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i want to change the defect motherboard of my macbook pro 13" A1282 early 2011 and upgrade it. i suppose that all motherboards of 2011 (A1278 too) will fit into my book. ist this true? but what’s up with the tunderbold and non-retina books of 2012? can i take any of their boards an put it into my 2011-macbook pro? thanks for your tipps.
Can you post some kind of link confirming the existence of an Apple “A1282”? Perhaps a photograph of the bottom case of the laptop we’re discussing? Because neither Apple’s support website, nor EveryMac. nor Mactracker lists an A1282 at all. The closest thing I can find in the 2011 time period you’re talking about is the A1286 15" Unibody MacBook Pro. The 13" Unibody MacBook Pros are all listed as A1278, from Mid 2009 until today. The model number identifies the form factor; it doesn’t identify the logic board inside the case. Logic boards may differ radically from one generation to another, with different screw placements/connectors/power requirements/port configurations and so on. The A1278 13" Unibody MacBook Pro is particularly troublesome in this regard, as Apple stupidly re-used the A1278 model number from the Late 2008 Unibody Macbook (Aluminum), which had wildly different parts and capabilities. A much more reliable way to ID the generation of your Mac (and not merely the enclosure) is to use the Model Identifier. Launch System Profiler, located in /Applications/Utilities; the Model Identifier is visible in the Hardware Overview tab. It will be in the format: MacBookProx,x You can also supply the last four characters of your serial number (actually, I’m not clear what resource other people are using to ID a computer just from those 4 characters. The only lookups I know are EveryMac and Apple Support, both of which require complete serial numbers. But enough people on iFixit ask for the last four characters, so clearly they know some site I don’t know - I wish they’d announce where it is). Let’s make sure we’re identifying the computer accurately; otherwise our advice may get you into a lot of expensive trouble. Generally, even if the model is the same and the ports/screw holes match up with the ones in your case, the only way to be absolutely sure when swapping a logic board is to use a logic board from the same generation as the original. The supporting modules (MagSafe, battery, GPU, display, Airport/Bluetooth, drives, heatsink, fans, speakers, sleep/thermal sensors) often use different connectors, cables and cable routings from one generation to another. Swapping a later logic board into an old box may not work unless you swap all the other parts. That’s usually more expensive than buying a complete computer. Help us help you.
Hey helmut, the models aren’t interchangeable. A1278 and A1282 are two different models. They may be of the same year but they were engineered differently. If you want to replace the motherboard of your computer then get the motherboard that was specified to be replaced for your model. -Let me know if this helps.
You can replace an 820-2936 logic board with an 820-3115, but it will require intense jerry rigging on the LCD connector for it to work, or just soldering an older connector onto the board. Not worth it to go from sandy bridge to ivy bridge.
all of You - thanks a lot for Your infos+explanations. now i’m getting a horizon of my problem and shall have a good chance to fix this logicboard problem by myself. interchangeable by model-year. i.e. all logicboards of 2011 will fit into my macbook pro 13" early 2011 i7 2,7mhz c2d - thunderbolt (defect) - non-retina Intel HD Graphics 3000 512 MB MacBookPro8,1 Model Number A1278 last 4 charakters of serial number DH2H.
