Turning A Free Scrap Macbook Into A Desktop PC!

Today we're going to turn an incomplete, scrap Apple Macbook pro into a usable desktop computer. #opera #ad #macbook

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Nathan Sivewright
Parcel Collect 10045 46100
Shop 4 254 Curtis Road
Munno Para SA 5115

Macbook pro specifications:
2012 15" Non retina MBP
I7 3720QM Processor
Nvidia Geforce GT 650M 1GB Graphics

[vueeyle]

I hope you enjoy the laptop and I am glad you were able to put my old Macbook to good use - Good video by the way!

[tech-bore]

Glad someone's finally highlighting this idea. I've saved several laptops from being scraped by doing this and it's something more people should think about.

[Nas_Allie]

The performance happened with me on an old Air 2012, I used OpenCore Legacy Patcher to create an EFI to bypass the battery limitations but still remain on the last supported OS!

[ReTex]

You can fix the performance issue by using opencore which has a function to disable this kind of throttling

[mahalisyarifuddin]

It's the 80's all over again, and I'm all for it!

Would also love to do this to resurrect my own headless laptop, but my external monitor is broken too. Since repairing + buying external monitor is relatively expensive, I might as well repair my laptop in its entirety.

[Zebra_Paw]

Great video! I'd recommend OpenCore Legacy Patcher though, to run Monterey on this Metal supported machine. It will be flawless and bug free (nearly).

Reballing will NOT fix your dead 2011 MacBook Pro... the chip itself is the issue... you might get away with cooking it, since the issue comes from small bridges inside of the die that can partially resolder with heat... but it's temporary. Replacing the chip is also temporary since it can fail again... the best fix is to disable dedicated graphics. It's partly AMD's fault, but mostly Apple's fault with terrible cooling (other laptops that use the same chips don't die).

MacBook SSDs were not removable all the way to 2017... The 2016-2017 TouchBar MBP models had soldered storage...
For MacBook Airs, you could replace the storage until 2018!
Worth noting that this proprietary storage isn't the same across all models... there are several types.

[nerdyneighbor]

I love this. So many people are like "yeah but which 2012 are you using which parts for?" And from my experience, you can do a lot of part swapping like you did here. People are so nitpicky about submodels, so I love that you franken-mac'd it.

[nddawson]

When you use a third party SSD in an Apple product, TRIM gets disabled by default. You can rectify this by opening Terminal and typing "sudo trimforce enable" and after accepting the prompts then a reboot TRIM will be functional on the third party SSD

[TovarasSanders]

I did exactly this with my 2014 ex-retina…still works like a dream…love Your videos man, been here for years, still a pleasure to watch these daily, thanks man!

[jameslatief]

It's fascinating to see how the one with good battery is actually running faster. So, this means that your old laptop with bad battery slowing down makes sense, it's not just Apple slowing you down with the updates.

[ethanpod]

A while back I took you idea of taking local schools laptops they are throwing out. Last year I got 5, all of them turned out working. All of them were an iteration of the 2015 MacBook Pro too!! Love your work!

[half-qilin]

Little tip with these machines; Opencore Legacy Patcher can patch out the performance drop from the missing/cooked battery.

[retrodude]

This kinda harks back to the 80s microcomputers, like the C64. Nice seeing a modern reboot of it!

[Piipperi]

You can use OCLP to remove firmware throttling on Macs if you don't have a good battery or a display

[DJSekuHusky]

I've found that the best donors are liquid damaged machines for housing swaps. It helps if they happen to die early in their life, too.

My free 2012 i7 13" Pro was rehoused into a free 2011 i5 model with liquid damage; the board had corrosion around the rear vents and wouldn't POST or show signs of life beyond a twitching fan.

The battery only had 134 charge cycles and was still in good health, the keyboard still had its matte surface, and not a dent or scratch anywhere on it.

The donor board machine had a stage light fall on it while it was open and it got flattened, but the unibody structure saved the board from damage (even if the hinges got ripped out of the aluminum from the impact).

It can also be a save for a poorly reconditioned device: i.e., I got a "dead" $5 ThinkPad X250 with an i7 that had seen some botched DIY repairs from its previous owner (my guess is failed trackpad?) . It was missing screws, the keyboard backlight diffuser, and the cable management was awful and the guy used the wrong length of screws in places, so there were little protrusions on the topcase and even a crack in it from the botched work.

Transplanted that (ultimately) working i7 board into a mint $28 i5 model with water damage, now it's good as new. Best of all you get a "small spares" machine, meaning you can harvest other smaller working bits like hinges, radios, keyboards and what not and replace as needed or sell to recover your funds.

Love watching your channel bud, keep up the good work!

[cosmosinity]

a psivewri video a day keeps boredom away!

[oldipodee]

Opencore legacy patcher will allow you to bypass the limitations due to the fried battery, and run a newer version of macOS.

[bitelaserkhalif]

I did this to a Lenovo laptop that has a broken hinge.

[emdotrod]

I think some people sold the headless Macbook Air M1 as an alternative to Mac Mini. These laptops with broken screen can still be useful as a low power desktop replacement

[ddg]

I've done the same a couple times with broken laptops. Too many people don't recognize the value of a device that can still work perfectly fine with just some DIY engineering.