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Might buy a 2007 MacBook Pro...

LOLZpersonok

LOLZpersonok

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 10, 2012
724
18
Calgary, Canada
I'm not sure if this is the correct forum for this thread. But I believe it fits best here.

If you are going to answer, please do so quickly! I don't have much time to buy this, if I can!

I found a MacBook Pro within my price range on eBay from a Top-Rated seller. I'd like to buy it since I want a faster Intel Mac rather than what I've been using for Macs now.

Thing is...This MacBook Pro apparently has no video but the rest of it works (Hard drive spinning up, according to the seller).

It's a 15.4" model from June of 2007 with 4GB of RAM and a 2.40GHz Intel CPU. I believe for this model, it would be NVIDIA graphics, but I can't be entirely sure what exact model it is.

What I want is to know if I can fix this for free or cheap. I also want to know if Apple will still fix this No Video issue for these models. If they do, what are they going to charge?
 
LOLZpersonok said:
I'm not sure if this is the correct forum for this thread. But I believe it fits best here.

If you are going to answer, please do so quickly! I don't have much time to buy this, if I can!

I found a MacBook Pro within my price range on eBay from a Top-Rated seller. I'd like to buy it since I want a faster Intel Mac rather than what I've been using for Macs now.

Thing is...This MacBook Pro apparently has no video but the rest of it works (Hard drive spinning up, according to the seller).

It's a 15.4" model from June of 2007 with 4GB of RAM and a 2.40GHz Intel CPU. I believe for this model, it would be NVIDIA graphics, but I can't be entirely sure what exact model it is.

What I want is to know if I can fix this for free or cheap. I also want to know if Apple will still fix this No Video issue for these models. If they do, what are they going to charge?
Click to expand...

Personally, I would not touch it.

Based on the information you have provided the system in question has the nVidia 8600GT video card. If this card has not yet failed, then it is just a matter of time before it actually does.

I cannot speak about Apple's willingness (or not) to fix this. In my own opinion I think Apple might repair such systems if they were still in possession by the original owner, outside of that (if there is no other warranty in effect), then I think you would be SOL.

There is a huge thread on this, here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/515067/

But, at the end of the day, if you were looking to get something cheap on the possibility that Apple might fix it - is not a bet that I would take. Save your money until you can afford something that you really want.

Something else for you to look at:
 

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how much the seller is asking on ebay?
apple will charge around $550 for that logic board

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Is worth from $50 to $100, with charger maybe a few bucks more but honestly like the others said here i would not touch it.
 
Stay far away. To be totally honest a cheap PC laptop would be a better buy. Otherwise save your money until you can purchase something newer.
 
T5BRICK said:
Stay far away. To be totally honest a cheap PC laptop would be a better buy. Otherwise save your money until you can purchase something newer.
Click to expand...

I'll take the advice. Thanks, I've encountered a similar situation before. I'm very impulsive when it comes to these things.

I already got a very nice (and fairly powerful) Toshiba laptop for free that works perfectly, so I'm already there lol. I'd want a newer MacBook or iMac or something with the Intel-based architecture so I can run programs faster and run the newer stuff as well. Also for my GarageBand stuff since it's Mac OS X exclusive. Plus it's portable so I don't have to wait to go home to play on GarageBand (Imagine me going to school with a massive PowerMac G4, monitor, keyboard and mouse in my backpack lol!) which I have become incredibly addicted to.

So, I've decided to go to the Market Mall Apple Store and pick up a new iPod. In Red.
 
LOLZpersonok said:
So, I've decided to go to the Market Mall Apple Store and pick up a new iPod. In Red.
Click to expand...

I know how that can be. I had to upgrade something so I recently spent some money maxing out the RAM and installing SSDs in all the computers that I own. Should help keep my mid 2009 13" MBP kicking for another year or so. I'd love to buy one of the new iPad minis... :eek:
 
T5BRICK said:
I know how that can be. I had to upgrade something so I recently spent some money maxing out the RAM and installing SSDs in all the computers that I own. Should help keep my mid 2009 13" MBP kicking for another year or so. I'd love to buy one of the new iPad minis... :eek:
Click to expand...

The iPad Mini seems pretty cool :) It's about the same size as my tablet...Only difference is is that the iPad Mini is most likely not garbage. My stupid tablet is a no-name tablet - slow and unresponsive, dies in about an hour, can't hear the speakers, resistive touchscreen (Like my phone but on my phone it's like 10000 times better) and the camera on it is so poorly calibrated it's physically scary.

I'd also love to buy a new motherboard for my main computer (which is a PC, was nice until I messed it up, oops) because I blew up 3 capacitors on it. Still works (And still runs fast!) to my surprise. Even more surprising, I only have one symptom of the bad capacitors and it's occasional - I get the Blue Screen of Death occasionally when rendering in 1080p in Sony Vegas or playing GTA IV. So, as long as it works, I'm not replacing it until it actually explodes or just dies. Here's how it happened in a nutshell:

It has an originally 2.11GHz AMD Dual Core. My BIOS actually encourages overclocking (and it was so obviously easy lol) so, I did. I painstakingly managed to get it up to a literal 3.82GHz. Sat it there for a week until the computer wouldn't boot Windows. During that period, I found the average CPU temp when not under load was about 50 degrees Celsius or so (When it's normally at around 20 degrees) so I drastically underclocked it to 2.80GHz where it sits at now. Not too long after that, I smelled something. Looked inside the case and ooh la la! 3 blown capacitors right beside the CPU.
 
LOLZpersonok said:
I'd also love to buy a new motherboard for my main computer (which is a PC, was nice until I messed it up, oops) because I blew up 3 capacitors on it. Still works (And still runs fast!) to my surprise. Even more surprising, I only have one symptom of the bad capacitors and it's occasional - I get the Blue Screen of Death occasionally when rendering in 1080p in Sony Vegas or playing GTA IV. So, as long as it works, I'm not replacing it until it actually explodes or just dies. Here's how it happened in a nutshell:

It has an originally 2.11GHz AMD Dual Core. My BIOS actually encourages overclocking (and it was so obviously easy lol) so, I did. I painstakingly managed to get it up to a literal 3.82GHz. Sat it there for a week until the computer wouldn't boot Windows. During that period, I found the average CPU temp when not under load was about 50 degrees Celsius or so (When it's normally at around 20 degrees) so I drastically underclocked it to 2.80GHz where it sits at now. Not too long after that, I smelled something. Looked inside the case and ooh la la! 3 blown capacitors right beside the CPU.
Click to expand...

You can pick up a good AMD motherboard for pretty cheap now. My wife actually built the PC we've got here. I think the motherboard was a little over $100. Anyway, A while back I decided I wanted to upgrade it, but for me upgrading the motherboard didn't make sense. I ended up replacing the quad 3.0GHz processor(wouldn't even overclock to 3.2GHz)with a newer 6 core 3.2GHz. I haven't tried overclocking the new one yet since I need a better cooling solution. I've been looking at the self contained water cooling systems you can buy now, they seem nice.
 
LOLZpersonok said:
How much will Apple charge to have it fixed? And how could I fix it myself?
Click to expand...

It's a whole logic board for the NVidia issue (too expensive to be worthwhile), not to mention the wear and tear on other parts on a machine of that age. Displays do not last forever. They dim and shift with time. You would have no idea what battery is in it. Is it the original, first replacement, second replacement, etc.? Without a battery installed, the machine will not run as fast, even when plugged into the wall. They're still costly to replace unless you look at something after market, which I tend to avoid. The older magsafe chargers used to fray more often as well. It's not worth the risk buying something that old unless the price is practically nothing. If you bought one in 2007 and it was still running, there would be nothing wrong with keeping it. I just don't suggest spending money on a five year old notebook today.
 
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