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MacFoxG4

macrumors 6502
Nov 22, 2019
430
601
Have also been considering buying a ThinkPad for Windows/Linux stuff and making the 2012 MBP macOS only again, but that will be its own thread in the appropriate subsection.
Ended up buying a ThinkPad, so all Windows stuff has moved over to that, so my 2012 MBP will be purely macOS from now on. Keeping Lion on the MBP, but debating which newer macOS to pair with it. Tried Sonoma again and this time updating to OCLP 1.4.3 didn't break it. Only thing I did different was that I applied the root patches first, then built and installed the new version of OCLP and only after doing those two things did I reboot. Tempted to keep Sonoma on the MBP since it is currently working, but I am still weary of it based on past experience. Considering putting High Sierra/Mojave back on the MBP since they have the last versions of iTunes for Mac (according to Wikipedia, High Sierra's last version of iTunes is more recent than Mojave's last version of iTunes) and doesn't require any patches.
 

DCBassman

macrumors 6502a
Oct 28, 2021
562
311
West Devon, UK
Complete re-hash.
Three out of five Macs up for sale tomorrow: 2007 Macbook, 2009 Macmini, 2011 iMac. That just leaves the two GPU-failed Macbook Pros, neither of which will currently run MacOS in any form. They both run MX Linux very well indeed, however, to the extent that the hi-res late-2011 is going to stay that way as my alternate daily driver. It's a nice machine, and with an SSD and 16GB RAM, it has easily enough heft for daily stuff, and then some.
The early-2011, well I might keep on playing with that. It would be nice to get the second RAM slot fixed, but I see little more hope of that than fixing the GPU!
 

ojfd

macrumors 6502
Oct 20, 2020
370
237
Dear diary

Today I finally succeeded in unbricking my bricked LaCie Rugged USB3-FW external case. Used MBP 2011 running 10.10.5 to look at the assembly and identical MBP 2011 running 10.6.8 to do the flashing.

What a day..
 

esbardu

macrumors member
Aug 28, 2020
37
37
España
Hi alll,
these last weeks I am using iMovie 9.0.9 (iLife '11) to edit all my old Sony 8mm tapes aswell as the MiniDVs.
I am importing the MiniDVs using Tiger on a 2006 Mac Mini and then editing the videos using Mavericks on a Macbook Air 2014 and an iMac 2013.
If I need to edit new recordings where I have many different clips I can handle it with iMovie 10 but for long clips I can not find a better solution that iMovie 9 where you see the full clip and can easily select the content (maybe I don't know how to use iMovie 10 properly).
 

TheShortTimer

macrumors 68030
Mar 27, 2017
2,765
4,883
London, UK
Yesterday I installed Zoom Workplace on my 2010 11" MBA running Catalina so that I could participate in a video conference with some friends. Despite its slow CPU, the MBA was easily up to the task - without a hint of sluggishness or glitching. :)

gXCPKku.png
 
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headlessmike

macrumors 65816
May 16, 2017
1,291
2,582
Catalina.



;)
Reading is difficult sometimes :rolleyes:

I use my 2010 MacBook quite a lot. For work-related tasks High Sierra (the last supported OS) still works great for the most part as I mainly use open source software that compiles nicely. But for online tools and apps like Keynote I'll use a newer OS like Sonoma on the same machine or my M1 Macs. I haven't tried Mojave or Catalina on it though. Perhaps I should.
 
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TheShortTimer

macrumors 68030
Mar 27, 2017
2,765
4,883
London, UK
I use my 2010 MacBook quite a lot. For work-related tasks High Sierra (the last supported OS) still works great for the most part as I mainly use open source software that compiles nicely. But for online tools and apps like Keynote I'll use a newer OS like Sonoma on the same machine or my M1 Macs. I haven't tried Mojave or Catalina on it though. Perhaps I should.

If it works well for me on a machine with only 2GB and a 1.4Ghz C2D CPU then you shouldn't have any problems. I run it with a triple boot arrangement of Snow Leopard, Mojave and Catalina. Out of the three, Catalina is its main OS and I've experienced better performance and usability than with Linux.
 

headlessmike

macrumors 65816
May 16, 2017
1,291
2,582
If it works well for me on a machine with only 2GB and a 1.4Ghz C2D CPU then you shouldn't have any problems. I run it with a triple boot arrangement of Snow Leopard, Mojave and Catalina. Out of the three, Catalina is its main OS and I've experienced better performance and usability than with Linux.
I might give it a try. My machine has 16 GB and a 2.4 GHz C2D with a modern SSD so it runs things very well considering its age. I also triple boot but with Snow Leopard, High Sierra, and Sonoma. Snow Leopard boots almost instantly but isn’t very useful these days.
 

TheShortTimer

macrumors 68030
Mar 27, 2017
2,765
4,883
London, UK
Snow Leopard boots almost instantly but isn’t very useful these days.

It's still worth having access to because of Rosetta and compatibility with older macOS software. From my experience, Disk Utility under Snow Leopard has better functionality than that of later releases and it's easier to create custom macOS installers within 10.6 than under successive versions which lockdown your ability to modify files.

However it was an eye-opening moment when I discovered that Blu-ray playback is useless under Snow Leopard whereas with unsupported Catalina on the same machine the performance is almost perfect. Even I was forced to concede that the time had come to relegate it to legacy/specialist tasks.
 

ToniCH

macrumors 6502a
Oct 23, 2020
549
609
Tonight I've been trying to fix my moms Mac Mini 2014. It suffered a SSD failure few days ago. Doesn't even try to boot, soon after start it ends up into the black and white error -screen with lots of text (something about the computer crashing suddenly).

Managed to enter recovery but no luck installing OS. Booted from external and same thing. Disk utility does not report any errors but OS installation fails and Mini crashes again with the same error screen. Plugged a new drive into USB but again same thing, crashes mid installation. 🤔

So, either there are bigger problems or the SSD has failed so badly it prevents the Mini to work even when it's not in use. So, dismantled the whole thing and swapped in a new Kingston drive, booted from external installation drive and started to install OS. Seems to go through this time, I am much further than before. :cool:

Aaaand now it's importing stuff from her TM backup.

Keeping my fingers crossed... ;)

Ps. luckily my mom (77) has followed my backup instructions and TM backups are current.

EDIT: update: with new SSD this was a success, no more errors or crashes. I installed Big Sur, updated it and all the software and now everything works as expected. I also added new browsers and adblockers so she will have quicker and smoother experience. The new installation has also been backupped for the first time so now the machine is ready for use.
 

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eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
28,850
26,980
Well, in a few days I will be shutting down the two Mac Minis (and external RAID) in the garage. I've been putting it off, but it appears that we will reach my threshold of sustained 100º days quite soon. The garage is dark and actually quite a few degrees under the actual outside temps, but there is still no A/C in there and it isn't good to have SMC Fan Control blasting the fans at full speed for 3-4 months.

2024-05-25 09.41.15.png

Looking forward to late September when temps start DROPPING BACK in to this range.
 

originaldotexe

macrumors 6502
Jun 12, 2020
252
423
Kentucky
A few years back (when I was first getting into PPC/early Intel Macintosh stuff), my friend Henry (who I also got a lot of my other Macs from) gave me one of these in a trade: https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_mini/specs/mac-mini-core-2-duo-1.83-specs.html

He told me that it was having some issues, and I didn't have a power supply, but I decided tonight to go ahead and pick up a power supply, as they are only $12 on the Electronic Bay. I think I can get it working, the issues it was having sound very reminiscent of bad RAM.

I've never had a Mac Mini before, but I've always wanted one, so this should be a nice little starter machine if I can fix it. I believe it can run Tiger, Leopard, and Snow Leopard all perfectly, which are the best OS X versions. I will swap in a later model 64-bit Core 2 Duo CPU, SSD drive and maxed out 4GB RAM as well.
 

ToniCH

macrumors 6502a
Oct 23, 2020
549
609
A few years back (when I was first getting into PPC/early Intel Macintosh stuff), my friend Henry (who I also got a lot of my other Macs from) gave me one of these in a trade: https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_mini/specs/mac-mini-core-2-duo-1.83-specs.html

He told me that it was having some issues, and I didn't have a power supply, but I decided tonight to go ahead and pick up a power supply, as they are only $12 on the Electronic Bay. I think I can get it working, the issues it was having sound very reminiscent of bad RAM.

I've never had a Mac Mini before, but I've always wanted one, so this should be a nice little starter machine if I can fix it. I believe it can run Tiger, Leopard, and Snow Leopard all perfectly, which are the best OS X versions. I will swap in a later model 64-bit Core 2 Duo CPU, SSD drive and maxed out 4GB RAM as well.
It would make a decent light use file server to your home network, if you need one. That duty is not really cpu power hungry so it's plenty fast enough. And it even has a gigabit ethernet. Install a big enough SSD, partition it as necessary and then plug an external USB drive (spinner is ok) for backups. Obviously enable file sharing and give yourself access to it and it is ready for use.
 
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ToniCH

macrumors 6502a
Oct 23, 2020
549
609
Well, in a few days I will be shutting down the two Mac Minis (and external RAID) in the garage. I've been putting it off, but it appears that we will reach my threshold of sustained 100º days quite soon. The garage is dark and actually quite a few degrees under the actual outside temps, but there is still no A/C in there and it isn't good to have SMC Fan Control blasting the fans at full speed for 3-4 months.

Looking forward to late September when temps start DROPPING BACK in to this range.
You only need to cool the air around the machines. So, find an old cheap (or free fridge), install it to your garage and put your Minis and RAID into it. Even a cheap solar panel, controller and a big car battery + 12V fridge (with compressor as they use very little electricity) would do the job. ;)

Or make a "desert fridge". Take 2 big clay flower pots of different size (metal will work too). Put the smaller one into the bigger one. Fill the void between them with sand. Put your gear (or beer cans) into the inner container, put a lid on it making sure it doesn't cover the sand. Then water the sand. When water evaporates (warm/hot ambient temps needed) it will take heat with it and cool what ever is in the inner container. Water is the only cost when using this but your need to remember to water it before it's totally dry. Works with food and beer, could work with Mac Minis too? 😂
 
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DCBassman

macrumors 6502a
Oct 28, 2021
562
311
West Devon, UK
So, before I give up on the 2011 iMac completely, I thought I'd see if it could be useful in Target Display Mode. The 2009 27" iMac was great for this, including being able to display my Windows desktop. But although I appear to have all the right cables, nothing happens. Have tried all the Apple-suggested workarounds, but no joy. Getting this working is the one thing that will let me keep this iMac. I've no space for it otherwise.
 

originaldotexe

macrumors 6502
Jun 12, 2020
252
423
Kentucky
It would make a decent light use file server to your home network, if you need one. That duty is not really cpu power hungry so it's plenty fast enough. And it even has a gigabit ethernet. Install a big enough SSD, partition it as necessary and then plug an external USB drive (spinner is ok) for backups. Obviously enable file sharing and give yourself access to it and it is ready for use.
I already have a FreeNAS running in a Proxmox VM with 2x14TB mirrored. The Mac Mini will just be used for light desktop use and tinkering. It's probably about comparable to my 2009 MBP 13", so performance should be fine.
 

GrandCiel

macrumors regular
Oct 1, 2019
107
151
My Mid-2017 MacBook Pro is my surfing, streaming and outdoor cigar smoking, wine drinking laptop. I frequently keep it outside during dry weather in a storage box. It gets covered in ash and dirt though I do use a keyboard cover. I learned a lesson while not using one when I spilled a glass of wine on the keyboard and fried the laptop. Fortunately it was 3 weeks before AppleCare+ expired and the main board/keyboard were replaced resulting in essentially a new laptop for $100.00 and I love the mat screen.

Now that I want to start shooting and editing video and the last Windows PC I built was in January 2017 I decided to buy a MacBook Pro M2 Max and it runs circles around my old laptop and and is faster than a 2017 era high end DIY workstation. While I have no problem with the DIY Windows desktops I build myself and find editing easier even if processing is slower, I strongly prefer MacBook's to Windows laptops. There is something about all the junk they load on them that always seem to cause problems. I bought my wife a Dell a year or two ago and I'm always needing to play IT tech for her.
 

avz

macrumors 68000
Oct 7, 2018
1,791
1,871
Stalingrad, Russia
Considering putting High Sierra/Mojave back on the MBP since they have the last versions of iTunes for Mac (according to Wikipedia, High Sierra's last version of iTunes is more recent than Mojave's last version of iTunes) and doesn't require any patches.
It probably has something to do with the fact that High Sierra was the "end of the line" for quite a few Macs. Mojave on the other hand is not(Catalina is the next "end of the line" after High Sierra).
 
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