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Macbook Pro woes


Lussac
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Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear...  Think I've fried the motherboard as it wont start up.  I've always had a protective rubberized cover on my 2011 15" but last night I foolishly tipped over a glass of red wine adjacent to it and the wine flowed underneath the cover (between the cover and the aluminium case) and now it's dead as a Dodo so I guess the liquid has found it's way inside.  I understand that a new motherboard is the most expensive repair that can be carried out on the MBP so it looks like a very expensive bill.  I'll have to take it to an Apple agent as the nearest Apple Store is a 3 hour drive away and I guess they will then send it to Apple for the repair. 

 

Nothing anybody here can do....  I'm just venting the anger of my own stupidity!!!

 

 

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I've been there, done that. :roflmao:

 

Last October I had to write off a Macbook Pro due to water spillage on it.  A lot of water.  Almost an entire jug of it.  In the middle of a presentation to a client. :roflmao:

 

Apple dismantled the machine and the cost of repairs was well over £1,200 before they even finished their inspection.  I binned it and spent £2,200 on a new model.  I've still got the old one with the intention of putting it on eBay for spares/repair.  Apparently I should get £300-500 for it (god knows why but they always seem to go for that sort of price).

 

You have my sympathy.

Edited by NewNiceMrMe
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I agree with 'Dirty Old Man' a 2011 Macbook is beyond economical repair, best thing to do is remove the hard drive which could be okay (can try it in caddy) then stick the Macbook on ebay to raise 50-100 quid towards a new one. Or claim off your house insurance if it's covered.

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I'll take in to the local re-seller anyway just to see what components are f'd.  I see that new motherboards from the 'states are about $499 for this model if that's the only thing that's gone, I can't seem to get the price of a new one in France so I'll have to wait and see but I don't think the reseller will want to fit parts they haven't supplied.

 

I've resurrected my old SONY Vaio in the meantime and bunged a Pinguy Linux distro on it and luckily have a full backup of the MBP at about 5 mins before I screwed it.  If the worst comes to the worst I'll get a new MBP but it's not an expense I want at the moment as I need four new tyres for my Kangoo before it's French equivalent of the MOT next month!!

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I agree with 'Dirty Old Man' a 2011 Macbook is beyond economical repair, best thing to do is remove the hard drive which could be okay (can try it in caddy) then stick the Macbook on ebay to raise 50-100 quid towards a new one. Or claim off your house insurance if it's covered.

 

Hi Andy,

 

Unfortunately here in France accidental breakage of anything isn't covered on household insurance, only theft or loss by house fire is covered.  Found this out last week when Mrs Lussac reported that she had lost a sizable diamond from her 3 diamond ring!!  I's not turning out to be a good month.

 

As you say, it's almost not worth getting the MBP repaired but I'll see what they say anyway but it does look like a new one

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Presumably the French version of the MOT is that you give a bloke some money, he looks at your car parked outside, shrugs his shoulders and stamps the form?

Err, no.  You have to take it to a specific Controle Technique station once every two years and they go over it in great detail and takes up to an hour depending on the vehicle, the last time it went in I had a fault note saying that they couldn't test the rear seat belts as there was a child seat fitted and that one of the number plate bulbs was out so it had to go back and check that it had been rectified.  I'm astonished that there are so many wrecks on the road but a local said that they only ever fix what the CT fails on.

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I agree with 'Dirty Old Man' a 2011 Macbook is beyond economical repair, best thing to do is remove the hard drive which could be okay (can try it in caddy) then stick the Macbook on ebay to raise 50-100 quid towards a new one. Or claim off your house insurance if it's covered.

And if you look in the Sales forums there is a caddy going spare...

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OK, an update...

 

Plugged in the magsafe adapter and it shows green (battery fully charged so I pressed and held the on-button for 15 secs or so and it fired up BUT...

 

...when unplugging the power adapter it shuts down immediately and I can restart it by plugging in the power adapter again, on looking at the system info for power it shows that there is no battery present.  It's unlikely that it's the actual battery as this was fine yesterday and the general consensus searching the Apple support boards is that the m/board is goosed, so apart from being able to start it up it's still not good news as using it like this (effectively as a desktop) will eventually cause problems with other components.  I've tried all the suggested methods such as SMC reset etc. all to no avail.

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I would ask them to have a look in that case - presuming it works fine with the adaptor plugged in

 Yes, I'm taking it in tomorrow but not expecting much.  A new m/board here in France is 800 euros plus so it really isn't worth it so worst case is that I'll run it until September as a desktop and then replace it with a new one (at around £1900 I reckon) but it still hurts as I was gong to use it for a few more years yet and as I'm on a fixed income pension now I have to watch the expenses (not looking forward to the day the Jag has to go when it becomes just too expensive to run either).

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OK, further update..

 

Took it into Apple Retailer in Limoges, they were closed 80 km round trip for nothing.  Tried emailing them a couple of times to see if they would look at it and that has elected no response whatsoever, it's one of the bad things about France in that customer relations/service do not exist and it's the biggest complaint amongst folks that have come from other European countries, Oz and the USA, they just don't get the concept at all so I'm not going to bother with that route now.

 

I've been in touch with an Apple repair place in MK and they have been extremely helpful and will take a look at the MBP when I visit in September.  They say it could simply be the DC board which would be £37.50 + VAT, if the logic board is repairable then they can do it for £225 + VAT if not a new logic board is £640 + VAT (£768!!) so if it's that I'll write it off.  They say that it's just possible that the battery has also failed and that would be £98 + VAT.  Because my time in the UK will be limited they have offered to swap parts from their own MBP (same model/month) to see what has failed and then I can make a decision.

 

If I assume the worst then I'm in for a new one and I've been looking around at prices, I'm looking at the 15" MBP Retina16gb ME294B/A.

 

There are a couple on Amazon one of which is fulfilled by Amazon at £1670 and £1655 but can't work out why they are being sold at such a large discount.

 

There is one on ebay for £1699 but I'm wary of buying anything on there.

 

The other option is buying from the education store for £1869 using my daughters uni logon which is by far the safest option plus 3 years Apple Care is only £60

 

Any thought/advice from those in the know would be appreciated.

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The "Amazon fulfilled" models you're looking at are Hong Kong models.  There is a keyboard variance to begin with.  There is also no UK warranty and one of the purchase reviews on there says that when they queried the serial number it didn't show up with Apple.

 

Some of the people on there are saying it is a known scam.  Whether it is or not, I've no idea

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I thought that might be the case, I know it's more expensive but it looks like I'll go with the Apple Store.  Of course getting delivery in time whilst I'm in the UK might be an issue, it'll take a couple of days for the MK guys to let me know the verdict.  If I order then then it's shipped within 24 hours but the small print says Express Delivery is up to 3 days (when I bought my iMac last year it was over a week before it was delivered!!)  and I'm only in the UK for 6 days and they won't deliver to a European address.

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Have to agree the educational store route is the best. You could always use a drop box type forwarding service. Have it delivered to a UK address then they forward it on to France.

Hadn't thought of that, will look into it...  Come to think of it there is a delivery service called Mouse-To House that will deliver to the local town but they charge about 10% of the invoice value which is a tad expensive.

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