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My MacBook Week From Hell

JaySoul

JaySoul

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jan 30, 2008
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This has been one of those weeks that made me want to tear my Apple-related hair out.

- I got my wife an early 2015 Macbook Air back in December. She eats biscuits. The keyboard got sticky and so I decided to clean it, but in the process realised it had been sold to me (via eBay) by someone who had almost certainly liquid damaged the keyboard.

Resolution: I got a bargain on eBay for a keyboard replacement, but it was actually the entire bottom half case. Spent a couple of hours and did it last night, works much better now.

- Last Friday, my Macbook Pro 2011 died. Straight up dead. The dreaded GPU timebomb exploded and luckily it let me do one final Time Machine backup, but it's sitting there waiting for Godot.

- I bought a mid-2015 Macbook Pro WITHOUT a hard drive from eBay and foolishly didn't realise Apple switched to Pentalobe screws. Had to buy the screwdriver kit (of course, nobody sells it in London) from the internet, so that took a while to deliver.

Finally opened it up and foolishly didn't realise that Apple had completely changed the SSD format, so I couldn't just swap in the SSD from my 2011.

- At least Apple stock had a good week :D

SO TWO QUESTIONS PLEASE YOU GORGEOUS FORUM MEMBERS:

1) What should I do with the old MBP 2011? Everything worked fine, it's probably only the GPU. Is it worth getting fixed (then selling it/keeping it as back up), or should I strip it for parts now and sell individually?

2) I've investigated the MBP mid-2015 SSD situation. Crikey. Didn't realise it was more proprietary Apple SSD's only to get the best speeds. Don't necessary need top of the range speed. Just wondering what you think is the best thing to do. Third party SSD? OWC? Wait for the right Apple SSD while booting externally?

Thank you in advance, as always.
 
Third party SSD will be just fine. For best performance non apple go with the Samsung 960 Pro line. If cost is a concern any one SHOULD [SHOULD] be just fine.
 
Mindinversion said:
Third party SSD will be just fine. For best performance non apple go with the Samsung 960 Pro line. If cost is a concern any one SHOULD [SHOULD] be just fine.
Click to expand...

Thanks... Ironically I installed a Samsung 950 Pro into my MBP 2011. Now I've taken it out, put it in an enclosure and am booting the entire 2015 MBP from it. It works surprisingly well - certainly as a temporary solution, it should be fine for a couple of months.

I'll probably keep an eye out for OEM SSD's and see if I can get one at a decent price. Would love 1TB (like my Samsung) but right now, it's very expensive.
 
Now I've taken it out, put it in an enclosure and am booting the entire 2015 MBP from it. It works surprisingly well - certainly as a temporary solution, it should be fine for a couple of months.
Click to expand...

Nothing wrong with that at all.. if it works, it works :)
 
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JaySoul said:
- Last Friday, my Macbook Pro 2011 died. Straight up dead. The dreaded GPU timebomb exploded and luckily it let me do one final Time Machine backup, but it's sitting there waiting for Godot.

1) What should I do with the old MBP 2011? Everything worked fine, it's probably only the GPU. Is it worth getting fixed (then selling it/keeping it as back up), or should I strip it for parts now and sell individually?
.
Click to expand...

Hi also from London. I feel your pain. I have a pimped * late 2011 17" and I was in the middle of a big job for a new client on their premises when the MBP shut down. The video board had blown. Apple were aware of this as a known issue on 2011 laptops and had an extended repair programme that only ended 31.12.16!

Amazingly I took it to Stormfront authorised service centre 2nd week of Jan and they put a new logic board in for free, as Apple obviously took pity on me as the issue occurred over the holidays even though I didn't report it till early Jan.

Might be a bit too much to hope for but maybe find out.

* pimped as in 16GB ram and 960GB Crucial SSD, so well worth getting fixed to work on until the rumoured Kaby Lake refresh at least.
 
Last edited:
JaySoul said:
Thanks... Ironically I installed a Samsung 950 Pro into my MBP 2011. Now I've taken it out, put it in an enclosure and am booting the entire 2015 MBP from it. It works surprisingly well - certainly as a temporary solution, it should be fine for a couple of months.

I'll probably keep an eye out for OEM SSD's and see if I can get one at a decent price. Would love 1TB (like my Samsung) but right now, it's very expensive.
Click to expand...

How do you use a Samsung 950 Pro in a 2011 Macbook. Is there some sort of adaptor for the M.2 nVME Samsung stick drive. Or we talking about an 850 Pro which is a standard SSD
 
jerryk said:
How do you use a Samsung 950 Pro in a 2011 Macbook. Is there some sort of adaptor for the M.2 nVME Samsung stick drive. Or we talking about an 850 Pro which is a standard SSD
Click to expand...

Sorry, meant 850 Pro! Standard SSD.
[doublepost=1486243098][/doublepost]
hotmetal said:
Hi also from London. I feel your pain. I have a pimped * late 2011 17" and I was in the middle of a big job for a new client on their premises when the MBP shut down. The video board had blown. Apple were aware of this as a known issue on 2011 laptops and had an extended repair programme that only ended 31.12.16!

Amazingly I took it to Stormfront authorised service centre 2nd week of Jan and they put a new logic board in for free, as Apple obviously took pity on me as the issue occurred over the holidays even though I didn't report it till early Jan.

Might be a bit too much to hope for but maybe find out.

* pimped as in 16GB ram and 960GB Crucial SSD, so well worth getting fixed to work on until the rumoured Kaby Lake refresh at least.
Click to expand...

No way!! Wow, definitely worth finding out about.... Thanks!
 
hotmetal said:
Hi also from London. I feel your pain. I have a pimped * late 2011 17" and I was in the middle of a big job for a new client on their premises when the MBP shut down. The video board had blown. Apple were aware of this as a known issue on 2011 laptops and had an extended repair programme that only ended 31.12.16!

Amazingly I took it to Stormfront authorised service centre 2nd week of Jan and they put a new logic board in for free, as Apple obviously took pity on me as the issue occurred over the holidays even though I didn't report it till early Jan.

Might be a bit too much to hope for but maybe find out.

* pimped as in 16GB ram and 960GB Crucial SSD, so well worth getting fixed to work on until the rumoured Kaby Lake refresh at least.
Click to expand...

So I've booked it in. Apparently it's unlikely it will be covered by extended warranty but fingers crossed. Thanks for the tip off!
 
If you've written the laptop off as 100% dead, will throw it away. Try to resurrect it from the dead:
http://ales.io/2014/03/09/how-to-bake-a-mac.html

Done it on a 17" Macbook Pro Core 2 Duo and the Late 2011 Macbook Pro. The 17" still works fine and the 2011 model survived a year before dying again (baked it before Apple launched the issue repair program, since they didn't want to cover it, but i got the baked logic board replaced after the repair program launched).
 
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Has anyone found out what the problem is with these 2011 MBP's? I have a 17 model, and I've been through 3 logic board & graphics board replacements, 2 charging boards, a HDD, a display, and an upper case (I'm not exactly clear on this one) all replaced by Apple to get it going again and to hopefully keep it from happening.

I might be off on this, but I thought it had something to do with a thermal paste that was cracking. These repairs all seem really excessive all within in 3 months. Is this happening to others??
 
1) Happened to me a month ago. Got a 2016 nTB MBP and sold my 2011 MBP as "Broken" to Gazelle. I even took out my SSD and RAM before sending it to them.
 
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It's a bit frustrating that my MBP with a known issue was perfectly fine for years until a couple of weeks after the deadline, then suddenly dies.

I understand they need to have a cut off date but in this case, it is their fault - clearly, if there was an Extended Warranty.

Went to Stormfront, they said to speak to Apple. So I've booked in an appointment. I'm not particularly hopeful but worth a shot.
 
JaySoul said:
It's a bit frustrating that my MBP with a known issue was perfectly fine for years until a couple of weeks after the deadline, then suddenly dies.

I understand they need to have a cut off date but in this case, it is their fault - clearly, if there was an Extended Warranty.

Went to Stormfront, they said to speak to Apple. So I've booked in an appointment. I'm not particularly hopeful but worth a shot.
Click to expand...
When I went in for the same issue in mid-January, they said that now that the early 2011 MBP is officially considered "Vintage", they do not carry parts for the repair, but they redirected me to Apple Authorized repair shops. Hope it works out for you, because it was an amazing laptop!
 
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