How to: sell my broken MacBook Pro 15' - early 2011

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Level 1

12 points

How to: sell my broken MacBook Pro 15' - early 2011

Hello Community,

I am in need of some help from you...

My MacBook Pro 15' (early 2011) recently died on me, the Graphics card appears to be faulty and needs to be replaced, it was subject to a recall by Apple but, unfortunately, the deadline was missed.

Further details of the machine:

Processor: 2 GHz, Intel Core i7

RAM: 4 GB

Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 6490M 256Mb VRAM

The optical drive (DVD/CD) has been removed and replaced with an Optibay with a 500GB 5400rpm HD

The system HD is a 125 Gb SSD

So it has dual Hard Drives, a fast SSD system/boot drive and a slower big storage drive.

Comes with the original box ( I know this might slightly increase the market value)

What I need to know is:

- Do I need to remove any drive before selling it? As it is not booting up, it is not possible to wipe the memory.

- How much is a laptop in these conditions worth?

Thank you!

MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2011), Not working

Posted on Nov 17, 2017 8:48 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

JimmyCMPIT

Level 7

29,223 points

Nov 17, 2017 9:49 AM in response to chiara333

What to do before you sell or give away your Mac - Apple Support

it is worth whatever someone will offer you for it. A broken computer you already cracked open to pull out the optical drive and one that wont boot and one with a malfunctioning GPU on an Apple laptop may be more expensive to fix than buying a new and more powerful computer. I'm not sure why you think the original box is worth anything, its cardboard with Styrofoam in it.

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Answer 2

Jan Hedlund

Level 7

22,201 points

Nov 28, 2017 4:11 AM in response to chiara333

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011) - Technical Specifications

In order to read or erase the hard drives, you may want to remove them (at least temporarily) and then use a universal USB drive adapter (one example at http://www.newertech.com/products/usb3_universaldriveadap.php; similar devices in many computer shops) connected to another computer.

For the internal hard drive, see page 37 in the manual:

https://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/1000/MA1567/en_US/macbook_pro_15inch_earl y2011.pdf

If a MacBook Pro without a working display otherwise is OK, and with access to a second appropriate Mac, there may be a chance that target disk mode (FireWire target disk mode) could be used for the internal hard drive:

Use target disk mode to share files between two Mac computers - Apple Support

How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode - Apple Support

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Answer 3

minacrime

Level 3

809 points

Nov 17, 2017 9:52 AM in response to chiara333

You definitely want to have the drives wiped prior to selling. A temporary fix for the graphics card is easily accomplished by those in the know (read: you heat up the board) and if you Mac is only protected by a password, not FileVault, your data is readily accessed.

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Answer 4

chiara333 Author

Level 1

12 points

Nov 28, 2017 4:12 AM in response to Jan Hedlund

Thanks Jan for your reply

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