Haven't posted in a while, but just received a nice conquest. It's a 17" MacBook Pro (Santa Rosa) (2007-2008). It had an "Exploded" battery, so I received it from a friend for free. Bought a new battery for it (About $15) and i have a nice machine! Upgraded the RAM from 2 to 3 GB, plan to upgrade it to 4GB eventually, just had the parts laying around to upgrade it to 3GB right away. Dumped a 320GB HD in it, Installed OS X Mavericks, and its running great! By the way, I do know about the 8600M GT in these models frequently failing, and am hoping it doesn't happen to this machine anytime soon. But if it does, oh well, it cost me $15 total, so not a huge loss... Well, I'm happy for now!
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17" MacBook Pro (Santa Rosa) - $15 Total
- Thread starter Tmargo101
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That's an awesome conquest - and where do you get replacement batteries for $15?
I've had a few 15" models of this era, all have had expanding batteries as well. Regarding the 8600GT, if it hasn't failed now, chances are it'll be good for many more years (it may also be a repaired or replaced logic board).
I've had a few 15" models of this era, all have had expanding batteries as well. Regarding the 8600GT, if it hasn't failed now, chances are it'll be good for many more years (it may also be a repaired or replaced logic board).
You might check with Apple and see if this model had been repaired already. If not, it might still be eligible.
I had a friend who has a white MacBook and they were going to throw it out because of the battery bulging. I bought them a new battery off of eBay and its been working great ever since.
I had a friend who has a white MacBook and they were going to throw it out because of the battery bulging. I bought them a new battery off of eBay and its been working great ever since.
That repair program effectively ended at the start of 2013 as they were only covering them for a period of four years after initial purchase. Apple was fairly strict on only covering what they had to because Nvidia was footing the bill. Nvidia required that all Macbook Pros with covered repairs had run a test suite and failed properly. If your Macbook Pro did not fail properly or if it was no longer bootable, they would not cover it under the warranty extension program.
That's a good score even with the 8600GT issues on those models.I found a Toshiba laptop recently with a bad motherboard so I found a new replacement motherboard and an upgraded CPU for $60 and it works fine now. It's actually better than new because the CPU is now a 2.3ghz Turion x2 Ultra. It came with a 2.1ghz single core Sempron.
First, the battery was from eBay, normally they're about $22-25, but I found an auction for a battery with 2 charge cycles on it for $15.
Also, any idea how to check if the logic board is replaced? I would like to know, but I haven't had any problems so far. Great laptop for light / medium use, but can't do much heavy lifting on it anymore... I've been using air display to use it as a remote display / keyboard / trackpad for my 11" i7 Air. Gives it full 1650x1080 res, and I can use the pro's keyboard / trackpad to control the air. Pretty awesome!
Also, any idea how to check if the logic board is replaced? I would like to know, but I haven't had any problems so far. Great laptop for light / medium use, but can't do much heavy lifting on it anymore... I've been using air display to use it as a remote display / keyboard / trackpad for my 11" i7 Air. Gives it full 1650x1080 res, and I can use the pro's keyboard / trackpad to control the air. Pretty awesome!
I'd crack the laptop open (if you feel comfortable going so) and see what the serial number sticker looks like. If it has a printed sticker with barcodes, serial numbers and such, its the original most likely. If its blank, missing, or has a hand written serial number (or one that doesn't match the body) it was replaced. Its usually stuck on the top of RAM slots. It might be viewable by removing the RAM shield, but I'm not sure.
Personally I'd quit worrying about it and just use it until it dies. Even the units that were "repaired" may fail; Nvidia said only "some" 8600M chips were flawed, but there are well-founded allegations that all of them are vulnerable and there are *many* stories out there about people who got replacement motherboards only to have those die as well. Really, what good would knowing do you anyway? Apple isn't going to fix it for free, and if you buy a replacement motherboard on eBay there's a good chance it has the same "ticking clock" on it. If the chance it's going to blow up really bothers you there's always the option of selling the machine to some sucker for a few clams profit and putting the money towards something else.
(Full disclosure: I actually have *two* of these machines, an Apple Refurb-store-sourced 15" model and a 17" model just like yours that was mine to keep after the company changed how it handled machine refreshes. Both still work fine, both might go "poof" at any moment. Maybe the only reason they haven't *poofed* yet is neither has been used much the last few years. The one thing I can't seem to find is any statistics saying what the long term failure rate of those chips actually is. Nvidia issued the recall because they were failing at a "higher than normal" rate, but it could well be that any chip that's survived this long is already past the threshold where it's any more likely to fail than any other similar semiconductor product of similar age, IE, the ones that were prone to blowing up "early" are already weeded out. Nobody expects a laptop to last more than four or five years anyway now so whatever mileage you get out of it at this point is a bonus.)
(Full disclosure: I actually have *two* of these machines, an Apple Refurb-store-sourced 15" model and a 17" model just like yours that was mine to keep after the company changed how it handled machine refreshes. Both still work fine, both might go "poof" at any moment. Maybe the only reason they haven't *poofed* yet is neither has been used much the last few years. The one thing I can't seem to find is any statistics saying what the long term failure rate of those chips actually is. Nvidia issued the recall because they were failing at a "higher than normal" rate, but it could well be that any chip that's survived this long is already past the threshold where it's any more likely to fail than any other similar semiconductor product of similar age, IE, the ones that were prone to blowing up "early" are already weeded out. Nobody expects a laptop to last more than four or five years anyway now so whatever mileage you get out of it at this point is a bonus.)
Well, I'm not selling it, that's for sure! I'm not too bothered about the possibility of it dying right now, but I was considering upgrading it to replace the CD drive with an optibay and 32GB SSD to boot OS X, and possibly upgrade it from 3-4GB RAM. These are not huge upgrades, but in total it would be about $50-60 and i'm not sure I would want to spend that kind of money on a machine that may die the week after I get all the upgrades.
That's really the only reason I would have to worry, but I honestly may leave it as-is, its not too bad performance wise, better than expected.
Also TheMayGuy, Thanks for the info. I'll check under the RAM covers, but i've already disassembled it once, I don't really feel like totally tearing it down just to see if the MoBo had been replaced. My money would be against it though, the friend i got it from had OS X 10.5 Leopard on it, and had never upgraded it beyond stock, so I don't think he had the MoBo replaced. He's not too computer-savvy, so I can't ask him.
That's really the only reason I would have to worry, but I honestly may leave it as-is, its not too bad performance wise, better than expected.
Also TheMayGuy, Thanks for the info. I'll check under the RAM covers, but i've already disassembled it once, I don't really feel like totally tearing it down just to see if the MoBo had been replaced. My money would be against it though, the friend i got it from had OS X 10.5 Leopard on it, and had never upgraded it beyond stock, so I don't think he had the MoBo replaced. He's not too computer-savvy, so I can't ask him.
I'd probably vote against it, but I suppose if it melted you could always use the SSD in something else.
Just recently I got around to putting a 500GB hard disk I bought *ages* ago into my 17", intending to install Mavericks on it just for LoLs. (It's free, after all.) I have to say that I remember the thing performing pretty well when I put it aside but today it's definitely quite noticeably slower than the i5-equipped 2010 Unibody that replaced it. (And is actually slated for retirement soon.) Can't go home again, I guess. It's still pretty comfortably over the 'pain threshold' and a perfectly usable machine *today*, but it doesn't have much a future.
