POP goes the Macbook

[cparktd]

Just need a shoulder to cry on mostly! Genius appts booked till monday

Using my early 2011... just out of warranty this spring... with matte display and 16GB memory the other night. I heard a muffled pop. It immediately shut off and now will do nothing at all. I just wondered how much it's worth spending on it to fix. They already replaced the display and hard drive under warranty!

So... at what point $$$ wise, (fearing the worst here) do you advise cutting my losses and applying the repair fee towards a new one? Personal use machine and looks almost like it was just unboxed externally.
Thanks

 

[Sifinity]

Just need a shoulder to cry on mostly! Genius appts booked till monday

Using my early 2011... just out of warranty this spring... with matte display and 16GB memory the other night. I heard a muffled pop. It immediately shut off and now will do nothing at all. I just wondered how much it's worth spending on it to fix. They already replaced the display and hard drive under warranty!

So... at what point $$$ wise, (fearing the worst here) do you advise cutting my losses and applying the repair fee towards a new one? Personal use machine and looks almost like it was just unboxed externally.
Thanks

if its more than $600 and you don't mind a new 13" , imo go and buy the 13" , plus its 3-4 Years old now so its not going to last that much longer

 

[Abstract]

You'd spend $600 to repair a 3.5 year old laptop? For me, it depends on which model (i.e. the cost to purchase the item, or its replacement).


If by "Macbook", you're talking about the white plastic model, I wouldn't spend more than $200 on repairing it.

However, back in early 2011, 15" MBPs could also be purchased with a matte screen back then (remember the "high res" version?). In that case, I'd spend no more than $400 repairing it.

 

[sjinsjca]

3 years is early-onset good-service for a laptop. 4 years is really good service.

I'd just welcome the excuse to get a new one. The Retina MBPs are stunning.

 

[cparktd]

IIRC It was the highest priced 15" Macbook Pro at the time. Fastest processor, Hi Res Matte screen. I maxed the Ram myself.

I had bought an AIR but it just felt too wimpy to handle the thousands of photos I had in Aperture. So I returned the AIR and traded up...

Yuck, I'm using fairly new walmart special $500 Gateway desktop now. Windoz 8. God it sucks. Bought it of someone for $125 who needed the cash just to help them out. Figured I make a digital photo display out of it or something but the 21" display is crap too. Did I mention it sucked? It even struggles to load web pages. Slooooow.

 

[cparktd]

Update

First, thanks for the input guys!
Took it in and they quoted over $600 repair if returned to Apple BUT then offered a flat rate repair for $310. So for 310 they fix "anything and everything they can find wrong" with a 3 to 5 day turnaround time! (And 90 day warranty)

Hard to believe the 3 to 5 day bit as they have to Fed-X it from Nashville to somewhere in KY, fix and ship back. They only not count Sunday, so actually 4 to 6 days but still.. Wow, just Wow
Sign me up...

Wish me luck! I'll report back.

 

[Steve686]

First, thanks for the input guys!
Took it in and they quoted over $600 repair if returned to Apple BUT then offered a flat rate repair for $310. So for 310 they fix "anything and everything they can find wrong" with a 3 to 5 day turnaround time! (And 90 day warranty)

Hard to believe the 3 to 5 day bit as they have to Fed-X it from Nashville to somewhere in KY, fix and ship back. They only not count Sunday, so actually 4 to 6 days but still.. Wow, just Wow
Sign me up...

Wish me luck! I'll report back.

That's totally worth trying to fix for that price. My first issue 2008 unibody is still going strong and the ONLY reason I upgraded to a mid-2014 rMBP is because the 2008 wouldn't handle native GoPro videos as well as I would like.

 

[jimmyco2008]

Yeah, the shipping is really fast.

I dropped off one of my kids at my local Apple store on Thursday, picked it up on Monday. In that time, it went to Kentucky or wherever they do the repairs, and came back.

Anyway, what was the popping sound, do you know? At the very least they'd tell you what needed replacement (hopefully more detail than just "the logic board").

 

[MCAsan]

A 2011 maybe worth the repair. 2010 white MacBooks go for $300-450 on ebay depending on condition. If the memory and storage have been upgraded that yields a higher price....same for a replaced battery.

It is certainly worth getting a repair quote.

 

[kfmfe04]

Could be a blown capacitor - if so, it might not be that expensive/hard to replace (at least on most mobos).

Repair cost might depend on how good your technicians are in diagnosing/repairing the issue.