computer being outside of the free repair / replacement period, it should always be the first step to talk to the Genius Bar folks and see what your options are. A lot of exceptions are made especially in situations like this one. Going to one AASP and taking their word as gold is a prime example of not having all the information.

    It’s a little extreme to take apart your MacBook Pro and stick it in an oven. Which leads me to my next point. Taking apart this generation of machine is definitely not an easy task (as someone that repaired Apple computers for a living for several years, I should know). If done improperly, the machine will never go back together properly and potentially lead to more problems if there are things shorting, etc. On top of it all, doing this 100% guarantees you’ll never be able to have it properly repaired by Apple or a service center. Ever. Any Apple Certified Repair Technician can easily tell if someone opened up and tinkered around the inside of their computer. There’s a procedure and a standard in which these things are done, and it’s easy to spot when their not done properly.

    Just my two cents.

    • http://twitter.com/ParasUniversal Parasuniversal.com

      Don’t like Apple Store anymore. Clueless geniuses (very long story), ridiculous charges and the whole check in/appointment system doesn’t work. All the stores I went to told me there was no hope for my laptop and if they changed the drive they would not give me back the old one. ???!?!?! A friend of mine not only gave me the old drive, he rescued everything on it. I don’t see why you’re getting over dramatic over the whole thing anyway, secondfret’s comment says it all.

  • Jonah Guelzo
    Author

    KH,

    I had also gone directly to Apple as well… They let me explain my unfortunate situation but just said sorry… “Can’t do anything about it… Even if it was one day over the coverage period we could do nothing.”

    The actions I showcase in this Tutorial should only be taken when all else fails… Better to take a chance on trying a DIY fix job then just throwing the laptop away if you’re not prepared to make a costly repair through Apple or AASP.

    Also, there’s a wealth of forums and video which support what I teach in the Tutorial… In addition the AASP also gave me the option to “REFLOW” my mac which goes through the EXACT process that I teach… They simply heat up the board… (They confirmed this to me themselves… however wanted to charge $400 for it with no guarantees)

    I personally didn’t find it difficult to take apart and put back together and I’ve never done such a thing. If you’re any bit savvy with Computers (Hence “ADVANCED” listed in the requirements for this tutorial) you can do this repair with Success.

    All it takes is no other option available, being savvy with computers to a degree, and some tools.

    Either way you’re more than welcome to express your own concerns, just thought I’d shed a little light on the subject.

    -J

    • secondfret

      Agreed, if your choice is to toss the machine or tear it apart, learn some cool stuff about how it’s put together, and bake it for a slim chance of recovery, I choose the latter.

  • http://twitter.com/ParasUniversal Parasuniversal.com

    Hey Jonah, I’d love to know how exactly you came to conclusion of baking it. And once you did start baking, how did you know the right temp and time etc. I love out of the box things like this.

    • Jonah Guelzo
      Author

      Parasuniversal… Glad you found this tutorial helpful… or at least interesting. I certainly did not come up with the idea… but simply exhausted every possible mac recovery option. (I also live with a few guys from Apple)… After lots of self educating, scouring forums I found the tips and methods that seemed easiest for most to handle and seemed to offer the best chance of mac recovery.

      You’ll find so much information out there on “Reflowing”… it really just comes down to distilling it all down and after self education on the matter, choosing the mix of options that have seemed to result in the most successes.

      As far as time to Bake it goes… I kinda picked the happy median point as many said higher temp for less time and lower temp for more time. 375 degrees seems to be a sweet spot to just begin to liquefy the solder points without just pooling the solder or melting the connection points as many have done.

      Others use a solder gun and remove even all the USB/various connection points… I didn’t want to bother with that as the plastic used there seems to be a high grade plastic which can handle the heat ok.

      Hope this helped answer your question to some degree. Thanks for your post! I’ve been using Macs in production for quite a while but just had some time to write my first Mac Tut for this great site. Hope to do more in the future when I have some free time from writing on AudioTuts.

      Best,
      J.

  • John

    This is really cool and completely outside the box. Who was the first person to think this up?
    At first I thought it takes balls to even post something like this (as a lot of people may and will probably fail). But if it’s a last resort and the other option is throwing your mac in the garbage? Why not?
    Thanks for the really cool and weird tip.

    • Jonah Guelzo
      Author

      Thanks Mate! You summed up my hopes for this tutorial exactly. I for one didn’t want to sink a grand into a Macbook that’s over 4 years and aging. The fact of the matter is… if you’ve exhausted any hope with Apple… so at the point where voiding a warranty matters not, then you have NOTHING to lose… if you screw up and clumsily turned the oven to 800 instead of 375 and char the board… it won’t matter, because you’re only other option would have been to replace the board anyway.

      So when you think of it that way… you really have nothing to lose and in the least is a free option to explore that has resulted in countless successes. Some bakes have lasted a year or more… most seem to last 6 months… sometimes shorter… And if the problem comes back… you can bake it again. Some have baked their board many times.

      Either way at this point… you probably don’t want to rely on your baked mac as your primary computer (especially if you’re doing important work), but it’s a great way to extend the life if you’re trying to hold out as much as you can before you sink more money into the world of Apple.

      Thanks for the posting!

      -Jonah

  • Karl

    Thank you so much! It’s aliiiiive! It’s ALIIIIIVE xD.

  • Dennis

    worked for me as well. Thank you Jonah Guelzo

  • http://applerepairsinlondon.co.uk/macrepairs.asp kailash sen

    Where is the mac address usually located on a desktop motherboard without a parallel port?

    Mac repairs

  • Rick_SanUg

    Ok, doing this was amazing, my laptop works again!!! It was a drawer for months (like 10) and now its alive again, thank you so much.