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AHT - apple hardware test. It's a pretty powerful tool that the geniuses use but we plebes can also use
thanks for all the advice - yeah, Garageband is what he's using and he isn't likely to switch unless he's forced to, at gunpoint, really.
I'll go the upgrade route and see how it goes. Fingers crossed!
you might want to launch "Activity Monitor" and look at the bottom to see if you are using "Swap". If you are, then you are short on RAM.
If the computer is a tool for his work, he has to understand the cost and return for this tool. If it is used to bring in revenue, then he must maintain it. If it does not bringing in revenue, it is just a hobby.
To restore from a time machine backup, you need the DVD that came from apple when you bought the computer.
Can clone the current hard drive in its current state.
A hard drive and memory upgrade is likely to cost more than the value of the macbook and the battery life is already diminishing. So you need to decide how long you expect to keep this thing running and how long Apple will support it.
Personally I upgraded my 2010 Macbook with 8GB for ram and a 500 GB SSD and it runs like a champ. Upgrades cost over $200 but I like the plastic body and the DVD writer, Otherwise I would have upgraded.
Typically when hardware checks out, and you spend more than an hour with the software , you are better reinstalling the OS from the DVD.
So you need to find or order that DVD from Apple or just upgrade. I think the upgrade goes like this.
Click on the Apple > Click software update > Update itunes > upgrade the app store > go to the app store to upgrade to the latest OS. I did have a problem once where I had to go to the app store and reinstall Lion before I could update to El Capitan. I did this on a new duplicated SSD and preserved my old one.
How did you remedy the original hard drive problem? Did you reinstall or did they?
Apple installed a new drive. It was literally two months old.
Yeah, upgrading is a lot cheaper than buying a new one - not sure what the max RAM is on his MB. I've run disk utility a lot; repaired permissions; disk always come back as OK.
On my MBP, which is a beautiful 15" aluminum unibody that I simply don't want to get rid of, despite its age, I've maxed out RAM at 4GB, though third parties apparently have successfully used a 4GB chip in the second slot to eke 6GB out of it. But it had the notorious logic board issue several years after purchase -- Apple replaced it free (no Apple Care, either) and it was a ~$700 part, but I think it's going again. Sigh.
Update - got a look at his specs - it's mid-2010 MB with only 2gigs of RAM, so that's a big part of the problem, right there. I'm about to buy 8 gigs of OWC RAM and a 480GB SSD on Amazon. $244 shipped.
Should be a nice day's work this weekend, if he'll let me at it.
Update - got a look at his specs - it's mid-2010 MB with only 2gigs of RAM, so that's a big part of the problem, right there. I'm about to buy 8 gigs of OWC RAM and a 480GB SSD on Amazon. $244 shipped.
Should be a nice day's work this weekend, if he'll let me at it.
If you get the 480GB OCZ or AMD, be sure to check/update the firmware.
How do you intend to get the OS onto the new drive?
I got this one: OWC 480GB Mercury Electra 3G SSD 2.5" Serial-ATA 7mm Solid State Drive.
Downloading El Capitan onto my creaky ol' 2007 MBP right now and will make a bootable installer on USB.
There are issues with this method, though, not the least of which is that all the instructions I've found so far for doing this involve OS 10.7 or later.
I'm not giving up this easily though.
Last edited by Gettingouttahere; 04-28-2016 at 06:12 PM..
Update - got a look at his specs - it's mid-2010 MB with only 2gigs of RAM, so that's a big part of the problem, right there. I'm about to buy 8 gigs of OWC RAM and a 480GB SSD on Amazon. $244 shipped.
Should be a nice day's work this weekend, if he'll let me at it.
That should be a rather dramatic improvement.
RAM starved and slow, undersized spinning disk = beach balls galore
thanks -- could you walk me through enabling trim, archineer? i read about it but my mind is a bit loopy with everything i'm trying to absorb...
by the way, i'm going to have to clone the original HDD onto the SSD in an enclosure - there is no way I can find to make a bootable USB of El Capitan when you're running 10.6.8 .. I'm not comfortable enough with Terminal to wing it, and all the instructions I've found online require 10.7+
^ mac-os is technically a version of bsd-unix (though i know they have taken away programs like awk or apache ...). check to see if you have the disk-duplicator program (which dd). although you dont like terminal commands, its probably the quickest and cheapest method.
thanks -- could you walk me through enabling trim, archineer? i read about it but my mind is a bit loopy with everything i'm trying to absorb...
by the way, i'm going to have to clone the original HDD onto the SSD in an enclosure - there is no way I can find to make a bootable USB of El Capitan when you're running 10.6.8 .. I'm not comfortable enough with Terminal to wing it, and all the instructions I've found online require 10.7+
Can't you update the system to El Capitan first? If not clone the drive then install the El Capitan update.
After the ssd is installed and updated, just open terminal and enter command "sudo trimforce enable" and done. If you don't this you wont get full performance of the ssd, and it will wear out faster.
Also given the age of the macbook, you wont get full 500MBps read/write seeds, as you most likely have a SATA 2 connection, not SATA 3.
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