How much should it cost to have a MacBook battery replaced?

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GSManiac

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#271831 28-May-2020 15:27

I asked for a quote to have the battery replaced on my early 2011 MacBook Pro and have new thermal paste on the CPU/GPU to solve overheating issues.

Came back at $375. Does this sound reasonable?

thanks in advance

Behodar

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#2493732 28-May-2020 15:32

I wouldn't spend that much on a 2011. There's a fairly widespread problem (although Apple won't release actual figures) where the GPU will kill itself without warning and the machine will become effectively unusable. My suggestion is to save your money, so that you can replace it in the future.

With that said, I replaced the battery in mine about five years ago. I was quoted around $350 from memory, but ended up going to iFixit and getting one for around $100.

Andib

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#2493752 28-May-2020 15:55

Maybe a little on the high side but not too bad. A quality replacement battery for a MacBook of that era is ~$100usd and shipping batteries has become expensive. Add in repasting the CPU/GPU which means the logicboard has to come out and you're looking at an hour of time at $100~/hr.

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GSManiac

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#2493755 28-May-2020 15:58

A couple of years ago I had the RAM upgraded and the HDD switched to an SSD. It made such a difference. I’m reluctant to get a new one because I’m not a fan of the new ones having only a couple of thunderbolt ports and I’ll miss the CD drive. At the time I opted for the i7 processor over the i5, so it’s a pretty beastly machine.

thanks for your replies.

cooljoo

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#2493797 28-May-2020 16:54

Better to save that $375 and look around for a 2nd hand MacBook.

That 2011 model is vintage so it means you can’t get official parts by Apple anymore.

Here is a link of vintage models.

https://support.apple.com/en-nz/HT201624

Also that 2011 doesn’t support macOS 10.14 or 10.15 so it has no future in terms of software support.

A 2012 MacBook still supports the latest operating system.