so i currently have a non unibody macbook pro 15" that ive been using for about the past 4 years.
for the past 6 months ive been having issues with the screen going negative when it gets warm but if i move the screen it will go away (annoying but tolerable)
well today i go to turn it on and i get the usual apple startup screen (grey screen with the apple logo and the pinwheel) but after so long the pinwheel stops going around and it just freezes.
i tried to start it up in safe mode but still the same thing.
i then tried to reset the PRAM (control+command+p+r) but no progress
so i then tried to reset the SMC (removing the battery and power connection, holding down the power button for 5-10 seconds then reinstalling both and start the comp up)
that also yielded no results.
so after talking to iank and doing a bit of reading on the topic i have kind of an idea that it may be the logic board
now i hear that logic board replacements run upwards of $500 to start and since its out of applecare its going to be a $50 diagnostic fee at apple just to figure out what it is
so the real question is do i cut my losses and look into buying a replacement MBP with 2x the RAM and 2x the storage for like 700-800?
Check with the Apple store, they have a large recall on bum video cards I believe. Also that era suffers from hard drive and mainboard issues.
Added—
I almost forgot the hinges go bad on the unibodys fairly easily. I’d focus on the potential recall though…try to get it fixed for free then hock it and buy a replacement.
“They don’t make em like they used to”
I’ve worked with Macs for 20 years, the past 3-4 years have been the worst quality I’ve ever seen. I wouldn’t buy used but I would consider Apple refurbished since their shit comes with a 1 year warranty and you can buy Applecare. In case you’re wondering…I’m not throwing out random advice here, I see 100+ new MBP come in every year. I’m involved with imaging them and supporting them for 4 years. I have a pool of about 500 MBP and MBA I/my team supports.
None of the new MBP come with optical or ethernet which used to help differentiate the best fit between MBA or MBP. The air are super light but have fewer ports, I would go with the MBP personally. Something else to mention, the retina screens have a burn in effect that is pretty annoying. It goes away so it’s not like it screws your screen long term but it’s annoying as all hell.
the display on my current laptop is pretty bad so i doubt i would be dissapointed with the MBA but i do hook it up to my tv as a display when i stream stuff sometimes
so as a computer noob im curious what things i need to be looking for
4GB or 8GB of RAM?
flash storage or a traditional HD?
and the part i know the least about is the processor… i-5 or i-7?
the more i read reviews from all the mac leghumpers the MBP seems to edge out the MBA based on display as one of the main deciding factors…
They are non upgradable so go for the most you can afford basically. SSD are blazing fast but your capacity takes a hit, depends on what you need for space.
We just had one of these in the office at work go bad.
Ours had applecare, I seen the bill from apple it would have been right around 500 bucks for the logic board and one other thing, I think heatsink?
When we were researching the problem I have read that apple sometimes repairs these things out of warranty because it is a known issue, good luck with that.
Better count your blessings. There’s almost 1lb difference between the MBA and the MBP, while it’s only 1lb that is like 25% more weight. FWIW I use a 15" retina for several hours a day and I’ve had no issues personally. Applecare is a no brainer because the logic board repair is near $1k from what I recall. Noteworthy, Applecare does not cover accidental damage so don’t be retarded and drop or spill water on your laptop. Looking through old tickets here…the batteries aren’t as solid as they used to be either. I’ve had many swell and damage the mainboard as well as jack up the touchpad module. Added— Scrap the $1k, I just glanced at various invoices and the $1k repairs included various modules on top of the logic board. Our 3 biggest issues are mainboard, hard drive and LCD hinge failure.
Pennies in comparison. I’m used to dealing with education pricing which usually isn’t much better than consumer pricing.
Sounds like it might be a loose solder somewhere? My guess is the Genius Bar is basically going to tell you to either replace the whole computer or come up with $500+ for the logic board. Might want to look around locally for someone doing the repair.
Apple now accepts Old as fuck Macs for recycling in exchange for a gift card. This might be worth some thought too.
@XwalkerX, personally i’d go the ssd route as it will be quieter, faster, stouter and not put out as much heat as a traditional spinning hdd. As long as you have cloud based or external storage for when you run out, you’ll be happy you did. Otherwise, go as big as you can afford on RAM and CPU, as you’ll probably have this next one another 4-5 years as well.
I also believe this to be true… I just know he was looking used as well. Personally, I don’t think I could buy another traditional HDD again unless it was for some sort of storage solution. I’ve upgraded to SSD in everything I have and it’s just a world of difference in the performance of the machine.
You can CTO certain MBP’s with a traditional drive. Personally I think you’d be nuts to not run SSD but what the hell do I know. LOL, the non SSD offering I see is a 1TB 5.4k drive on the non retina MBP. What a piece of garbage!
There’s almost 1lb difference between the MBA and the MBP, while it’s only 1lb that is like 25% more weight. FWIW I use a 15" retina for several hours a day and I’ve had no issues personally. Applecare is a no brainer because the logic board repair is near $1k from what I recall. Noteworthy, Applecare does not cover accidental damage so don’t be retarded and drop or spill water on your laptop. 
Looking through old tickets here…the batteries aren’t as solid as they used to be either. I’ve had many swell and damage the mainboard as well as jack up the touchpad module. Added— Scrap the $1k, I just glanced at various invoices and the $1k repairs included various modules on top of the logic board. Our 3 biggest issues are mainboard, hard drive and LCD hinge failure.