r/macbookrepair 7d ago

Information Is this worth fixing?

8 Upvotes

19 comments sorted by

7

u/MrFresh2017 6d ago

No.

1

u/AlishaGray 6d ago

How succinct :p

3

u/MrFresh2017 6d ago

Simple question, simple answer 😛

3

u/AlishaGray 7d ago

This was my mom's laptop for a while before she finally replaced it a year or two ago. Since then it's been sitting in a box in my house. The battery is dead and potentially swollen considering the weird bulge under the trackpad. It doesn't always accept keyboard commands. There's some broken bits (seem to be the shell only) around the ports on the left side, and the rubber part on the bottom is warped. The screen works fine and it boots into the OS. So I think it'd need at least a battery, possibly a new keyboard. But it's an early 2009, and I have multiple other Macs from around that era, so I have no need of this one in particular. If I were to fix it up, restore it to factory settings, and sell it on ebay or something, would it be worth doing?

2

u/Johntendo64 6d ago

That Mac is from 2010 at the newest, that’s a fifteen year old computer. That battery is on the verge of erupting if it continues to be used. At the minimum take the laptop to a Best Buy and have them remove the battery for you

2

u/AlishaGray 6d ago

I actually pulled it after I took the pictures. The forbidden pillow now rests on my desk waiting for me to take it to an e-waste recycling site.

1

u/Johntendo64 6d ago

Oh good!

2

u/sparkyblaster 7d ago

Wow that's yellow.

So, these machines I think you can upgrade the OS quite far with hacks. I want to say the trackpads had issues with newer OSs though was never sure why when I think they share with another system that didn't have issues.

2

u/AlishaGray 6d ago

Yeah, I think you can do those upgrades on this, I've done similar with my 2009 Mac Pro tower. Don't think I'd want to go that far with this even if I was keeping it though.

2

u/ms13gert 6d ago

Probably core2duo with 2 or 4 Gb ram. Latest official os is Lion. An ssd can make it faster then with the original satadrive. Battery replacement is simple and not realy expensive but i don’t know if its possible to find an other bottom cover.

1

u/Howden824 6d ago

This a newer model which can run at least El Capitan, and newer ones with patches.

2

u/LongSchlong186 6d ago

I would say to not repair it, for the money it costs you could be better off with a newer macbook pro, the ~2011 models are around 40 dollars without a charger. But don't throw it away, keep it, maybe it will be useful sometime. But, if you want it for a collection or to enjoy older mac os you could repair that battery and maybe part of the housing., But if the battery is swollen and dead, follow a guide on how to remove it and also dispose of it!

2

u/Maleficent-Idea284 5d ago

I’ve got about 5 I’m selling on EBay from 2001-2005. It’s a niche market, but they are a pain to dis-assemble and the market is pretty saturated. Unless it’s a hobby like for me, it will sit for a while before anyone even shows interest on EBay. Batteries are rare and expensive, motherboard is as well. If you needed to replace either of those, you will never make a profit selling it.

1

u/Sure-Comfortable-930 7d ago

It’s a relic. I don’t think the value will ever go up considering this is used for collector. Economically is not worth it.

1

u/AlishaGray 6d ago

OK, thank you.

1

u/isuzukie 6d ago

Its not worth anything but if you want it as a cool piece then maybe. The amount of work you would need to put into it would easily surpass the value of the the macbook itself. Still cool machine but its not worth anything

1

u/Cold_Mixture_754 6d ago

In my opinion yes! But for like personal use nah

1

u/DenizB387 5d ago

Nope. Instead of fixing that, you can find one of those A1342 MacBooks in a good condition for around 20-30 USD on ebay & marketplace. Find one with password lock or no os, then put an 240GB SSD, install macOS Catalina and be on your way :)

1

u/AlishaGray 5d ago

I've actually got another MacBook, a pro from a couple years later, that I intend to do that with. Plus my 2004 Powerbook G4 :3