My four Year old Mac Pro is dying. What to do?

[atlanticza]

With fans on full blast continuously, temperamental start-ups & differing RAM configurations, I eventually took it into an Apple Store.

Now for the bad news: Service technician reported that "I have diagnosed the machine all these components has corrosion on it the Motherboard, one Memory Rizer board and the Heatsinks. I have send you the quote as well if we want to go ahead but I advise to replace the machine there is too much damage. That is why the fans are going crazy."

Quote comes to half the price of a new Mac Pro. (And it's not a good time to buy a new one.) Seems a shame that all that great design, engineering and materials will probably be reincarnated as Coke cans.

At least, I thought one should get more than 4 years of life out of it. (Living on the coast has its disadvantages, it would appear.) Very little to salvage (apart from data) But what to do with it?

 

[ActionableMango]

Sell it "as is" with an honest and detailed description, or part it out on Ebay.

Probably will do better parting it out if several components are still good like power supply, CPU, case.

 

[goMac]

Time to buy a new one.

I'd also worry about why you've got corrosion in there. That's not common at all.

 

[Neodym]

I'd also worry about why you've got corrosion in there. That's not common at all.

Even though 4 years sound a little short indeed, I heard quite some stories of corrosion problems from people living in an aggressive (salty) sea climate, so it's not that uncommon to me. Especially with a sensor-loaded high-end beast like the MacPro, which probably is much more sensitive to that issue than an ordinary bread-and-butter standard PC...

 

[keysersoze]

Can you upload pics of the corrosion? Mostly out of curiosity.

 

[goMac]

Even though 4 years sound a little short indeed, I heard quite some stories of corrosion problems from people living in an aggressive (salty) sea climate, so it's not that uncommon to me. Especially with a sensor-loaded high-end beast like the MacPro, which probably is much more sensitive to that issue than an ordinary bread-and-butter standard PC...

If that's the case, OP should probably deal with that if possible. That corrosion took a significant amount of life off the machine.

 

[lannister80]

Time to buy a new one.

I'd also worry about why you've got corrosion in there. That's not common at all.

Is the machine kept somewhere where "sea breeze" could get at it? Ocean-front apartment?

I'm trying to think of other things that would (a) corrode the boards and (b) not kill you by being in the same room, but there aren't too many...

 

[d-m-a-x]

Is the machine kept somewhere where "sea breeze" could get at it? Ocean-front apartment?

I'm trying to think of other things that would (a) corrode the boards and (b) not kill you by being in the same room, but there aren't too many...

no, that happens. It happened to us at the old mattel building, something in the a/c, or industrial chemicals. Anything metal used to rust - c-stands, etc. That bad batch of drywall from china did the same thing, high on the sulfur content

 

[sectime]

Same thing happened with my 2006 8core MacPro. Bad motherboard, my Apple care had expired one year earlier. Corresion, bad heat sink paste install when new. Apple stepped up and covered the repair, Thanks Apple. Now when Mountain Lion is released it's left at the dock but at least I got more time out of it.

 

[GiantDolphin]

Not sure a sea breeze by itself could really be it. I have lived at the beach (literally one block form the beach) for the past fours years with my mac pro next to an open window for most of that. Not one iota of corrosion to speak of and the machine is in fantastic working condition.

 

[atlanticza]

Not sure a sea breeze by itself could really be it. I have lived at the beach (literally one block form the beach) for the past fours years with my mac pro next to an open window for most of that. Not one iota of corrosion to speak of and the machine is in fantastic working condition.

You're lucky then. I live about 40m from the beach and often have strong on-shore, moisture-laden SE winds (and I mean strong) that blow through any gap between window frames etc. The Apple service guy said it was not unusual to get complaints about Macs corroding especially from those living close to the beach. It's the only explanation that I can think of. But one would think that during manufacture, logic boards and other vulnerable parts should be coated with a protective layer.

 

[thekev]

Same thing happened with my 2006 8core MacPro. Bad motherboard, my Apple care had expired one year earlier. Corresion, bad heat sink paste install when new. Apple stepped up and covered the repair, Thanks Apple. Now when Mountain Lion is released it's left at the dock but at least I got more time out of it.

I'd give it a little time after Mountain Lion comes out. Everything you require may still run on Lion and Snow Leopard. Usually software companies try to estimate how many of their users are still on the older OS. In many cases you're better off waiting 2-3 months after the release of a new OS so that software developers have time to make bug fixes and prepare a stable release.

You're lucky then. I live about 40m from the beach and often have strong on-shore, moisture-laden SE winds (and I mean strong) that blow through any gap between window frames etc. The Apple service guy said it was not unusual to get complaints about Macs corroding especially from those living close to the beach. It's the only explanation that I can think of. But one would think that during manufacture, logic boards and other vulnerable parts should be coated with a protective layer.

Well you could always look at a used machine. Many on here have even upgraded 2009s to hexacore machines. Regarding it being a bad time to buy one, the next update doesn't look that impressive in terms of cpu gains. We're likely to see a cheaper 6 core (but not guaranteed). You'll probably see some nice gains around the $2500-3k level. If you jump on a used one, you might be able to do okay flipping it later if you look for a deal now.