Repair or replace (with what?) my MacBook Pro?

In My Humble Opinion
1

It’s a MacBook Pro 13-inch from early 2015 with 8 GB. I am not a technical computer person - I’m an end user but I don’t know any of the technical details.

Apparently little MacBook has developed a logic board issue. It crapped out on Thursday - was working fine around lunch time but when I picked it up again that evening it was dead as a doorknob. It wouldn’t even turn on even though it should have been about 90% charged at that point. It won’t even make a whimper or a whir. Like, it’s seriously dead.

I took it to the local “Genius Bar” and they said they didn’t know what was wrong and would be in contact later. Today I got an email saying it is a logic board issue and will be $475 plus tax to fix. They said I could call for “other options,” but when I called the dipwad on the other end didn’t seem to have any more information about exactly what is wrong with it or anything. You’d think I could get some kind of more detailed information when I’m being asked to pay $475. Is it going to crap out again?

So, is a 2015 MacBook worth repairing at that price? Or should I just get some crappy little low-end PC? Because honestly I can’t afford to buy a new Mac nor a top of the line PC, so I’m trying to figure out what the heck to do. I might be willing to pay the cost of repair IF I thought I was going to get a decent and lasting computer out of it. I’ve had it 3 years and it seemed to be doing so well…

2

There are repair places that will fix a MacBook logic board for around $100.
I’ve have very good luck with them.
Just look on ebay.

3

eBay, used MacBook of the same vintage. Cheaper than what they want to charge you for the repair, and you just unscrew the little screws from the back, remove the hard drive, put it in the eBay machine, hit the power button, and your entire environment is exactly as you left it, unaware for the most part* that anything whatsoever has changed.

  • A small handful of applications have seriously rlgorous authentication procedures that tie your license to your computer’s MAC address; you’ll need to go online and/or repaste your registration code to tell the company’s software management system that you’re deploying your license on this other machine for those applications, if you have any of that ilk. Parallels happens to be one that works that way.
4

Check with an authorized Mac service center. The graphics card on my MacBook died. As it turned out, it was under recall and was replaced for free.

5

Repair.

You don’t want a newer MacBook ‘Pro’ since they went all USB-C and put in that damned touch bar. Took the Pro out of the machine.

I’m taking very good care of my '14 MB Pro and hoping that it’ll last until Apple comes to their senses*.

*Yeah, right.:rolleyes:

6

Oh, bah!
I have a 2016 touch bar machine. I don’t find the touch bar very compelling, but it’s also not horrible. There are some nice apps for it (like, colorizing text in Mail).
USB-C is pretty great. Adapters are required for your old USB stuff, but they are tiny and cheap. I like that it’s non-polarized, and supplies a lot of current. It’s also future-proofing, to some extent.

7

I dunno, my husband just got a new MacBook Pro for work, and it has the touch bar, and he says it’s annoying.

I agree that it’s not too hard to either find adaptors or new cables to attach your old stuff to a USB C port, though.

8

You don’t have to use the Touch Bar though. I find it to be pretty useful with some cool customization available. I do t use it a whole lot though as 98% of the time, my machine is “docked” with the lid closed.

USB-C was initially a pain in the ass as I had to mess with so many adapters, but now that most of my stuff is native USB-C, it’s much easier than older connectors. Anything can plug into any port in any orientation.

9

He uses his almost exclusively as a laptop, using the built in keyboard and touch pad. I expect he’ll be interacting with those keys. But maybe not much. I suppose I don’t use the function keys on my laptop much.