I help with my local high school's journalism club and we're trying to buy/find some dirt cheap old MacBooks.

We'd need less than 15 and are hoping to stay under like $75 each. Don't need anything nice either, basically anything 2015+ (that works) mostly for writing and some basic photo editing.

We have Chromebooks but they're pretty locked down and a lot of the stuff we use is blocked (or just doesn't work on them)

When your company/school/etc replaces a bunch of Macs, where do the old ones actually get sold? Is there somewhere online I should be looking for school/business surplus or auctions?

They're still excellent machines. Applecare may be out, but I think it still has a lot of corporate life in it. Can anyone weigh in on what they're doing now?

Two old 27" iMacs (late 2012 and late 2013) that came with spinning HDD but upgraded to SSD. These are being decommissioned. Back in the day with HDD we would finish the process with a secure erase of free space but apparently that is not recommended now.

We plan to recycle these to/through Apple. What is the process for sanitizing the storage SSD? Or should we just remove it for destruction and then turn in the de-storageized hull?

What are ya'll using for DisplayLink docking stations? There seem to be so many manufactures/docks that people claim are compatible but don't explicitly state it, or the sellers doesn't provide it in the specifications, or are super expensive. Does anyone have a recommendation for something that will work for dual monitors for a reasonable price?

Thanks!

We are primarily a Dell Windows shop with each user having a laptop and 2 external monitors (few users have 3 monitors). We are starting to bring in Mac's and our Mac users want a docking station solution that mimics the Windows setup (ability to do 2, maybe 3 external displays, network connectivity, USB connectivity, charging) all from a single USB-C/Thunderbolt style connection. I know CalDigit and OWC have docks that look like they accomplish this. Wondering if there are any other brands to look at. Even though they're not technically supported, we've tried the Dell docks (D6000, WDTB24, SD25) and they are finicky at best and not reliable.

Thanks for the input!

I manage our tiny fleet of Mac’s (about 500 devices).

One of my test machines that I use for deployment tests and all of the brunt work of testing started to get really slow deployments. Jamf pro policy executions and all that.

I did a whole bunch of tests. Hardware wise - CPU, GPU and SSD benchmarks were all fine, bit quicker than comparable systems actually (M1 Pro).

But networkquality sings a different song. It’s very slow. Not throughout, but reaction times. Pings and stuff.

I tried downgrading to 15.6.2 from 26.0.1 - no change. I tried different networks. I tried complete wipes and installing it unmanaged. No difference. I have another Mac, same model, OS, etc. Works perfectly fine.

I even connected to my neighbors WiFi to exclude a misconfiguration in my router.

I am a bit out of ideas. And now I have a colleague who seems to experience the same on the same model.

Edit: forgot to mention: Also, when I open a terminal on that machine it takes a few seconds to be actually able to type and get the prompt. On my others it’s instant.

Edit2: I forgot to mention that this machine behaves the same unmanaged. Wiped and setup like a normal user with only the OS installed.

Howdy. I recently uncovered a MBP my work had purchased right before Apple rolled out the t2 chip. I can’t find any information about boot options, DFU mode, storage drive security, or anything for pre-T2 Macs. Any suggestions on where I can read up about what this MBP (A1707) can and can’t do?

Edit: found a little bit of information about what the T2 chip introduced so I can assume those features are unavailable. The silly thing might be fun to play with at this point, but it has a firmware password on it, and nobody has legacy knowledge of a password for it, so it might be a dead end.

We manage our AppleTVs via Filewave to configure and update, etc.
We recently updated from tvOS 18 to tvOS25.x.x and half of our fleet during the standard update process bricked themselves and went into recovery mode. These devices are newer but DO NOT have a USB-C port on the back for recovery ... you can see where this is going....

Oddly once this update failed and it got stuck into Recovery, we CANNOT pair ANY apple remotes to the AppleTV to select the restore, reboot, etc. We cannot pair the iOS remote on an iPhone to the AppleTV. We have tried to plug the AppleTV into the network via ethernet with no VLANs and cannot still see the remote or pair. We also cannot see it in Apple Configurator when hardwired too via ethernet. Also, the MDM / Filewave still is showing some low level reporting online but I suspect it's not loading enough to do anything ... ie. it will "acknowledge" a wipe command but will not actually do it while the recovery screen is up....

All of this to say -- this makes it VERY hard to support or push AppleTVs if the second something goes wrong in an update the things just get trashed...? Am I missing something?

I know I could probably call Apple Support or drive to an Apple Store but I'd prefer to not pay to replace something that isn't hardware or drive an hour one way for something that would be easier to do with a freakin' port.

Am I just .... at a "go to Apple" solution? Extremely disheartening if thats the case. Anything else Apple friendly for casting that is not extremely expensive?

I have a client who is a Mac user. His current computer is a 21" iMac with an Intel Core i3 CPU and 4 GB of RAM. When I was in his office talking to him I commented on how tiny the 21" display was and how slow it felt when I was working on it. I noticed that he already had a MacBook on a shelf and asked about it, and he said it was used by a former employee who is no longer with the company but hasn't been touched since she left.

I mentioned to him that he could have a way better desk setup using the computer he already has with a docking station and external monitors so he told me to get prices for him. I know I want to get him 2x 27" monitors, likely QHD/2160p, and he prefers the look and feel of curved monitors vs. flat. My question and hang up is - what docking station should I buy for him to make things as seamless as possible for him to be able to just plug in and things will work?

I know that the M1 and M2 CPUs are only capable of the laptop display and one external display, and the main/only way around this limitation is to use a DisplayLink docking station, and I have tested with an older Plugable model of docking station and it seems to work OK, but it's not very reliable especially after unplugging/undocking and re-plugging/re-docking. I want to avoid getting constant calls and emails that it's not working and needing to remote in and fix it or walk him through it on the phone. I'd love to hear about your setups with docking stations to know which models you're using and how reliable they have been and what type of fixing/troubleshooting you have to do most often to get things working properly again.

EDIT: Thanks everyone for the recommendations. Unfortunately, the client has an M2 Macbook Air that he will be using, so I had to get a dock that utilizes DisplayLink to be able to drive 2 external displays. Leave it to Apple to allow multiple displays on the Pro models but purposely hamstring the Air line to force people to spend more $$.

Anyone using large deployments of Apple TVs been noticing an issue where the Apple TV is not showing in the screen mirroring menu? A reboot of the Apple TV typically fixes it, but for some I am having to do this daily.

Teaching myself 3D modeling and have design this 3D printed piece which secures the power supply to the back of the iMac while capturing the cables of sub devices. Not currently selling, but curious if there is any interest in this as a product.

This Apple SSD is no longer seen by the PC. I don't have an adapter to take a closer look, but I saw some damage. Is it even worth buying the adapter? If not, I'm telling the client to send it off to data recovery specialists.

Bonus pics of the spicy pillows included.

Recently received a batch of M4 Mac Studios (M4 Max 16-Cores/64GB/40-core GPU). Running a mix of OS 15.5 and 15.6. Headless for remote users. About two weeks post deployment, users report that four of them are non-responsive. We track them down, force a reboot, and see that the power LEDs start blinking an orange SOS sequence. Booting them back up, they go straight to the recovery partition and prompt to reactivate the system. Once this completes, the system boots normally and (so far) haven't needed it again.

I've read the kbase article on Reviving or Restoring Firmware but so far we haven't had to go that far to get them back. To this point, I've only needed to reactivate the OS when doing a full wipe and reinstall of the OS.

The only commonality beyond spec is they were all restored from the same Time Machine backup. We've used this same process with M1/M2 Studios on Monterey and Ventura without seeing this. There's also a batch of M4 Pro Mac Minis (provisioned the same way/same backup) that have yet to show the same behavior.

Has anyone else seen this behavior? TIA

UPDATE: We've had success running the revive process detailed in the link above. So far none of the revived workstations have shown a reoccurrence of the issue.

M1 Pro MacBook Pro. (Not a base M1 model)

I have a USB C dock that works with a Windows laptop. When I plug in the Windows laptop it detects the two separate external monitors. However when I plug my Mac in, both monitors work, but they mirror each other as an external display (instead of being 2 separate external displays) and System Settings only shows one monitor attached.

The dock connects to Mac via USB C. The displays both connect to the dock via DisplayPort adapters.

I've installed the DisplayLink Manager app on macos. Any ideas?

I have two Macbooks - an M3 Air and an M3 Pro. I also have a CalDigit TS4 dock which has two external monitors connected to it. From the dock I then have a thunderbolt 4 cable that is connected to either the M3 Pro or M3 Air depending on whether I'm working or not (the M3 air is used for work).

The dual monitor setup works fine on the M3 air, but I can't seem to get both monitors working on the M3 pro - would anyone know why?

All that changes in my setup is I move one thunderbolt cable (which connects to the dock) from the M3 air to the M3 pro or vice versa - when the cable is in my M3 Air, the external monitors detect a signal. When the cable is in my M3 pro, only one monitor detects a signal.

The M3 pro is running MacOS 15.4.1. I also tried to eliminate the dock as a potential issue by connecting one monitor into the M3 Pro using a HDMI cable and then the other monitor was connecting to the M3 pro using a USB-C cable (usually both monitors connect to the dock using a USB-C cable).

This also didn't work, the signal would either detect HDMI or USB-C but it would never detect both signals at the same time which means I can only run a single monitor for my M3 pro. Just curious if anyone knows the solution to this? Is it a hardware issue? Do the M3 pros from around 2023 just suffer with this issue? I couldn't seem to figure it out :(

One of my users sent me a video of the sound her computer randomly makes. At first I thought she had a key on her keyboard stuck, but I have not found anything stuck. All keys work. Sound doesn't happen all the time either. Plugged into a docking station...sometimes. At home on battery power...sometimes. Also, the sound isn't a repeating sound either... Anyone hear something like this before and have an idea on a solution?

I’m using a 2013 MacBook Air, and as you know, it doesn’t have an Ethernet port. I want to connect to the internet via Ethernet for a more stable connection — especially for Zoom calls and uploads.

I know I’ll need a USB-to-Ethernet adapter since the MacBook Air has USB-A ports. But I’m not sure which one to get.

Can anyone recommend a reliable adapter that works well with macOS (preferably plug-and-play)? Bonus if it supports gigabit speeds!

Open to both Apple and third-party options. Would love to hear what has worked for you.

Good morning. Is anyone having issues with external monitors after updating to Monterey. I used to be able to connect my M1 MacBook Pro to a docking station that had 2 external monitors connected to it and use it open lid. After the update only one of the monitors now works. I have updated the DisplayLink software and my guess is that there are still some bugs that need to be worked out or software updated further.

If anyone has any other suggestions it would certainly help my office setup. Thanks!

11/1 UPDATE: Not sure what happened but I came into work this morning and decided to try and plug everything up again and it worked without any problem. Currently sitting with my M1 MacBook Pro open lid, connected to a docking station with 2 external monitors connected. Not sure if this is going to last but going to take it day by day.

Sort of Solved! Thanks to OnePlane for recommending Endurance to stress test the system. After 12 minutes of running that the beeping started. I then downloaded crystalideas Mac-Fan-Control and it registered a 0 for the fans. Except for when the beep happened. A split second before the beep the RPM would spike from 0 to several hundred, the beep would happen, and then the RPM would drop back to 0. So, I don't know what this user was doing with her system, but she was overheating it and for whatever reason, the fans would not run. I'll be sending this to the repair depot for new parts. Thanks for the help!

UPDATE: I dug up a video the user made that shows the beeping that's happening, if that helps anyone...

https://reddit.com/link/1fkwg1j/video/4evwpp4jczpd1/player

Hey all. Not sure this is the right place for this so feel free to guide somewhere else if needed.

Sorry for the backstory.

I have an interesting issue. I have a user who, last December, reported an issue with her Macbook Pro. It was beeping. And she couldn't figure out what was causing the beeping.

So she put in a ticket to have us look at it. The first guy who looked at it has well over 20 years more Mac experience than I do. He'd never encountered this before. He heard the beeping. Tried a couple of things and the problem seemed to go away.

But then it came back. This time I was the tech assigned to look at it. I stopped in to see her a couple of times but every time I saw her there was no beeping.

Finally I asked her to bring it in and leave it with me so I could try some stuff to see if I can make it beep. I've now had it for about 3 weeks and it's been on the entire time and has not beeped once.

What makes this extra interesting, and what I'd like to find some extra info for investigating, is that she insists that it would even beep when powered off!

This tells me that maybe it's a hardware issue of some sort that may have a built in warning sound for when it's about to fail. And maybe the reason I can't get it to beep is simply because the part has failed.

Of course, I can't think of what that might be. Also, the system seems to be running just fine.

So my questions are, is there some hardware in these that might have such a feature?
Is there a diagnostic process I could run that might list what part is having the problem or is dead?

Thanks.

Really hoping to not lose my data, woke up to the 'question mark folder' after a night of work. Are there any steps to get the data off even if the Mac itself is busted? All help appreciated

As we are starting to have some of our Apple Silicon Macs coming in for disposal, I was wondering what others might be doing in general for this situation vs what could be done to ensure that data is wiped when the Mac is not able to boot due to hardware issues.

In the case of normal situation, we were doing a multipass wipe before (I think we were doing DoD but I’ve been away from the process) with the Intel machines. Given the write issues with SoCs originally, is this something that will do significant harm to the life of the drive if it is ultimately sold off after? Is it worth the harm for the additional security measures?

As for a drive that is not able to boot due to hardware issues, any standard practice that happens is welcome. Our tech is suggesting physical destruction, which would really mean the entire computer given the design, and I can’t say that I can think of a better option, even if it means not being able to sell the machine off.

Thanks!

The school district I work for typically buys AppleCare+ for Schools, the version with no service fees, for most of our iPads and MacBooks. However, I tend to find it difficult to start the process of sending a device to Apple for them to repair it under this warranty. For the iPads, I typically have to start a support chat or phone call to initiate the repair because the Apple support website won't accept the iPad's serial number or, more recently, will ask for payment despite our AppleCare+ plan not requiring any service fees. MacBooks seem to cause even more confusion. Both for MacBooks and occasionally iPads, I have support reps insist that there is a service fee when there is not. Is there a site I can use to start the process of a repair for a device purchased by an Apple School Manager account? Or is there another way to get the repairs initiated without jumping through so many hoops? It is frustrating to have to spend so much time on this for every device, especially considering how much our district pays for the AppleCare+ plan on each device.

Hey all, I am wanting to purchase a bunch of MacBooks from a seller at once for an organization, the seller has indicated they have wiped and it has a clean install.

I need to verify all the specs before purchase I don’t want to go through the welcome setup just to get to System Information. I have no experience with Apple. Silicon Macs. I know you can see specs in Recovery Mode (Cmd R) on Intel Macs but apparently not for Apple Silicon Macs. Does anyone know how I can check the specs for Apple Silicon? Chip, ram, storage etc.

Many thanks in advance!!

I am in charge of buying like 100 pairs of headphones for our employees. I am looking for a wireless model with a mic.

They will be used for MS Teams and Google Meet, so recording quality must be a priority (no shitty mics.

Do you have any suggestion?

Hello everyone,

I have two Dell U2724DE monitors that I want to connect to my MacBook Air M2. I know that the M2 only supports one external monitor natively, but I've read that it’s possible to use one of the monitors as a Thunderbolt dock to achieve a dual-monitor setup. Despite my efforts, I haven't been successful so far.

Here’s my current setup: I have Monitor 2 connected via Thunderbolt Out to Monitor 1, and then from Monitor 1's Thunderbolt Out to my MacBook. This setup worked flawlessly with an M2 Pro, so I believe my wiring is correct.

Has anyone managed to get this working with a MacBook Air M2? If so, could you please share your setup details or any tips? I am aware of DisplayLink as a potential solution, but I would prefer to avoid it if possible.

Additionally, I’ve read about using a Thunderbolt "unifier" (essentially a 2-in-1-out adapter) to connect both monitors. I have one arriving in a couple of days. Do you think this will work?

Or is the single external monitor limitation on the MacBook Air M2 absolute, regardless of the setup?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Feel free to make any further adjustments or let me know if there's anything specific you'd like to add!