I am a student looking to buy a used macbook pro as I am on a tight budget. I came across a guy selling his 2011 Macbook Pro i5 for a great price, but the USB drives are not working. He claims that they power things but will not transfer data. Is this a major problem I should be weary of, or is it something I could ignore? Any insight into this issue would be helpful!
if BOTH are dead, it's likely either a blown chip, OR its liquid damage..
It might be worth it IF its available cheap enough.
About a year ago, I had a client who bought a knock-off iphone cable on ebay, burned out both her ports, and then called me crying..... Same symptom you describe - It would power drives but never mount them...
I couldn't find the issue, but sent it down to wegener media to look it over. apparently it was a common controller--I think cost ~$200 to rebuild the logic board.
My client was happy for sure - - i think the closest quote elsewhere was close to $500.
But that's my thought.. i'd certainly START by doing an SMC reset (after you buy it for a song of course)...
This reminds me of a car I bought about 10yrs ago... a 1999 BMW 750iL . It was on the street, for sale for $2500 by the original owner (~60,000 miles on it), because it had a particular symptom where it would ONLY go at 15-20mph MAX (no matter HOW you stomped the gas pedal).
Of course a tranny was about $13k for this car, and there was no way he was going to spend it (car was around $95k new but only worth about $30k at that point if in good shape)... I happen to know a thing or two about certain cars.. AND I had a good hunch. AND I was feeling lucky...
So I offered him $1500.. with the agreement that I'd pick the car up the next day. He agreed, so I paid him cash, took the title, then went back to my truck.. i got a screwdriver and pliers, pulled a particular electronic box out of the BMW, and took it home.
Now, there happens to be a particular diode in a particular board in that car, which blows occasionally, and then it throws the tranny into an "idle only" deal... so I got home, popped the box, found the blown diode, soldered a new one on it ($9 soldering iron from radio shack), and put it back together again..
Then..had my cousin drive me by the next day.. We plugged that box back in, fired it up, and drove away.. I didn't have the guts to tell the guy what I did - I just jumped in, stomped the gas, left a little rubber, and drove off... It was definitely the sweetest $1510 car i've ever scored!! ;D
Anyway, your situation MIGHT or might NOT be liquid OR perhaps a blown controller.. Wish I could be more specific...
If you can ascertain that it's liquid, I'd steer clear... If not, take a gamble.. but only if it's cheap.. that logic board is ~$500... Definitely it's a gamble!!