Damaged 1.83 MBP Value?

[anderson22]

Hi...long time lurker, first time poster.

Anyhow, onto the question at hand:

I have a Week 16 MacBook Pro 1.83 ghz, 512 MB 100GB Notebook. Last week, I managed to close the MBP on my earbuds which were resting on the upper keyboard area and crack the LCD display and slightly bend the aluminum bezel. I ordered a replacement LCD off of eBay and installed it. (Since obviously it was going to be an out-of-warranty repair anyhow). Now, there's two issues:

I cannot adjust the brightness of the LCD. It originally was at a low brightness setting (but fully useable, of course, just dimmer than the retina-scorching backlight I was used to), but tonight I reset the PRAM, and now it's at the highest brightness setting (or close, I'd imagine), but I STILL cannot adjust the brightness, either through the keyboard buttons nor the control panel. Any Ideas on what could be causing this? The iSight is also not recognized by the system if that has anything to do with it. The connector for the iSight is firmly seated, however.

The second issue the machine has is the aforementioned bent bezel. The lower right corner is bent a bit, and the bottom back of the LCD enclosure is slightly bowed. It can be "snapped" back together, but will come apart a bit (~2mm) when the machine is closed. The hinge closes correctly and the latches both connect on the first try, but all is not "correct" (ie. 100% perfect).

Now, this is a perfectly capable machine, but with the advent of upcoming MBP's, I am interested in selling this machine. Would it be worth more as a whole, or parting it out? I'm not all too sure that the Mac market is as eager for notebook parts, as I've experienced in the past with PC laptop parts, but I'd be willing to try if it was worth my time.

Any guesstimates on what a good price on eBay, et al., would be for such a machine? Pictures will be attached in a moment.

Thanks!

 

[anderson22]

 

[Tastannin]

Man, that sucks. Sorry about that. I'd say might be worth a couple hundred off the value of a refurb or used MBP 1.83, since the warranty's shot. Maybe a hundred or so more than what a comparable Mini with monitor/kb/mouse would cost?

It'd be a decent desktop replacement machine or server with built in UPS/kb/monitor (heh). I wouldn't want to use it as a laptop - moving it around would probably aggravate the damage to the bezel, unless you treat it very, very, very carefully. No more throwing it around. You might want to either keep it as a desktop replacement/server, or use it as a laptop until it finally kicks the can.

Parting it out probably won't do much good until after the 1 year standard warranty on that model of MacBook Pro starts expiring early next year. That's when most people either get AppleCare or start looking for repairs (i.e. parts) on the cheap, imho.

If you can stick it out, keep it until the Santa Rosa chipset Core 2 Duo MacBooks are out.

Hope this helps, and again, sorry about your misfortune.

 

[kalun]

what ever it was before, it just got lowered....

 

[extraextra]

A little more than a new Macbook, I'd say? $1300ish? You could maybe hit $1500 on eBay.

The brightness can't be adjusted, and the iSight isn't working - and the warranty is voided so the user would have to shell out the money to fix those things. Also, since the C2D MBP's just came out, the value dropped even more.

 

[anderson22]

That's all I'm hoping for...not the best of circumstances, but I think I'll try my luck with eBay. Maybe ~1200 would be a good target to shoot for? I think I'll start the auction around 900-1000?

Thanks for all the replies, guys. It means a lot.

Anyone else have any clue as to my iSight and brightness issues??

Thanks.

 

[Tastannin]

That's all I'm hoping for...not the best of circumstances, but I think I'll try my luck with eBay. Maybe ~1200 would be a good target to shoot for? I think I'll start the auction around 900-1000?

Thanks for all the replies, guys. It means a lot.

Anyone else have any clue as to my iSight and brightness issues??

Thanks.

Maybe check with some of the people here at MR who have been trying to mod their MBP's to take HD displays? They may have a better idea of what is going on with your replaced LCD issues.

HTH.