RIP MacBook Pro
My venerable MacBook Pro, a 13″ early 2011 model has finally died.
For years now I’ve been considering what to do when this happens. Every time I had to spend money to keep it going I debated the likelihood that it’d last long enough to make the upgrade worthwhile. More recently, I’ve been debating throwing another OS on it, since Apple stopped supporting it some time ago and its software is both old and starting to become unsupported by apps.
The computer was working this morning, I put it to sleep by closing the lid, then when I went to use it again maybe 30 minutes later, it was off. Which seemed odd, but it has occasionally died while going to sleep so I turned it on, or at least I tried to. The power LED comes on. The fan spins up, but there’s no chime and the display never lights up. I tried an external display but that doesn’t work either.
This machine has been through tough spots before, so I had it open, checking for any connectors that might have come loose or components that looked bad. I tried inserting the RAM in various combinations (in case it had gone), I re-seated the display cable, I reset the PRAM and the SMC… but nothing seems to have changed the symptoms.
I am pretty sure it’s not coming back this time so I’m giving up on it. RIP MacBook Pro.