USB repair of my A1278 (MacBook Pro 13 – 2012)

Since Apple decided not to manufacture a new usable MacBook Pro (Minimum: Core i7, 16GB RAM, 2 TB SSD) I have to continue to use my old MacBook Pro 13″ from 2012 (Core i7, 16GB RAM, 2x 1TB SSD).

Unfortunately due to some mistake I connected reverse voltage on one of the integrated USB3.0 ports. Result: The port is dead. However the 2nd port still worked for a while but I got some wired output in dmesg from time to time “Overvoltage detected” – even when nothing was connected to the port at all.

I searched the internet many times but nobody got a real solution for this problem (other than replacing the complete logic port).

So I decided to investigate and research the problem. It turns out the USB power is handled by a simple “load switch” (will prevent any damage in case to much power is drawn or in case of a shortage) from Texas Instruments (TI TPS 2561). This IC also can be found in many other MacBook models.

So I ordered a replacement for 3 $ and changed the IC on the logic board:

Both USB ports are working again 🙂 🙂 🙂