Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Ethical issues and selling an early 2008 15" Macbook Pro

S

snouter

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 26, 2009
767
0
What are the ethical issues surrounding selling an early 2008 Macbook Pro with the 8600GT?

I just got a new 17" and therefore want to sell my 2008 Macbook Pro.

It has never given me one lick of trouble. Runs great, stable, no signs of any video card trouble whatsoever. LED works great, bright, even, no stuck pixels. Upgraded 120GB 5400rpm hard drive to 320GB 7200rpm hard drive. Has been perfect the whole time.

Can I sell a laptop with a video card that is "absolutely" supposed to fail at some point?
 
mikes70mustang said:
They dont all fail, youve been brainwashed in the 8600 GT threads.
Click to expand...

True, sort of.

It's a known material defect. AFAIK, all of the 8600GT cards have this defect. It's also the kind of defect that seems to be based on heat cycles?

i wonder what the failure rate really is?

If I sell a used MBP, obviously the buyer will be someone who wants a new MBP but can't afford it. I don't want to sell it to some kid for all of their savings and the thing craps out in 3 months.
 
snouter said:
What are the ethical issues surrounding selling an early 2008 Macbook Pro with the 8600GT?

I just got a new 17" and therefore want to sell my 2008 Macbook Pro.

It has never given me one lick of trouble. Runs great, stable, no signs of any video card trouble whatsoever. LED works great, bright, even, no stuck pixels. Upgraded 120GB 5400rpm hard drive to 320GB 7200rpm hard drive. Has been perfect the whole time.

Can I sell a laptop with a video card that is "absolutely" supposed to fail at some point?
Click to expand...

I'm selling mine to someone who doesn't play video games. :)
 
In my humble opinion, the most ethical way to sell your 08 MBP is to simply be transparent and tell the would be buyer the possible issue he might face if he purchases a notebook with a supposedly faulty GPU. You can try to reassure him or her that your notebook never had any problems and Apple will cover the GPU regardless of warranty for two more years, just in case the graphic card dies. Perhaps giving the kid a good price and good advice how he or she should not play games on it would also be helpful.
 
I would think highly of you if you informed me before I bought it from you. The problem is when we know something and have to do the right thing. If you weren't so aware, I wouldn't put any blame on you for selling it as in perfect condition. I believe you would be perfectly within all legal boundaries to not mention it and sell it as is. However, I would believe that being honest should be the practice you take. I once sold a Mac and it gave out two days later. I ended up buying it back from the guy. It turned out to be the graphics card giving out. I got a replacement back after there were other problems when Apple messed it up while getting AppleCare service. Since it was like brand new with a better graphics card, I decided to keep it for my kids.

Last thing, if it has AppleCare or the warranty or Apple service covers it for another year, then just use that as the selling feature if something happens. If you notify people that some of them had/have had problems but Apple replaced all of those parts in the past and yours has been perfect, that might be all of the explanation people need.

Good luck with the sale either way.
 
The burden of product research is on the buyer.

It's not your job to tell them of design faults that are common to all other computers of the same model.

In particular, your computer truly has no issues, has not caused any problems, and should the graphics card give out it's under warranty for another year or so anyway.
 
I wouldn't worry about it. Its up to the buyer to ask if you've had any issues with the machine and if you haven't, you haven't.

I had my whole logic board replaced 8 months ago since the 8600 fried. Since that was a "quality" issue, Applecare wasn't even needed. They would have fixed it regardless. Same may be true if it goes bad on the new owner.
 
the right thing to do is to tell the buyer. If you're still unsure, ask The Ethicist He'll still send you an answer even if it's not published in the newspaper.

Here's the likely right answer. The legal answer is no, you don't have to tell the buyer. The ethical answer is you should disclose to the buyer the information so they can make a proper choice.
 
if you sell it to a friend or someone you know. You should tell them. If you sell it on ebay, then i wouldn't worry about it, then the burden is on the buyer.
 
Most everything has issues of some sort. Just because a certain line of product has had a particular issue doesn't mean every one will have the same issue, and if everyone disclosed all the things that COULD go wrong, nothing would ever get sold. I agree with the stance that its up to the buyer to to the proper research before buying anything.

It would be different if it were acting up and you were trying to hide it in order to sell it. You are selling a working machine with no warranty.
 
It's not like you are selling something that you know is broken. If it works fine for you then it will most likely for the person who buys it.
 
Just a heads up, my old Macbook Pro with an 8600GT worked flawlessly for 2+ years and then all of the sudden without any warning, video was dead when I tried to turn it on one morning. Although apple did eventually replace the logic board free of charge even though I didn't purchase applecare and the computer was out of the original warranty.
 
bah

I have a late 2007 macbook pro and never had one issue with my computer.
And I put my computer though hell with lots of gaming.

At any rate,if you have a early 2008 model,you have 3 years of warranty from apple for any Nvidia issues.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377

So if you sell your computer,it will be covered for free for another year for the graphic card.

And even with that,Apple is greatly flexible with their own deadlines.So I wouldn't be worried :apple:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back