Prototype/Test Macbook Pro

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Hey, so I bought a MacBook Pro two nights ago on Craigs List here in Philadelphia-area so that I could eventually fix it up and give it to my girlfriend. It's a 2.16 Core 2 Duo MBP with 1 GB of Ram and 120 GB of HD.



The listing had said that it had recently been diagnosed with logic board problems at the apple store but I know that is apple store language for "I don't know what's wrong with it." I decided to give it a shot.



The guy had bought it off ebay and it came with Tiger. It stopped working for him after his buddy tried to install Leopard. It currently goes through a funny loop of verbose text and then starts over in an endless loop.



When I came to look at it, I saw that it had an Apple Development Team sticker on the bottom. With my interest piqued, I decided to give it a shot at fixing it and bought it from him.



When I got it home, it wouldn't take the leopard disk. It just hangs at a blue screen after the gray apple screen. Same goes with booting off another drive with a leopard install.



I then took it apart to see if the hard drive was bad and to swap it out. While doing that, I noticed a couple weird things. Namely:
  • The motherboard is green instead of blue

  • The airport card is a "M35B Dusty Client DVT Wireless Client" and not production

While inspecting the stickers underneath, it seems that the wireless card is a "dusty atheros" and the antenna is a "Tyco". I'm not sure if the unit was for testing the wireless card or not but it's definitely a development unit. Still, it'd be interesting to see it run.



To do that, I remembered that I have a tiger restore disk for my Santa Rosa MBP and popped it in. Surprisingly, it boots up and runs but won't restore as it's not the same computer. I was able to install Tiger using Target Disk mode so it's up and running. Also, the diagnostic software says nothing is wrong but it still can't take an install of Leopard.



Have you seen something like this? Is it weird that the motherboard is green and in the configuration it is? Anything else weird?



Here are some pics to prove what I'm saying and to see if anyone else notices anything weird:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8324819...7616810537356/



I'm thinking of selling it as the girlfriend needs something more functional than inherently historical and weird. Not sure how, though.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    Sounds cool but your link to the picture isn't working. I would hold on to it for a bit.
  • Reply 2 of 3
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jigsaw View Post


    Sounds cool but your link to the picture isn't working. I would hold on to it for a bit.



    Thanks for the catch. It's been updated!
  • Reply 3 of 3
    anna2009anna2009 Posts: 18member
    technews.am is a new community for breaking news across the technology sector. We are still in pre-alpha, so please bear with us.

    Prototype MacBook Pro hits eBay

    SlashGear Apr 27 09



    A prototype 2006 Apple MacBook Pro has shown up on eBay, bearing a beta wireless card and green logic board. The laptop is believed to have been constructed to test out the new wireless card, which is labeled as “M35B Dusty Client DVT Wireless Sample”.



    The MacBook Pro also has an FCC warning sticker on the bottom, suggesting that it had not past the Commission’s wireless testing, together with a barcode label linking it to the Apple Development Team. There’s also a list of full specifications, confirming not only that the notebook
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