I'm new to this forum, and not terribly tech savvy (I know what I've needed to know to get by).
I have a 1,1, 2 x 2.66 dual-core, running 10.7.5 that I bought many years ago loaded with music and graphic production software. I've used it primarily for music production, and it has served me pretty well. I knew that it was getting on in years and was struggling with some of the more intensive projects that I was working on, but it seemed to be mostly a RAM issue. At some point, without any changes in software or configuration that I could pinpoint, I started getting the random total freeze thing. Nothing you can do but to hold the power button. I researched and tried what I could find, but I didn't find much and nothing worked. I probably should have tried here earlier, but it wasn't on my radar. Often, when it would freeze, it would freeze many more times pretty quickly after reboot, and then without reason it would run fine for the rest of the session. Every once in a while I would get a kernal panic like this:
I don't know what it means. Any insight is appreciated.
Knowing that I needed to upgrade the RAM anyway, I did, and maxed it out. When it's running, it's a beautiful thing, but I still got the freezing crash. As a layperson, I started thinking of replacing HD's, knowing that they're transferable/reusable. I don't have a huge budget, I just want to be able to make and produce music, and keep a desktop in the Apple ecosystem, and hopefully keep all of the software that I've inherited/added. But the freezing has been so disheartening and stifling, that I've quit trying. I barely have time to work on music, and I definitely don't have the time for extensive troubleshooting on stuff that I know very little about.
Keeping that all in mind, I decided that the logical thing to do is to go shopping on Ebay for a newer old Mac Pro. Theoretically, I could up my CPU and graphics card specs, inherit a larger HD, the ability to use newer (and supported) OS (though it looks like that might not be a good thing), and with time machine and migration assistant I can keep mostly just plug in and pick up where I left off. That sounds too simple and easy to be true. But, I've started looking around. It looks like I can get a decent upgrade for $500 or less, which is probably all that I could justify.
Any recommendations on overall approach, models/specs to seek/avoid, OS concerns, etc., would be greatly appreciated.
I have a 1,1, 2 x 2.66 dual-core, running 10.7.5 that I bought many years ago loaded with music and graphic production software. I've used it primarily for music production, and it has served me pretty well. I knew that it was getting on in years and was struggling with some of the more intensive projects that I was working on, but it seemed to be mostly a RAM issue. At some point, without any changes in software or configuration that I could pinpoint, I started getting the random total freeze thing. Nothing you can do but to hold the power button. I researched and tried what I could find, but I didn't find much and nothing worked. I probably should have tried here earlier, but it wasn't on my radar. Often, when it would freeze, it would freeze many more times pretty quickly after reboot, and then without reason it would run fine for the rest of the session. Every once in a while I would get a kernal panic like this:
I don't know what it means. Any insight is appreciated.
Knowing that I needed to upgrade the RAM anyway, I did, and maxed it out. When it's running, it's a beautiful thing, but I still got the freezing crash. As a layperson, I started thinking of replacing HD's, knowing that they're transferable/reusable. I don't have a huge budget, I just want to be able to make and produce music, and keep a desktop in the Apple ecosystem, and hopefully keep all of the software that I've inherited/added. But the freezing has been so disheartening and stifling, that I've quit trying. I barely have time to work on music, and I definitely don't have the time for extensive troubleshooting on stuff that I know very little about.
Keeping that all in mind, I decided that the logical thing to do is to go shopping on Ebay for a newer old Mac Pro. Theoretically, I could up my CPU and graphics card specs, inherit a larger HD, the ability to use newer (and supported) OS (though it looks like that might not be a good thing), and with time machine and migration assistant I can keep mostly just plug in and pick up where I left off. That sounds too simple and easy to be true. But, I've started looking around. It looks like I can get a decent upgrade for $500 or less, which is probably all that I could justify.
Any recommendations on overall approach, models/specs to seek/avoid, OS concerns, etc., would be greatly appreciated.
