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Can I sell my MBP with a busted video card?

D

dmorgan

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 24, 2009
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Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

My MBP has been out of action for several months now... I was a complete idiot and opened up the case to clean out the fans. Since then I have not been able to get any video when I boot up the computer. It will boot, and I can get into OSX, nothing shows on the screen though. I took it to an authorized Apple repair store where they quoted me $1800 for a new logic board.

My question is though; would anyone buy this computer for the parts on eBay or something? Or should I just let it gather dust in my closet, as it has been doing...
 
No reason not to sell it, so long as you let potential buyers know the situation. You might get $20 for it. You might get $200 for it. Either way, it's better than nothing, gathering dust.
 
How do you know it boots into OSX? Have you tried an external monitor?

You might have just disconnected the display data cable. It's a wide flat connector at the top right of the (recent) MBP logic boards. Or try ifixit.com for your specific model.

You have very little to lose!
 
You can sell it of course, but you need to disclose the issues, so any potential buyers will know what they're getting if you sell it whole. Otherwise part it out as you stated.
 
pscraig said:
How do you know it boots into OSX? Have you tried an external monitor?

You might have just disconnected the display data cable. It's a wide flat connector at the top right of the (recent) MBP logic boards. Or try ifixit.com for your specific model.

You have very little to lose!
Click to expand...
I agree with you....... OP when you say "clean out the fans" exactly how did you do this? With compressed air? You might have blown a cable loose. If you can hook it up to a external monitor and it shows video then it might just be a loose cable. But just opening your case and cleaning the fans will not destroy your logic board unless something else happened as well.....
 
Somebody might buy it to get one part and resell the rest or you take it apart and sell the part seperately.

Other people might have a damaged bade unit, a damage screen or whatever.
Apple charges a lot for all those that are out of warranty if they can get a new screen cheaper for what Apple charges they will pay it.

Those parts are valueable. You won't get as much as for a working MBP but much more than nothing which is what you get if you let it gather dust.
 
What I did was lift up the logic board the check the other side for dust and dirt, so I had to unplug all the connections including the display one. I have opened it up and tried unplugging and plugging back in the display connector but haven't been able to get it the display to work. I don't have a cable to be able to hook it up to an external monitor either, but I may get one so I can try it out.
 
It sounds like it still has a working hard drive and ram...at least. That can be sold for a little $.
 
I just purchased a mini display port to HMDI adapter from Amazon. If I hook this up to my HDTV and get no display on that either, the video chip is toast, right?
 
Yep.

Usually opening a PC shouldn't toast a GPU. Maybe you just failed to attach some cables properly. I heard many stories of people who didn't put the RAM in properly or forgot one cable and thought the machine is dead until they did a recheck.
I'd triple check until I proclaim it dead.
 
dusk007 said:
Yep.

Usually opening a PC shouldn't toast a GPU. Maybe you just failed to attach some cables properly. I heard many stories of people who didn't put the RAM in properly or forgot one cable and thought the machine is dead until they did a recheck.
I'd triple check until I proclaim it dead.
Click to expand...
I agree with you! I will bet that the logic board did not just die because you opened the case and checked for dust. It would take something else. The fact that it boots up but does not display video says that it could be be the video card. But if was working then you disconnected a bunch of things then put it back together and now...video doesn't work////would lead me to think maybe something was left out. Try going to the iFixit site for Macbook Pro...they have a step by step with pictures on taking the MBP apart....

http://www.ifixit.com/Device/MacBook_Pro_15%22_Unibody_Early_2011
 
jamezr said:
I agree with you! I will bet that the logic board did not just die because you opened the case and checked for dust. It would take something else. The fact that it boots up but does not display video says that it could be be the video card. But if was working then you disconnected a bunch of things then put it back together and now...video doesn't work////would lead me to think maybe something was left out. Try going to the iFixit site for Macbook Pro...they have a step by step with pictures on taking the MBP apart....

http://www.ifixit.com/Device/MacBook_Pro_15%22_Unibody_Early_2011
Click to expand...

After work I'm going to try taking it apart again, and unplug/plug back in everything in there. The iFixit guide is awesome, I will go by that thank you!
 
dmorgan said:
After work I'm going to try taking it apart again, and unplug/plug back in everything in there. The iFixit guide is awesome, I will go by that thank you!
Click to expand...
So how did it go? were you able to fix/get it working?
 
Sorry about the late reply, I totally forgot about my thread after I got frustrated with the computer.

Couldn't get it to work, so I'm currently holding out for a 2012 iMac :(

It's an april 2009 unibody I believe.
 
If the OP zapped the motherboard with static electricity that could fry it. From what he has described I wouldn't be surprised if that was the cause of his problem...
 
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