MacBook Air 820-00165 Camera Not Detected

[ACS-Repair]

Hello All,

I have another weird problem. The camera on my 820-00165 appears to not be present. I've seen piernov's link and tried it under Linux but it doesn't work there either. One thing I've noticed is that I don't have the PP1V8_CAM voltage that is obviously required. I'm unable to determine where it's generated.

Voltages on the J4002 connector are as follows:

1 GND
2 MIPI_CLK_CONN_N 0v
3 MIPI_CLK_CONN_P 0v
4 CAM_SENSOR_WAKE_L 0V
5 MIPI_DATA_CONN_N 0V
6 MIPI_DATA_CONN_P 0V
7 GND
8 SMBUS_SMC_1_S0_SDA 3.3
9 SMBUS_SMC_1_S0_SCL 3.3
10 I2C_CAM_SCK 0.03
11 I2C_CAM_SDA 0.03
12 PP5V_S3RS0 5.0v

I know that sometimes these Broadcom chips can fail. Not sure if this is one of those cases.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[piernov]

Re: MacBook Air 820-00165 Camera Not Detected

PP1V8_CAM is created by the camera IC itself. Check for short to ground on its power rails as usual.

[ACS-Repair]

Re: MacBook Air 820-00165 Camera Not Detected

Thanks @piernov. I thought later that might be the case.
Would it be safe to try a reflow on the Broadcom chip or do you think it's just dead? In an earlier post on a similar problem, the member said the camera was working after a reflow, but he didn't say what he reflowed.
I've tried a different camera and the PRAM / SMC resets without any luck.

[ACS-Repair]

Re: MacBook Air 820-00165 Camera Not Detected

Sorry, I forgot to mention that there are no shorts on the PP1V8_CAM line or the resistor outputs going to the camera connector.

[mon2]

Re: MacBook Air 820-00165 Camera Not Detected

I2C_CAM_SCK 0.03
I2C_CAM_SDA 0.03

Measure the above pins in DIODE mode. Red meter probe to ground. Black to the above point to test. Post the measurements.

[ACS-Repair]

Re: MacBook Air 820-00165 Camera Not Detected

These measurements taken at the camera connector.

I2C_CAM_SCK 0.753
I2C_CAM_SDA 0.753

[mon2]

Re: MacBook Air 820-00165 Camera Not Detected

No short here. Is the display attached? If not, do attach it and check again if possible to probe the same lines while the display is attached.

[ACS-Repair]

Re: MacBook Air 820-00165 Camera Not Detected

Actually the display is not attached but the camera was when testing. It was not connected when doing the diode mode measurements.

Pin 4 of the camera connector is showing a short to ground but I believe there is a 0-ohm resistor to ground on that leg. All of the other pins measure at least 0.401. So, none of the lines appear shorted. I can only assume now that there is an open or the chip is dead. I believe Paul Daniels has mentioned in the past that the chip is sensitive to heat so that's why I'm being careful with it.

[piernov]

Re: MacBook Air 820-00165 Camera Not Detected

Yes the camera IC can be sensitive to heat, as well as the RAM (both system RAM and camera framebuffer) right next door so you must be careful. Can check CAMERA_PWR_EN at least. I don't think a reflow would be a proper fix so I'd replace the camera IC if you suspect it is at fault, but it's a bit of a pain if you don't have good stencil, solder paste and experience reballing this kind of IC.

[ACS-Repair]

Re: MacBook Air 820-00165 Camera Not Detected

I've been doing more research and noticed that if the ME region is not clean it might cause the camera not to be present. I'm pretty sure that I used a clean ME file from this forum on the computer in the not too distant past while doing other troubleshooting.
I'm a bit surprised because when I got this board a month ago I was sure that the camera was working.
I think you're right about the reballing or replacing the camera IC. I may just have to accept that the camera is not going to work on this one.

[ACS-Repair]

Re: MacBook Air 820-00165 Camera Not Detected

@piernov, good thought on the CAMERA_PWR_EN. It wasn't being enabled, and when I looked to find out why, I found that the resistor was missing on the board. This board has had a lot of missing components but I thought I had found and replaced them all.
After replacing the the resistor R2030, the camera and PP1V8_CAM are now present, but the picture is black and the green light at the top of the screen is flashing.
I just moved an EFI from a different computer so I may need to refresh it with a clean ME and maybe to a PRAM / SMC reset to see if that makes a difference.
Thanks to all of you I'm making some progress. Still more to do...

[mon2]

Re: MacBook Air 820-00165 Camera Not Detected

The smbus lines will be used to configure the camera.

The MIPI interface (CSI) will be used to stream the camera data to the host. Respectively, check that the MIPI lines are non-zero voltage readings. This means the clock is toggling from the host and the data is flowing to the host.

[ACS-Repair]

Re: MacBook Air 820-00165 Camera Not Detected

The MIPI lines are all still at 0v. I'll need to do a bit of searching to see why this is the case because it appears they come through L4007 and L4009 directly from U3900. Voltages are not present at the coils.

[mon2]

Re: MacBook Air 820-00165 Camera Not Detected

The host drives the MIPI clock lines.

Remove all power. Meter in diode mode. Check the diode mode readings of each MIPI interface line.

Post each measurement. Do check on both sides of the MIPI emi line filters.

[ACS-Repair]

Re: MacBook Air 820-00165 Camera Not Detected

Here are the readings at the camera connector (disconnected):

2 MIPI_CLK_CONN_N .401
3 MIPI_CLK_CONN_P .400

5 MIPI_DATA_CONN_N .403
6 MIPI_DATA_CONN_P .406

[mon2]

Re: MacBook Air 820-00165 Camera Not Detected

So the MIPI lines are not shorted but yet they are not working. I would suspect that an attempt is made by the host logic board to ping the camera module over the I2C (SMBUS) line using a dedicated I2C slave address. Then the fun starts after a good communication chat between the master and slave.

[ACS-Repair]

Re: MacBook Air 820-00165 Camera Not Detected

So now there is a bigger problem...
I've spent the last couple of days trying to sort out what appears an an SPI termination issue after trying to load a known working EFI file. I get the fan start, stop every 3-5 seconds, or occasionally a boot loop where the chime repeats ever 3 seconds. All of the termination resistors appear good but it's not loading properly.
I've loaded at least 3 different EFI files from this forum and none of them appear to work, or there is another issue. I'm assuming there is another issue because at least one of these should be working. May have killed this board over trying to solve a simple problem with the camera. what a shame!

[ACS-Repair]

Re: MacBook Air 820-00165 Camera Not Detected

OK, I have it back now. one of the resistors that I replaced some time ago (R2281) had rotated 90 degrees cutting off the PP1V2_S3 to PP0V6_S3_MEM_VREFCA_B. Not sure how that happened but it's connected again and the computer comes on.
I loaded an EFI image that piernov provided in an earlier thread and that works great.
I'll need to think about whether to pursue this camera issue or just accept that it's not going to work. I don't like to give up on problems but I don't want to risk anything more with this while it's working.
@mon2, I did a voltage test on 2 other boards and they did not have voltages either. Now, the camera was not active when I did the test so it may be something I can still try.
I appreciate everyone's help and comments on this.

[ACS-Repair]

So, this is an old post but I have an update that I'd like to share... I connected a camera from a broken screen that I have and the the camera came up right away. it seems that I've been chasing what I thought was a logic board problem but it was a camera fault. I just sold the display to someone so I don't have it here to see what was wrong. I'm going to need to contact the person so I can replace it for them. I thought it very unusual that it was the camera itself that was at fault.

[mon2]

Thanks so much for your follow up. It is appreciated.