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Getting ready to sell a Macbook

P

Patrick946

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 21, 2009
163
0
I own a 2006 Black Core Duo Macbook, and I'm planning to sell it and buy a new Macbook Air this month for grad school. I've kept it in good shape, the Memory has been upgraded to 2GB, the hard drive has been upgraded to 160GB, and I bought a new battery recently. Unfortunately, about a month ago it started getting Kernel Panics pretty regularly. I brought it to the Apple Store, and after testing it overnight they concluded that it was most likely an issue with the video card. It will cost at least $150 to send it away and fix the issue.

At this point, would it be better to send it away to get fixed before selling it, or to drop the price a bit and make it clear in my ad that there is an issue and include the report from the Apple Store when selling it? As is, the computer is usable, but depending on what kind of work it's being used for, it needs to be restarted pretty often.

Aside from that, I'm planning to erase the Hard Drive and install a fresh version of Snow Leopard. Is there anything else that I should do before selling it?
 
video card=logic board replacement and I would not be surprised if that quote jumps to over $400 instantly. Are you looking at the console log after the KP and trying to narrow down the cause? I would at least disclose that to a potential buyer if you don't get it repaired.
 
discounteggroll said:
video card=logic board replacement and I would not be surprised if that quote jumps to over $400 instantly. Are you looking at the console log after the KP and trying to narrow down the cause? I would at least disclose that to a potential buyer if you don't get it repaired.
Click to expand...

Over $400? Yikes.

I ran a hardware test and didn't come up with any issues, and the initial Apple Store tests didn't come up with any issues either. I've looked at the log, but I'm not knowledgeable enough about that area to find what the cause is.

I'll be open about the issue in the ad. Basically, if you try to watch a HD video or start up a game, the KP screen will come up within 15 minutes or so. For writing and surfing the web, it lasts a few hours. I don't think this computer would be worth spending $400 to fix considering that it's 5 years old already, so I'll probably sell as-is.

Thanks for the response.
 
have you run software updates? Was the computer ever taken apart previously for a repair? If I were you I'd sell as is with the disclosure and let the buyer take it for a test drive. The cost of repair is prohibitively expensive on a computer this old.
 
Software is up to date, and it has only been opened to install RAM and the new Hard Drive. It's too bad that the problems started after I had already planned to sell it, but I guess that's how it goes. Thanks again.
 
How have we got the $150 and $400 prices?

I say let apple give you a proper quote then decide.
 
So I've been using this while I wait to buy my new macbook, and I noticed that it stays on longer without kernel panicking if I keep the screen brightness turned down. Does that make any sense, or am I just imagining things?
 
I know it may seem unrelated, but try running it without the battery installed. You'd be surprised at the weird things a bad battery will make a computer do.
 
I've tried it without the battery and it still got a Kernel Panic.

I'll post a link here once I put it up, but I'm doing it on Craigslist and selling in-person in Chicago.
 
Let me make 2 recommendations.

caveat: I repair thousands of Macbooks every year.. thousands.

the most common causes of KP's are (in order of likelihood):

1. bad RAM or mismatched RAM
2. bad software/software corruption
3. bad hard drive

If it were me I would:

1. confirm the RAM is good (if you upgraded the RAM, put original RAM back in and try again).. Or borrow some RAM for it.
The Macbook should have matching RAM cards (ie., the same brand, same model, identical cards in each slot).
If that doesn't solve it, leave the LEFT slot empty and put a single card in the right slot.. THere are many older macbooks which have the left slot failing over time. It can be fixed generally for $150-250. But you can also just leave the left slot empty and put RAM in only the RIGHT slot (Left when viewed upside down - - left is closest to outside of laptop, RIGHT is in the middle of laptop)​

2. fully erase and reinstall the OS. (don't just use "Archive and install")... format the drive entirely.

3. run disk utility on the HDD and check it for errors.. if there are errors, they SHOLD show during the reinstallation process..... If it fails, then your issue is a HDD, not a logic board.

there are places to get it fixed, and most of them are less than half of Apple's pricing.

Oh, and a "genius" diagnosis on your Mac is worth about what you paid for it.. Your official "printout" can generally double as toilet paper, which may raise the value slightly.

Most "geniuses" have never turned a screw in their lives, and you would be better off asking any pimple-faced highschooler for his recommendation.. Not that I've got any bias, but I've fired more previous "geniuses" for lack of common sense or technical skill than I can count.
 
wedgeman said:
Let me make 2 recommendations.

caveat: I repair thousands of Macbooks every year.. thousands.

the most common causes of KP's are (in order of likelihood):

1. bad RAM or mismatched RAM
2. bad software/software corruption
3. bad hard drive

If it were me I would:

1. confirm the RAM is good (if you upgraded the RAM, put original RAM back in and try again).. Or borrow some RAM for it.
The Macbook should have matching RAM cards (ie., the same brand, same model, identical cards in each slot).
If that doesn't solve it, leave the LEFT slot empty and put a single card in the right slot.. THere are many older macbooks which have the left slot failing over time. It can be fixed generally for $150-250. But you can also just leave the left slot empty and put RAM in only the RIGHT slot (Left when viewed upside down - - left is closest to outside of laptop, RIGHT is in the middle of laptop)​

2. fully erase and reinstall the OS. (don't just use "Archive and install")... format the drive entirely.

3. run disk utility on the HDD and check it for errors.. if there are errors, they SHOLD show during the reinstallation process..... If it fails, then your issue is a HDD, not a logic board.

there are places to get it fixed, and most of them are less than half of Apple's pricing.

Oh, and a "genius" diagnosis on your Mac is worth about what you paid for it.. Your official "printout" can generally double as toilet paper, which may raise the value slightly.

Most "geniuses" have never turned a screw in their lives, and you would be better off asking any pimple-faced highschooler for his recommendation.. Not that I've got any bias, but I've fired more previous "geniuses" for lack of common sense or technical skill than I can count.
Click to expand...

I actually did take the RAM out to make sure that it was matched, and tried it with only one stick in each slot and still got KP. I don't have the original RAM or the install disks since I bought it off Craigslist originally. I ran Disk Utility on the HDD and the Apple Store ran hardware check and found no errors. I did completely wipe the HDD (just 1 pass rather than 7 or whatever the most secure option was) and installed Snow Leopard, but it's still having the same issue.

Thanks for the advice. Just one question: do you think there's any relevance to the screen brightness effecting it? It's possible that it's a coincidence, but it seems to not panic as quickly when I have the screen relatively dim. I haven't been able to find anything online showing a correlation, but that seems to be the case from my experience.
 
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