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Replace the screen, maybe? And now you have an extra laptop.
omg that's so funny, I have a MacBook Pro with a broken screen.
I feel kind of bad but it was too expensive to replace the screen. I got an external screen. It works, but it made the laptop not portable, so I repaired my brother’s old Chromebook and installed Linux on it.
Yeah, that's my sentiment as well. I don't want to pay to have the display repaired, because I already have a laptop. Finding this thing was not an invitation for me to spend money on it :P
So I hooked it up to a spare monitor and fiddled around with it, some. Used Crossover to install Steam and Mortal Kombat and played a few rounds. Worked well!
Hook it up to your living room TV, and make it your entertainment station? With a good set up, you can stream on it, play retro games and emulation, miscellaneous media... I could see it being much more useful than a standard Roku / Fire / et cetera USB stick.
Install Linux and turn that into a server with bonus UPS
My one fear is if I try to install Asahi but get stuck on an install step that requires me to be able see what’s on the main laptop display, which would not be possible
Good thinking. High risk. Impressed that you thought ahead to avoid the risk. I like the home entertainment suggestion, but you could also use the extra cycles to run containers or VMs in the background. I know you said you already have a server, so I'm trying to think what else would provide utility. Nice find, hope you come up with some fun projects.
Can you remove the drive? Could remove the drive and put it on another computer then install Linux then reinstall the drive into the Macbook?
soldered/glued :(
What would happen if you remove the cable connecting the laptop screen to the motherboard? Does Mac use eDP?
It seems what happens is the laptop still expects a built-in display to output to unless the magnets/hinges are closed, in which case it will switch to clamshell mode and only display on the external monitor.
but what sucks about that is in clamshell mode the built in keyboard/mouse become unusable, but those components are fully functional. Maybe there is a way to trick it to only output to an external display, never try to output to the broken laptop screen, and keep the kb+mouse operational...
Ditto. One of the biggest gripes I have with my servers is the fat UPS I have to keep next to them.
Having a second server might be a good opportunity to learn kubernetes
You could sell it for way too much on ebay, those M1 Macbooks are still worth a fair bit. I recently tried to get a water damaged M1 Pro Macbook and people outbid me like crazy; went for 150€ in the end despite being almost certainly a total dud.
Even ones without a working display go for 170€, which is far more than I'd pay for a fully working non-workstation laptop from that time...
Edit: Just looked at the listing again and the water damaged M1 Pro went for 234€. According to the listing it sat around for 2 years after it stopped working from water damage. 234€.
You can connect to a TV and use as a browser or media center PC
If you don't have a need, do not purchase.
If you have purchased without a need, consider returning or selling it.
A broken laptop can simply be used as a desktop with an external monitor.
It was in an e-waste bin. I didn't purchase it. I just picked it out of a pile of electronics.
Oh my god. I couldn't believe people throw that away. When you say e-waste bin I thought of it as some kind of flea market.
Nice find, bro.
Probably the only reason I found it is the busted display 😅. I guess to someone that either meant it didn't work at all, or they just stopped caring and didn't want to deal with it anymore.
Maybe one day I'll find a matching macbook pro where the computer doesn't work but the display does. And then I'll mix-and-match them and have one fully working laptop and one fully broken one 😀
this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2025
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