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Sell your MacBook

John

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John
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  • Thanks for the post! All expandable MacBooks (MacBooks up to Mid 2012 non-retina) have two slots for RAM, and the memory is usually divided between the two slots. That generally gives you 1GB (2x512MB), 2GB (2x1GB), 4GB (2x2GB), 8GB (2x4GB), or 16…
    in MacBook Pro how much RAM can I put on this laptop ? Comment by John March 2019
  • Hi! Thanks for the post! It all depends on which MacBook Pro you have. Let me know the year...if you don't know, I can look it up with the serial number, or you can look it up yourself at https://everymac.com/ultimate-mac-lookup/. If it's 2011-i…
    in Lost firmware password Comment by John February 2019
  • Service alerts are like the "check engine" light in your car -- they are set off when certain thresholds are passed (miles, load cycles, etc.), but they do not necessarily mean that something is wrong with your car, or your battery. The l…
    in MacBook Pro Battery Comment by John February 2019
  • Thanks for the post! This question and endless variations of it are very common, and they all have the same answer: Do a Google search to determine what the system requirements of the software are, and then see if your computer meets the system re…
    in Does Logic Pro work on my MacBook? Comment by John February 2019
  • Thanks for the post! A blinking question mark means that for whatever reason the laptop is unable to boot to the operating system. This could be because there is no hard drive, or that the operating system on the hard drive has become corrupted an…
    in MacBook Pro displays ? when booting up Comment by John February 2019
  • That's too bad...I think you just have a fried board. There's not much more that can be done without resorting to board repair, which I don't do (and which doesn't really make sense on such an old model). I have a ton of A1181 boards, so if you e-…
    in Another A1181 Comment by John January 2019
  • Hi Abel! Thanks for the post! Sorry about the situation in Venezuela. I have heard from several people that things are very tough down there...hopefully it will improve before long. Is the sleep light on permanently? Or does it come on when you…
    in Another A1181 Comment by John January 2019
  • There are lots of factors. Sold listings are a GREAT tool. But make sure to sort the sold listings by "recent first" rather that "lowest first" or "highest first", because that will give you a better sense of average …
    in Questions on buying from recyclers Comment by John December 2018
  • Hey Rob! Thanks for the post! I could write about 500 pages on these topics, so I'll try to put together a good summary. But first, since you have board repair experience, have you thought about buying bad boards, repairing them, and then selling…
    in Questions on buying from recyclers Comment by John December 2018
  • Hi Mark! Thanks for the post! The "last upgradeable" MacBooks are the mid-2012 Pros: 13" 2.5GHZ i5 dual, MD101LL/A 13" 2.9GHZ i7 dual, MD102LL/A 15" 2.3GHZ i7 quad, MD103LL/A 15" 2.6GHZ i7 quad, MD104LL/A 15" 2…
    in Next MacBook Pro purchase: "disposable" or older "upgradeable"? Comment by John December 2018
  • Hi Dorison! Thanks for the thoughtful post! The Apple/Amazon move to dump small businesses will certainly hurt our ability to sell Apple devices, making perhaps 30% of the total online marketplace off limits to us. But there's still a ton left, a…
    in Repairing Macs for Income Comment by John November 2018
  • Thanks for the post! I've found most of my suppliers on eBay. The thing is, if you're selling piles of broken stuff on eBay, you're probably doing it because you don't have another outlet for it. In other words, these kinds of sellers often don't…
    in Apple Part Supplier Comment by John November 2018
  • Hi Al! Thanks for posting! The problem with recyclers in this case is that they are generally responsible for wiping drives and insuring that data cannot be recovered. So they will sell you good drives that have been properly wiped, but not damag…
    in Hard drives Comment by John November 2018
  • Hi! Yeah, you pretty much want to send back the RAM. I'd make sure it's fully seated first -- sometimes a module will pop up diagonally out of its socket at an angle if it's not fully seated, and that will cause kernel panics. Often the top modul…
    in Kernel Panics Comment by John October 2018
  • Beeping and a black screen generally indicates a memory issue. Make sure you have RAM installed. If you do, try powering on with one slot empty, and if that doesn't work, try powering on with the other slot empty. If it works with one slot empty,…
    in Beeping when I turn it on Comment by John October 2018
  • Hi! 17" MacBook Pros need 85W chargers in order to be powered on with a dead battery, so the first thing you need to do is verify that you have an 85W charger and not a 60W. If you happen to have a 60W charger and a bad battery, you're never …
    in 17" MacBook Pro won't power on at all Comment by John September 2018
  • Thanks for the post! With A1181 backlight issues, you have to look at the complete chain of hardware components that could be involved — screen, inverter cable, and board. Each will show certain symptoms. If you power on and immediately see a fla…
    in White MacBook flickering backlight issue Comment by John September 2018
  • Yes! It's a retina Pro, so the RAM is embedded and not changeable. But everything else I stated still applies.
    in Dead MacBook Pro 15" Comment by John September 2018
  • Don't scrap it! First off, what laptop do you have? If you know the year that will help, or I can look it up by the serial. You can find the year by Googling "applecare serial number lookup" and plugging the serial into the Apple page. …
    in Dead MacBook Pro 15" Comment by John September 2018
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    in Hard drive not recognized Comment by John September 2018
  • Hi! More information on specifically what you have tried would be useful. I don't know by what method you are trying to recognize the drive. I don't know if you are migrating data from a previous drive, if your previous drive has died, etc. If y…
    in Hard drive not recognized Comment by John September 2018
  • Hi! Yes, I am potentially interested. Please check out the "contact" link on this page, or click on the "Sell Me Your Broken Computer" button from anywhere within this site. Enter the relevant info, and I will get back to you …
    in Mac laptops for sale Comment by John September 2018
  • Wow, that's an old laptop! There is not a reliable method of fixing the problem permanently. In these laptops, the GPU comes un-seated from the board, and when you squeeze the left side, you are literally pressing the chip against the board so it …
    in iBook G3 bad video Comment by John September 2018
  • I would not recommend using an OS that Apple doesn't allow you to install. There is a reason Apple cuts you off at a certain point -- generally, the laptop's GPU is not capable of running the new OS efficiently, and you're going to suffer from seve…
    in High Sierra on A1181 white Macbook Comment by John September 2018
  • Hi! This is a big topic, but the primary thing to keep in mind is that the Air sacrifices a lot of processing power and overall functionality in order to give you a thin, light computer, so if you don't specifically need a thin, light computer, you…
    in Air or Pro Comment by John August 2018
  • Good luck, and let me know how it goes!
    in EFI password Macbook pro 13' early 2011 Comment by John December 2017
  • Thanks for the post, and sorry for the delay! I'm less familiar with software issues than hardware -- my answer to OS problems is generally to wipe the drive and reinstall. :-) But I am curious how long it's been since you've done that, since peo…
    in kernel_task consuming a lot of memory Comment by John November 2017
  • Thanks for the post! These are big topics, so I'll just do an overview. Personally I specialize in Apple laptops. Tablets and phones aren't really designed to be repaired, so they are relatively difficult, and they are plagued with locking issues…
    in General Information. Comment by John July 2017
  • Interesting! Yeah, I've run across cases where a blank password is not a good password -- in newer OS versions, if you go into the Security settings system preference panel to do various things, it will not let you unlock the lock icon if your pass…
    in Password for sudo commands? Comment by John March 2017
  • Hey Aaron! Good to hear from you! I'm not an expert on verbose mode, but I don't think there's anything on 2010s that can't be wiped (I think that started late 2011-ish?) Verbose mode was often set to "on" with new boards from Apple so …
    in Password for sudo commands? Comment by John March 2017