A logic board finished off by a spill, with flash soldered to that board and encrypted by it. This is the one recovery nobody can actually perform — so here’s why, and what to do instead.
We turned this job down, and it’s worth spelling out why, because a Mac with a dead board is the single biggest false hope in all of Mac recovery.
A liquid spill had taken out the logic board completely: no power, no picture, nothing. Twenty years back that wouldn’t have been fatal, since the storage was a standalone drive you could pull out and read on the bench. This machine is another beast entirely. Its flash is soldered straight onto the logic board, and on any T2 or Apple Silicon model that flash is sealed by the chip as well — the decryption key fused into the very silicon the spill had just wrecked.
Line those two facts up and the door is closed. The flash can only be read through the board; the board is gone; and there is no tool, bench or lab anywhere — not ours, not anybody’s — that pulls data off a soldered, encrypted Mac once its board has died. Any outfit saying otherwise will either draw a blank or bill you to watch them fail.
So we said no, and charged nothing — looking is free here. The owner got the only honest guidance there is: on these machines, your backup is your recovery. Switch on Time Machine, or iCloud, or hold a clone — while the Mac still powers up, because once the board dies the data dies with it. Much better to hear that from us today than to pay for something that simply can’t be delivered.
Get the device to us for a free diagnostic and a quick note on what went wrong — an engineer looks it over and puts your exact quote in writing before anything is started.
The route to your data starts with the device reaching us. Box it up securely, tuck your contact details inside, and send it across — after the free diagnostic, we put your exact price in writing before a single step is taken.
Sending it by post? Go with a tracked, insured service. Prefer to bring it round? Our door is open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm — just pack the device as described above beforehand.
Prefer to get a sense of things first? Complete the form with a bit more about the fault and an engineer will look it over and send back a tailored quote.
We’ll get back to you soon. Anything pressing, call 01483 901310.
A Fusion Drive, or a Mac whose drive lifts out, we can image and rebuild; soldered, encrypted flash on a dead board is beyond anyone.
For a Mac whose drive lifts out it’s £300 plus VAT, and a Fusion Drive £550. Once storage is soldered to the logic board, we don’t take the job on. Most work is no fix, no fee.
Yes, provided you have the account password. FileVault and hardware encryption can only be undone for the machine’s owner.
Kick off with an instant online quote, or ring us and talk it through first. Either way you’ll know a clear, fixed price before any work starts.