Early Intel - Trash or treasure? MacBook Pro 2008

[drlunanerd]

.

 

[dosdude1]

Sad day - looks like this 2008 MBP has died. Family member called me to say the display suddenly went black. No previous graphics problems.

I've got it with me now. Turns on, power light on, SuperDrive noise, battery charging, but no chime and no display. Is this symptomatic of GPU failure? All I've tried so far is a PMU reset.

Yep, GPU has failed. No reset of anything is going to get it to boot. See the symptoms and repair process in my video here. If you're located in the US, I can perform this repair for you.

 

[drlunanerd]

Yep, GPU has failed. No reset of anything is going to get it to boot. See the symptoms and repair process in my video here. If you're located in the US, I can perform this repair for you.

 

[z970]

I wish I was in the US but alas I'm in the UK.

My heart goes out to you.

 

[Kliee]

View attachment 765638

We have a beautiful early 2008, MacBook Pro 2.5Ghz Core 2 Duo, fully restored, operational and fighting fit!

-AphoticD

Excellent work! Any machine that is still operational, or potentially operational, can get a new purpose. It really was worth it.

 

[mzs.112000]

View attachment 765638

We have a beautiful early 2008, MacBook Pro 2.5Ghz Core 2 Duo, fully restored, operational and fighting fit!

If I had even more patience, I would have spent more time trying to tidy up the aluminum bezel, but I'm okay with it like this. More important than looking nice is it's structural integrity, which I am pleased to say is now strong like any other typical MacBook Pro (or Aluminum PowerBook). It was very close to shearing right off and there were screws in the hinge which had snapped in half, so they needed to be extracted and replaced.

View attachment 765639 View attachment 765640 View attachment 765641 View attachment 765642 View attachment 765643 View attachment 765637

This saved, salvaged, recycled and re-purposed Mac will now live another day. I plan on keeping this one. Whenever I find myself getting this heavily involved with an older Mac, I end up putting them into regular use instead of just keeping it as a 'collectable' looking shiny and untouched or simply selling it off again.

-AphoticD

For that nVidia GPU, put in some really high-quality thermal paste, same with the CPU, and the northbridge chip...
Want to keep the temps really low on that thing, to save the GPU from dying, make sure not to cause the CPU any undue stress, and keep the northbridge happy(I think some older memory controllers and PCIe controllers had some heat-related instability, best to keep them cool).
My Dell laptop needed some thermal paste, because it kept having boot-up problems during restart...

 

[drlunanerd]

Yep, GPU has failed. No reset of anything is going to get it to boot. See the symptoms and repair process in my video here. If you're located in the US, I can perform this repair for you.

 

[dosdude1]

I recently got another 2007 A1226 MacBook Pro, and miraculously, it already had a revised GPU installed! This is not the first time I've found one of these systems with an Apple-installed revised chipset, but this is definitely the earliest, with a date code of 2008! I always thought nVidia started manufacturing the revised chips sometime in 2010, but it looks like that's not the case. Also, I've noticed that the boards with Apple-installed revised chipsets all seem to have this green dot sticker on the RAM slots, while ones with non-revised chips do not. This could very well be a sure-fire way of telling without actually opening a system, assuming Apple was consistent with these green stickers.

 

[timidpimpin]

IMO anything C2D or higher is worth buying. The CD and the even slower Core Solo are much more limited.
[doublepost=1549863660][/doublepost]

You don't. There is precious little pleasure in a GMA950 unless you love the sound of fans racing. It really was an absolute turd of a GPU. You would probably enjoy the MBP more even with the risk of its GPU dying on you.

The only thing I can say for the rev1 plastic MacBook is that it is as robust electronically as its casing wasn't.

Very true. My much older Radeon 9000 GPU has better graphic rendering than the GMA950 I had in my old late-2006 MacBook. The Nvidia 9400 in my 2009 MacBook and 2009 Mac Mini's is much much better.

 

[bobesch]

I recently got another 2007 A1226 MacBook Pro, and miraculously, it already had a revised GPU installed! This is not the first time I've found one of these systems with an Apple-installed revised chipset, but this is definitely the earliest, with a date code of 2008! I always thought nVidia started manufacturing the revised chips sometime in 2010, but it looks like that's not the case. Also, I've noticed that the boards with Apple-installed revised chipsets all seem to have this green dot sticker on the RAM slots, while ones with non-revised chips do not. This could very well be a sure-fire way of telling without actually opening a system, assuming Apple was consistent with these green stickers.
View attachment 821169 View attachment 821170

Really interesting!
Apple seems to hold a certain amount of replacement-boards for each product line.
I guess, after failing NVIDIA-GPUs became a wide-spread problem, those reserve-logic-boards were upgraded with that revised NVIDIA-chip and these upgraded boards, marked with the green dot, were used as a replacement for sent-in MBPs with GPU-failure ...
Did you notice anything like that (green dot or similar) with the newer early-2008 A1260 models?

 

[dosdude1]

Really interesting!
Apple seems to hold a certain amount of replacement-boards for each product line.
I guess, after failing NVIDIA-GPUs became a wide-spread problem, those reserve-logic-boards were upgraded with that revised NVIDIA-chip and these upgraded boards, marked with the green dot, were used as a replacement for sent-in MBPs with GPU-failure ...
Did you notice anything like that (green dot or similar) with the newer early-2008 A1260 models?

Yeah, it seems that the Early-'08 machines with Apple-installed revised GPU chipsets also have this green dot sticker.

 

[galgot]

Nice work on your old MBP all

... I just bought a MacBookPro 4,1 with that infamous 8600M chip two days ago , wish I'd read this thread before
Did not received it yet...

Btw I have another MBP 2,1 A1212 , these have a ATI Mobility Radeon X1600, crashed in the same way described here, no chime, no screen, only the power light and the DVD doing his starting noise... :/

 

[amedias]

@dosdude1 I can lend two more data points to the 'green dot' theory.

I have 2 A1226's here that came to me with the revised chips already fitted, and both have the green dot stickers!
One of them I know was sent back to Apple for repair in its past as the seller told me so, and it looks like they did a sloppy job as it's 'forgotten' it's serial number which means the Apple tech probably forgot to set it when the board was replaced.

The other has an unknown history but again has the revised Nvidia chip, and a green dot so was presumably either also fixed by Apple or came fitted with it originally.

I'd not really noticed the green dot stickers before but this thread prompted me to check the two known good ones I have. I've also got a few dead units and none of them have the green dot, I know that's not conclusive but there is apparently some correlation, would be nice to get more data.

 

[galgot]

So, got my A1261 MacBook Pro 17" earlier this week. Works fine, but took the time today to disassemble it.
No green sticker, and a G84-602-a2 inside... Think I better buy a G84-603-a2 before it get too difficult to find one.
I see a lot of links on the Bay and elsewhere .
@dosdude1 Please, what serious source would you recommend for a cheap G84-603-a2 ?
Knowing that I can't send it to you for replacing as I'm in France, just shipment would cost me an arm...
Will have to find someone to do it here, when that chip eventually dies.

 

[B S Magnet]

Welp, at least I know a definitive answer to what had been a sneaking suspicion that this pre-Unibody MBP which I just acquired in a trade, in cosmetically amazing condition, was plagued by a faulty GPU. (The trade was literally for some pantry items, so I don’t feel too heartbroken.)

It’s an early 2008 Penryn — a 2.5GHz version built in March 2008 and configured with the hi-res version of the LCD (glossy, not matte). It lacks a green label on the RAM mount (marking Apple’s replacement of the NVIDIA GPU). Consequently, this MBP only runs through the initializing POST routine seen in @dosdude1’s YT clip elsewhere in this thread (that is, what a failed G84-602-A2 GPU does).



[Side note: there was a 10.4.8 Install DVD stuck inside the Superdrive — not 10.5.2 with which this model would have been originally bundled. It feels reminiscent of the 17" A1139 PowerBook I found locally a couple of months back.]

So there’s that. ::Sadface McSadface::

* * *

But that said, I don’t want to just give up on it.

The MBP is in splendid shape otherwise, and in a way, I’d like to revive it as a kind of adjacent replacement for a 2007 Santa Rosa 15" MBP I once used to own (and on which I wrote a thesis, so there’s some feels bundled with that) before it was stolen back in ’09 (with a mess of field research, not backed up, still on it).

So… the question I have for the folks who are unafraid of doing this kind of thing:

in lieu of having a purpose-built heating device like the one @dosdude1 uses (and others who work with replacing BGA-based chips to logic boards), might a heat gun might work for removing the GPU? Or should I really just find a local shop which will provide the service of flowing a G84-603-A2 onto the board, labour costs and all?

(Obviously, were I situated in the U.S., I’d consider @dosdude1’s service. As it is, I also need to find a new GPU.)

 

[dosdude1]

Welp, at least I know a definitive answer to what had been a sneaking suspicion that this pre-Unibody MBP which I just acquired in a trade, in cosmetically amazing condition, was plagued by a faulty GPU. (The trade was literally for some pantry items, so I don’t feel too heartbroken.)

It’s an early 2008 Penryn — a 2.5GHz version built in March 2008 and configured with the hi-res version of the LCD (glossy, not matte). It lacks a green label on the RAM mount (marking Apple’s replacement of the NVIDIA GPU). Consequently, this MBP only runs through the initializing POST routine seen in @dosdude1’s YT clip elsewhere in this thread (that is, what a failed G84-602-A2 GPU does).

View attachment 839249

[Side note: there was a 10.4.8 Install DVD stuck inside the Superdrive — not 10.5.2 with which this model would have been originally bundled. It feels reminiscent of the 17" A1139 PowerBook I found locally a couple of months back.]

So there’s that. ::Sadface McSadface::

* * *

But that said, I don’t want to just give up on it.

The MBP is in splendid shape otherwise, and in a way, I’d like to revive it as a kind of adjacent replacement for a 2007 Santa Rosa 15" MBP I once used to own (and on which I wrote a thesis, so there’s some feels bundled with that) before it was stolen back in ’09 (with a mess of field research, not backed up, still on it).

So… the question I have for the folks who are unafraid of doing this kind of thing:

in lieu of having a purpose-built heating device like the one @dosdude1 uses (and others who work with replacing BGA-based chips to logic boards), might a heat gun might work for removing the GPU? Or should I really just find a local shop which will provide the service of flowing a G84-603-A2 onto the board, labour costs and all?

(Obviously, were I situated in the U.S., I’d consider @dosdude1’s service. As it is, I also need to find a new GPU.)

No, I'd highly recommend you do NOT attempt a GPU swap on one of these machines without the proper equipment, as when they are heated improperly, tend to warp. Also, if you live in a humid area (as I do), I recommend putting the board and new chip in a dehydrator for 2+ hours, before beginning work on them. The GPUs themselves are easy to get ahold of, I get them here. Yes, they're expensive, but I include this in the $150 I charge to do the GPU swap on a machine. As for equipment, I use a Puhui T8280 preheater, a Hakko 888 iron with bent conical tip, and a clone Hakko 850 hot air station with 45x45MM BGA nozzle, and a holder to position it above the board. So, if you want to try doing it yourself, that's what you need. I'd also recommend an ultrasonic cleaner to remove all the flux (I use Amtech NC-559-V2-TF) when you finish.

Now, I CAN offer this service to those outside the US, but shipping may cost a bit more, which is why I generally don't. If you're good with a bit of an extra shipping cost, then I'll do it. I do accept (and actually prefer) ONLY the logic board, so that will help with shipping quite a bit if you decide to do so.

 

[bobesch]

So… the question I have for the folks who are unafraid of doing this kind of thing:
in lieu of having a purpose-built heating device like the one @dosdude1 uses (and others who work with replacing BGA-based chips to logic boards), might a heat gun might work for removing the GPU? Or should I really just find a local shop which will provide the service of flowing a G84-603-A2 onto the board, labour costs and all?

Some well dosed general heating (150°C for 15min) might be a temporarily fix #98. (Take care to remove that plastic clams fixing the board at the backside, 'cause they are prone to melt #100)
150°C is below melting temperature of the soldering, so nothing like the reflowing-nonsens. Why that can temporarily "reset" the GPU is kind of a mystery.
Personally I wouldn't dare to try swapping the GPU myself (and especially not by using just a heat-gun) but leave this job to someone with experience and appropriate equipment like @dosdude1. (I wish he'd be close by to bring him my precious A1260 for GPU-replacement!)
I know, the "oven"-way is just a temporary fix and might be misused by bad guys to sell a dead horse ...
For my personal use I would give that fix a chance, but after successful restoration, you'll have to have a close eye on future GPU/CPU-temperature-exposure (my nice got a fixed A1260 as a gift and 'burnt' the GPU shortly after watching streaming video while the MBP was placed in an insulating bed of cushions )

 

[B S Magnet]

No, I'd highly recommend you do NOT attempt a GPU swap on one of these machines without the proper equipment, as when they are heated improperly, tend to warp. Also, if you live in a humid area (as I do), I recommend putting the board and new chip in a dehydrator for 2+ hours, before beginning work on them. The GPUs themselves are easy to get ahold of, I get them here. Yes, they're expensive, but I include this in the $150 I charge to do the GPU swap on a machine. As for equipment, I use a Puhui T8280 preheater, a Hakko 888 iron with bent conical tip, and a clone Hakko 850 hot air station with 45x45MM BGA nozzle, and a holder to position it above the board. So, if you want to try doing it yourself, that's what you need. I'd also recommend an ultrasonic cleaner to remove all the flux (I use Amtech NC-559-V2-TF) when you finish.

Now, I CAN offer this service to those outside the US, but shipping may cost a bit more, which is why I generally don't. If you're good with a bit of an extra shipping cost, then I'll do it. I do accept (and actually prefer) ONLY the logic board, so that will help with shipping quite a bit if you decide to do so.

This is extremely good to know, thank you.

What I have on hand is basically a partial list of what you itemized: the same Amtech flux, a clone portable iron which is bundled with the standard straight Hakko tip (and can be swapped with other Hakko tips), some Gootwick flux removal ribbon, and some Noctua NT-H2. And that’s where my gear ends. I would need to look into a preheater and hot air station, and right now those are out of my budget (esp. since I do the tinkering for fun, not as a business).

Yes, shipping to/from Canada involves higher costs and paperwork, which is sort of a reality one adapts to when you live here.

But I can keep you posted, likely in a private message, should I plan to send the logic board over your way!

 

[galgot]

Hi, posted this in the MacBookPro section, but might as well try here
I have a MacBookPro 5,2 17" mid-2009 in the closet that have a display problem since some years now. Time to try a repair, thought I could ask for advices here.

Completely randomly, it displays every thing that should be black as bright green.
can start at boot up, or after some time of use, random. I’ve plugged a external display, image displays fine on it. see :

I’ve tried disassembly, but can’t go as far as removing the all display assembly cause don’t have a heatgun to remove the display glass.
Plus removing that glass seems to be 1 on 2 chances of breaking it, and I see that screens only are not that cheaper than a complete assembly…

But before I buy a complete display assembly, could someone with more knowledge confirm me that this is not a graphic chip problem as the external displays fine.

 

[dosdude1]

Hi, posted this in the MacBookPro section, but might as well try here
I have a MacBookPro 5,2 17" mid-2009 in the closet that have a display problem since some years now. Time to try a repair, thought I could ask for advices here.

Completely randomly, it displays every thing that should be black as bright green.
can start at boot up, or after some time of use, random. I’ve plugged a external display, image displays fine on it. see :
View attachment 844584
I’ve tried disassembly, but can’t go as far as removing the all display assembly cause don’t have a heatgun to remove the display glass.
Plus removing that glass seems to be 1 on 2 chances of breaking it, and I see that screens only are not that cheaper than a complete assembly…

But before I buy a complete display assembly, could someone with more knowledge confirm me that this is not a graphic chip problem as the external displays fine.

Yep, that's an LCD issue for sure. A new display assembly will fix that issue.

 

[galgot]

Yep, that's an LCD issue for sure. A new display assembly will fix that issue.

Thank you Sir .

 

[galgot]

Well...
Changed the all display assembly with another one I bought.
Same thing... what should be black displays green :/
Dunno what to do now.

 

[dosdude1]

Well...
Changed the all display assembly with another one I bought.
Same thing... what should be black displays green :/
Dunno what to do now.

In that case, it's probably an issue with the LVDS connector on your logic board.

 

[bobesch]

I have a problem.

In the office I need to connect to my Win2008Server with Remote-Desktop-Client running on a couple of old white intel-imacs with intel core2duo processor and OS X 10.7 Lion.
Now trying to re-install "MS Remote Desktop Client v.8" through the Mac App-Store doesn't work, since MS apparently did cut off 32-bit Lion from updates during it's process of RDP-Client v.8.xx updates. argggh
Anyone here knowing about a source to get hands on the latest MS RDP-Client 8.x supporting OSX 10.7 ?

I have a copy of an RDP-Client 8.0.16 within the Applications-folder of the rest of the other white intel-macs, but I'd like to find out, if there's a newer version to support Lion and I'm serching for a future-proof download-source.

This is really a kind of "1984" experience (among lots of others): hanging on the drip of an App-Store and getting cut off arbitrarily ...


PS: a search for a link to download "MS RDP-Client 8.0.16" (the latest to run on OS X 10.7 Lion) has been very frustrating ...
So I'm gonna upload my existing copy to MacintoshGarden soon.
If anyone is in need to get this version run, please send me a PM.

(Any note about function/malfunction with WinServer2012/2016/2019 is wellcome)

 

[bobesch]

This is to be a kind of personal Wiki about the Patchers for macOS on unsupported Macs - so it is changed and updated from time to time and it is meant to be a guide for finding relevant stuff provided by clever people ...

This weekend I happened to try out all but one upgrade-patches for macOS provided by @dosdude1 (HighSierra, Mojave and Catalina-beta) on a spare
15“ early-2008 MacBookPro4,1 A1260 with 2,4GHz GPU, 4GB RAM, 120GB SSD and happily a compatible AirportExpressCard.
I was really thrilled‚ because I hadn’t expected that great performance and that easiness of the installation procedure.



@dosdude1 thank you so much for such a great work !!! ?

Just want to share first impressions: system runs smooth on all patched versions of macOS and fans stopped to get berserk after switching off spotlight-search, graphic-effects and face-recognitions (which was introduced with Catalina). Basically the same stuff, that make the good old PPC faster.
CPU is at limit with simultaneously Opera streaming video, Safari&Firefox opened and listening to iTunes - so if you focus on few things, everything should be allright.

Costs for an upgrade of the A1260 are fairly reasonable: 25$ for the 120GB SSD and optional 15$ for a compatible AirportExpress Card.
I was happy, that the A1260, that I'm using for the testdrives already came with a compatible Atheros-WiFi-module, so I could look for a similar one on eBay.

To check system-stats I've ended with @eyoungren ’s favorite iStat-Menus. That was really helpful to find nagging CPU-hogs ...
Streaming video on Opera, Firefox and Safari works fine. Luckily BassJump2-subwoofer works too in all macOS-versions.
Gimmiks like "Sidecar" don't work, but there's still the about 8y old Avatron AirDisplay, that'll do the job.
HighSierra and Mojave installation is still possible on HFS+, but Catalina requires APFS. Dealing with APFS-partitions/containers with DiskUtility of HighSierra seemed to be a bit tricky and when I tried to re-format an APFS-partition to HFS+ I didn't succeed in several attempts, but it could finally be managed with Catalina's DiskUtility.

Well, it's really good to know, the A1260 will be in the game for still another long time ...

These are pictures of my Broadcom (BMC94322MC) and Atheros Wifi-Modules,
The Broadcom does support HighSierra/Mojave/Catalina, but beware: that Atheros does only support HighSierra on my tested machines!



And this is, what I've found out about switching on/off face-recognition "photoanalysisd" in Catalina #10:
Terminal command, to switch-off face recognition:
launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.photoanalysisd.plist
Terminal command, to switch-on face recognition:
launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.photoanalysisd.plist

As it looks I’m gonna upgrade my main-driver (also the 15“MBP4,1) to High-Sierra soon, since my favorite note-app for Mac and iPad („Notability“) screwed up synching options: automatic update of the iOS-version (to v.9) made the OSX 10.11 mac-version (v.3) useless, while the upgrade of the mac-version requires Sierra.
It’s insane, how good stuff is made obsolescent by such behavior (same with the macOS-upgrades …)

Updates:

Stuff about Dark-Theme:
(1) "Light Dark-Theme": since I'm not really fond of full dark-mode of Mojave/Catalina but prefer the kind of Dark-Theme of ElCapitan, I was happy, when I found this article about a workaround via terminal-command to make Dark-Theme look like in ElCapitan:

How to Use Only a Dark Menu Bar and Dock in macOS Mojave

If you think that macOS Mojave's full dark mode is too dark and you miss the old option to have only a dark menu bar and Dock, here's how to get it back.

www.techjunkie.com

"Light" Dark-Theme on: $ defaults write -g NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance -bool Yes
"Light" Dark-Theme off: $ defaults write -g NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance -bool No
It does work with both Mojave and Catalina (worked for me by copy/paste the command-string without the $ sign). Takes effect only after user has logged out and logged back in again.
Using the Onyx-App this mode is called "intermediate".
So this is, how "Light Dark-Theme" looks like on Mojave and Catalina (like on ElCapitan/Sierra/HighSierra):

Bare in mind, that if "Light Dark-Theme" or "intermediate" is activated, the following workaround, that corrects the darkish grey color of the MenuBar and Sidebar will cause the NotificationCenter-Sidebar to become really dark with black letters, when in Dark Mode (see below).

(2) Reducing transparency:
Getting rid of the "(known issues) weird darkish grey Menu Bar and Finder/application sidebars" in Mojave and Catalina can be achieved by disabling the transparency/translucency effects through the Accessibility preference pane (https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/disable-transparency-in-macos-mojave/)
One drawback: if the the ElCapitan-like "Light Dark-Theme" or "Intermediate"(Onyx) is activated then the Notification-center bar changes to a barely readable dark mode with black letters.
Transparency ON OFF:

Update: the problem with the darkish-grey menu-bar and sidebar has solved with the lateste Mojave-Patcher-Upgrade!

(3) Toggling Dark-Theme with a keyboard-shortcut comes in handy and can be achieved this way: https://appleinsider.com/articles/1...ode-with-a-keyboard-shortcut-or-the-touch-bar

(4) Dark/Light-Theme only for selected Apps:
can by done by Terminal-Command or by App: https://github.com/zenangst/Gray

(5) Fix dim screen on 17" MacBookPro4,1 and "CCFL-based display systems"
Ran into the problem, that my 17" MBP4,1 had a dim screen after installation of Mojave-Patcher.
I was lucky to find the problem can be fixed by this solution coming from @dosdude1: #11,156
These postings led me the way: #17,646 and #1
On the first attempt the fix didn't show an effect, but I was finally successful by applying it a second time after having deactivated the System Integrity Protection (SIP) through terminal-command "csrutil disable" (SIP deactivated) and afterwards "csrutil enable" (SIP reactivated). NB: SIP can only be disabled/enabled, if the MBP is booted from either Recovery-partition or Mojave-Patcher-boot-stick.


About Gadgets:
(1) My USB 3.0 ExpressCard34 still works with all patched versions of macOS. So CCC-backups will keep on running fast on the A1260 in the near future ...
All my ExpressCard34 SD-Card-Readers are working fine too.


(2) BassJump2-Subwoofer-Software: works with all patched macOS-versions
(3) While iTunes on ElCapitan failed to connect to the Apple HomePod now High Sierra is able to make the HomePod chime in. (That's fine, 'cause since after a so-called 'Genius' at the local Apple-Store made me believe, the Blutooth-specs on my MBP4,1 would never be able to connect to the HomePod, I didn'd spent any further thoughts on this matter ...)