Apple Wanted this DESTROYED...

In this video, I go over the process of completely restoring an A12Z-based Apple Silicon Developer Transition Kit "DTK" Mac Mini that I got from China sold essentially as scrap. After many months of work, research, and testing, I was FINALLY able to fully restore one of these salvage DTK logic boards, and get it back up and running booting macOS! The culmination of all that work is shown here, as well as the process of making it into a complete DTK machine using a 2018 Mac Mini chassis and parts.

0:00 Intro
2:34 Issues with the board
7:02 Repairing the cut
16:19 Initial board testing
19:10 Cleaning NAND landing pads
22:09 Installing missing NAND passive components
24:47 Programming a new NAND
28:30 Reballing and installing NAND onto DTK
31:12 Restoring macOS via DFU mode
33:29 First boot
34:20 Activation issues
36:03 Retrieving and programming original serial number
40:17 Successful activation and final testing
42:47 Power LED discovery
46:43 Final assembly and conclusion

#applesilicon #macmini #repair

[dgwdgw]

The sheer number of "this component only works if configured with the serial number of that other thing" instances inside Apple devices never ceases to amaze and disappoint me

[linusgsebastian]

Apple: saws an iPhone in half
DosDude: “well there’s actually a really easy fix to this…”

[jlinwinter]

Cool. My company was able to get a few of these DTK's and I had a bit to do with setting it up for the rest of our staff to use it. I had to lock it up in a room that only a few people (including me) could unlock and the rest of staff used it over remote access. When the time was up, Apple's lawyers were pretty adamant they wanted it back pronto, so I had to box it up and send it back via their special courier. Thanks for showing me what the inside looked like!

[hasnihossainsami]

I once punctured my HDD pcb with a very small Phillips head screwdriver. HDD wouldn't respond whatsoever. I took out the pcb and after some careful observation, noticed there weren't any traces at or near the puncture, so I took a flathead and slowly ground away. Once there was a sufficiently large enough hole that I could clearly see through, I cleaned it off to make sure there wasn't any copper dust and finally taped on both sides to prevent anything going in and causing a short. Plugged it into my PC and it started working again. It's still in my PC right now, haven't had any issues whatsoever.

[mrbjop]

Haha "it will destroy the power supply if you plug in like that dont ask me how i know it " was personal 🤣

[cromulence]

This is absolutely astonishing. Your fix for the cut to the PCB is nothing short of miraculous; never would I have thought a multi layer PCB like that could ever be operable again after damage like that. Amazing repair of a piece of Apple history.

[jonqu]

Many companies “destroy” prototype equipment when it is no longer needed due to IRC 174 (tax code). Basically the prototype is rendered reasonably worthless to insure it is no longer used by the company or anyone else, otherwise they do not get to deduct the cost of the prototype. The IRS became very concerned in the 1990s that companies were writing off the prototypes but still using them in business (if it’s still being used you can’t write it off). The developers basically leased it, and at the end of the lease they would send it back and get a credit for what is essentially a production level replacement (a bare bones Mac mini for developers was about the same price). They got the credit no doubt because maybe they might rather have something better than a base model Mac mini, like maybe more RAM, or more storage, or maybe a laptop instead. Cutting the PCB is just due diligence, certainly it “could” be fixed, but probably the amount of work would not be worth it. Though a determined you tuber with a soldering iron might fix it not for its intrinsic value, but for the views as well.

[FuzeTheWholeTeam]

not going to lie this was one of the most in depth repair and programming I've seen in years. absolutely wonderful video. keep up the good work brother.

[Enjoymentboy]

This reminds me of a big box of windows 98se cds I recovered from a business that shut down and they tossed them in a dumpster. They had never been installed, or even opened, but they were supposed to be destroyed and written off. The way they choose to destroy them was to drill a hole through the installation cd. Unfortunately they only drilled through the box and went right through the center of the disc and through the hole that was already there. Not a single one was damaged and I managed to save and sell 120 discs for $40 each. That was a good day.

[HamburgerExplosion]

Insane amount of research to get this to work. There were so many points where I thought "how could he possibly know that".

[VSN]

I remember a guy at work had blown a fortune on a dual pentium server board to get a bit of a gaming advantage while everyone else had the fastest CPUs but only one of them.
He had his PC setup for ATX and when he first installed the MB there was a standoff sitting right where a heat spreader is mounted on the server board and this high spot caused the board to crack when he screwed it down. After this was discovered I helped him move the standoffs to the right spots for his server board and we got it running, but someone walking past his computer was enough vibrations to cause random errors. It was so painful watching him suffer with it.

[cromulence]

I know your content is mainly hands on work on systems, but I would love to see a deep dive into this machine. As it was under so many NDAs and whatnot when it came out, there wasn’t much info. It’d be fascinating to see benchmarks, any quirks in the OS, that kind of thing.

[Martin_from_SC]

I love watching these videos. It amazes me to the extent Apple goes to make the devices unrepairable and unserviceable, but smart people have developed tools and the knowledge to make it work.

Truly awesome.

[salem]

This is the antithesis of everything Apple stands for and it brings me such joy to see you do this!

[bors]

Dude, mask off the drilled hole with UV-resin. It will isolate the layers and improve board integrity

[supernova]

You know how many years of experience you need to think like this guy? A lot...when he said "de-solder the nand" I fainted ... lol dude great work. Your skills have impressed me. Thank you for this great video.

[shib]

bro I know Tim Cook has a bounty on you

[EasyMac]

I don't get all the people suggesting that Apple would have a legal leg to stand on to give Colin grief about this.

I *am* surprised they didn't blacklist the serials from activation after the program was over.

[-r-]

that chime sent goosebumps down my spine.

It often is surprising how much „abuse“ such devices can take. good it is not in CN anymore either because what I understand under recycling is exactly what you‘re up to.

well done 👏🏼

[Gravarty]

I like how you repair things that look completely broken even to people who work with electronics. Amazing work! The DTKs are really interesting as it was the first time seeing macOS running on an “iPad”.