got a macbook air a1466 in recently that had some liquid damage and the area around the backlight chip was an awesome sight. makes for a very great photo. it looks like a WWII shelled battlefield area from above.

that is quite the damaged chip – LP8550 U7701 – not sure, but looks like mud. let’s see what’s underneath!

ooooooo – that’s ugly! see, these chips float above 25 solder joints and the whole thing will just pull liquid inside if any gets near – capillary action. and then the voltage driving the chip will just start to cook and boil the liquid and eventually the chip fails – or something nearby. …or both. …or more.

if we take a closer look after cleaning, you will see that it cleans up nicely, but has damaged a pad on the motherboard. it’s completely burned away. nothing for the new chip i need to install to attach to at that point.

so the plan is to put down another pad and tie into the trace that is left. i start by exposing the metal underneath the masking and tin.

then i solder on a new pad and secure it in place with new masking. then install the new chip and see if it lights back up!

there was some other liquid damage that needed to be addressed, but not nearly as impressive as this chip looked beforehand – thanks for looking over my shoulder! if i can help you, please leave a comment, or contact me here. for more things surrounding this chip, you can check out another blog post here and here.