The Big Sad: your dead Macs ☠️

[B S Magnet]

I think a few of us around here have some of these in our homes.

Straight-up — list and/or describe the dead Macs you have lying about! They can be donor and also gravely wounded Macs.

I’ll start.

In my dead lot:
A1104 PowerBook G4 (bad RAM bridge, donor)
M6411 iBook G3/466 (graphite, dead logic board, donor)
M6411 iBook G3/366 (indigo, dead dead dead, a life well-lived, now donor)
M5884 PowerBook G4/400 (dead logic board, donor)
A1054 iBook G4 12 (can’t remember speed, donor)
A1133 iBook G4/1.33 12 (donor)
A1342 MacBook (mid-2010, dead board, slated as donor)

In my “gravely wounded” lot:
A1502 MacBook Pro 13 (early 2015, cracked LCD — glass is ok, but Staingated — and bloated battery; now sans SSD)


A recurring pattern in my list is all are laptops. I simply lack the spare room for dead desktops and displays. Dead laptops, fortunately, fit nicely inside blue, oversized Ziploc bags — which can then be filed away neatly in an IKEA KALLAX cube-shelving unit.

 

[theMarble]

I only have one near dead Mac at the moment, my old A1046. It was the first machine to be added to my collection, nearly a decade ago now.
While it still sometimes turns on;
- The screen has yellowed a heap
- The bottom RAM slot has completely died
- The top/upper RAM slot is finicky and takes a few tries to work
- ~50% of the external screws are stripped
- The other 50% have been taken to replace screws on other time-accurate PowerBook's & MacBook's.
- The original 80GB drive is very close to death, as it spits out lots of SMART errors (and I can't replace it due to the stripped screws)
- The outer casing has taken quite a beating overtime (used to use it daily)
- The Ethernet port doesn't work
- The battery doesn't work

Other than that, nothing yet thankfully! My 12" has taken a beating as well but still works, and my liquid-cooled G5 has not leaked yet, nor shown any signs.

My 2011 MBP's screen backlight died, so I took the screen housing off completely and now works like a glorified Mac mini!

 

[Nermal]

Nothing in the PowerPC department (I did have a dying Blue and White, but it's gone). The only dead Mac I still have is an infamous 2011 MacBook Pro with a failed GPU.

Edit: Oh, and the speakers intermittently don't work on my tray-loader iMac G3. No idea why...

 

[DeltaMac]

hmm... MacBook Pro - 2009, 15-inch, dead donor
2002? Titanium G4 PowerBook (typical broken hinge, but works)
2012 MBPro 13-inch, SSD, still daily user
2017 MBAir NVME drive, also daily use

desktops
2001 iMac G3, works, could be a donor if needed
2 eMacs, both USB 2.0, one is a donor, other is in daily use, burning a variety of CDs/DVDs, but that gets much less use now.
2 2012 minis, both are useful in different ways
2006 iMac 17-inch, dead LCD
2004 iMac G5, dead logic board
2008 iMac, 20-inch, SSD, works good
2011 iMac, 21.5-inch, works, use for experimenting with OCLP installs
(I have a bedroom that I use for a workshop, need to prune stuff out pretty soon...)

 

[B S Magnet]

The only dead Mac I still have is an infamous 2011 MacBook Pro with a failed GPU.

Was that the A1286 (15) or the A1297 (17)?

 

[theMarble]

Was that the A1286 (15) or the A1297 (17)?

Both the 15" and 17" 2011's had dying graphics chips.

 

[Nermal]

Was that the A1286 (15) or the A1297 (17)?

A1286.

 

[B S Magnet]

Both the 15" and 17" 2011's had dying graphics chips.

Yah. I knew that. That’s why I was asking: losing a 15-inch MBP to AMD’s flubbing is a heartbreaker, but losing a 17-inch version is just brutal.

 

[Heindijs]

My Quicksilver has died and come back to life many times on its own in the nearly two years that i've owned it.
The power supply has veen revised, the cmos battery has been replacef and now the ram is probably bad (sometimes at least).

That's to be expected for a 20+ year old machine of course.



I thought my 2006 iMac was dead a few times but it turned out something was causing a short.

 

[AphoticD]

My 2011 MBP's screen backlight died, so I took the screen housing off completely and now works like a glorified Mac mini!

They do work well like this, but it could be just a blown fuse. I have repaired non-working backlight issues on both a 2011 MBP 13" and 2013 MacBook Air 13" with a 40¢ fuse;

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macbook-pro-13-2011-repairing-a-failed-backlight.2178757/

 

[ScreenSavers]

Let's see, For PPC, I've got:


G3 Blue/White tower that's missing one of the lower handles so it's really ugly and inconvenient, but I believe it still works.

Lime iMac G3 that does work but the cream colored plastic that supports the CRT inside is all disintegrated, so the screen doesn't sit straight and it's probably not very safe. It works perfectly last I used it.


For the Intel department I've got a lot more. The notable mentions are:

A Mac Pro 1,1 with all four handles cut off and finicky RAM slots (Thanks, UPS)

A 17" early 2011 MacBook Pro with a bypassed AMD GPU. @B S Magnet, It's still pristine and very useable!

Several more old Mac laptops but they still get used in some from so I can't really list them as dead...

 

[Amethyst1]

Yah. I knew that. That’s why I was asking: losing a 15-inch MBP to AMD’s flubbing is a heartbreaker, but losing a 17-inch version is just brutal.

Even more so considering the last 17” can still command a pretty penny despite a dead dGPU.

 

[Project Alice]

I definitely have a few dead ones, and I have a lot that aren’t dead but need donors.

I might be missing a few, I have too much stuff and on going off memory atm.

I’ll start off with my dead ones too:

17” iMac G5 ALS 1.6GHz - Just dead, probably logic board
PowerMac G5 quad from goodwill - missing fans, does not power on. I’m hoping I can fix this one eventually.
Power Macintosh 7200/120 - Powers on but won’t display video or chime
iBook G3 900MHz - it does technically work but the GPU is done like most of these.
2006 15” MBP - Dead, no signs of life
eMac G4 1.0GHz “ATI Grapgics” - was used as a donor. This Mac worked fine for the first year I had it, then one day stopped powering on. It was used as a donor for my 1.42Ghz that looked like it had been used a battering ram at one point.
1.25GHz eMac - Powers on but caps are bad.
Dual 2GHz PowerMac G5, odd model with only 4 ram slots but two CPUs - dead AGP slot
PowerBook 190 - don’t have a power cable to test, but display appears visibly cracked.

Needs a donor:

PowerMac G4 QuickSilver 2001 - This one is interesting, I’ve actually had it since around 2010, it was my main desktop my sophomore and junior years. I loaned it to a friend and got it back dead. I spent a long time on it, and even tried replacing the PSU with an ATX one using an adapter. I considered this Mac dead until 2 years ago. I bought an actual QS PSU and hooked it up, and it powered on. But it needs a donor because over the years I used it as a donor.. It’s basically just a logicboard and a case right now.

366MHz iBook G3 - works but in pretty bad shape.
466MHz iBook G3 - works but in bad shape. Trackpad does not work
233MHz PowerBook G3 PDQ, works great but LCD is discolored along the bottom
PowerBook G3 Wallstreet, don’t remember speed - Works but case is completely disintegrated

I’m sure I’m forgetting some but that’s what I can think off the top of my head

 

[erikkfi]

My first collector Mac was a blueberry iBook I bought in 2015. Gorgeous, perfect condition. I took it out of storage last year and discovered the screen has succumbed to rot. Tragic.

 

[curnalpanic]

PowerMac G4/MDD (dual 1.42 GHz) here; either the logic board or power supply (or both) are toast. It was already on its second logic board so I have my suspicions.

In addition, there's a G3 B/W, one of the first black Macbooks and an iMac G3 "flower power" but they still work.

 

[B S Magnet]

My first collector Mac was a blueberry iBook I bought in 2015. Gorgeous, perfect condition. I took it out of storage last year and discovered the screen has succumbed to rot. Tragic.

There is some good news: if you’re willing to open it, this can be replaced! Compared with later iBooks, getting to the screen on these is relatively less complicated.

 

[erikkfi]

There is some good news: if you’re willing to open it, this can be replaced! Compared with later iBooks, getting to the screen on these is relatively less complicated.

But where to find a replacement screen? A donor model, I suppose?

I think you still have to take apart the entire iBook just to get the screen apart…

 

[B S Magnet]

But where to find a replacement screen? A donor model, I suppose?

That could be one way, yes. A second is to find an LCD used on Ebay or PChub. A third is to check in with MR forum members on here who might have a spare lying about.

I think you still have to take apart the entire iBook just to get the screen apart…

Yah, it does, but by the same token, this step is more or less a necessary one for every “New World” and Intel laptop.

The first thing you’ll need to figure out, if you want to do this, is to find from which of the three manufacturers your display was made. Doing this does mean disassembly in order to inspect the rear of the LCD panel to see which vendor supplied your “vinegared” display.

Apple relied on three different vendors to keep up with demand for the clamshell iBooks (Samsung, LG, and IBM), and each panel is matched with a specific data cable. The cables are not interchangeable (i.e., using an IBM display on a Samsung data cable won’t work). Generally, the Samsung displays are the most common, followed by the IBM displays, and lastly, the LG displays.

If yours was supplied with the LG, you could upgrade the display to a more common LG 1024x768 LCD (which was used on every post-clamshell 12-inch iBook thereafter); an Open Firmware command will make that 1024x768 resolution available. The LG units used a standard, 20-pin LVDS socket.

As this is sort of my area, I’d be happy to lend my support however I’m able.

 

[mectojic]

This thread is too sad... I get depressed by having dead macs, so I always sell them for parts. Therefore I don't have any dead Macs. Even slight flaws and cracked plastics are disappointing.

 

[B S Magnet]

This thread is too sad... I get depressed by having dead macs, so I always sell them for parts. Therefore I don't have any dead Macs. Even slight flaws and cracked plastics are disappointing.

I’m here to look for the silver lining!

 

[eyoungren]

Forgive my inexactness below. Been a lot of stuff since 2009…

First pic of the dead would be an iMac G5, gifted by a member here. I had it at my old job and fully working. Came in one morning and it would not start up. I did basic troubleshooting and then abandoned it after pulling RAM and the HD. I suspect the usual - caps. Note, the LaCIE SCSI drive on top of it is fully working. 1GB, got it in 2002 when IT was cleaning out stuff at a former job.



Second pic is LCD screens/boards I believe/assume to be functional.



And this is the main stack. Except for the two on the bottom most still work. They just have problems I am not willing to solve (iBook G4 14" needs a new DC-In board) or can't figure out (15" PowerBooks will boot and function perfectly off DVD, but fail to install OS or will crash immediately…both have lower ram slot failures).



2.3DC PowerMac G5. Gifted by a member here, arrived with damaged handles and does not power on. I scavenged it for parts for a replacement 2.3DC I bought.



None of this includes the pile of tech garbage that is either non-functional, half-functional or tempermental. For instance, I have a Buffalo NAS - with one of two functional drive slots, a SATA-USB dock that will drop both drives intermittently, a NAS-HD drive enclosure that will work once in a blue moon, etc.

 

[MBAir2010]

well I have a Macbook air 2010 2GB or 2011 logic board I found in 2014 in a pile of stuff on the street
now it has a lowercase, trackpad, and works!
needs a battery, display and powerchord

anyone want this?

 

[sdwaltz]

They're long gone now but I've killed two Macs in my day, both drink spills.

- My first Mac, a white 2008 MacBook, was killed by a (now ex) girlfriend when she accidentally kicked a soft drink into the keyboard. This happened in 2011.
- My second Mac, a 2009 15" MacBook Pro, was killed by ME when I accidentally spilled a soft drink into the keyboard. This happened in 2012.

Since I was a poor college student at the time, much effort was given to save both but in the end, neither survived.

I'm a little more careful now

 

[Spock]

I have a dead Macintosh Plus, it needed recapped. I have a dead Macintosh Classic, the battery exploded and ate the motherboard and all the traces. I removed anything recoverable and its waiting to be a Macintosh Pi at some point. I also have a dead indigo iMac sitting in the garage, it has good plastic so it will eventually be a donor for my Flower Power iMac that has broken plastic. I have a 2011 17 inch MacBook Pro with the graphics card glitch that I am thinking about baking to see if it will come back, I have been told that can sometimes work. I have a dead 12 in PowerBook G4, it overheated and blew out some caps on the logicboard, parts are in a bin somewhere in my garage. I have a 14 inch iBook G3 that has a bad power board and those are getting hard to find so its just sitting around. I have a PowerBook 5300 that bit the dust out of the blue, a Newton 120 that will only run off AC power and I think that is about it..

Edit: Forgot that I have a titanium PowerBook G4 with a bad LCD

 

[erikkfi]

As this is sort of my area, I’d be happy to lend my support however I’m able.

Thanks! I'll let you know if I ever go for it.