My "New" 2006 MacBook Pro!

[Tighelander]

I bought this 2.16 GHz MacBook Pro about two months ago. It's in pretty nice shape. It has a slight dent on the top, and a glossy screen that's very pretty. I put a mechanical 1TB drive in it, and put a fresh install of Snow Leopard & Vista on it. Recently I bought ExpressCards for eSata & reading SD cards.

 

[Tighelander]

I've read that the slightly newer models had a problem with the Graphics Chip melting down. This seems like a recurring problem with Mac laptops.

 

[Amethyst1]

I've read that the slightly newer models had a problem with the Graphics Chip melting down.

The 2006 MBPs also had GPU-related problems but they weren’t nearly as widespread as those on the 2007 and early 2008 MBPs.

 

[Tighelander]

About 6 months ago, I bought my first 2006 MacBook Pro which was trashed, the case had been opened a little too often by a careless person. Although the specs on the case were newer, it also had a 2.16 GHz CPU in it. I wonder if the original GPU failed?

 

[SecretSquirrel]

Or the top case with keyboard and trackpad had been replaced without swapping the labels…

 

[MBAir2010]

Tighelander:​

cool
have fun with this MacBook Pro
may this last you a long time!

I would really like my powerbook g4 back but that would be xsv

 

[B S Magnet]

About 6 months ago, I bought my first 2006 MacBook Pro which was trashed, the case had been opened a little too often by a careless person. Although the specs on the case were newer, it also had a 2.16 GHz CPU in it. I wonder if the original GPU failed?

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It’s hard to know, really. Logic boards may be swapped out for any manner of reasons, and with the one you bought, who even knows.

I’ve swapped, had swapped, or needed to swap logic boards due to any of bad GPU, memory bridge fault, failed FireWire port, failed audio out port, and failed AirPort/PCMCIA bus.

 

[Riviera122]

My '07 has a hi-res matte display but I have to say, the glossy finish looks great. Nice find, enjoy...

 

[rampancy]

I've read that the slightly newer models had a problem with the Graphics Chip melting down. This seems like a recurring problem with Mac laptops.

From what I've gathered the failure rate of the Radeon Mobililty X1600 (due to overheating) was most often observed on the early production run models (e.g the Core Duo 1.86 GHz models), especially those with 128 MB of VRAM. The later Core 2 Duo models weren't as failure prone.

I bought this 2.16 GHz MacBook Pro about two months ago. It's in pretty nice shape. It has a slight dent on the top, and a glossy screen that's very pretty. I put a mechanical 1TB drive in it, and put a fresh install of Snow Leopard & Vista on it. Recently I bought ExpressCards for eSata & reading SD cards.

Congratulations! I have a soft spot for the 2.16 Ghz model, as a I daily drove one during grad school; I pushed it pretty hard with Starcraft II, COD 4, Quake 4 and Doom 3 and it didn't skip a beat.

If you dare***, and if luck is on your side, I'd recommend changing the thermal paste and cleaning out the fans with compressed air to solve potential overheating issues.

(***I don't dare, because I bricked a perfectly working (but slightly overheating) 2.16 Ghz MacBook Pro once when I tried to change out its thermal paste. In retrospect I think it was because I wasn't paying attention to board flexing when I tried to reinstall the motherboard.)

 

[theMarble]

If you dare***, and if luck is on your side, I'd recommend changing the thermal paste and cleaning out the fans with compressed air to solve potential overheating issues.

I redid the thermal paste in my A1212 recently, and while getting it open and replacing the paste was easy, plugging the main power connection back in was the difficult part. It's (not sure about the 15" but I'd assume it's the same) positioned on the underside of the board (where the chips are) right next to the left speaker and AirPort card, making it annoying to get back in. I had to use a flat-blade connector to push it in place.

Temps were so much better afterwards.