{"id":1048,"date":"2018-05-02T16:41:23","date_gmt":"2018-05-03T00:41:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/accretiondisc.com\/blog\/?p=1048"},"modified":"2019-07-22T15:35:31","modified_gmt":"2019-07-22T23:35:31","slug":"macbook-pro-repair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/accretiondisc.com\/blog\/2018\/05\/02\/macbook-pro-repair\/","title":{"rendered":"Should I repair an old Macbook Pro?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m thinking about fixing an old computer. It’s a 2009 MacBook Pro<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It needs a new hard drive<\/a>. A replacement for the original 320 GB drive costs $30 but I’d love an SSD for $100 or more.<\/p>\n

It needs a new battery<\/a>. Those will cost another $100.<\/p>\n

And it probably warrants\u00c2\u00a0a\u00c2\u00a0RAM upgrade<\/a> as well. That will cost about $75.<\/p>\n

And why not replace the Superdrive with a second hard drive, like a 2 TB drive that costs $85? But it would also require a caddy for the hard drive<\/a> at about $35. (Or this other caddy<\/a> at just $25? Without more study, I’m not sure what the difference is. Update: the difference is a $10 “fix kit” with various tools and parts. Also, they say there’s a limit of 750 GB capacity<\/a> for the second drive.)<\/p>\n

I could probably shave off some of that buying the RAM on eBay or whatever, but barring some real bargains, the minimum to get it running is $30+100=$130. The “wish list” adds another $75+85+35 = $195, assuming my labor and tools are free. Plus S+H, of course.<\/p>\n

Speaking of which, the old computer isn’t here. It’s in Michigan, and getting it here will cost $60\u00e2\u20ac\u201c90, depending on the breaks.<\/p>\n

Sigh. This is why I’m thinking<\/em> about it.<\/p>\n

To be fair, it would be a pretty fair computer when I’m done. Unlike recent Macs, it will have expansion ports. But it won’t run High Sierra<\/a>. Not sure if that’s a bug or a feature.<\/p>\n

The best competitor for it available today is the\u00c2\u00a0Macbook Air<\/a>. That’s getting long in the tooth and will probably be eliminated or turned into something much less attractive, like the Macbook. But right now, it has 8 GB and an SSD to start, and 2 USB3 ports and a Thunderbolt 2 port. It weighs 3 lbs. vs. the MBP’s 5, and has slightly better screen resolution. But it costs $999 and up. A Macbook Pro starts<\/em> at $1299 and has only two Thunderbolt (3) ports, and lacks a separate power socket and SDHC slot; in fact its only real advantage is more screen resolution.<\/p>\n

If only Apple would make a MacBook Pro in 2018 as good as the 2009 one was. But that’s an non-starter, since it would require Apple not to suck.<\/p>\n

UPDATE:<\/strong> Consider using an SD card instead of a replacing the SuperDrive with a high-capacity hard drive. According to Apple<\/a>, the MacBook Pro’s card slot supports major SD formats<\/a>: SD (2 GB max. cap.), SDHC (32 GB), and SDXC (2 TB). It’s a USB device, so it would be a lot slower than a real SSD, but for bulky items that change rarely it should be adequate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m thinking about fixing an old computer. It’s a 2009 MacBook Pro. It needs a new hard drive. A replacement for the original 320 GB drive costs $30 but I’d love an SSD for $100 or more. It needs a new battery. Those will cost another $100. And it probably warrants\u00c2\u00a0a\u00c2\u00a0RAM upgrade as well. That […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[52],"tags":[997,705,995,993,996,776,994],"class_list":["post-1048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-apple-sucks","tag-diy","tag-hd","tag-macbook","tag-macbook-air","tag-repair","tag-ssd"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paRqpr-gU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/accretiondisc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/accretiondisc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/accretiondisc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accretiondisc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accretiondisc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/accretiondisc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/accretiondisc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accretiondisc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accretiondisc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}