So, I always hate starting new threads if all I am going to do is post stuff I own or give updates, so while I wanted to do a post on my current crop of Apple Laptops in various states of repair, I decided to add it here.
From newest to oldest:
- 2015 15" MacBook Pro Retina purchased from @jaysee a couple of years ago.
This MacBook Pro has been a champ, but even though it has largely been kept in a protective case, it is beginning to pick up small scratches and dings (or edge wear), because it has been my primary work machine. Prior to Corona madness, this meant shoved in a bag and taken to work with me every day on a 90 minute train commute. And my propensity for having nails (discussed at length elsewhere) has essentially destroyed more letters. They’ll need to be replaced. At some point I should consider opening up the back and clearing out any dust.
- 2011 13" MacBook Pro Unibody:
!
Before the pandemic hit, I had helped a client choose a 2012 MacBook Pro. He wanted the “same but better” and had a limited budget. Some years back, I had upgraded his 2011 to max ram, SSD, etc, etc. The 2011 has a badly wobbly screen, some missing rubber edging around the screen at the webcam, had been ENCRUSTED in cracker dust from the client’s child, a scratched up bottom plate and no feet. I sourced a pretty much mint base model 2012 for around $400. Thing hardly looked touched. Swapped in the upgrades from the 2011, updated to Catalina, copied over his user profile, apps, and files, and backed up a clone image on the 500GB spinner drive and taught the client to boot it as an external drive, just in case. I just got an update from the client: no news was good news. Hasn’t been a single issue with the 2012. It looks, feels, runs exactly as the client remembers, and my “service warranty” has been entirely unneeded. Did it cost the client more than purchasing a newer device? Absolutely, but as many of you well know, there is a value in “this is the same, but better” that many clients want. And the 2012 is still a rock star when it comes to these clients. At least until Apple drops support for them, but that was part of the conversation we had, and the client agreed. I got the keep the stripped 2011.
So what’s the plan for the 2011? Well, after a thorough cleaning, it’s actually in really good shape, as fair as refurbishments go. I had the minimum 4GBs RAM lying around and I put in an old 60GB SSD with a ready to go Linux installation on it. It’s smooth as butter on this hardware (as it was previously in a 2008 MBW). These will probably be replaced with better, newer stuff, but not immediately. I’m not going to bother replacing the bottom cover, I’m just going to get a case for it. Though I do plan to put on new feet. I’m eventually going to tackle the issue of the wobbly screen, and see if there is anything to be done about the missing rubber edging bit. Got some temporary stuff in there now, but it’s not great. The battery is at 54% and it should be replaced, but this actually a lower priority unless I choose to sell it. The intended use case is to replace my 2015 as my work computer. I have one of those superdrive delete kits which add an extra drive that I bought way back for my 2010 and was moved to my 2012 a lifetime ago. I’m thinking one will be Windows 10 and one will be macOS so I can better protect the 2015 for home use. I feel as though the 2015 hasn’t aged at all, and I still feel like it could have five or 10 more years of life as a primary device.
Oh, and the speakers suck. But I can’t really detect any problems. They’re not broken, they’re just… Really poor. Surprising to me, because I think they’re significantly and noticeably worse than the following two devices–but I can’t figure out why. They don’t sound damaged. Just… cheap. If I didn’t know the full history of this device, I’d wonder if they’d been replaced with third party knockoffs.
- 2010 13" MacBook White Unibody
This one is done. Technically the mostly working base device was purchased for my labor union, but I never asked for reimbursement, so legally, it is my property. It has Mojave on it, but it could easily go up to Catalina. I installed 8GBs of RAM and a 250GB Samsung 850 Evo SSD. I am leaving in the SuperDrive. Its combination of legacy and current ports (with a handful of adapters) make it ideal for the union’s macOS needs. Which are mainly my needs, as the IT director and the Apple person. I maintain the other officers’ HP Windows PCs in the office and our various Microsoft/Office 365 stuff we are all using for remote work (Sharepoint, one drive, license deployment, etc). When located in the union office, the 2010 connects to 30" Apple Cinema Display, standard wired Apple keyboard, and wired Apple optical mouse. It usually lives with me, but any member of the union may request its use by letting me know.
- 2008 13" MacBook White
This one is done, I hope. If I can point to any device that prepared me for pursuing a second career in IT, this computer would be it. Its current iteration is something of a Ship of Theseus. I bought my 2008 MacBook White for $1000 not too long after it came out in the Yodobashi Camera in Umeda, Osaka Japan. It was neither my first Apple used, nor with it my first Apple owned (Apple II-e and Mac Mini G4, respectively), and arguably it wasn’t even my first intel Mac (I hackintoshed a barebones ShuttlePC to run Snow Leopard), but its purchase cemented my love of both form and function of Apple products. It’s also the first Japanese keyboard I had, and now, 12 years later, I can’t type using anything else.
It wasn’t in a great shape as of a few years ago. I had purchased a second one and combined it with parts from the original to create a travel MacBook that I took with me on a five week trip to Europe. Unfortunately, by the end, it had deteriorated noticeably. Some ports ended up flaky, and the case became more yellowed and cracked. I ended up spending about another $90 to purchase another mostly working MacBook White that in combination with parts from my original MacBook White and the deteriorating Macbook White, created a nearly mint 2008 MacBook White. You can read those final steps or the entire saga here: New, Old Project: MacBook Oreo! - #44 by kionon
I have all the original box, documents, apple stickers, etc that came with my original. I also have a spare Apple optical mouse, and I have to say I’m really proud of myself. Not only is this device still beautiful to me today, but with my successful Linux experiments, it still feels wholistic and modern and actually can be used that way. My only complaint is the display. It’s too dark for 2020. The resolution isn’t really an issue. I genuinely wish it was swappable. The 2011 and 2010 both have non-Retina displays, but as they are 13", I don’t mind or really notice. They are both bright, and the 2010 is matte, which I prefer anyway. Still, the 2008 MacBook White is a machine I would feel comfortable handing to a guest that wanted to use a computer in my home and not receiving any complaints about it.
- 2006 13" MacBook Black
Sadly, this one needs a lot of repairs, or may need to be Ship of Theseus’ed itself and… I just haven’t found any sources of MacBook Blacks, or at least none with the same internals. It’s currently not even together. I could return it to a semi-functional state and make it “look” pretty–but it is effectively not useful. And even if it had all of its functions returned, it is 32bit, and Linux Mint 20 won’t even have 32bit support, and most of the Apps I used on the Macbook White to make it a genuine competitor to macOS or Windows won’t support 32bit. This is truly obsolete tech in as far as its intended purpose. This is a now a curiosity, a museum piece. Unless I wanted to run it as some kind of minimal server. But it’s not a MacBook in 2020. Not anymore.
- 1999 iBook Clamshell
From what I can tell, fully functional, but harddrive is dead. Harddrive is IDE and hard to get to. Best to replace HDD with some kind of compact flash memory to IDE or something. I’ve seen some people do that. Belongs to a union local that has existed since the 90s but recently joined our parent union. As IT director, I inherited it, but the local doesn’t care what I do with it. Definitely a museum piece in 2020. People sometimes comment on it when they visit, but it doesn’t serve any other purpose.
