Is my 2006 Macbook upgradable?

[bymgmac]

This is my first forum post on here so please be gentle with your answers. I have a 2006 White macbook. I bought it 4 years ago expecting it to last for a few months whilst travelling and it's lasted this long. I'm now starting to have issues with it not being able to run some websites as the browsers are too old but I can't upgrade the browsers because it tells me they are not compatible with my hardware.

My main computer is a three year old 27" Imac but my macbook does a great job for the most part. Could someone tell me what it is that is stopping me upgrading to a later operating system that can handle newer browsers please?

Thanks kindly for your advice.


These are the specs of my macbook :

Model Name: MacBook

Model Identifier: MacBook1,1

Processor Name: Intel Core Duo

Processor Speed: 2 GHz

Number Of Processors: 1

Total Number Of Cores: 2

L2 Cache: 2 MB

Memory: 1 GB

Bus Speed: 667 MHz

Boot ROM Version: MB11.0061.B03

SMC Version (system): 1.4f12

Serial Number (system): 4H6350JUWBV

Hardware UUID: 00000000-0000-1000-8000-0017F22C4B29

Sudden Motion Sensor:

State: Enabled

Running Mac OSX 10.6.8 (I think that is snow leopard?)

It has 1GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM

 

[keysofanxiety]

Unfortunately your machine will not natively support an OS higher than OS X 10.7 Lion, which in itself will still not run the latest version of Safari. There's nothing you can do to upgrade your machine to natively support it. The issues are down to the CPU/graphics card, and the only upgradable hardware in your machine would be the RAM and SSD.

Although there are ways of getting a later OS installed on it, honestly it's not worth jumping through the hoops because the performance will be so poor due to your hardware, it would just be a waste of time and effort.

This is probably one of the first times you'll hear anybody suggest this -- but if you're looking to run the newest browsers smoothly, I'd recommend upgrading the RAM and throwing in an SSD -- then install Windows 7 on your MacBook instead of continuing to run OS X. Win 7 will run smoothly and support latest Chrome/Firefox.

The alternative would be purchasing a new portable Mac.

 

[crewkid89]

Get 2 1GB sticks of DDR2 RAM and a SSD. The SSD will especially help with keeping it feeling quick. I would stick with snow leopard. I don't think you'd see any benefit at this point by moving to Lion. Firefox still supports Snow Leopard so you can still get an updated browser. I'd avoid flash for security reasons but you'll probably want to do that anyways to keep web pages running as smoothly as possible.

Edit: sorry your laptop doesn't support lion

 

[BrettApple]

Max RAM, an SSD, plus Firefox and you should be able to run most websites just fine. But you will be stuck on Snow Leopard as far as OS X goes.

You can install Windows 10 32bit on it and run the latest software like Office 2016, Edge, etc. But there is some knowhow needed to do it. I've done it on an Early 2008 model that I bumped up the RAM and put an SSD in and it works better than OS X does. Smoother too.

But SL plus Firefox is still a good enough combo for web browsing and running Office.

Of course, budget would be something to look at. You might be better off getting a newer MacBook if you use it regularly or even a cheap Chromebook if it's just for browsing and such, just throwing that out there.

 

[skyfly555]

Hi I have a Macbook 2,1 (mid-2007) and installed 4 GB RAM. Running Mountain Lion smoothly with full QE/CI.
I followed instructions here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/guide-success-install-10-8-on-old-unsupported-mac.1325709/
Your Macbook is like mine, but it has a 32-bit EFI instead of 64-bit EFI. It's supposed you can go to 2 GB RAM (http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook/specs/macbook_2.0_white.html).
I don't know if 4 GB would be possible into your MB (mine can although Apple talks about 2 GB: http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...-core-2-duo-2.16-white-13-mid-2007-specs.html).
You could probably even install Yosemite 10.10.4 with SFOTT (I've done this on my 2,1) but you will not have QE/CI. I say SFOTT because I think MacPostFactor won't work to you because you have a 32bit EFI.

I hope you will be succesful with your Macbook experience, you have a great machine, just lose your fears and make backups on an external hard drive using Carbon Copy Cloner or similar, so you can play with your system and you will always be able to boot (from your external HD) your Snow Leopard backup.

 

[crewkid89]

Hi I have a Macbook 2,1 (mid-2007) and installed 4 GB RAM. Running Mountain Lion smoothly with full QE/CI.
I followed instructions here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/guide-success-install-10-8-on-old-unsupported-mac.1325709/
Your Macbook is like mine, but it has a 32-bit EFI instead of 64-bit EFI. It's supposed you can go to 2 GB RAM (http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook/specs/macbook_2.0_white.html).
I don't know if 4 GB would be possible into your MB (mine can although Apple talks about 2 GB: http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...-core-2-duo-2.16-white-13-mid-2007-specs.html).
You could probably even install Yosemite 10.10.4 with SFOTT (I've done this on my 2,1) but you will not have QE/CI. I say SFOTT because I think MacPostFactor won't work to you because you have a 32bit EFI.

I hope you will be succesful with your Macbook experience, you have a great machine, just lose your fears and make backups on an external hard drive using Carbon Copy Cloner or similar, so you can play with your system and you will always be able to boot (from your external HD) your Snow Leopard backup.

OP has a Core Duo which is a 32bit processor not just 32bit efi. He also has gma 950 for graphics. It doesn't even support lion.

 

[bymgmac]

Thank you so much everyone for their replies. I did not know that I could run the latest firefox so I will try that one. I actually have a fairly up to date sony vaio with pretty decemt spec running windows 10 but I never really use it. Just prefer sticking with one OS. I literally use my macbook for emails and internet browsing and the ocassional office doc.

Apologies for taking this long to thank everyone.