Was really hoping my first post would be a "HEY, I JUST DONE SOME GOOD STUFF TO MY MACBOOK PRO", but alas, it is instead a problem!
(For TL;DR of this section, scroll down)
I recently downgraded to upgrade; swapped my MacBook Pro 2014 for a delicious MacBook Pro Late 2011. I both sold and bought these laptops over GumTree, which if you're not familiar, is basically just private trade. I went to the dudes house, tested the MBP, loved it, gave him the cash, and came home!
The MBP came modified, 60GB SSD in primary bay and the optical bay was swapped out for a 500GB HDD. This model also has 6GB of RAM installed, which I'm not sure if that was user-upgraded or if it came out of the factory like such.
Anyway, I decided I want to change the SSD and HDD for much large capacity replacements. The 500GB, easy peasy, simple switcheroo, however, the SSD is a problem. The system has a firmware password. So I called the seller about this and he gave me a list of possible passwords, but assured me that he has never set one or never needed to. None of them worked. Upon further investigation, I notice a CEX inventory sticker on the box (CEX being a trade-in store). This means that He wasn't the original owner, but instead had bought it second hand.
I called CEX at a push to maybe track down the original owner, but obviously that would be a breach of confidentiality, so they refused to give me any details. At another push, I contacted 2 different Apple stores; a reseller and an official Apple store, both required the original receipt, which I obviously do NOT have.
So here I am, stuck with a low-capacity laptop, unable to upgrade, feeling stupid. I did see that there was another route of getting someone with a hot air station to install a replacement chip that hold the firmware password, but if that goes wrong, I'm completely out of luck.
TL;DR: Bought used MBP 2011, would like to upgrade it, but don't have the firmware password.
Any help, any help at all appreciated!
(For TL;DR of this section, scroll down)
I recently downgraded to upgrade; swapped my MacBook Pro 2014 for a delicious MacBook Pro Late 2011. I both sold and bought these laptops over GumTree, which if you're not familiar, is basically just private trade. I went to the dudes house, tested the MBP, loved it, gave him the cash, and came home!
The MBP came modified, 60GB SSD in primary bay and the optical bay was swapped out for a 500GB HDD. This model also has 6GB of RAM installed, which I'm not sure if that was user-upgraded or if it came out of the factory like such.
Anyway, I decided I want to change the SSD and HDD for much large capacity replacements. The 500GB, easy peasy, simple switcheroo, however, the SSD is a problem. The system has a firmware password. So I called the seller about this and he gave me a list of possible passwords, but assured me that he has never set one or never needed to. None of them worked. Upon further investigation, I notice a CEX inventory sticker on the box (CEX being a trade-in store). This means that He wasn't the original owner, but instead had bought it second hand.
I called CEX at a push to maybe track down the original owner, but obviously that would be a breach of confidentiality, so they refused to give me any details. At another push, I contacted 2 different Apple stores; a reseller and an official Apple store, both required the original receipt, which I obviously do NOT have.
So here I am, stuck with a low-capacity laptop, unable to upgrade, feeling stupid. I did see that there was another route of getting someone with a hot air station to install a replacement chip that hold the firmware password, but if that goes wrong, I'm completely out of luck.
TL;DR: Bought used MBP 2011, would like to upgrade it, but don't have the firmware password.
Any help, any help at all appreciated!
