Is it worth trying to save this MacBook Pro?

Question

Is it worth trying to save this MacBook Pro?

Hi all,

My brother owns a MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Early 2011.

Sadly he was never one for looking after things and this thing has cosmetics damage, cannot detect the battery, the hard drive sounds like a bag of nuts and bolts, there are missing keys, the track pad won't right click, it appears to be wedged down and every port is caked in mud. He bought a third party battery but that still won't pick up.

I have an appointment with Apple with a view to resolve the battery problem, I've tried resetting the SMC with both batteries and nothing. It will run on power but I always get the X in the Battery icon. He doesn't want to spend much money so if the battery issue can't be easily or relatively cheaply fixed he'll probably just shelve it.

In your experience what do you think to the following

How much would repairs be roughly? (assuming the battery problem can be fixed? Though I feel this may be a how long is a piece of string question)

What would be a fair price to offer him as is? I'm looking for a project and fixing this up (SSD, Recasing etc) seems like a good one.

Is it even worth it? Or should I put money into buying a new model, I know new battery are about £120 and that's assuming there is't a problem with the motherboard picking it up.

Thanks in advance, this is my first post so I hope I haven't broken any forum rules.

MacBook Pro, iOS 8.4.1, null

Posted on Aug 27, 2015 10:02 AM

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Answer 1

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Aug 27, 2015 10:20 AM in response to Community User

Your brother sounds terribly careless. I wouldn't trust any computer that has ports caked in mud and so many broken parts.

It could be a good project to learn how to repair Apple kit, but I would not expect it to ever to be great unless you replace everything that is broken.

Take a look at http://applemacparts.co.uk/ for a UK based supplier of replacement Apple parts (they also do reconditioned parts & part exchange), laptop parts are expensive & delicate.

Non Apple batteries also have a habit of dying or just being useless, so you should really get an Apple one if you want it to work.

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Answer 2

Aug 27, 2015 10:27 AM in response to Drew Reece

You have no idea! It's terrible. I have had a moment of inspiration whilst typing however, he broke his charger, surprise suprise, and bought a third party one. I've checked the wattage and it's correct but perhaps this is not providing enough power to charge the battery and run the laptop?

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Answer 3

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Aug 27, 2015 11:10 AM in response to Community User

Does the laptop run on that charger?

I don't know the details with respect to charging & running the laptop, but I suspect if it can't supply enough current it wouldn't power up. I suspect it would charge when powered down too.

Apple normally put in protection circuitry to prevent situations that can damage devices (or your data in a 'brown out').

An Apple store may have a suitable charger to test, but this sounds like nothing more than a battered laptop that needs lots of time & attention beyond it's value. It's sad really, I have much older Macs that still work fine.

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