A2141 MacBook Pro 16" lid sensor issue.

[Stephen]

Just like the title states. I have been confused at this point. Computer won't turn on when lid angle sensor is plugged in, when unplugged it turns on immediately, however I have tried 4 different lid angle sensors all OEM and calibrated without issue. I even pulled one from a donor computer and still nothing. I know the M1 Pro sensors are married to the board however I do know the 2019 intel are not as long as they came from a donor LCD etc. What I do not get is why is the lid angle sensor forcing the computer to not turn on, another issue I see when the lid angle sensor is disconnected is the Touch Bar will display and touch then it will start going hay wire and touching itself and constantly going crazy. I found liquid spill in the area near the lid sensor, cleaned it up and replaced the few caps with a donor but still having this issue. I looked for shorts and didn't get any on my multimeter. This is an odd one for me since I never came across this issue. Anyone got any suggestions?

[Stephen]

Not much to add but:

a) do any of these lid sensors function with another macbook of the same type?
b) review the logic board connector and test each pin diode mode to rule out any possible short / defect of the interface lines
c) the fact that you lose other functions when this cable is mated hints that there is a pinout / wiring difference from the mating connector and this module assembly. Had a similar fault on one of our designs we reviewed last week - my source code had the SCL / SDA lines reversed to the wiring. This is a fault of our s/w wizard we use with the factory compiler. Wasted far too much time on this issue. Your sensor is very likely also SMBUS / I2C bus related. There are low cost tools available to monitor such traffic that will reveal the data and commands being used by the lid sensor. Perhaps worth an investment.

Aha - just saw your post. Well done. (c) was the right guess.

Yeah my employee told me to step away for a day and come back to it with a fresh mind, I took a look under the microscope the next day and saw that 3v3 line on the Lid sensor connector was moving and was not seated down, corrosion ate away at it but I was able to remove it and use a clean donor connector form a locked board, applied new solder cleaned up the corroded pad, since it was good and voila it worked, then after that I had an issue with the freaking Touch Bar still, looked at the Touch Bar as well and saw its pad was bad as well, removed that bad connector as well, cleaned up the pad and added new solder and then another clean donor connector and voila worked, problem was solved and now the board was working fully so no more issue. Sometimes just gotta step away for a day and not focus on one repair for so long.

[Stephen]

Update: just to clarify, I also have the NERD TOOL for lid angle sensor calibration, I plugged up the sensors to the lid and they all are working properly, they will say closed and open when testing. When I unplug the lid angle sensor it turns on immediately and displays, when I plug it back in (hot plug safely) it turns the display off and the track pad goes back to sleep as well so no touch or force on the track pad, so basically when it is unplugged the device turns on and functions as normal, when plugged back in turns the display off and doesn't work. I was curious so checked the voltage on the lines for the lid angle sensor and one line does not get any voltage and that is the PP3v3_G3H_RTX. All other lines have voltage, I tried to see if there is a short on the lines and nothing comes up on the multimeter on all the points. So I am confused as to why this is happening?

[mon2]

Stephen, does this logic board boot without a battery? Working on another thread of the same model. Do you have a dump of the T2 firmware from this board? Can you link it in the bios forum if available? Sorry to hijack your thread.

On your issue, have you attempted a DFU?

[Stephen]

Stephen, does this logic board boot without a battery? Working on another thread of the same model. Do you have a dump of the T2 firmware from this board? Can you link it in the bios forum if available? Sorry to hijack your thread.

On your issue, have you attempted a DFU?

it can DFU restore successfully even with the lid sensor connected. It turns on without the battery connected (20V)


issue still exists even after DFU restore.

[Stephen]

Any thoughts mon2

[Stephen]

Update: I found the issue it was the connector. It was shorted at 3v3 line replaced and it now works.

[mon2]

Not much to add but:

a) do any of these lid sensors function with another macbook of the same type?
b) review the logic board connector and test each pin diode mode to rule out any possible short / defect of the interface lines
c) the fact that you lose other functions when this cable is mated hints that there is a pinout / wiring difference from the mating connector and this module assembly. Had a similar fault on one of our designs we reviewed last week - my source code had the SCL / SDA lines reversed to the wiring. This is a fault of our s/w wizard we use with the factory compiler. Wasted far too much time on this issue. Your sensor is very likely also SMBUS / I2C bus related. There are low cost tools available to monitor such traffic that will reveal the data and commands being used by the lid sensor. Perhaps worth an investment.

Aha - just saw your post. Well done. (c) was the right guess.

[Stephen]

Not much to add but:

a) do any of these lid sensors function with another macbook of the same type?
b) review the logic board connector and test each pin diode mode to rule out any possible short / defect of the interface lines
c) the fact that you lose other functions when this cable is mated hints that there is a pinout / wiring difference from the mating connector and this module assembly. Had a similar fault on one of our designs we reviewed last week - my source code had the SCL / SDA lines reversed to the wiring. This is a fault of our s/w wizard we use with the factory compiler. Wasted far too much time on this issue. Your sensor is very likely also SMBUS / I2C bus related. There are low cost tools available to monitor such traffic that will reveal the data and commands being used by the lid sensor. Perhaps worth an investment.

Aha - just saw your post. Well done. (c) was the right guess.

Yeah my employee told me to step away for a day and come back to it with a fresh mind, I took a look under the microscope the next day and saw that 3v3 line on the Lid sensor connector was moving and was not seated down, corrosion ate away at it but I was able to remove it and use a clean donor connector form a locked board, applied new solder cleaned up the corroded pad, since it was good and voila it worked, then after that I had an issue with the freaking Touch Bar still, looked at the Touch Bar as well and saw its pad was bad as well, removed that bad connector as well, cleaned up the pad and added new solder and then another clean donor connector and voila worked, problem was solved and now the board was working fully so no more issue. Sometimes just gotta step away for a day and not focus on one repair for so long.