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Just been given free MBP A1226

N

npaisnel

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 23, 2013
66
0
Just been given a free A1226 MBP.
MBP 3,1
Intel Core 2 Duo
2.4Ghz
2 x 1gb RAM
Boot ROM MBP31 0070.B07
SMC 1.16f11


..it had been dropped.....dent in it just below Superdrive..stopped the CD ejecting.
I has been in a cupboard for 3 years..unused...battery flat ..but charged ..eventually.
It started, but screen scrambled..with just about readable message indicating re start required.

Made me think the screen or graphics card or mobo, was damaged, physical damage rather than OS-X issue

Booted it from 10.8.4 (Tonymac hacintsoh ) USB install stick...and screen perfect???

Not installed Mavericks on my Mac Pro 3,1 Tower...sticking with 10.6.8..but wanted to try 10.9..so had d/loaded it previously.

So the 07 MBP 3,1 now has Mavericks on it.

On looking at System info, I think it has not had much use..it is original battery. with 108 cycles in total on it Just found a remote control in the carry case..not even opened

Question is..
What shall I do with it?
I already have my Hacinstosh Core i5 with Geekbench scores of 7000 or so..so this older MBP with Geekbench scores of about 3500?? what to do with it.

Anyone have thoughts?
Would a SSD and 6GB RAM be worthwhile...any firmware hacks now to get 8GB to work and be usable?

or other performance upgrades ...
 
Last edited:
npaisnel said:
Just been given a free A1226 MBP.
MBP 3,1
Intel Core 2 Duo
2.4Ghz
2 x 1gb RAM
Boot ROM MBP31 0070.B07
SMC 1.16f11


..it had been dropped.....dent in it just below Superdrive..stopped the CD ejecting.
I has been in a cupboard for 3 years..unused...battery flat ..but charged ..eventually.
It started, but screen scrambled..with just about readable message indicating re start required.

Made me think the screen or graphics card or mobo, was damaged, physical damage rather than OS-X issue

Booted it from 10.8.4 (Tonymac hacintsoh ) USB install stick...and screen perfect???

Not installed Mavericks on my Mac Pro 3,1 Tower...sticking with 10.6.8..but wanted to try 10.9..so had d/loaded it previously.

So the 07 MBP 3,1 now has Mavericks on it.

On looking at System info, I think it has not had much use..it is original battery. with 108 cycles in total on it Just found a remote control in the carry case..not even opened

Question is..
What shall I do with it?
I already have my Hacinstosh Core i5 with Geekbench scores of 7000 or so..so this older MBP with Geekbench scores of about 3500?? what to do with it.

Anyone have thoughts?
Would a SSD and 6GB RAM be worthwhile...any firmware hacks now to get 8GB to work and be usable?

or other performance upgrades ...
Click to expand...

Not sure if it is going to live up to your i5 but I know I just added a SSD and 6gb and it is a world of difference from before to after. The SSD makes all the difference.
 
I have seen many threads about ..don't use this SSD..use this one etc..preferring different manufacturers...what did you use out of interest?



it is way slower than the i5..but I may just keep it as a bedside machine


or find weird and interesting firmware hacks...
 
would have sold it to you ...but Jersey to UK postage...sure you would find one cheaper locally?


Nice to have an old one to tinker with though
 
I have the same model MBP and I tossed 6gm RAM and a 256 gb SSD (Samsung 830) in it last year. It made a HUGE difference. Boot time is much faster. Programs open quicker and run without hiccups. Virtual machine w/ Windows XP runs much smoother.

I say go for it.

P.S. On a side note. My logic board did die due to a faulty video card (NVIDIA 8600M GT) so I had to replace it w/ a refurbished one on eBay for a few hundred $$. The same could happen to you?
 
npaisnel said:
I have seen many threads about ..don't use this SSD..use this one etc..preferring different manufacturers...what did you use out of interest?



it is way slower than the i5..but I may just keep it as a bedside machine


or find weird and interesting firmware hacks...
Click to expand...



I purchased the 240gb Seagate 600 ssd that was on black Friday special for $119.

Works like a charm. My MBP is deathly quiet.

This one here = http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820248016
 
glad i did not spend money on it.

Loks like it is screwed..

Random start up / screen issues..

Some times it starts..then others..screen gets garbled lots of marks over and above the apple logo, then a load of words, barely readable saying the computer cant start, please re start.

This even happens with external boot media.

So wondering about damaged HDD and or graphics card issues..or cracked mobo when it was dropped....or as simple as loose connection somewhere
 
Sounds like the machine is FUBARed - but it's still worth something. I'd sell on eBay, be completely clear about the state of the computer, including pictures. You'd be surprised how much you could get - if the unibody part is intact, it could still be very useful to a repairer, as could the screen assembly if it's the motherboard causing the strange pictures.

David
 
I am going to open it up first myself and see if there is anything obvious.

Some of these seem to have had nvidia graphics card issues... not sure if you can swap out graphics on these or if they are all built in to the main board..

Once open I'll make a decision
 
Yep..

I would open her up(simple), removed logic board (pretty simple), then I would give her a thorough cleaning and maybe try the oven trick, if not, you can send it off to some folks on ebay who will fix it for not "too" much.

Afterwards reapply paste and see where it goes.

I tried to take all the necessary precautions with mine and it has worked out wonderfully. I am hoping to keep this bad boy for at least another 2 years.
 
npaisnel said:
I am going to open it up first myself and see if there is anything obvious.

Some of these seem to have had nvidia graphics card issues... not sure if you can swap out graphics on these or if they are all built in to the main board..

Once open I'll make a decision
Click to expand...

All on the main board I'm sorry to say. You might be on to something though when you mention the graphics. If there is an extended warranty for a known issue on this model, it might be worth taking it to an Apple store. I understand though that you are on Jersey, so might be worth waiting for a trip to the mainland?
 
Yep, in Jersey.

Possibly over to Exeter in January, so may be able to find an Apple store while there.
Otherwise as you say , sell for spares..

What is the oven trick...I am guessing baking the logic board in the oven...temps? times?...

This was a freebie so not going to worry about it too much. I have built a hacintosh laptop with a HP 4530s..tonymacx86 SSD and 8GB ram..gives geekbench speeds of about ...ummm 6800 I think it was...where as this MBP is only up to about 3500 or so.so a bit slow by today standards..I would have upgraded the RAM and the HDD to SSD..but need to solve this issue first.

My main machine is a Mac Pro tower..08 model twin quad core 3.0ghz..18gig ram with SSD for boot. Just hacked a PC HD 4870 GPU to run with the mac, so a little upgrade there. may also go for SSD dives on the PCIe slots to give a storage speed boost for Photoshop scratch disk speed and probably up the rAM to the full 32Gb. Doing the same as bds120..keep it running for a few years longer.

Right ..off to get the screwdriver ..while waiting for my windows laptop (2004 sony vaio) to do an update.. Only use Windows for updating the garmin and for my work logbook..so it only gets fired up once every few months..Want to give it full MS update before April 2014
 
I had the same problem with mine and it turned out to be a bad memory stick. Sometimes it would be fine and others I would get kernel panics or even a frozen/ messy screen. The Apple Hardware Test confirmed this.
 
never got a chance today, got involved in other stuff.

thanks for the cooking instructions
 
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