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Early Intel - Trash or treasure? MacBook Pro 2008
- Thread starter AphoticD
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Well, I never thought it could happen, but what did I get in for repair today? A green dot sticker Early-2008 17" with GPU issues! Odd, right? Well, the first thing I noticed was that the symptoms it was experiencing were quite different from that of an actual failed GPU. In the case of this system, it would start booting no problem, no artifacting on screen, but eventually would just abruptly shut off. When powering back on, it would just turn the hard disk on, but no fans and no boot. Not the usual symptoms of a failed GPU for sure. The symptoms DID, however, match up to issues I experienced after performing my first ever GPU replacement on one of these, when the chip was not soldered properly due to my inexperience at the time. This behavior also changed when tapping the board on top of the area where the GPU is soldered. I opened the machine, saw that it already had an Apple-installed G84-603-A2 in there (complete with edge bonding), and proceeded to desolder it. Immediately upon removal, the issues were obvious. At least 4 solder balls were not soldered properly, and the solder mask was damaged in some areas (which happens if you use too much pressure when wicking the board), pictured below. Obviously a pretty bad job done by Apple's contractors. Luckily the solder mask wasn't bad enough to cause issues with re-installation, so fortunately, after installing a brand new G84-603-A2 (although I could have simply reballed the original 603, I decided to install a new one just for good measure), the machine started working reliably again. Just goes to show I guess, that even if you have an Apple-installed 603, you could still have issues. Not because of the chip this time (as it would be with a non-revised 602), but simply poor soldering. Something to watch out for on some very few "green dot" boards.
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Hu, bad news. But finally nothing is made to last forever!
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Just wanted to put a shout out that I have a spare G84-603-A2 that I was thinking of selling. I am UK based and these chips are hard to come by without waiting on shipping from China so if anyone wants a heads up when it 'goes live' on eBay - fire me a message
The green dot, if repaired by Apple, will have the green dot on the bridge of the RAM slots, right next to the serial number. Check out the photo @dosdude1 posted earlier in this thread as an example.
If, however, your MacBook Pro was produced after roughly October of that year (check the week of manufacture on the serial), then the logic board, if built with the updated GPU, will not feature the green dot because it never required a fix.
You just need to remove the battery and open the RAM-door ... #131
With Apple products generally, the first two glyphs in the serial indicate the factory location where the product was manufactured. W8 is a common one, which I believe is Shanghai (update: confirmed here). The third digit indicates the year of manufacture. The fourth and fifth digits indicate the week of manufacture. Everything after that, I believe, is the serial designation keyed to the device itself (which is how some online serial look-up services can provide the detailed info about a particular OEM configuration).
As explained by @B S Magnet, the third, fourth and fifth digit is what you need to look at. On machines built earlier than 2010 (?), you don't even need to decipher anything. For instance, a serial that starts with W8725... means "built in year 2007, week 25". They adopted a new system in 2010 or so which isn't as easy to decipher.
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"If built with the updated GPU"? So that implies that not all of the units built after that timeframe are assured to have the revised GPU? Ugh, Apple...
Correct.
Sometime around September/October of 2008 (around when the base configuration of HDD storage quietly went from 250GB to 320GB and standard RAM went from 2GB to 4GB for the MBP4,1), Apple had mostly sorted through the issue (which became known almost immediately after the first units went on sale in early ’08, but I’m guessing it takes some time for the supply/manufacturing chain to ramp up with the revised GPU supply) and ordered the revised GPU for the later models in the series. It was, of course, nothing Apple announced or publicized, because egg on the face, etc.
While I don’t have or even know around which production week that was, I would probably pin it around week 35 or 36 (late September) when subsequent MBP4,1 units shipped with the revised, G84-603-A2 GPU, and sold from October 14th through the end of run. Consequently, those would not have a green dot because they were never factory-repaired/replaced from an initial G84-602-A2 GPU.
In short, if you’re looking to buy a MBP4,1 and in the listing it appears the GPU is working, try to find out what the serial number is. Use that to look up the AppleSerialNumber service via Everymac.com. This ought to at least tell you when that particular system was made and whether it was bundled with the higher-capacity 320GB HDD and 4GB RAM as standard equipment and not as a BTO/CTO option.
The 15" 4,1 was discontinued on October 14th, 2008 with the introduction of the unibody MBP though, wasn't it? So are there many 15s that had the chance to ship with the revised GPU? The 17" 4,1 had a longer run so would have been more likely to have received the revised chip right off the bat.
Someone recently sent 3 of these in to me for GPU replacement. Got them all done, and all work perfectly now! Maybe I should try to make my own green dot stickers for these once I'm done.
Or even blue dot stickers for your own “brand” or “seal of quality” of sorts. As in, “Yeah my board has the blue dot, which means especial attention and care to the GPU fix was done by dosdude1…”
I totally support this idea.
Watch "Blue Dot" machines (or how about an "Original
Because the sample size, relative to green-dot repairs, is so small, it becomes one of those, “If you know, then you know” scenarios.
This machine is definitely a treasure, I upgrade this machine with 6 GB of RAM, install SSD with the amazing @dosdude1 Catalina patcher (thanks!), and its still work as good as my MBP 2015 with macOS Catalina. The downsides of this machine are its weight and relatively has high temperature than the newer series.
Attachments
I’m not sure if you already know this, but the Macs Fan Controller utility (which lives in your menubar) goes a long way to letting you actively manage the fans on the MBP4,1. This might help with some of your heating/high-temp issues. If not yet tried, it’s certainly less intensive than cleaning old thermal paste and applying a new round.
? I'm happy with the very same machine as my daily driver. Take care to keep it cool - I always use either an iLapStand or JustMobile LazyCouch for on the go ...
I wouldn't fully rely on any fan-controlling stuff ... On one occasion my MBP4,1 's GPU died after I closed the lid, then system went to sleep and fan-controlling-software too without continuing cooling-down monitoring and prolonged fan activity. As a result GPU-temperature and fans probably were out of control/off.
(May I didn't set up things correctly, who knows ...)
Have fun with Your machine (as do I)! Cheers
PS: I stayed with MojavePatch to keep both HFS+-file system (given, the has been pre-formatted/partitioned with HFS+ prior installation) and 32bit-compatibility for iPhoto/Aperture and Office'08 to avoid current 64bit alternatives, that often come with an annual or monthly licence-fee ...
You may check PCIlaneWidth regularly: x16 is the normal value. Lower numbers predict imminent GPU-failure.
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I don't believe so, but doing so shouldn't be an issue if you're willing to pay for the shipping.
shipping is probably more than the repair...
i want to type a personal thanks for all you dedication and creating the patch
on my MacBook air 2010 that functions great in 2021.