Apple recently upgraded the 13-inch MacBook Pro, replacing the M1 chip with an all-new M2 chip. But, I can almost hear you say, “can the M2 logic board replace the M1 board in an older MacBook Pro?” Well, while it fits, it doesn’t work.
As reported by iMore, YouTuber Luke Miani decided to take a new Apple M2 13-inch MacBook Pro and tear out its insides, replacing the M1 logic board with a new M2 board from a new MacBook Pro. While the actual hardware swap seemed successful, powering on was a whole nuther thing.
Many have bemoaned Apple’s lack of updates to the M2 MacBook Pro, but it got me wondering… If nothing has changed with the chassis of the M2 MacBook Pro vs M1 MacBook Pro, can you swap the logic boards and upgrade an M1 Mac to an M2 MacBook? Well wonder no more! Because today I’m going to answer this silly and pointless question that nobody asked. I will boldly go where no tech YouTuber dared (or cared) to go. Behold, this video.
Miani took numerous approaches to try and get this Franken-MacBook Pro to power on but it refused to do so. He eventually swapped everything back, and both patients are once again running just fine.
No one knows for sure why the M2 logic board wouldn’t work in the older M1 Mac, and no one knows why you’d even want to try such a thing, except to make a YouTube video. But, the whole process was interesting and should be good for a good number of clicks.