Mac. I wondered about a cheapy to learn on, but . . .
Psychophysiological entity
Thread Starter
Mac. I wondered about a cheapy to learn on, but . . .
£200. This seemed okay . . . at first.
Apple MackBook Air 13" 2.13GHz,2GB RAM, 128GB HDD BIOS Locked [WA900]
No OS and can't get into BIOS.
Quick fix? Nope, the vendor is a specialist in Mac bits and would know the tricks. Or would he?
Apple MackBook Air 13" 2.13GHz,2GB RAM, 128GB HDD BIOS Locked [WA900]
No OS and can't get into BIOS.
Quick fix? Nope, the vendor is a specialist in Mac bits and would know the tricks. Or would he?
There'll be a reason why it's so cheap. Caveat emptor......... I'd be asking why if the vendor knows a fix they haven't done it themselves and made a little profit on it.
Psychophysiological entity
Thread Starter
Yes, this company would know all the tricks. Maybe it's just not worth their time.
I once found a 1/4 of a TTL chip failed on an Opus 386. It was responsible for resetting the main memory. I found one corner of the chip wasn't being used so hot-wired to that. Even though any PC was worth a lot of money back then, it still needs someone with too much time on their hands to footle around like that.
If the MacBook were an 'ordinary' PC based system, such a dead one would be a 25 quid gamble. I'd have a bash at this Mac for 50quid, but not 200.
One wonders about the relative worth of Apple v PC. Having said that, I failed to get the Rivertess' HP going. Such a nice build with Altec Lancing sound etc., but having got the graphics chip sort of re-balled, (BIOS routine reading) it failed before or during the final detailed re-build. $500 down the drain after 2 years. Shame, it was a nice bit of kit.
This has reminded me. We've talked in the past about the MS OS Key being hidden on the MB and no sticker. It seems that's a tough one to break if you haven't obtained it for records while working.
Now it seems there are folk out there with a repair code for Mac BIOS. Some say run it - Doh! but others seem to think they can get over the problem. I rather imagine the subject of the OP might well have a fried chip, and there'd be nothing tasty about that.
I once found a 1/4 of a TTL chip failed on an Opus 386. It was responsible for resetting the main memory. I found one corner of the chip wasn't being used so hot-wired to that. Even though any PC was worth a lot of money back then, it still needs someone with too much time on their hands to footle around like that.
If the MacBook were an 'ordinary' PC based system, such a dead one would be a 25 quid gamble. I'd have a bash at this Mac for 50quid, but not 200.
One wonders about the relative worth of Apple v PC. Having said that, I failed to get the Rivertess' HP going. Such a nice build with Altec Lancing sound etc., but having got the graphics chip sort of re-balled, (BIOS routine reading) it failed before or during the final detailed re-build. $500 down the drain after 2 years. Shame, it was a nice bit of kit.
This has reminded me. We've talked in the past about the MS OS Key being hidden on the MB and no sticker. It seems that's a tough one to break if you haven't obtained it for records while working.
Now it seems there are folk out there with a repair code for Mac BIOS. Some say run it - Doh! but others seem to think they can get over the problem. I rather imagine the subject of the OP might well have a fried chip, and there'd be nothing tasty about that.
It sounds to me like they're playing on the relative expense of second hand Apple kit to try and make you think it's a bargain, maybe they paid more than £200 for it and are trying to cut a loss, who knows.
Laptops are harder than desktops in general to sort out second hand because so many of the bits are bespoke to the particular type/model/year, and a lot of what might be easily swappable on a desktop is part of the motherboard on a laptop. (Plus if it's Apple they actively design the things to stop people doing their own maintenance).
Not impossible to get a bargain though, am typing this on a Toshiba NB100 netbook that cost a princely £10 off Facebook as it had no power supply and Windows 7 wouldn't run properly on it (it should have had XP). Add £16 for a 2GB memory upgrade and then a clean install of Linux Mint and it surfs and types fine. It won't do fancy games, HD video or CAD but with 160GB and an SDHC card reader it makes good music/photo store as well. Fires up from sleep in 5 seconds or less and the battery still lasts 3 hours or so.
Just need Linux to sort out Google Drive support though (although Dropbox works fine).
Laptops are harder than desktops in general to sort out second hand because so many of the bits are bespoke to the particular type/model/year, and a lot of what might be easily swappable on a desktop is part of the motherboard on a laptop. (Plus if it's Apple they actively design the things to stop people doing their own maintenance).
Not impossible to get a bargain though, am typing this on a Toshiba NB100 netbook that cost a princely £10 off Facebook as it had no power supply and Windows 7 wouldn't run properly on it (it should have had XP). Add £16 for a 2GB memory upgrade and then a clean install of Linux Mint and it surfs and types fine. It won't do fancy games, HD video or CAD but with 160GB and an SDHC card reader it makes good music/photo store as well. Fires up from sleep in 5 seconds or less and the battery still lasts 3 hours or so.
Just need Linux to sort out Google Drive support though (although Dropbox works fine).
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Have you tried booting from,the OS X recovery partition?
Hold the Command and r keys immediatly after powering up. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314
If it's running older versions of OS X you need to boot from the installation disk https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201817
Hold the Command and r keys immediatly after powering up. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314
If it's running older versions of OS X you need to boot from the installation disk https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201817
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Just need Linux to sort out Google Drive support though
I have never understood the attraction of turning over all your documents to Google for them to analyse and market even more of your information.
If you are already a linux user and want a cloud you can roll your own with something like 'owncloud' or 'nextcloud'
EG
