Turning A Free Scrap Macbook Into A Desktop PC!

[@psivewri]

Thanks so much for watching :) Download Opera for free: opr.as/Opera-Browser-psivewri

[@4skep]

Np :D

[@tobiwonkanogy2975]

Opera Gx is very impressive now including even custom mods . many features all the time .

[@braylonthomson]

can u give me free MacBook plz. My friend is a dick and he keeps using mine without even asking, and he isn't even paying rent. He lives in my closet rent free and I am needing some other sort of income because I am a very poor person who can not afford to live anymore 😎

[@DubbedDonut]

I JUST WATCHED THIS ON OPERA GX LOL

[@rmcdudmk212]

Great vid. I've been thinking of doing this myself. 👍

[@vueeyle7162]

I hope you enjoy the laptop and I am glad you were able to put my old Macbook to good use - Good video by the way!

[@therealdjflip]

Moment he said the name, I knew

[@Qwerty-uiop]

David

[@DarkLatexKing]

Damn i have Tons of broken phones and computers in my garage should i donate it to him?🤔

[@diakdiak]

I wish i had one of those, even broken macbooks go for like 700 900bucks here in pakistan

[@khwajamahadhaq2743]

@@diakdiak they do ?!?!

[@tech-bore8839]

Glad someone's finally highlighting this idea. I've saved several laptops from being scraped by doing this and it's something more people should think about.

[@Nas_Allie]

The performance happened with me on an old Air 2012, I used OpenCore Legacy Patcher to create an EFI to bypass the battery limitations but still remain on the last supported OS!

[@zoomosis]

What was the name of the setting to bypass the battery limitations? (so I can google it)

[@Nas_Allie]

@@zoomosis you need OpenCore Legacy Patcher, I cannot remember the name of the setting & im not at my desk but if you hover your mouse over each of the options it’ll give you the description! I think it’s in Misc Settings

[@Nikpet3D]

will it work with a bad battery? :O

[@Nas_Allie]

@@Nikpet3D yeah, I opened the laptop & disconnected the battery though just in case

[@Nikpet3D]

@@Nas_Allie ohh :O

[@mahalisyarifuddin]

It's the 80's all over again, and I'm all for it! Would also love to do this to resurrect my own headless laptop, but my external monitor is broken too. Since repairing + buying external monitor is relatively expensive, I might as well repair my laptop in its entirety.

[@ReTex504]

You can fix the performance issue by using opencore which has a function to disable this kind of throttling

[@applebottomjeans7145]

how?

[@ReTex504]

@@applebottomjeans7145 OpenCore Legacy Patcher menu > Settings > Developer Settings > Disable Firmware Throttling Did the job for an old MBP 17 2011 I had. Battery was dead and I needed to test it. Make sure you have a charger with at least the necessary wattage or more

[@iggysixx]

@@ReTex504 Thanks! Good to know about these utilities. (I thought it was also possible through command line stuff, but a GUI application is hella easier :))

[@TovarasSanders]

I did exactly this with my 2014 ex-retina…still works like a dream…love Your videos man, been here for years, still a pleasure to watch these daily, thanks man!

[@half-qilin]

Little tip with these machines; Opencore Legacy Patcher can patch out the performance drop from the missing/cooked battery.

[@psivewri]

Interesting! I was not aware of this 👍

[@DistrosProjects]

Hmm, interesting! Thought it was something with the firmware.

[@EzwanRohman]

there it is . the ultimatum for my old mate already asking for it's 5th battery

[@EzwanRohman]

@@psivewri there's your next upcoming video mate . please do it

[@let_me_explain8572]

Is there an analog of this for Windows? My Lenovo runs like crap when no battery is plugged in.

[@ethanpod8139]

A while back I took you idea of taking local schools laptops they are throwing out. Last year I got 5, all of them turned out working. All of them were an iteration of the 2015 MacBook Pro too!! Love your work!

[@nerdyneighbor]

I love this. So many people are like "yeah but which 2012 are you using which parts for?" And from my experience, you can do a lot of part swapping like you did here. People are so nitpicky about submodels, so I love that you franken-mac'd it.

[@TimurTripp2]

Apple is extremely well-known for subtle parts differences between models. Little things like changing the location of a connector to prevent an easy display swap happen fairly regularly.

[@TimurTripp2]

These were also the last generations of MacBooks that could objectively be called user-serviceable or upgradable. People who are used to Apple's current MacBooks probably don't realize how things were back then.

[@thedeadlygames9716]

@@TimurTripp2are you sure? I’ve seen many of his videos cleaning up them 2012 MacBooks, and the connector locations look the same on all the models he has cleaned up 🤔

[@jameslatief1]

It's fascinating to see how the one with good battery is actually running faster. So, this means that your old laptop with bad battery slowing down makes sense, it's not just Apple slowing you down with the updates.

[@cphotos153]

Yeah it is kinda weird

[@retrodude6215]

This kinda harks back to the 80s microcomputers, like the C64. Nice seeing a modern reboot of it!

[@iamaverycooluser]

My dad had a C64, which I have now.

[@DJSekuHusky]

I've found that the best donors are liquid damaged machines for housing swaps. It helps if they happen to die early in their life, too. My free 2012 i7 13" Pro was rehoused into a free 2011 i5 model with liquid damage; the board had corrosion around the rear vents and wouldn't POST or show signs of life beyond a twitching fan. The battery only had 134 charge cycles and was still in good health, the keyboard still had its matte surface, and not a dent or scratch anywhere on it. The donor board machine had a stage light fall on it while it was open and it got flattened, but the unibody structure saved the board from damage (even if the hinges got ripped out of the aluminum from the impact). It can also be a save for a poorly reconditioned device: i.e., I got a "dead" $5 ThinkPad X250 with an i7 that had seen some botched DIY repairs from its previous owner (my guess is failed trackpad?) . It was missing screws, the keyboard backlight diffuser, and the cable management was awful and the guy used the wrong length of screws in places, so there were little protrusions on the topcase and even a crack in it from the botched work. Transplanted that (ultimately) working i7 board into a mint $28 i5 model with water damage, now it's good as new. Best of all you get a "small spares" machine, meaning you can harvest other smaller working bits like hinges, radios, keyboards and what not and replace as needed or sell to recover your funds. Love watching your channel bud, keep up the good work!

[@Sashko_Dee]

Ice-T was doing this before it was cool. I distinctly remember him bragging about having a macbook with a busted screen during an interview at his home and how he just uses it via video out. I already liked him for Body Count and that movie with Keanu and the hacking dolphin but that was the point that I knew that he was a real OG.

[@Piipperi800]

You can use OCLP to remove firmware throttling on Macs if you don't have a good battery or a display

[@nddawson]

When you use a third party SSD in an Apple product, TRIM gets disabled by default. You can rectify this by opening Terminal and typing "sudo trimforce enable" and after accepting the prompts then a reboot TRIM will be functional on the third party SSD

[@emdotrod]

I think some people sold the headless Macbook Air M1 as an alternative to Mac Mini. These laptops with broken screen can still be useful as a low power desktop replacement

[@somepl3b]

Missed opportunity to have called it a Scrapbook and get all the scrapbooking views too

[@SaulGreatorixMusic]

Looks like a modern day Amiga setup!

[@oldipodee]

Opencore legacy patcher will allow you to bypass the limitations due to the fried battery, and run a newer version of macOS.

[@bitelaserkhalif]

I did this to a Lenovo laptop that has a broken hinge.

[@frstwhsprs]

Speaking of, I was going to keep it for a project in the future but my mom unfortunately demanded me to delete it.

[@Boroiboi]

I had a laptop with broken display. Plug in to tv and used it as its display. Can use this method to every laptop with broken display

[@Forrest_O.]

It was probably a Thinkpad. Not due to quality, but what OS you use.

[@bitelaserkhalif]

@@Forrest_O. Not a thinkpad, but lenovo g series

[@nullx3]

Did the same to my Lenovo Thinkpad T440.

[@huuhoangmanh685]

in Vietnam these screenless macbook are actually common here especially the ones from 2014 - 2018, hence we always call them "mâm macbook" (macbook plates) 😂

[@ddg2256]

I've done the same a couple times with broken laptops. Too many people don't recognize the value of a device that can still work perfectly fine with just some DIY engineering.

[@gameofthrone07]

What about the battery part ? Does the laptop working with battery too ?

[@cosmosinity]

a psivewri video a day keeps boredom away!

[@zerocks88]

re the thermal paste application, you're right that it's critical that you have to apply enough to cover the die, it's not necessarily wrong how you did it but I recommend spreading it as well to guarantee it's touching all of the surface, since there's no way to know that it is otherwise and if there are hot spots on there it can lead to its early death

[@Zebra_Paw]

Great video! I'd recommend OpenCore Legacy Patcher though, to run Monterey on this Metal supported machine. It will be flawless and bug free (nearly). Reballing will NOT fix your dead 2011 MacBook Pro... the chip itself is the issue... you might get away with cooking it, since the issue comes from small bridges inside of the die that can partially resolder with heat... but it's temporary. Replacing the chip is also temporary since it can fail again... the best fix is to disable dedicated graphics. It's partly AMD's fault, but mostly Apple's fault with terrible cooling (other laptops that use the same chips don't die). MacBook SSDs were not removable all the way to 2017... The 2016-2017 TouchBar MBP models had soldered storage... For MacBook Airs, you could replace the storage until 2018! Worth noting that this proprietary storage isn't the same across all models... there are several types.

[@kirishima638]

I absolutely love this build! It reminds me of the older keyboard-only micros such as the C64 or Amiga. A great way to re-use perfectly serviceable machines.

[@wasifalam545]

Thank you so much, I always love this channel.

[@garbagedataraccoon]

Aye aye aye! I've found a lovely channel to look at. I love looking at the guts of old computers! I'm currently building two new ones for my dad and grandma.

[@danatmonst3594]

5:37 😆nice reference to TronicsFix there! I doubt I'm your only sub who's subbed to Steve as well! Great fix here!

[@GaosArmy-Offical]

Hmm lets see, *looks at apple vision pro*

[@randomexcessmemories4452]

Why does the lack of a battery affect performance so much?

[@andrasbesenyei8923]

I did this to a lenovo notebook but it used the screens metal frame as antenna so wifi is pretty bad on it :(

[@djwalkerfemaledj]

You’re a genius😮

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

I have a tin can that has all my surplus screws from electronics I've taken apart over the years. SO handy!

[@BadKarma714]

Can you make a sever with that Mac book?

[@neurobioboy]

Could do an excellent little server.

[@gab_v250]

Looks like a modern era C64.

[@roger.monitor]

I made from a HP Pavillion with busted screen a OMV nas with two 1TB Hd's running OMV from a SD card. Works well and dose not takes up a lot of room.

[@robsquared2]

Just remember that the proprietary SSD card in newer Macs can use regular m.2 sata drives with an adapter, or nvme? I forget if it's one, the other, or both.

[@j.m.7580]

Great video as always. Thanks!

[@lubrikwiklund]

I have been using a headless 2012 macbook pro without battery for 5 years. I'm also using it as a "desktop" but in a studio i'm sharing with a friend. Magsafe charger connector secured with hot glue and the macbook is tucked away (in a upright "book" position) behind the monitor. I've never bothered about getting a new battery because the macbook is not going to be portable anyways. It is upgraded with ssd, ram, kept the optical drive because still using discs, and ventilation holes in the back cover but holy shit i think i need to order a new battery after all!! Thanks!

[@EVRLYNMedia]

I did this with a sandy bridge dell latitude for a while before i got my desktop built. it was also a surprisingly decent setup! very compact and practical honestly

[@fayyazb]

Super! This always is a good idea. Thank You.

[@georgewashington6171]

watching this on a laptop my neighbours were throwing out, 6th gen i5 and the igpu still does 1080p vids without a hitch, it was filthy tho, like a whole dog in the fan lmao

[@PositiveProto]

i only get ads for oprea when using opera, I have the metal pipe mod installed btw

[@JustRobertCZE]

i used my 2012 Acer Aspire One 756 like this for 2 years (2017 to 2019) :D

[@harrison00xXx]

i did this already in about 2013/2014 as my 2009 model fell apart after 4 years of VERY heavy mobile use in school and as primary and only computer besides a loud heavily overclocked and unstable gaming desktop i just used batteries coming from my 2nd hand bought 2010 model after they lost „too much“ capacity for heavy battery usage to allow it to use full power

[@wertywerrtyson5529]

That’s actually a pretty good PC even today since the 15 inch from 2012 has 8 threads and you can put 16GB of RAM and almost unlimited storage. I put a cheap 1TB in mine but you can put as much as you are willing to pay for an SSD and even use 2 SSDs if you take away the disc drive. Making a laptop have dozens of TB of SSD storage if you want. Something a modern MAC simply cannot have.

[@biglevian]

So, it's half speed because the battery is broken? Great engineering, Apple.

[@c8ff]

I did this with my laptop when the screen's hinge was broken. The experience with an external monitor wasn't that different. I reinstalled the screen later though. Still a great option for temporary or permanent use.

[@parthburad-4193]

same here

[@vadym8713]

ьy main issue was that it just didn't want to output image to external monitor for some reason. I had to use audio accessibility feature to make it work and was soo sore for blind people (

[@justmijosh]

I have a gaming PC and a M1 MacBook. I recently broke the screen on my MacBook which bummed me out. I just plug it up to my monitor now because I do all of my productivity tasks on my Mac. Works just fine!

[@slash.9882]

Nice Steeldive à la Captain Willard

[@kuchenblechmafiagmbh1381]

Great Idea, Cat and Andrew already did that several times with screen damaged Laptops, I myself had a cheap Asus 15" with AMD A6 APU from 2012 to 2017 and over the time the plastic body broke more and more, the screen (which also had only 720p resolution) had a dead vertical line. I scrapped the lower housing and the screen but of course kept the mainboard and gave it to a friend. Maybe I can build a case for this now with a 3D printer.

[@mihaelmiles7184]

Where I can find and buy screenless macbooks?

[@tomguder]

Thank you very much.

[@elephystry]

Psivewri out here bringing back keyboard computers

[@juzthomas]

Well one of my daily driver is a headless laptop. In Indonesia it's common since you wouldn't even consider 22 dollar SSD is cheap

[@iwanhaniyoto]

I got a Fujitsu AH-564 laptop with similiar specs, Core i7 Gen 4 without display, RAM and HDD. Lucky me, i found a Acer 15.,6 monitor with a compatible LCD pin cable to the mainboard, now working as an Desk-Note Hybrid Laptop.

[@petershorrock6128]

Amazing true legend never forgot love older tech great review ❤

[@knightzero2489]

I did this with a windows laptop that has a backlite keyboard, works fairly well

[@JohnWilson-hb5qc]

You could say it’s….a ScrapBook.

[@ParadoxdesignsOrg]

I Was just trying to figure out what to do with all my busted screened laptops! I will give this a go! Thx man!

[@TeraByte38]

I wanted to do this same thing with a non-macbook notebook, but i haven't gotten ANY notebook (except for MY notebook wich i won't sacrifice)

[@real_mfiel577]

hell yeah i love watching these types of videos where he takes something useless and broken

[@Smart_boy2001]

I love these laptops techs they are better than watching desktop building

[@JacobJohnson-lh4gx]

finally turning a Mac halftop to a desktop nice haha. Great content as always.

[@Johnrichox]

No it’s a Mac notop

[@Johnrichox]

Just a lap

[@themacintoshnerd]

Btw OpenCore can bypass the throttling when having a dead/missing display or battery.

[@psivewri]

Yes I now know about that existing. I'll be sure to give it a go in future videos :)

[@megatronskneecap]

Mount this on the back of a cinema display and its an iMac.

[@psivewri]

But then you can't use the good keyboard and trackpad 😅

[@megatronskneecap]

@@psivewri I guess you could mount a USB hub under the display lol

[@joshb2000jb]

I did the same thing for an old HP laptop that had a cracked display. It got used as a Minecraft server for several years.

[@93Volvo240]

This was really interesting! Usually I throw out headless laptops, but this is going to make me think twice about that XD. Oh, I had an idea for something you could do in future Apple computer videos: Could you run some of your PC games on them using BootCamp? For example, I would love to see how BeamNG runs on this machine. You could also use something like CrossOver or Parallels, but for Intel Macs, I think Boot Camp would be best. As always, I look forward to seeing more videos!

[@byLokie]

Where you buy the 240g ssd

[@hugospectrum4v]

i do the same thing but i install the motherboard inside of a Pc Screen Monitor

[@scottl31]

Why does the health of the battery have anything to do with performance, especially if it's plugged in to power?

[@zedoctor_]

That bird is absolutely beautiful!

[@bramvandenbroeck5060]

Well i used a headless Thinkpad for a bit. My display was broken after it fell down, but i used it with a crt monitor, external keyboard and mouse. And it worked fine, until i had enough to buy a new laptop (screens seem to be the most expensive part of a laptop) and i gave this Thinkpad away.

[@KelvinYong77]

Nice to see upcycling Mac Slabbook; ngl, I do like to mod/hack/upcycle a broken screen Macbook for Slabbook. Any guide to get going?

[@enderpirate9887]

I use Vivaldi and it works well!

[@polifemo3967]

why does a dead battery affect performance? I'd think that if they are both connected to a power source, the battery would have no effect

[@johnbaker95899]

Why not remove the battery if it’s going to be a desktop? Does the CPU throttle if completely disconnected?

[@lordeilluminati]

I dont know about this mac in particular, but some devices like smartphones, tablets and the Nintendo Switch do not turn on if the battery isnt attached, even if it is dead and will be running from the charger at all times.

[@SergeiJonovich]

Is there a H/W way to remove/bypass/fool the battery sensing circuitry into believing the battery is sweet?

[@EpicLPer]

I love how we both made a video about a screenless Mac just about 2 days apart, what kind of coincidence is this

[@ALiLSpiderr]

Where do I get one from?

[@Mike-km6zz]

7:45 How did you put the model and year back in the “about this Mac” overview?

[@RocketWire]

It's just an older version of macOS that still displayed the model

[@ElectriKiwi]

im sorry all i can think about is how this guy looks like the roblox face

[@georgekontus6730]

Bruh, Opera 😂

[@Tesse4193]

your videos are very fun to watch

[@ellenorbjornsdottir1166]

In a world of fun and fantasy, and ever changing views - in computer terminology... ;) (it's the song from the commodore ad.)

[@TheGlitchyMario]

ive done this to a few laptops. I call them "portable desktops" lol

[@Bunni1scute]

what happens if the monitor randomly gives up?

[@stewrafa2163]

Great video, dose Anyone know that the mini pc the little green Octopus is sitting on is. Looking for a mini pc was this a good one??

[@RafiqZen]

You can disable firmware throttling cause by not having a battery. install OCLP, Update the system and disable this so you can use it battery less.

[@MuaadElSharif]

This is a nice video thanks. Why is the battery affecting performance? I thought that you can use the power adapter and override the battery?

[@RoodeMenon]

PC in a keyboard must be brought back into the mainstream. I'd buy it.

[@mihaillevarda9395]

i saw a printer repair shop in romania with 25 years of experience using a hp elitebook core 2 duo business laptop withot the lcd screen connected to an old computer monitor

[@nerd2544]

was it also using XP lol

[@Streetw1s3r]

Wish I could get a free Macbook.

[@izakshuvo8434]

You could use one of those head mounted dipslays/glasses and it's a laptop again.

[@danielsgrunge]

And looks pretty cool too!

[@neatt3815]

Why does a bad battery cause a performance decrease? Does the laptop throttle the performance because the AC adaptor can't provide as much power?