Lately its been very popular to buy apple products second hand for a much lower price. However, this slight rebate might be the end of you mac experience and wallet. You have to be very careful and do a lot of reseach before you enter this dark alley of uncertainty. The Macbook pro 17″ devices have had huge defects that apple is not very proud to advertise about, and I can’t blame them. With huge problems, to name a few: over heating of batteries, black dots on the screen and mysterious lines across the screen. These defects are only known to the mac users that have experienced the problems, and the few who have done the research.

However, the tunnel is not dark all the way. Since midway of 2007 apple did start doing a silent recall of the defect devices. Serial numbers up to W8608 are potentially affected by the issues discussed above. Check yours now or before you purchase a second hand item, you could still get your problems sorted on warranty.

Some stats I found on the net:

90% of our MacBooks have experienced at least one of the following issues:

1. Random, frequent shutdowns. Machines generally have to be out for repair for days or even weeks because the needed parts on are backorder. This issue occurs in over 40% of our machines and many have to go back for additional service on the same issue.
2. No video on startup unless the user resets PRAM. Neither Apple Authorized Service Providers, nor Apple support has been able to offer any suggestion aside from “reseat the RAM.”
3. Top case-discoloration. A replacement top-case fixes it, but it’s still downtime for the user.