MacBook Pro 15-inch Pieces

[sandrinz]

This week I had milk spilled over my MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2,53 GHz, Mid 2010) and the motherboard is totally ruined... the repair is almost the price of a new one, so not much to do there

But buying a new MacBook one year after is killing me... Is it a good option to sell this one by pieces? Or any way of fixing it?

 

[TheCakeIsALie]

The GPU and CPU (two of the most expensive parts in the MBP) are both soldered on to the motherboard so if the motherboard is busted those are done as well. At best you can take out the RAM (if they are still working), HDD, battery, SuperDrive and sell them as parts online. Maybe the display and chassis as well.

Or you can put the entire thing for sale, explain what happened and maybe somebody who has some use for it will pick it up.

 

[Jexta]

Your RAM, HDD, Optical Drive, Airport Card and display module should be fine. But you will need to pull them out and test them. I would seriously consider looking out for a damaged MBP (possibly with a cracked LCD) that you can pick up cheap on ebay. You could then poach the logic board from that machine.

http://cgi.ebay.com/MacBook-Pro-15-...560481013?pt=Motherboards&hash=item20ba0ebaf5

http://cgi.ebay.com/661-5480-Macboo...560?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27bb0a1490

These are two logic boards I found with a quick browse. If you give me the serial number of your machine I can find out exactly which part number you require. These are significantly cheaper than buying a replacement through Apple.

 

[awer25]

In the future though, consider getting a Squaretrade warranty (as opposed to Applecare). It's around the same price and includes accidental coverage as well for 3 years.

 

[bozz2006]

In the future though, consider getting a Squaretrade warranty (as opposed to Applecare). It's around the same price and includes accidental coverage as well for 3 years.

Squaretrade sounds intriguing to me. Will it work for my computer that is ~2 months old?

 

[ghsDUDE]

In the future though, consider getting a Squaretrade warranty (as opposed to Applecare). It's around the same price and includes accidental coverage as well for 3 years.

I got mine last week. Up to how long can you wait to get it?
And how good are they if you have a problem? Have you had experience (or heard of anyone that has) with them before?

 

[awer25]

I got mine last week. Up to how long can you wait to get it?
And how good are they if you have a problem? Have you had experience (or heard of anyone that has) with them before?

It depends where you bought it - if you bought it new from a retail store you have 3 months to purchase it. If you bought it refurb from eBay, I think it's 1 month. I haven't personally had to use it yet, but they are rated VERY well by everyone. They have an A+ rating with the BBB and have top reviews from buyers on Amazon, Nextag, Epinions, etc. The main reason I went with them though is that they have the accidental coverage, which is huge. If I drop or spill a soda on my new $2k laptop, with Applecare I'd have to either pay hundreds to fix it or buy a new computer. With the ADH add-on, Squaretrade will give you a check for a new laptop, up to the insured value of the old one.

I'm going to be studying abroad next year, so I emailed them about issues while abroad - they said I can get it fixed where ever I want and submit the receipt to them, then they would either mail me a check to my abroad address or deposit in my Paypal account (at my option). Also, you can cancel for a full refund in the first 60 days, and anytime after that during the 3 years and get the unused pro-rated amount back.

There are coupons floating around for 20-25% off which help bring the price down. Also, the quote is dependent on how much you insure the computer for. For example, if you pick $2000, it's a lot more than if you pick $1999 because it goes into the next price tier. Make sure you check "ADH" during checkout for the accidental coverage add-on.