Apple MacBook Pro 15 A1286 Demux IC Programming Mod Help.

[platinumsteel]

Hi guys need a little assistance here.Has anyone done the Dosdude mod with programming of the demux IC to permanently disable the faulty AMD graphics on the Apple MacBook Pro 15 A1286 820-2915 ...I have gotten everything I need including all the tools.I have one issue I really need to confirm. According to the picture on the dosdue website as you can see below Can you please tell me if i am supposed to leave the 3V3 pad out? Or am i supposed to connect the VCC wire coming from the Lattice Programmer to the 3V3 as shown in the picture?Reason am asking is because i see all other wires coming out from the programmer like the TCK,TMS,TDI and so forth but the 3V3 has me a little confused.Hoping you guys can tell me which wire am I supposed to connect there or I don't need any wire on that 3V3 pad based on the picture.Thanks

[piernov]

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 15 A1286 Demux IC Programming Mod Help.

3V3 should be connected to VCC on the programmer.

[platinumsteel]

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 15 A1286 Demux IC Programming Mod Help.

Ah thanks a lot my friend for clearing that up.

[zpi]

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 15 A1286 Demux IC Programming Mod Help.

Made one video some time ago about this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BRK4t2lyT8&t=774s

[platinumsteel]

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 15 A1286 Demux IC Programming Mod Help.

Very helpful video my friend. I will be sure to follow it carefully from the beginning. Nice and simple. Thanks for the reply.

[dellxps15]

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 15 A1286 Demux IC Programming Mod Help.

i got a question: with programmer software is it possible to save its own firmware ?

[zpi]

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 15 A1286 Demux IC Programming Mod Help.

I searched for this info, but didn't managed to find.

[dellxps15]

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 15 A1286 Demux IC Programming Mod Help.

have u tried downloading the software from here ?
https://www.hklrf.com/Downloadfile_75.html

if u can post a original dump and a gmux dump would be very good

[Stephen]

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 15 A1286 Demux IC Programming Mod Help.

Don't mind me but how much does this mod kit cost? Wouldn't it be wise to just send it off to a GPU repair guy with the new AMD chips that fix this problem for good? They now have reliable AMD chips that fix this issue. I know a few shops that have the chips on hand that do it right the first time. I know the cost to replace the GPU is around 170.00 with free shipping. You just ship your computer to them. I would much rather put the money towards that if it was me since the new GPU chips are fixed.

[platinumsteel]

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 15 A1286 Demux IC Programming Mod Help.

Well my friend I could be wrong .But maybe if we were in the year 2011 yeh it might of been better to just send it off to a repair guy to install the replacement chip.But if you check it that amd GPU only had like 512mb Vram that would of been ok for most graphic intensive apps back then but now no way.Just way too slow.And people mostly bought that model to use it with video editing apps and stuff at the time.So for me it will not be worth it to spend 170 + for such and old GPU. The wise decision now would be to spend 0 take 5 mins do the dosdude NVRAM hack to disable the GPU. Or spend 40 or less buy the lattice programmer with tools and stuff and make it a nice project where you learn to get hands on and do a little soldering and stuff and have some fun and the disable the chip and the IntelHD 3000 performs good enough for basic and casual stuff on this macbook pro running MacOS Catalina .So yeh i don't think it's worth it to spend that much to repair and old obsolete mobile GPU honestly. That is just my take.

[dellxps15]

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 15 A1286 Demux IC Programming Mod Help.

Don't mind me but how much does this mod kit cost? Wouldn't it be wise to just send it off to a GPU repair guy with the new AMD chips that fix this problem for good? They now have reliable AMD chips that fix this issue. I know a few shops that have the chips on hand that do it right the first time. I know the cost to replace the GPU is around 170.00 with free shipping. You just ship your computer to them. I would much rather put the money towards that if it was me since the new GPU chips are fixed.

in many site, even on this one all people are blaming new amd chipt to be crap rebranded dead chips. yes some chip are said to be good, but they are around 60€+ shipping. i got 2 chip for 70€+shipping. i soldered straight the first one without doing any moist backing and it's not working. now ill wait some better summer time and try with the second chip, but this time ill baking it for 12 hours or more before soldering it and see if i can fix that board for low price. for 170€ its even not worth repair that machine.
instead buy some lattice for 20-30 euros and get the firmware for free would be a good way for repair that old model.

Well my friend I could be wrong .But maybe if we were in the year 2011 yeh it might of been better to just send it off to a repair guy to install the replacement chip.But if you check it that amd GPU only had like 512mb Vram that would of been ok for most graphic intensive apps back then but now no way.Just way too slow.And people mostly bought that model to use it with video editing apps and stuff at the time.So for me it will not be worth it to spend 170 + for such and old GPU. The wise decision now would be to spend 0 take 5 mins do the dosdude NVRAM hack to disable the GPU. Or spend 40 or less buy the lattice programmer with tools and stuff and make it a nice project where you learn to get hands on and do a little soldering and stuff and have some fun and the disable the chip and the IntelHD 3000 performs good enough for basic and casual stuff on this macbook pro running MacOS Catalina .So yeh i don't think it's worth it to spend that much to repair and old obsolete mobile GPU honestly. That is just my take.

totally agree. i wonder if with that tools i posted up those who already have the lattice programmer are able to read and save the firmware...

[piernov]

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 15 A1286 Demux IC Programming Mod Help.

Don't mind me but how much does this mod kit cost? Wouldn't it be wise to just send it off to a GPU repair guy with the new AMD chips that fix this problem for good? They now have reliable AMD chips that fix this issue. I know a few shops that have the chips on hand that do it right the first time. I know the cost to replace the GPU is around 170.00 with free shipping. You just ship your computer to them. I would much rather put the money towards that if it was me since the new GPU chips are fixed.

This doesn't exist. It's AMD, not NVidia. I'd be more than happy to be proven wrong though.

[mon2]

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 15 A1286 Demux IC Programming Mod Help.

totally agree. i wonder if with that tools i posted up those who already have the lattice programmer are able to read and save the firmware...

The Lattice website should offer the programming tools for this FPGA. Lattice Diamond should be able to perform this programming task.

From past experience with Lattice, they use the FTDI FT2232H controller inside their USB to JTAG programmer and the FTDI USB IDs onboard this controller are required to be enumerated & supported by their toolchain.

However, based on the quick review from this morning about this FPGA MUX fix, most likely the FPGA is security locked by the DosDude mod. Not sure as we do not have this logic board in house that I am aware of. A possibility exists that if a logic analyzer is used during the JTAG operation, then the raw dump of the FPGA could be extracted. It is more of a pain to do this than to pay the author for the original development time and to encourage future support.

[Stephen]

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 15 A1286 Demux IC Programming Mod Help.

This doesn't exist. It's AMD, not NVidia. I'd be more than happy to be proven wrong though.

I said it is an AMD chip. They are a 2016 upgraded chip (same exact chip but fixed) I am not saying they are good or not but I had one MacBook Pro 15" Late 2011 sent off for repair and it has lasted well over 1 year so far with major video editing from a client that bought it. So far no complaints. I mean I think when it comes to selling these models I would much rather go with the Mid 2012 because they are better and more reliable. To bad they never made a Mid 2012 17" model lol.

[Stephen]

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 15 A1286 Demux IC Programming Mod Help.

Also Major video editing for this computer is 1080p ROFL

[piernov]

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 15 A1286 Demux IC Programming Mod Help.

Again I'd be very happy to be proven wrong, but the datecode 16 chips are the exact same thing as the datecode 10/11. It's not like NVidia who actually did put a bunch of fixed chips (with white underfill instead of dark) on the market starting from around datecode 0830 to replace some of the failing 2006-2008 chips.

They'll fail the same way but at the very least after replacing them you apply some good fresh thermal paste so it helps them lasting a bit longer. Also even if it's a good new GPU, it can fail within 6 months or last years. There aren't a lot of machines with the original GPU from 10 years ago most likely but I'm pretty sure they exist.

Even the ones replaced under Apple's extended warranty were the same thing. If you look on the web you can find reports of people having the board replaced twice by Apple, maybe more. Apple did replace the failing boards with refurbished ones using a GPU with newer datecode since the failure rate was so high that there was not enough spares from the original production.

And unfortunately it's impossible to find a reliable supplier. There aren't a lot of good new chips left on the market (if any). Most of the stuff on eBay/Aliexpress is used and remarked.

That's why people stopped fighting and losing money over that and resigned to just disable the dGPU, even if it prevents from using an external display. (and of course have worse GPU performances)

The board in the 15" Unibody 2011 can actually be replaced with a board from the 15" Unibody 2012, but these are worth gold.

[platinumsteel]

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 15 A1286 Demux IC Programming Mod Help.

The board in the 15" Unibody 2011 can actually be replaced with a board from the 15" Unibody 2012, but these are worth gold.

Hi pier is it possible you might know the board model like 820-xxx of this Macbook Pro 2012 Unibody ? I would like to see if ebay or other places has any boards up . Will be very much appreciated thanks.

[piernov]

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 15 A1286 Demux IC Programming Mod Help.

https://logi.wiki/index.php/Board_Nu..._15.22_Unibody
820-3330

You'll see what I mean when I say they're worth gold.

[platinumsteel]

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 15 A1286 Demux IC Programming Mod Help.

https://logi.wiki/index.php/Board_Nu..._15.22_Unibody
820-3330

You'll see what I mean when I say they're worth gold.

Thanks for the wiki link. And yeah you are right. There value is still holding up.lol

[Stephen]

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 15 A1286 Demux IC Programming Mod Help.

Awe wait why do people want these boards more than the mid 2012?? You said they are worth Gold? explain a little more. I always steered away from these boards because of their failure. Mid 2012 was the go to board for me because of the upgradability and the speed for a low price today. Hell I currenlty just repaired a mid 2012 15" 2.7Ghz logic board that had failed audio on board, it needed a resistor. And we are putting dual Samsung Evo 870 Pros 4TB each up to 8TB in these. The upgradeability is so nice in these models.

Again I'd be very happy to be proven wrong, but the datecode 16 chips are the exact same thing as the datecode 10/11. It's not like NVidia who actually did put a bunch of fixed chips (with white underfill instead of dark) on the market starting from around datecode 0830 to replace some of the failing 2006-2008 chips.

They'll fail the same way but at the very least after replacing them you apply some good fresh thermal paste so it helps them lasting a bit longer. Also even if it's a good new GPU, it can fail within 6 months or last years. There aren't a lot of machines with the original GPU from 10 years ago most likely but I'm pretty sure they exist.

Even the ones replaced under Apple's extended warranty were the same thing. If you look on the web you can find reports of people having the board replaced twice by Apple, maybe more. Apple did replace the failing boards with refurbished ones using a GPU with newer datecode since the failure rate was so high that there was not enough spares from the original production.

And unfortunately it's impossible to find a reliable supplier. There aren't a lot of good new chips left on the market (if any). Most of the stuff on eBay/Aliexpress is used and remarked.

That's why people stopped fighting and losing money over that and resigned to just disable the dGPU, even if it prevents from using an external display. (and of course have worse GPU performances)

The board in the 15" Unibody 2011 can actually be replaced with a board from the 15" Unibody 2012, but these are worth gold.