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Can i salvage my macbook?

C

Cyon

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 11, 2009
10
0
Hi There,

I have just been given my girlfriends mac book pro. It's not a unibody its the older version... still with an aluminium body, but squarer, with a removal battery and has a DVI connector on it too. Well i hope that clears up which model i have.. if you happen to know then please tell me so i can include in future posts.

About 2 weeks ago the macbook started acting strangely, crashing intermittently and taking absolutely forever to complete simple tasks like saving a file, closing apps and launching itunes. She did have very little space left on the HDD. I told her to transfer everything to an external backup (which she did) but by that time teh problems were getting worse.

Strange artifacting graphics would appear and then dissapear. And just after i managed to reinstall ios and reformat her HDD, the mac began spinning its internal fans at full speed all the time.

I thought this may have been a problem with al teh dust inside. So i opened and air-blasted the whole thing ensure all the airways were clear but it didnt help, the fans kept spinning and artifacts appearing. I even went as far to apply new thermal paste to the GFX card ram incase it had dissipated.

Well now its got to the point where i cannot even boot up. The white bootup screen shows, the mac chimes, but even at the time of showing the apple logo i can see artifacting. Straight after the apple logo shows, a buildup of corrupt pixels begins to fill the screen and then it shows a message saying that the computer needs to shut down and to hold teh power button for 5 seconds. I am now stuck in the cycle.

Any ideas anyone? If i have killed a component in the machine is there anyway i can replace it without having to replace the whole PCB? P
Please if anyone can help or give me a few pointers id really appreciate it. The macbook was around 4 years old but my girlfriend will surely not understand that it was on its way out and will blame me forever...

Do your good deed for the day and spare me from the carnage of my evil girlfriend... many thanks
 
I'm willing to bet that it's a dead NVidia 8600m, possibly combined with a bad hard drive, but I'm less certain of that. The logic board needs to be replaced for sure, however, apple may cover that with the recall of the 8600m, if in fact that model does have it.
 
Can you still boot to the C.D after you ran the compressed air over it? If so it sounds like a hard drive failure. Shouldn't be too hard to replace if it is.

If you can boot to a CD, do you have an apple hardware test disc for the model in question? It'd know better than us. If it is on the motherboard, I think you're screwed W/O Applecare.
 
simsaladimbamba said:
Btw, Macs run Mac OS X, iOS is for the iPod touch, iPhone and iPad.
Click to expand...

Oops.. i meant OSX.

so if she had an 8600 video card in her MBP could she have got it replaced? Were they all defective? Now that i've opened it up surely apple wouldn't help me? :confused:

Its over 4 years old i think so i dont htink its under warranty anyhow.. ill read your link now. thanks
 
Cyon said:
Oops.. i meant OSX.

so if she had an 8600 video card in her MBP could she have got it replaced? Were they all defective? Now that i've opened it up surely apple wouldn't help me? :confused:

Its over 4 years old i think so i dont htink its under warranty anyhow.. ill read your link now. thanks
Click to expand...

there was a recall or class action suit of some sort with the 8600, so it can typically be replaced if it is the cause of the problem, without still being in warranty.
 
Tonepoet said:
Can you still boot to the C.D after you ran the compressed air over it? If so it sounds like a hard drive failure. Shouldn't be too hard to replace if it is.

If you can boot to a CD, do you have an apple hardware test disc for the model in question? It'd know better than us. If it is on the motherboard, I think you're screwed W/O Applecare.
Click to expand...

Is booting to a CD on mac the same as in windows? i.e. do i need to setup boot device priority? Where can i get this remarkable disc you mention and how can i find out my MBP model number please?

** ive now found this link http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1509
 
Last edited:
Aht

I am unable to perform the Apple Hardware Test. i hold the "d" key down with the disc in the drive but same thing happens. Just tells me the computer needs to shut down.

I need to find out which GFX card is in the machine, i am unable to boot to OSX so im a little unsure... any pointers?

Will probably open it up again and see if there are model numbers on the components. Ill report back
 
You shouldn't really have any issues with the fact that you opened it. It's already out of warranty, which is really the only thing that could be a problem with opening it.
 
Cyon said:
Ok so i found the serial number beneath the battery compartment and then entered it into some dodgy german site (find it here >> http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html) that can provide the spec info for a given serial... heres the result!
Click to expand...

That is not German, but Dutch.
You can also try www.appleserialnumber.info


http://www.apple-history.com/?page=gallery&model=mbp_mid_07

shows as 8600GT not 8600M :(
these are the same card though, right?

Think im going to take to the Apple store. will they hate me for opening the Mac? Any way i can cover all traces?
Click to expand...

It says: GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT

Apple says on the site I linked to:
Specific products affected:

MacBook Pro 15-inch and 17-inch models with NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics processors
Click to expand...

Therefore that MBP is applicable.
 
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