I used to think reballing GPUs was a waste of time. Then a 2013 MacBook Pro proved me wrong.

Had a customer bring in a bricked 15-inch Retina from 2013 last month. No video, fans spin full speed. I was about to write it off as dead GPU and tell them to buy a new machine. Buddy of mine who runs a shop in Austin talked me into trying a reball. Said he'd been doing them on these older models with good results. Took me about 3 hours with a stencil and hot air station. Thing booted right up and has been running fine since. I figured the solder joints were fine on these but I guess the lead-free stuff just cracks over time with heat cycles. Anyone else had luck reballing vs just replacing the whole logic board?

2 comments

2 Comments

martinez.karen1mo ago

Wait, three hours on a reball and it actually worked? That’s wild

nancy_miller1mo agoMost Upvoted

Reball success that fast usually means the original solder joint wasn't actually cracked. Probably just needed a proper reflow and the paste masked it.