Hi, I am new here, so please bear with me.
I purchased my Macbook Pro in October 2008. I had AppleCare, but it has recently ran out. I am currently running OSX 10.6.8. The processor is 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. It was 4 GB DDR3 memory, but I have run into a bit of a problem.
Last week, my Macbook Pro froze up on me. Completely unresponsive. After waiting for 15 minutes for it to start responding, I went ahead and held the power button down to shut it down. I tried to power it back up, but all it did was make three beeps over and over again.
I called 1-800--My-Apple since I have no Apple Stores nearby. They refer me to Apollo Computers in Early, TX. I took my Macbook there.
What they found is that on my board that there is a ram slot that is broken. He was able to boot the Macbook by removing a stick of ram, but now it is running on 2 GB DDR3 only.
He gave me two options. The first option was to continue using it with only 2 GB DDR3. The second option was to replace the entire board. He quoted me a price of $600.
Now, I went ahead and just said to let me use it with 2 GB of ram. I have yet to notice much of a difference, but I have not yet tried to start all the programs that I normally use. I also went ahead and looked at the utilities, and I found this out.
The "free" part even dropped down to 8.5 MB when I watched a YouTube video.
Anyway, what should I do? Do I need to take it back to Apollo and put a new board in there? I'm not particularly thrilled about putting $600 into a 3+ year old machine that is out of warranty. I've considered buying a new Macbook, but I've read rumors that a new version is coming out later this year. And really, outside of this problem, I've never had any real problems with my Macbook. I hate the idea of replacing something that may still have a few years left in it. Whatever the case, I need some answers.
Thank you for reading.
I purchased my Macbook Pro in October 2008. I had AppleCare, but it has recently ran out. I am currently running OSX 10.6.8. The processor is 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. It was 4 GB DDR3 memory, but I have run into a bit of a problem.
Last week, my Macbook Pro froze up on me. Completely unresponsive. After waiting for 15 minutes for it to start responding, I went ahead and held the power button down to shut it down. I tried to power it back up, but all it did was make three beeps over and over again.
I called 1-800--My-Apple since I have no Apple Stores nearby. They refer me to Apollo Computers in Early, TX. I took my Macbook there.
What they found is that on my board that there is a ram slot that is broken. He was able to boot the Macbook by removing a stick of ram, but now it is running on 2 GB DDR3 only.
He gave me two options. The first option was to continue using it with only 2 GB DDR3. The second option was to replace the entire board. He quoted me a price of $600.
Now, I went ahead and just said to let me use it with 2 GB of ram. I have yet to notice much of a difference, but I have not yet tried to start all the programs that I normally use. I also went ahead and looked at the utilities, and I found this out.

The "free" part even dropped down to 8.5 MB when I watched a YouTube video.
Anyway, what should I do? Do I need to take it back to Apollo and put a new board in there? I'm not particularly thrilled about putting $600 into a 3+ year old machine that is out of warranty. I've considered buying a new Macbook, but I've read rumors that a new version is coming out later this year. And really, outside of this problem, I've never had any real problems with my Macbook. I hate the idea of replacing something that may still have a few years left in it. Whatever the case, I need some answers.
Thank you for reading.
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