MacBook logic board has damage to it from an explosion. Is it a worry?

Hi everyone,

I’m a little concerned about the health of my macbook pro 15” 2014 model. I was working on an assignment on it (on Microsoft Office) about 2 weeks ago when it made a pop and turned off. Smoke started to come out of the left hand side of the hinge. 10 minutes later, assuming it was dead, I tried to turn it on and it worked. Since then, I’ve used it for about 10 hours and it seems to be functioning fine.

I took it into Apple and they told me that they had found that something on the logic board had blown, but were unable to identify the part, its function, and what caused the explosion. They told me I could replace the logic board for around 900AUD, or otherwise start looking for a replacement.

I opened the laptop up myself for the first time since buying it, and took photos of the damage. Could someone please identify what this part does, and whether I should be concerned? Is it something that sound be fixed, and can it get worse? As I said, the macbook has been working normally since the incident, but I’ve been hesitant to use it too much, especially in a university environment.

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks