What to do with my bust MacBook Pro?

WillNicholls

WillNicholls

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Ok so some of you may remember a thread from a few months ago (because it's so damn stupid) about my broken MacBook Pro.

It's a 15" retina, mid 2012 model. I spilt beer on it... and left it on. :D Oops.

Anyway it cooked itself and the hard drive etc still works and at one point in a repair shop in Cambodia it did start up and I could see all my windows from last use open etc but then it quickly died again. Apparently some connection is fried to the screen or something.

So I'm wondering - what do I do with it now? Can I get it repaired - if so where do you recommend I go ?
 
  1. Remove the drive and sell it for bits.
  2. Get it repaired and sell it as working.
 
gramps said:
  1. Remove the drive and sell it for bits.
  2. Get it repaired and sell it as working.
Click to expand...

Is it best to go to an Apple shop or some third party store? I imagine Apple will charge a fortune, even if just to remove the hard drive.

Plus, I don't actually know exactly what's wrong with it so would is there a service to find this out anywhere you know of ?

I've been researching and emailed a couple of places but no joy.
 
Book an appointment at the Apple Genius Bar and explain your issues, they will quote a costs before doing the work but will have a good idea of the time and cost involved. Before you go down check to see how much they selling second hand on ebay, it will give you an idea if its worth paying for the repair!

If it isn't worth the repair cost then remove the hard drive (not that hard to do) and sell for parts, the retina display will be worth something alone!
 
THESE PEOPLE do a fixed £89:00 quote/diagnostics/repair (+ parts), though obviously you would need carriage in and out.
Might be worth giving them a call.
 
WillNicholls said:
There's sensitive data on there though - I'd need to format the hard drive and not sure how since it won't turn on.
Click to expand...
Be aware that formatting the hdd does NOT delete your sensitive data, all it does is remove the 'index', so the data is still there, but unreachable using normal access. This is why you'll find tools that can recover 'lost' data.
You can get software that erases the data (writes 1s and 0s), which is good enough for normal use, but the only way to truly irrevocably delete the data on the disk is to grind it down to powder.
 
You'd be looking north of £650 for a repair via the Apple Store. Trust me I know.

The issue with liquid ingress is that it corrodes the metal on the boards over time and so any liquid ingress is likely to require a main logic board, connector board and potentially the top/keyboard casing - even if they salvage your hard disk and battery.

I'd gut the hard disk out of it (I'm sure you tube has some step by step examples) and sell if as spares or repair on eBay. As has been said above the screen is worth a fair few quid even if the rest is wrecked.

Providing of course you have the permission of the insurers to re-sell it, and that they are not expecting you to retain or scrap it (you might find they look to recover equivalent costs from the repair from you if you do sell it without their approval).
 
LC2 said:
Be aware that formatting the hdd does NOT delete your sensitive data, all it does is remove the 'index', so the data is still there, but unreachable using normal access. This is why you'll find tools that can recover 'lost' data.
You can get software that erases the data (writes 1s and 0s), which is good enough for normal use, but the only way to truly irrevocably delete the data on the disk is to grind it down to powder.
Click to expand...
I forget how many passes it is, I think more than 5 passes of 1s and or 0s pretty much renders it unreadable to everyone but those with multi million pound labs at their disposal.
 
neil_g said:
I forget how many passes it is, I think more than 5 passes of 1s and or 0s pretty much renders it unreadable to everyone but those with multi million pound labs at their disposal.
Click to expand...
TBH just one pass means you're in the "paying £700 to get it assessed and then it's thousands to actually recover the data" department.
 
neil_g said:
I forget how many passes it is, I think more than 5 passes of 1s and or 0s pretty much renders it unreadable to everyone but those with multi million pound labs at their disposal.
Click to expand...
Agreed, but formatting the drive, as stated by the OP, isn't sufficient in the slightest, which was the point I was making.
 
Disk utility has a secure erase option . Just select the number of passes.
 
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