What have you done with an early Intel recently?

[theMarble]

i can t find a good online copy for Mountain Lion

Where have you been looking? I've been able to find every version of iLife/iWork (including both major and minor releases) on the internet in under 5 minutes. All are proper DVD/App Store copies that work perfectly on the first try, and are not cracks/torrents.

 

[TheShortTimer]

i can t find a good online copy for Mountain Lion
as I never purchased that in 2010 as i should have have!

The App Store?

the 100 pages a day is something i did last year four times in July and hopefully that wont happen since that took 12-16 hours with a few breaks....i just hope that happens
but now i think about that hope not since i had a story outlined a month before.
i usually write 15-20 a day for 2 or 3 hours while editing the scenario that day.

I envy you!

 

[MBAir2010]

Where have you been looking? I've been able to find every version of iLife/iWork (including both major and minor releases) on the internet in under 5 minutes. All are proper DVD/App Store copies that work perfectly on the first try, and are not cracks/torrents.

the usual swap sites....i think that software is worth 10 bucks
as i have 2 interenets copies that wont launch from Monday and Tuesday.
i did download iLife last month from the archives, so something was for free.

 

[MBAir2010]

The App Store?

Mountain lion cant launch the app store or icloud anything for a while, which is why i prefer MT_Lion now!

 

[headlessmike]

Mountain lion cant launch the app store or icloud anything for a while, which is why i prefer MT_Lion now!

View attachment 2407975

I also don't believe that you can download the older iWork '09 versions of the apps from App Store any more in 2024.

I recently bought a cheap retail copy of OS X Leopard just to minimize any hassle when I want to install that on an older Mac such as my Powerbook. It's nice having a reliable, hard copy of things sometimes.

 

[Amethyst1]

I recently bought a cheap retail copy of OS X Leopard just to minimize any hassle when I want to install that on an older Mac such as my Powerbook. It's nice having a reliable, hard copy of things sometimes.

The Mac Box Set includes OS X, iLife and iWork.

 

[DCBassman]

2011 MacBook Pro shenanigans:
The 1st of the late HiRes MBPs has, it seems, died. I cannot find a way to make it work beyond about 5 minutes. I'm not going to spend more time with it. So...
The early 2011 logic board will be transplanted into the 2nd late 2011, giving it a working camera and the HiRes screen. I might have a closer look at the keyboard-side RAM socket, as well as repasting, while I'm at it. With a bit of luck, the screen line might go away too.
The 2nd late 2011 logic board will get transplanted into the 1st one's shell, which should give me a fully working machine, as I've discovered that the dGPU is in fact working fine.
So I will end up with two HiRes working machines. The 2.2GHz machine with 16GB will run Sonoma, the 8GB 2GHz one will run MX Linux. If I can persuade the other RAM slot to work, bonus!

 

[MBAir2010]

2011 MacBook Pro shenanigans:
The 1st of the late HiRes MBPs has, it seems, died. I cannot find a way to make it work beyond about 5 minutes. I'm not going to spend more time with it. So...
The early 2011 logic board will be transplanted into the 2nd late 2011, giving it a working camera and the HiRes screen. I might have a closer look at the keyboard-side RAM socket, as well as repasting, while I'm at it. With a bit of luck, the screen line might go away too.
The 2nd late 2011 logic board will get transplanted into the 1st one's shell, which should give me a fully working machine, as I've discovered that the dGPU is in fact working fine.
So I will end up with two HiRes working machines. The 2.2GHz machine with 16GB will run Sonoma, the 8GB 2GHz one will run MX Linux. If I can persuade the other RAM slot to work, bonus!

I know that is upsetting no matter how obsolete a computer can be!
when my original Macbook air 2010 i purchased brand new in 2010 finally could not perform the last boot up,
i was heart broken since we did many things, and was a part of my life!
eventually i found a better replacement but just the fact that MBA did not work anymore
left a hollow feeling burried inside of me.

also, you could give an cat OSX a try on on of those MBP instead of linux.
those systems can still function in 2024.

 

[eyoungren]

I know that is upsetting no matter how obsolete a computer can be!
when my original Macbook air 2010 i purchased brand new in 2010 finally could not perform the last boot up,
i was heart broken since we did many things, and was a part of my life!
eventually i found a better replacement but just the fact that MBA did not work anymore
left a hollow feeling burried inside of me.

Once, long ago (Christmas 2009) I bought a 17" PowerBook G4 off eBay. I'd always wanted the 17" and I got one. Unfortunately at my price point that Mac wasn't great and I ended up replacing parts over the next few years.

At one point, after replacing the logicboard I realized that the only original parts left to the Mac I'd bought so long ago was the bottom case. It was then that I realized I'd bought a broom.

Replace the handle on a broom over a few years as it wears out. Replace the brush too. Keep doing that. In 10 years or so, do you have the original broom that you bought? The realization that I did not hit home for me and my attachment to that ONE particular Mac diminished.

I went out and bought an entirely new one and have been happy with that for years now. When it finally dies though, it won't be replaced.

It's sad, but the nature of things.

 

[MBAir2010]

B S Magnet​

thanks for the thorough and detailed message
i really appreciate the confidence and step by step procedures!

I repaired many macbook airs last decade and only a few MBpros at a tech shop.
Mine is a 2012 mid 13" A1278 which i took a apart in 2017 to clean this out and replace the paste.
the connecting ports seem stable and secure enough to remove the components like fans, speakers and other, I just need more moxie, or assertiveness since this project needs to be completed soon.

I did use the ifixit guide photo by photo on the MBA 2010 today then chickened out after trying to dislodge the speaker cable for fear i might op that off for some weird reason.

I wlll attempt this later this week or even tomorrow.

again thank,B S Magnet!

now for the decent……the hard part!

 

[B S Magnet]

View attachment 2408441
now for the decent……the hard part!

Nah, the hard part’s mostly behind you.

All’s left now is to remove the three springy screws holding down the heat sink plate, and from that point forward, it’s just housecleaning (alcohol-cleaning the silicon chips, new paste [whichever application method you prefer!], using tweezers/soft brush to carefully remove any random dust detritus on the board underside, etc.), and reassemble!

That appears to be a 2009 or 2010 model, based on the subwoofer/wifi plastic strip.

 

[MBAir2010]

Nah, the hard part’s mostly behind you.

All’s left now is to remove the three springy screws holding down the heat sink plate, and from that point forward, it’s just housecleaning (alcohol-cleaning the silicon chips, new paste [whichever application method you prefer!], using tweezers/soft brush to carefully remove any random dust detritus on the board underside, etc.), and reassemble!

That appears to be a 2009 or 2010 model, based on the subwoofer/wifi plastic strip.

THANK YOU FOR THE CONFIDENCE :~}

this has to be a 2012 mid macbook pro unless we received a bogus on from  them in 2012
since i ordered and unboxed this then set this up then were i worked. and ifit had the same photos

WHEW!
the back-light keyboard ribbon needs more insertion while the keyboard ribbon was tricky but worked.

The temps are much cooler
well:
Tuesday:

Now today of course!

still nerve racking but worth the challenge as everything in life is like that!

last night I spent 4 hours photoshoping as the bottom was catalina hot, so thsi had to be done~!!

 

[B S Magnet]

THANK YOU FOR THE CONFIDENCE :~}

this has to be a 2012 mid macbook pro unless we received a bogus on from  them in 2012

Oh, my bad!

Congratulations!

 

[MBAir2010]

Oh, my bad!

Congratulations!

could be a late model since Lion boots up when i restart in internet recovery mode.

 

[ToniCH]

Bought a box of stuff: 2 working sets of old Mac Mini 2,1:s (2007 c2d 1.83GHz). The price was right so why not. They come with psu's, adapters, cables and wireless Logitech kbd"s and mice. Did a quick inventory of my ram/cpu/drive and found atleast one pair of 2GB sticks and one 2.33GHz T7600 cpu and plenty of ssd's in various sizes.

When they arrive I plan to upgrade one and try some Linux on it and maybe try to give it a server job of some kind. The purchase was quite spontaneous so what excatly the job will be is still unclear but I'll figure out something. No plans for the second one yet.

 

[B S Magnet]

could be a late model since Lion boots up when i restart in internet recovery mode.

The definitive way to know what you have:

What are the first five digits of the serial on the bottom plate? Use Tables 1 and 2 on the decoding Apple serials wikipost.I’m guessing your might start with something like C02H or C02J — the H and J for 2012 — if your recovery defaults to Lion.

 

[MBAir2010]

The definitive way to know what you have:

What are the first five digits of the serial on the bottom plate? Use Tables 1 and 2 on the decoding Apple serials wikipost.I’m guessing your might start with something like C02H or C02J — the H and J for 2012 — if your recovery defaults to Lion.

C1MJ93XXXXX on the computer and im deleting this in 30 minutes.
Lion was our OSX when i unboxed the MacBook Pro then upgraded to Mt Lion in October i think.
This was for a project using Final Cut while that summer I started making videos on an iMac that crashed
so they purchased this and i was gifted this in 2017 when they went "out_sourcing"
im trying to remember if i ordered a battery before then since this one is excellent with low cycles.

and this:
Intel HD Graphics 4000:

Chipset Model: Intel HD Graphics 4000
Type: GPU
Bus: Built-In
VRAM (Total): 512 MB
Vendor: Intel (0x8086)
Device ID: 0x0166
Revision ID: 0x0009
Displays:
Color LCD:
Display Type: LCD
Resolution: 1280 x 800
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Built-In: Yes

 

[B S Magnet]

C1MJ939NDTY4 on the computer and im deleting this in 30 minutes.
Lion was our OSX when i unboxed the MacBook Pro then upgraded to Mt Lion in October i think.
This was for a project using Final Cut while that summer I started making videos on an iMac that crashed
so they purchased this and i was gifted this in 2017 when they went "out_sourcing"
im trying to remember if i ordered a battery before then since this one is excellent with low cycles.

and this:
Intel HD Graphics 4000:

Chipset Model: Intel HD Graphics 4000
Type: GPU
Bus: Built-In
VRAM (Total): 512 MB
Vendor: Intel (0x8086)
Device ID: 0x0166
Revision ID: 0x0009
Displays:
Color LCD:
Display Type: LCD
Resolution: 1280 x 800
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Built-In: Yes

C1M is a factory combo I haven’t come across terribly often, but in Table 1, this appears to have been a known source for MacBook Air models. Around here, I tend to only see MBPs turn up with C02 (Quanta, in the PRC) and sometimes a C2x factory origin. I’d not be surprised to learn C0x, C1x and C2x are all Quanta factories located in different facilities around the PRC.

The J indicates 2012 and the 9 this was probably end of August/early September — which is curious only given how, by then, Mountain Lion was being shipped with new units being manufactured by then (after 25 July 2012).

The rest is as expected. Cheers!

 

[B S Magnet]

UPDATE:

I had a suspicion the hinky, sluggish behaviour I was witnessing when I first brought this home was not simply the dGPU. Without bothering to look deeper (frankly, I didn’t see the point), there was no way of knowing what kind of messy and/or corrupt config settings were encapsulated in that OEM HDD with the first owner’s setup and contents from 2011–14. (Plus, it was hecking Yosemite… QED.)

Also, despite Disk Utility and S.M.A.R.T. verifying, respectively, the HFS+ volume and test verification, the sluggishness suggested the spinner was damaged and probably on its way out to pasture in that familiar, classic way spinners can fail.

So… I dropped in the OEM HDD which shipped with my early 2011 13-inch MBP in August 2011. It was pulled out on the first day, because it was bundled with the-then one-month-old Lion (and a hard nope to that, ever). So for the last 13 years, that HDD has sat, basically unused, in a anti-static bag.

Spoiler: pics, troubles, puzzles, and welcomed surprises for the most masochistic of you

First, I ran ASD — both OS and EFI. With SMC bypass, OS test failed promptly. (There’s something about a giant “failed” on screen which feels awkwardly… personal — like the system is truly seeing me,)

View attachment 2407815


Without SMC bypass, everything (amazingly) passed:

View attachment 2407817

EFI test failed only at the battery check. The battery is quite dead.

View attachment 2407816


Next, I booted into bog-standard-from-2011 Lion 10.7.0, which was fine and not sluggish. Given how this unit was built the week of July 30th that year (and my early 2011 13-inch MBP was built maybe a week later), this would have been precisely what shipped originally with this unit. But despite the 8GB stick in there (sourced from my early 2011 13-inch), it was still reading as 4GB.

I went ahead, partitioned the disk, and installed an HFS+ dosdude-patched Mojave on the second partition.

Mojave launched, although there are some issues:

1) The 8GB stick was still being detected as 4GB, no matter what method I tried. I know said stick is good as 8GB and is from Corsair. It’s what my early 2011 13-inch MBP has used for maybe seven or eight years.

View attachment 2407818

I tried both slots, and I tried it solo and with a 4GB spare lying around. It still won’t read that stick at 8GB. Just to be sure, I threw in the 8GB into my late 2011 13-inch and it registered correctly. And then I brought over my two, 1333MHz 8GB sticks from that late 2011 into the A1286, and at long last, the system reported 16GB.

View attachment 2407809

So that’s one mystery of a cranky A1286 I haven’t solved, but there is a way to navigate around it.


2) The screen cap foreshadowed the other unexpected issue: the patched Mojave won’t recognize the MBP’s trackpad.

View attachment 2407812

Although dosdude noted in the Mojave patcher FAQ this can be an issue with the MBP5,2, I wasn’t anticipating this here. So I’ll re-run the patcher tonight. If that doesn’t do it, then a fresh install and double-checking patcher settings is in order.

---

At the end of the evening, I went in to change the thermal paste — which was, as expected, crumbly and semi-oily like stale cake.

View attachment 2407823

Overall, it was clean inside. I just needed to dust everything lightly (even the fans and grilles were mostly clean with just thin, fine dust from past use).

View attachment 2407814


And to close, enjoy a glow-up for the most loved GPU in all of Apple history:

View attachment 2407824

Still more to do and more to plan for, but to go from “2011 15-inch won’t turn on” to “it’s running” has far exceeded my managed expectations.

Updates:

I found a lightly-used actual Apple OEM battery from a reputable Apple parts store, guaranteeing “Grade A”, or 90–100 per cent of original capacity. The price was maybe $10 or 15 more than buying a “““new””” third-party, B- or C-grade battery, but given it’s pulled from an original MBP, this should last quite a while longer. That will probably take a week to ship here, and I’m OK with that. (I won’t begin to think about SSD storage options before I can get the system running at the actual speed and not the downclocked, 1.0GHz silliness.)

I’ve re-installed Mojave. Twice.

The first re-install, on an HFS+ partition, followed after the firmware/nvram method to disable the dGPU didn’t seem to take, with reboots defaulting the head display to the Radeon. Eventually, the dosdude1 dGPU disabling utility got the system to boot with the iGPU.

After first re-install, the Trackpad prefPane persisted with an inability to find the system trackpad. But then mysteriously, following a reboot, I watched the pane, open from previous session, switch to the system actually recognizing the MBP’s trackpad and providing the usual options for scrolling and multitouch.

Problem solved… or so I thought.

I learnt I couldn’t get software updates the routine manner in Mojave unless the boot partition is APFS. Even after downloading the last Security Update, it wouldn’t install (with the generic warning that the update was not meant for my system).

Then, the system ground to a near-halt and PID 0 went out of control. This occurred after I re-installed the original, dead battery, just after trying one more method to get the system to definitively determine whether the original battery was truly and well dead (yah, it’s quite dead). So a second re-install proceeded, because I grew impatient.

For second re-install, I set up an APFS partition, despite being on a spinner. Through Software Update, I ran the security update and other updates for the system before converting the APFS partition to HFS+.

To do that, I finally found a use for the APFS-to-HFS+ conversion utility which Paragon Software had available for a short while after High Sierra and Mojave were current. I put the A1286 into target mode and ran the conversion overnight from my late 2011 13-inch MBP. It worked as promised.

Now the system is running a patched Mojave on an HFS+ partition with an added curiosity of lacking the dosdude1 recovery partition for HFS+ installations.

The dreaded trackpad prefPane issue has also returned. Nothing I’ve managed to do so far had avoided the problem of the system thinking there’s no trackpad in use and expecting to find one via Bluetooth. I’m baffled.

So that’s that. I’m putting things away until the battery replacement gets here. After I put in an SSD, I’ll use the other Paragon conversion tool to revert the HFS+ partition to APFS before cloning it to the SSD.

---

EDIT to add: Maybe I should dial up to my AOL and surf the world wide web for the internet sometime.

A discussion on the Apple community board points to this being related to the battery being removed, which comports with my situation (and why it appeared during the short moment when I put back in the otherwise-dead battery the other night). Less clear is why a system management controller-level variable/flag would have any bearing on the USB 1.1 (I think) bus on which the multitouch trackpad is connected.

 

[eyoungren]

Sena Parani was delivered today. Already the connection is much smoother!

 

[DCBassman]

2011 MacBook Pro shenanigans:
The 1st of the late HiRes MBPs has, it seems, died. I cannot find a way to make it work beyond about 5 minutes. I'm not going to spend more time with it. So...
The early 2011 logic board will be transplanted into the 2nd late 2011, giving it a working camera and the HiRes screen. I might have a closer look at the keyboard-side RAM socket, as well as repasting, while I'm at it. With a bit of luck, the screen line might go away too.
The 2nd late 2011 logic board will get transplanted into the 1st one's shell, which should give me a fully working machine, as I've discovered that the dGPU is in fact working fine.
So I will end up with two HiRes working machines. The 2.2GHz machine with 16GB will run Sonoma, the 8GB 2GHz one will run MX Linux. If I can persuade the other RAM slot to work, bonus!

No, all wrong.
Neither late 2011 machine will now load anything at all, no matter what I try. Rats. I've spent far too much time and money messing around with them, so I will be building one half-decent one out of the three and binning the remains.
This will be achieved by using the shell of the first late 2011 and the logic board from the early 2011. This gives me a 2GHz i7 machine with 8GB RAM and an anti-glare HiRes display. It runs Sonoma OK, and the camera works too.
All else, bar RAM and SSDs is for scrap.

 

[ToniCH]

No, all wrong.
Neither late 2011 machine will now load anything at all, no matter what I try. Rats. I've spent far too much time and money messing around with them, so I will be building one half-decent one out of the three and binning the remains.
This will be achieved by using the shell of the first late 2011 and the logic board from the early 2011. This gives me a 2GHz i7 machine with 8GB RAM and an anti-glare HiRes display. It runs Sonoma OK, and the camera works too.
All else, bar RAM and SSDs is for scrap.

I've wondered how long you will fight with them or buy more GPU faulty ones before you get bored? I myself got bored after resetting the GPU power stuff many times to my early 2011 and finally gave up after few months. The thing is worth more in parts than whole. I am much happier with MBP 2012 and others with no such problems. Faster and more features too for not much more money and way less bother.

 

[TheShortTimer]

Generally, could these machines be rescued with an eGPU or are they too far gone?

 

[Amethyst1]

The thing is worth more in parts than whole.

Which makes the fact 17‘s often go for 100 Euros or more (on eBay.de) even more… interesting. Who’s paying that for an essentially broken system? If it were reliable hell yeah, but…

If you’re in love with 2011 MBPs and don’t mind the smaller screen and dual-core CPU, the 13 is reliable.

Made my recently-acquired ATTO ThunderLink NS 2102 usable. […]

How much did it cost?

61 Euros including shipping.

You also have the benefit of the TB pass-through option for connecting additional devices in a daisy chain! Awesome.

With the caveat of all devices in the chain sharing bandwidth, but my Macs only have one TB bus anyway. The trash can’s three TB2 buses are appealing.

You've reminded me that I have a long overdue Thunderbolt project of my own to try and get off the ground.

What is it?

Generally, could these machines be rescued with an eGPU or are they too far gone?

Disabling the dGPU doesn’t affect TB so it should be possible if it can still boot into something.

 

[B S Magnet]

No, all wrong.
Neither late 2011 machine will now load anything at all, no matter what I try.

Just to be sure, have you attempted trying to temporarily bypass the SMC as a remedial way to get it to POST? This is what I needed to do last weekend, just after bringing home that “dead” 2.0 early 2011 15in. Expect the fans to blast the whole time if it does successfully POST and boot.

If you’re in love with 2011 MBPs and don’t mind the smaller screen and dual-core CPU, the 13 is reliable.

Or, if you can find one, the mid-2012 15in unibody with antiglare display, or send a late 2011 17 inch to @dosdude1 to make it the uniquely rare Ivy Bridge 17.