Hi everyone, I’m hoping for some advice from this knowledgeable community regarding a serious issue with my MacBook Pro 2019 (T2 chip).
My husband opened my MacBook to replace the thermal paste.
He carefully removed the back cover, replaced the thermal paste, slightly unscrewed the fan but did not disconnect it, and reassembled everything.
Current behavior:
On startup, the Apple logo appears, but then either the laptop flashes and shuts down, or it reaches the password screen, but the cursor moves strangely (“drifts”) and input is impossible, then it freezes or shuts down.
Sometimes the fan starts immediately, but the system is very slow at login and then freezes.
Occasionally a red X appears at the bottom during boot, and the MacBook shuts down immediately.
I have tried resetting SMC and NVRAM and booting into Recovery (Cmd+R) — nothing works.
Is there a chance to recover the MacBook without replacing the logic board?
Are there any safe steps I can take at home to check the thermal paste, cables, or connections before taking it to a service center?
Is the data on the drive safe in this condition? Can it be recovered?
Could the actions during the disassembly (thermal paste replacement, loosening the fan) have caused this behavior, and if so, what might have gone wrong?
Any advice, instructions, or shared experiences with similar issues would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
Hey, welcome. What problems/warning signs did it have before replacing the paste? #4 is definitely a possibility.
If you can’t boot the laptop enough to use target disk mode, you’re probably going to want a professional to rescue the data with a logic board swap. If you can get into target disk mode, you could clone the drive onto another Mac, and you should do that right away.
Hi, thanks for your reply! before the thermal paste replacement, my MacBook was heating up and the fan was noisy during normal work — that’s why my husband decided to open it a while ago. The MacBook was purchased in 2019.
Currently, it won’t boot properly, and I’m unable to use Target Disk Mode to access the drive. It either freezes at the Apple logo, shows a drifting cursor on the password screen, or shuts down with a red X.
You might open it up again to see how the paste is looking and double-check you don’t spot any torn/partially connected cables. Probably should take it to a service shop regardless, though. Have them recover the data and then see about fixing the laptop, assuming the data is important. I’d have them describe how they would recover the data before agreeing to anything unless you’ve already worked with the shop and trust their knowledge.
Sure sounds an ESD (electrostatic discharge) event occurred during his attempt to solve your problem. Because of its age, save your self a trip to an Apple Store. This model is considered Vintage (ie: costly to repair) and almost Obsolete (ie: unable to repair) at this time. Should you have a reliable 3rd party Apple Authorized repair shop you can take it to, be prepared to spend $500-750US for a replacement MLB.
Data recovery on this model will probably an uphill battle. But you sound like you knew that already.
Your husband may want to help you choose your next MBP during the Holiday season.
Just wanted to share a somewhat related experience I had.
I owned a MBA 13” 2013 that was working fine but the battery was old. My daughter needed a computer (this was during Covid time) and the MBA served her well except for the battery. I went to an Apple Authorised Service Centre to replace it and they asked me to sign an indemnity form. In the form, it stated that there is a possibility the machine might not behave as well as before. I thought, what could be wrong with a battery replacement and sure enough, the machine came back not being very stable and would hang intermittently. My daughter would lose her work at times.
This became a lesson to me - if it ain’t broken, don’t ever fix it especially Apple machines!
I have a feeling you probably need to just replaced it and move on. Hopefully your data is backup to iCloud or somewhere else.
Aww. It’s true the laptop isn’t worth much now, but I like keeping the Intel survivors viable as curiosities if nothing else. Third party service only at this point, for sure.
For data recovery, rather than trying to boot to target drive mode, you may be able to remove the HD/SSD to mount physically as an external drive. A service shop that does data recovery should have insights as to whether this option is possible.