Since the rumours say that Handoff feature will require BT 4.0, I was curious if it is possible to update/change my bluetooth card in MacBook Pro 17" Unibody (Mid 2010, A1297, 2.66 GHz) to BT 4.0?

⟐ Answered October 27, 2019 at 12:29 MST

Just today I tried the interface on two different 17-inch macbook pros of mine (one running High Sierra the other is El Capitan and it appears to get no power from either of them. At this stage I was thinking okay this has to be either the thunderbolt cable or the Interface has died on me somehow. First I hooked one computer to the other in target disk mode to test the cable, no trouble getting target disk to do it's thing, but I went ahead and bought a genuine apple cable anyway just to be sure, still no signs of life from the interface.

Finally in a "there is no way this is going to work but what the heck" moment I tried hooking it up to my brothers same 2011 model macbook pro 17 and voilà, it does its usual LED streak up light. This made me happy but it still leaves a lot of questions about my 2 macbook pros and their thunderbolt ports.

Is it possible they're not providing power through the correct pins? The pins look clean to me so I don't see any obvious issue and the fact it works for target disk mode also seems strange. Anyone have any ideas of what to try or similar experiences not getting power from their thunderbolt ports? Could this be software even?

Thanks!

⟐ Commented February 09, 2026 at 19:56 MST

Identifiers: Mid-2009 17" - MC226LL/A* - MacBookPro5,2 - A1297 - 2329*

Thanks to forgive my approximate English, I'm French.

My Mbp 17" mid 2009 (A1297) doesn't start, the magsafe has the green light or orange when the battery is a bit empty, the lights on the battery say that it's charged, it had no accident like liquid spill and it didn't fall.

Those last months it started with some difficulty, I had to reset the SMC a few times before it would start, but it worked. And this time it didn't start up, it seems that there is no power.

I've tried every trick I found on the net and on Ifixit : reset the SMC, by-pass the SMC, tried to startup with the pads.

When I reset the SMC, the magsafe which is orange before becomes green for a few seconds and goes back to orange, so it seems that the SMC works !

I tried 2 magsafe, they both work.

Unfortunately I have no other battery to check and I'de like to avoid to buy a new one just to check and find that the problem is in the motherboard, because this battery seems to work, the leds light up when I push the button, and if I leave it connected after 1 day or 2 there are less leds working.

I don't know what else to try, anyone would have an idea ?

Thanks for your answers.

⟐ Commented November 02, 2022 at 6:03 MST

1 1/2 year ago, Apple replaced my motherboard as per their program on defectuous motherboards on this model.

This summer, suddenly: black screen. My hard drive is ok, mounted in another computer and running great... My repairman said the "motherboard is dead". And now, my model is obsolete.

The thing is: I work with my computer 12h/day and I need photoshop badly.

Now I'm on an old computer and it's just so slow, I'm running crazy.

I invested last year in 16Go RAM, a SSD hard drive and a new battery few months ago... I admit I'm really !#^&@@-off the motherboard changed by apple just died.

You understand, I'm not really happy with the idea of buying a new macbook pro and this for 3 reasons:

1/ really too expensive for me at this time,

2/ I'm a graphic designer and 17" is much much better than 15",

3/ I want to make a statement by waiting 2018 new macbook pro : I hate the "soldered strategy", it's not fair for people with low budgets, it bound us to their after-sale costs, the whole market will suffer from it, I really hope the sells will drop down this year so they go back to reason.

The motherboard cost 1200€ on the market... at this cost, I better change my computer for an earlier one.

My question is: is it possible to build a new machine with my macbook pro for a basis. Can I replace components such as the motherboard, the processor and whatever is needed and come up with a good speeding machine for a good price? Is there anybody who tried this?

If I'd like to make a powerful machine to run the last system, is it possible to find some pieces of recent mac or even pc compatibles in order to work until I can buy a new expensive mac. Or is it completely crazy?

In other words, can I make kind of a hackbook with my macbook pro. And what components should I expect to change to do so? Would it worth it?

On a good lead... I hope

I tracked the specs of my macbook pro here, very usefull website by the way www.everymac.com/ultimate-mac-lookup/

And I saw on a website out of stock that they sell the same logic board for both 17" early and late 2011. Seams to be the same ref when I try early 2011 and late.. not sure about that accuracy yet.

Beetstech logic board ref

So I looked up to this references for the logic board : 820-2914-A, 820-2914-B and A1297 i7 2.5Ghz

2,5Ghz instead of my 2,2Ghz would be great, hû?

Now, I need to see my logic card to see if it's A or B, according to this seller picture

but it looks like it's possible to buy it from china supplier

Exemple of supplier on alibaba

Does anyone have bought one of those in this marketplace?

The A model is for 2010.. Supplier exemple in alibaba

I'm going to look further in the ref to be sure which one fit the macbook pro early 2011 and know more.

If anyone is looking for this kind of motherboard, let me know! Maybe we can buy more pieces together to lower the price. I'm in Paris, France. It can be tricky if we are in different parts of the world but we may think of a solution, maybe threw ifixit e-shop, I don't know, any idea is welcome.

I looked into mine. It's a A.

The alibaba seller answered me A & B doesn't matter.

BUT, I went to look their seller's review and it's very very bad. People says they waited very long and in the end, the motherboard didn't work + they have only a 45 day guaranty.

... it doesn't fill like the solution. I'm going to ask a friend who goes in China often for buying electronic to look for this motherboard with my dead computer so he can try it on site. If he finds a reliable seller, I'll let you know.

⟐ Commented December 17, 2020 at 11:46 MST

Has anyone else had this problem?

⟐ Answered May 23, 2020 at 8:24 MST

- OR -

Is the internal AirPort card a express mini card module and are there any 3G + WiFi modules supported by OS X which can replace the internal Airport Card?

- OR -

Are there any 3G Express Card modules which disappear completely inside the case?

⟐ Answer accepted September 24, 2022 at 21:22 MST

I read a lot of stories online with logic board issues and MacBook Pros from 2011.

Anyways, every time it goes, Apple now replaces the Logic Board and gives me a new 90 day warranty.

1) If this is going on with others how long do they expect to keep this up? Will they finally replace it with a different model?

2) Can I install a logic board from a different model (new 15") into my 2011 MCP?

Thanks

⟐ Commented February 02, 2018 at 20:55 MST

Also, how do I remove the old one? I've tried to gently squeeze and pull but it appears to be firmly attached somehow.

⟐ Answered September 06, 2024 at 6:24 MST

I've been looking around to see if it can be fixed, but the answer seems seems to be "only if you replace the whole lid" which was going to be €800 ex vat

It's just a piece of aluminium that I want replaced, surely that must be possible somehow?

Thanks!

Willem

Edited: added pictures

⟐ Answer accepted July 16, 2018 at 16:23 MST

Battery Health Monitor, coconutBattery and iStat Pro all show it having 96% capacity.

Im a self employed designer and this laptop is my only machine and active a lot. Its mostly plugged in during the day while at my desk, but at night while away from the desk I've intentionally let it fully drain several times now.

I have read your article "Zen and the Art of Battery Life" so it seems Im going about its usage correctly.

So I guess my questions are:

1. Wear this fast can't be normal, right?

2. At what point does the warranty cover a replacement?

3. And if it ever is replaced will the replacement be covered for 6 months from that time as well?

⟐ Commented September 16, 2022 at 2:10 MST

When i plug in the power adapter, the light on the front starts glowing. But when i press the power key nothing happens. The light stays glowing, and no fan or hard drive is turned on..

the usb ports do get power..

⟐ Answered May 06, 2015 at 9:51 MST

I have a early 2011 Macbook Pro and lately i started to notice that when my computer reaches high temperature (first signs start to show above 65ºc) i can see a dark shadow in a cone shape right above the CPU and GPU fans.

I can only see them IF my screen image is black (in this case there is a difference between the black of the rest of the screen and the black of the "shadow") or a dark almost black gray. The last scenario is the one that the shadows are most visible.

If the screen image/color is lighter its perfectly normal. For example in the Solid Colours available on the wallpaper preferences, i can't see the shadows with any of them, it must be darker then the darkest gray there. :D

The higher the temperature the most visible the shadow is. If i'm doing some very intensive stuff and the computer is like 1 hour near 90ºc, then the shadows are easy to see on a dark background.

As the temperature drops, the shadow tend to disappear.

My first thought was that this could be the leds right above the heat exits getting dimm due to the hight temperature (they get brighter on colder situations), but i would like to know if this is a normal behaviour.

Should i get worried that somewhere in the near future i will be short of 2 leds?!

Anyway, here are 2 pics of the situation. The first one is with 80'ish ºc the second one is with 30'ish ºc.

http://www.itzatez.info/Mac/hightemp.jpg

http://www.itzatez.info/Mac/lowtemp.jpg

Its a lot more visible in the naked eye. The camera didn't make it justice. :) But even so, its perfectly visible.

So, should i be worried?

P.S. - After searching a lot, when the temperatures are low (about 30ºc), i can see that in the same spot of the left side shadow the screen is a tiny tiny tiny bit brighter there.

Its really a faint difference and only noticeable when looking at it from like a 45º angle. And again only seen on very dark backgrounds.

If i look at it from the normal straight angle i can't see it.

I tried to take a picture of this, but its so subtle that the camera didn't picked it.

⟐ Answer accepted August 24, 2013 at 12:09 MST

Thanks

⟐ Commented March 16, 2021 at 9:13 MST

I used a 2TB Samsund HDD as the secondary, as I wanted to used it for storage, while using my SSD to boot and run my applications from.

My MacBook Pro recognized it just fine immediately after installation, however randomly I will receive a notification "Disk not ejected properly" and my 2nd hard drive will be gone. When I reboot, it returns until it does it again. Sometimes it will go days without doing it, other times it will do it 15 minutes apart. Any suggestions?

I am running Yosemite and have not been able to find any solution.

⟐ Answer accepted September 24, 2022 at 21:21 MST

⟐ Answer deleted June 21, 2019 at 4:36 MST

⟐ Answer accepted June 13, 2016 at 12:35 MST

The 2011 is the last model year for the shunned 17" line of MacBook Pros. My question: Is the logic board compatible between a 2011 15" MacBook Pro and a 2011 17" MacBook Pro?

If this was possible it would mean I could swap out that same logicboard from a 2012 15" MacBook Pro and put it into my 2011 17" MacBook Pro! This would truly be amazing since Apple was sooooo slow putting the USB 3.0 architecture into their line of laptops.

⟐ Answer accepted September 27, 2022 at 3:58 MST

⟐ Answer accepted August 28, 2017 at 16:38 MST

Has anybody encountered this situation ?

⟐ Commented July 13, 2023 at 19:16 MST

Although I equiped SATA HDD (Segate 320GB HDD) to enclosure unit and attached it, MacBook can recoqnize this HDD.

I tried two SSDs, but neither can't be recognized by MacBook. I also tried to attach these SSD to 2.5 HDD connector (next to battery), then MacBook recognized this SSD.

What should I do ?

⟐ Answer accepted October 04, 2022 at 19:40 MST