Battery Replaced now PFM006 & PPN001 Errors

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Level 1

8 points

Battery Replaced now PFM006 & PPN001 Errors

I have a late 2016 MacBook Pro with touchbar, Model A1707. The battery was so bloated that I only had one spot I could push on the trackpad. I checked my serial number but the unit was not recalled for the battery so due to COVID and limited repair options I decided to swap it out myself. The exchange went well but when I started it backup I got the dreaded high speed fan and a root task sucking up all of the CPU. Did SMC & PRAM reset but still no luck. Ran diagnostics and it kicked out PFM006 & PPN001 errors. Hard to find a repair shop to even run full diagnostics. Any suggestions would be helpful.

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Jul 13, 2020 5:28 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

HWTech

Level 9

60,284 points

Jul 14, 2020 9:46 AM in response to gknitz

If you would have let Apple examine the laptop with the swollen battery, Apple may have replaced the battery for free if the laptop is less than three years old. Apple has a lot of secret free repair programs which they don't advertise or admit exist. I recommend users always let Apple or an AASP examine their computers to receive a repair estimate since you never know when a repair might just be free.

Besides the quality of third party Lithium-ion batteries is extremely poor even when purchased from a reputable vendor. If Apple still supports the laptop I highly recommend users go for the official Apple battery repair/replacement. Even "Vintage" computers may still be repaired by an Apple Authorized Service Provider if the necessary part is still available from Apple.

I don't completely agree with Apple on this, but due to how Apple repairs laptops I do understand why they most likely won't allow the repair now that a third party battery has been installed.

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Answer 2

HWTech

Level 9

60,284 points

Jul 29, 2020 5:45 PM in response to gknitz

Diagnostics are only useful if they report a problem. Sometimes the service diagnostics won't be any more useful. Apple is really secretive even with information provided to their techs. Plus you did replace the battery so that opens up a lot of unknowns. Until an Apple battery is installed, there is no way to know if there are more issues. Troubleshooting hardware (or software) is always a bit of guesswork even when a tech is quite familiar with a particular product model. Just the other day I discovered something interesting & unexpected that took me several days to understand because it involved moving parts from one system to another for testing and it required booting macOS and waiting for updates to hopefully install which easily took 30 minutes each time I made a slight change. The part which was causing the problem was not even in consideration as being defective or even related to the main issue.

I've been repairing computer hardware for 25 years and I'm still surprised and stymied when trying to repair the recent Apple laptops since their behavior doesn't always make sense and it doesn't help macOS keeps changing so much that it makes troubleshooting hardware issues more difficult.

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Answer 3

kaz-k

Level 9

50,178 points

Jul 13, 2020 6:40 PM in response to gknitz

Hi,

PFM006 means there may be an issue with SMC, and PPN001 means there may be an issue with a memory module.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203747

You need to contact Apple support or make Genius Bar reservation or take your MacBook Pro to Apple Authorized Service Provider to determine which service and support options are available.

https://support.apple.com/contact

https://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/

https://locate.apple.com/findlocations

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Answer 4

gknitz Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 13, 2020 6:54 PM in response to kaz-k

Unfortunately, Genious bars are closed becaused Apple stores are closed. Can't even get someone local to run diagnostics for two weeks. Maybe if I drive 150 miles I could get someone to look at it next week. I'm in San Antonio, Texas. Any way to kill the code sucking up the CPU? Otherwise, I have a really expensive paperweight ...

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Answer 5

gknitz Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 29, 2020 2:38 PM in response to HWTech

So, I dropped off my 2016 MacBook Pro for repairs, 8 calendar days ago, to anauthorized repair shop and they just called me and said that I need to replace the track pad, keyboard and battery to fix the problem. One thing that scared me was they said "we do not have the parts in stock so we will not know if that fixes the problem. If there is something else wrong we will let you know." I thought that Apple had extensive cloud base diagnostics that pinpoint the problems? It sounds like they are guessing how to fix the machine. I did not say anything because I do not like telling someone else how to do their job. I will let you know in a week if they fixed the problem? Comments Invited.

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