What have you done with an early Intel recently?

[Amethyst1]

I've had another round of fun with the MateView, trying to push resolution and refresh rate as far as possible given my most-recent-early-Intel Macs' iGPU constraints (#1,927). Horizontal blanking of 60 and vertical blanking of 8 are the tightest settings the monitor copes with, at least at those resolutions.

Pixels    Refresh  PixelClk  H(F S  B  ±) V(F S B ±) [Notes]
------------------------------------------------------------
3414×2560 59.999Hz 538.35MHz H(8 32 40 +) V(2 3 3 –) [full height, max refresh, Iris Pro 5200, 10.9.5]
3456×2560 59.468Hz 540.00MHz H(8 32 40 +) V(2 3 3 –) [full height, max pixel clock/width for Iris Pro 5200, 10.9.5]
3600×2400 60.000Hz 531.69MHz H(8 32 40 +) V(2 3 3 –) [full height, max refresh, max height for Iris Pro 6200, 12.7.2]
3840×2320 59.477Hz 540.00MHz H(8 32 20 +) V(2 3 3 –) [full width, max pixel clock/height for Iris Pro 5200, 10.9.5]
3840×2400 57.501Hz 540.00MHz H(8 32 20 +) V(2 3 3 –) [full width, max pixel clock/height for Iris Pro 6200, 12.7.2]

I'm a bit late for this, but Happy New Year to everybody!

 

[TheShortTimer]

I'm a bit late for this, but Happy New Year to everybody!

You too - and welcome back!

 

[Amethyst1]

You too - and welcome back!

Thanks a lot, I've missed this subforum, errr, the great folks that hang around here very much.

 

[TheShortTimer]

Thanks a lot, I've missed this subforum, errr, the great folks that hang around here very much.

We've missed you.

 

[DCBassman]

While I await the spares to repair the damage I caused...

Spares arrived. Had to duct-tape the ribbon to the logic board, it just kept falling out of the connector, so I must have damaged that somewhat as well. However, everything was eventually refitted, and I'm typing this on it. The machine ran BOINC workunits before and after the processor swap, mainly to see what it could do. Quite good compared to the 3.6GHz Haswell Windows machine, about 20-25% slower. Not bad for the lower TDP CPU.
I've now taken BOINC off it, and placed it as my daily driver for now. High Sierra, Firefox ESR and Thunderbird. Runs cool and silent.

 

[TheShortTimer]

However, everything was eventually refitted, and I'm typing this on it.

Congrats!

 

[wicknix]

Did a little more research of what the RTL SDR receivers can actually do. I could have saved myself the $500 i spent on my new Uniden scanner. All i wanted was to be able to receive our local police/fire/ems that went digital apco-25 a few years back. Turns out, with the proper software, my $15 SDR dongles can do that!

Set up was relatively easy, but i had to build the “decoder” library (.jar file) on linux and copy it over to MacOS in order for it to decode the signals. Guess now i can take my Uniden BCD536HP and mount it in the truck. No longer need it in the house now that my iMac is handling the indoor scanning duties.

To do yet: Add in frequencies for local Ham along with fire/ems/police for other nearby areas.

Screenshot shows scanning and decoding of my local police/fire/ems
​

Cheers

 

[Heindijs]

Did a little more research of what the RTL SDR receivers can actually do. I could have saved myself the $500 i spent on my new Uniden scanner. All i wanted was to be able to receive our local police/fire/ems that went digital apco-25 a few years back. Turns out, with the proper software, my $15 SDR dongles can do that!

Set up was relatively easy, but i had to build the “decoder” library (.jar file) on linux and copy it over to MacOS in order for it to decode the signals. Guess now i can take my Uniden BCD536HP and mount it in the truck. No longer need it in the house now that my iMac is handling the indoor scanning duties.

To do yet: Add in frequencies for local Ham along with fire/ems/police for other nearby areas.

SDR receivers are so much fun to mess around with. I'm a bit saddened that most signals are too weak here to pick up with just a passive antenna, even with an LNA, and AM radio is completely dead. But at least picking up airplane cockpit chatter is fun and easy because it's right above the FM radio bands

I've been using my makeshift 'Mac Studio' today again. It's a 2023 M2 Pro on top of a 2012 i7. The 2012 is perfect for Linux tasks and it fits beautifully. The little LCD is hooked up to an ESP32 and can show stats. The code isn't fully finished yet but I'll be able to turn the pot to choose my display and show me stats related to Macs. Right now it gets me the internet time and date

 

[MBAir2010]

can we use our beloved MacBooks 2010 with a K2 monitor?
I tried hooking up the MacBook Air 2010 via display port adaptor to HDMI...no luck!

 

[headlessmike]

can we use our beloved MacBooks 2010 with a K2 monitor?
I tried hooking up the MacBook Air 2010 via display port adaptor to HDMI...no luck!

Do you mean an Acer K2?

 

[MBAir2010]

Do you mean an Acer K2?

2k i have a BenQ

teh internets wont submit exact replies for “macbook air 2010 2k monitor options”

 

[DCBassman]

can we use our beloved MacBooks 2010 with a K2 monitor?
I tried hooking up the MacBook Air 2010 via display port adaptor to HDMI...no luck!

Funny you should be doing that. 2011 Macbook Pro, same idea. To a FHD monitor or a 4k smart TV, nothing.

 

[MBAir2010]

Funny you should be doing that. 2011 Macbook Pro, same idea. To a FHD monitor or a 4k smart TV, nothing.

my MacBook Pro 2012 wont display to a 720dpi Samsung tv via HDMI as well
I will try that with the benq monitor later today.

 

[B S Magnet]

SDR receivers are so much fun to mess around with. I'm a bit saddened that most signals are too weak here to pick up with just a passive antenna, even with an LNA, and AM radio is completely dead. But at least picking up airplane cockpit chatter is fun and easy because it's right above the FM radio bands

View attachment 2336354
I've been using my makeshift 'Mac Studio' today again. It's a 2023 M2 Pro on top of a 2012 i7. The 2012 is perfect for Linux tasks and it fits beautifully. The little LCD is hooked up to an ESP32 and can show stats. The code isn't fully finished yet but I'll be able to turn the pot to choose my display and show me stats related to Macs. Right now it gets me the internet time and date

Oh hey, I love seeing this new use for an old IKEA drawer case.

 

[Amethyst1]

can we use our beloved MacBooks 2010 with a K2 monitor?

The 2010 MBA will do 4096×2304 at 30 Hz via DisplayPort so hell yeah.
If your monitor only has an HDMI input, you need to use an active DisplayPort to HDMI 1.3/1.4 adapter. A passive adapter, i.e. the GPU‘s built-in TMDS transmitter may well be limited to 165 MHz pixel clock (HDMI <1.3) which is insufficient for 2560×1440 at 60 Hz (requires a 241.5 MHz pixel clock using CVT-RB).

2011 Macbook Pro, same idea. To a FHD monitor or a 4k smart TV, nothing.

No issues running 3840×2560 (higher than 4K!) from a 13“ 2011 MBP here. At 25 Hz refresh and using DisplayPort though. So, same advice: try an active DisplayPort to HDMI adapter.

I use the Delock 62603. It has a DVI output but it‘s actually HDMI 1.4, so a simple DVI-to-HDMI adapter daisy-chained to it should do the trick.

 

[MBAir2010]

The 2010 MBA will do 4096×2304 at 30 Hz via DisplayPort so hell yeah.
If your monitor only has an HDMI input, you need to use an active DisplayPort to HDMI 1.3/1.4 adapter. A passive adapter, i.e. the GPU‘s built-in TMDS transmitter may well be limited to 165 MHz pixel clock (HDMI <1.3) which is insufficient for 2560×1440 at 60 Hz (requires a 241.5 MHz pixel clock using CVT-RB).


No issues running 3840×2560 (higher than 4K!) from a 13“ 2011 MBP here. At 25 Hz refresh and using DisplayPort though.

I have a BenQ 2K
HDMI (no go with display port MBA'10 SL) the highest is 1366
The USBc port did not work either
I think this is a Mountain Lion and Snow leopard issue
while the MBP had display problems these past years.

thanks for the reply.

 

[Amethyst1]

HDMI (no go with display port MBA'10 SL) the highest is 1366

What happens using DisplayPort? No picture?

The USBc port did not work either

Going from DisplayPort (MBA) to USB-C (monitor) requires a bidirectional cable or an adapter such as the Wacom Link Plus. Normal USB-C to DisplayPort cables are not bidirectional and won’t work.

I think this is a Mountain Lion and Snow leopard issue

If your monitor connects at HBR2 or HBR3 link rate via DisplayPort (use AllRez to check), Snow Leopard steps down to RBR on the 2010 MBA. RBR is limited to 216 MHz pixel clock — again insufficient for full resolution at 60 Hz.
However, if this is a 60 Hz monitor it should connect at HBR, not causing this issue. What monitor is it?

 

[MBAir2010]

BenQ 2k PD2506Q
I might plug the MBA into the Samsung downstairs tomorrow to check the display port.
I get a blue screen on the MBA for 2 seconds, then the screen while the BenQ is searching for a signal.
on both display in system pref- nothing can change the resolution over 1366

this is no big deal, im using the MBA for PS4 projects and for nostalgia.
I finally got around to dual booting ML and SN on one drive
Yippee!

 

[Amethyst1]

BenQ 2k PD2506Q

Bingo: It has a DisplayPort 1.4 input which causes Snow Leopard on the MBA to negotiate RBR link rate.

Try this:

1. In the monitor’s OSD, go to System > MST and turn it off.
2. In the monitor‘s OSD, go to System > Advanced > DisplayPort and set it to 1.1.

on both display in system pref- nothing can change the resolution over 1366

The MBA may default to mirroring. Go to System Preferences > Displays > Arrange and turn off mirroring.

 

[MBAir2010]

Bingo: It has a DisplayPort 1.4 input which causes Snow Leopard on the MBA to negotiate RBR link rate.

Try this:

1. In the monitor’s OSD, go to System > MST and turn it off.
2. In the monitor‘s OSD, go to System > Advanced > DisplayPort and set it to 1.1.

The MBA may default to mirroring. Go to System Preferences > Displays > Arrange and turn off mirroring.

The display port on the MBA is not 100% and that dongle is defective now.
a neighbor checked the proper voltage and said....not enough numbers.
I put too much into the MBA2010 and will just use that as a MacBook display.

anyways
I really appreciate your enthusiasm, commitment and dedication on helping me out!

 

[MacFoxG4]

Finally, got PPCMC to work in Lion, well an older version anyway. I REALLY don't want to use browser plugins to download YT videos on Lion, so I've been trying to get PPCMC 7 to work, even compiling it from source under Lion, but to no avail. I did some digging and found a couple of comments in the PPCMC thread over on the PPC forum that gave me some inspiration and also shed some light. I saw a member say that PPCMC 6 worked on Mountain Lion (as of 2021) and I also saw alex_free say that PPCMC 7 didn't work past Snow Leopard due to the dependencies being internal and PPC only. So, that explains why I can't get PPCMC 7 to work in Lion, but now 6 looked promising. I downloaded 6 from the Garden and let it install Perian and Python 3.4 and then applied the 6.5 update. I then used Macports to build python 3.10. After that, I removed the Python 3.4 folder from my applications folder and went into usr/local/bin and replaced the Python 3.4 files with the 3.10 ones. I also had to rename python3.10 to python2.7 since that is the file name PPCMC 6 expects. Since youtube-dl has been replaced by yt-dlp, I deleted youtube-dl, downloaded a platform-independent binary from yt-dlp's GitHub, copied the binary into the usr/local/bin directory and renamed the file to youtube-dl.

After all that, I was finally able to download a video...at 360p. Video was perfectly watchable, but I wanted to see if I could go higher, like in PPCMC 7. Well, as I searched for PPCMC 6's source code (which I never found), I found a comment on the Garden's page for PPCMC 6 from alex_free, where he posted the applescript for downloading videos up to 1080p. It was here that I learned that rstFndr's main.scpt is the one that I would need to replace with alex's script. So, I turned on AppleScript Editor, copy and pasted alex's script, changed the last "\" to a "/", added an end tell and saved it as run-only just like the original main.scpt and gave it the same name. I then swapped out the original main.scpt for this one and voila! I can now download YT vids at the best available quality! Haven't bothered with the streaming function of PPCMC 6, since I am only focused on the downloading function. I did all this on my 2012 MBP with the hope that I can copy the necessary files over to my 2006 MBP should I ever decide to run Lion on that Mac again.

 

[rampancy]

Just for old times' sake I thought I'd dust off and revist the last A1181 MacBook I acquired for my collection, a MacBook 4,1 I got on the cheap last winter that supposedly had a working battery in good condition.

A quick glance on the bottom showed a massive bulge (heh) which I wasn't happy to see; I had to get rid of the battery ASAP. I was able to find an okay-ish price on a 3rd party battery, which is working well so far.

As someone who's been transitioning more into writing, I've started to rediscover how great an early Intel Mac can be at being a distraction-free writing machine. It's capable enough to handle tasks beyond basic word processing, yet it's old enough that a lot of distractions (e.g. games, the modern web) simply can't touch me (at least, as long as I keep my iPhone turned off or out of reach!).

 

[TheShortTimer]

Just for old times' sake I thought I'd dust off and revist the last A1181 MacBook I acquired for my collection, a MacBook 4,1 I got on the cheap last winter that supposedly had a working battery in good condition.

A quick glance on the bottom showed a massive bulge (heh) which I wasn't happy to see; I had to get rid of the battery ASAP. I was able to find an okay-ish price on a 3rd party battery, which is working well so far.

Which battery did you buy and where from? I have a few A1181's that either need - or will soon need replacement units so it would be nice to have a recommendation that comes from personal experience.

As someone who's been transitioning more into writing, I've started to rediscover how great an early Intel Mac can be at being a distraction-free writing machine. It's capable enough to handle tasks beyond basic word processing, yet it's old enough that a lot of distractions (e.g. games, the modern web) simply can't touch me (at least, as long as I keep my iPhone turned off or out of reach!).

I'm curious, what are you writing and with which word processor? Whilst your MB 4,1 is no match for a PS5, it can still play a decent selection of games and handle elements of the modern web but I'll refrain from examples because I know only too well the danger of distractions when you're trying to focus on productivity related goals.

 

[Amethyst1]

Another round of experimentation with the MateView: how low can it go? 348 × 240 = 83,520 pixels in all their cramped glory.

 

[swamprock]

Set up my 2008 Whitebook 4,1 with unsupported Mountain Lion (themed, of course) and Parallels, to "parallel" my Mac Mini G4-stuffed Cube (desktop and info seen here. Picture of the actual "machine" is linked in that post) for Dreamcast game development. The old x3100 GPU runs the nullDC emulator at full speed and I can test my builds in both the Fenix (game programming language similar to Pascal) interpreter or on the emulator.