Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

What have you done with an early Intel recently?

B S Magnet said:
What I’ve done lately is take a broken A1181 late ’06 C2D laptop I received in a trade a couple of years ago, locate why it wasn’t working, and bring it back to life. I took it apart back in 2019 and then set it aside until I could focus on it.

There was probably a badly-seated DC/magsafe connection with the logic board, because before cleaning it out, the magsafe light wasn’t lighting up. After cleaning (which housed the carcasses of dead insects), re-pasting and re-assembly, I managed to get the magsafe light to detect the board, but when I tried to power on, there was no backlight. The HDD’s sleeve was also missing (though not necessarily needed to get it booted). The original HDD, which I think had failed, didn’t have a working build of OS X on it, so I put in another HDD.

In taking it apart again (by this point, the plastics inside are so aged that at least three brass grommets have been pulled out of their sleeves with no coaxing at all), I found the inverter cable (the one with four ultra-thin, black-coated wires which route through the hinge) with one wire completely severed. I gently soldered it back together, covered it with kapton tape, and put it all back together.

This time, the display lit up! I installed Snow Leopard on it from USB. The MacBook only had 1GB (OEM) in it. I switched a DIMM to a 1GB SO-DIMM to give it 1.5GB. This wasn’t enough to install Lion, so I borrowed the 2 2GB DIMMs from my early ’08 MacBook (the one running the patched Sierra), installed Lion on a second partition, and now the late ’06, a total beater by its original owner (who clearly loved it to near-pieces), is running again!

It’s an ugly duckling, and it needs a battery, but it works. It even comes with the original box (which is in better shape than the janky top case). I plan to give this one to a friend’s kid who’s showing an interest in software development.
Click to expand...
I had to reinstall an OS some time ago on the same machine with the owner wanting it brought back to life for homeschooling. I circumvented the ram requirements for Lion in installing it with TDM from my early 2008 MBP and was suprised of the browsing capabilities with just 1GB of RAM and Firefox Legacy.

That was also without battery so the Processor speed was cut in half.
 
  • Like
Reactions: B S Magnet
Took my 2017 MacBook Pro in for one last keyboard replacement before the Service Program expires, so I've been relying on my 17" 2007 MBP for media consumption and general web browsing. Was expecting to go a few weeks without it, but the repair was completed over the weekend, after only taking it in on Saturday afternoon! My '07 MBP is a joy to use, I love it.
 
I have a C2D aluminum MacBook (the one off before Apple replaced with with the 13" MBP). With 8GB RAM and an SSD, it runs pretty decent!
 
  • Like
Reactions: eyoungren
mortlocli said:
Ta Magnet - I better look into that.
Click to expand...
Since macOS 10.13 High Sierra, all devices with flash storage are automatically converted to APFS...according to wiki.
..so I checked via disk utility - info and :
Volume name : Macintosh HD
Volume type : Physical Volume
BSD device node : disk0s2
Mount point : /
File system : Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Connection : SATA


..so I guess the conversion to APFS only occurs on macs with ssd drives..???
 
B S Magnet said:
Yah, 32-bit software support ended with Mojave, while APFS began to replace HFS+ with High Sierra. There is a way to convert APFS back to HFS+ (scroll down to “Resources”), which is advisable if your iMac still uses a HDD and not a SSD (or Fusion).
Click to expand...

Does this mean that the AFPS partition on my Catalina installation could be converted back to HFS+, which would in turn allow my Snow Leopard installation to access it? :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: mortlocli
Hughmac said:
My 2010 iMac i3 has a 1TB SSD, but when I upgraded from HS to patched Mojave it still stayed on HFS.

Cheers :)

Hugh
Click to expand...
where as my Imac running un-supported 10.15 automatically made my HD AFPS.. I guess all supported hardware would have SSD.
..so learnt of two catches with running un-supported installs of 10.15 - no running 32 bit software..and meant for SSDs.
Not sure now but could go with 10.15 using an external SSD..and just stay with 10.13 on the HD to run the 32 bit software: one computer - two systems sort of thing.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Amethyst1
TheShortTimer said:
Does this mean that the AFPS partition on my Catalina installation could be converted back to HFS+, which would in turn allow my Snow Leopard installation to access it? :)
Click to expand...
Ta TST - I read this when Magnet posted it..and meant to get back to it...but at the time I missed the link he included. Doh!!!
 
  • Like
Reactions: TheShortTimer
TheShortTimer said:
Does this mean that the AFPS partition on my Catalina installation could be converted back to HFS+, which would in turn allow my Snow Leopard installation to access it? :)
Click to expand...

I have no idea!

But on further thought, I doubt it, remembering how on a MBP I have running with SL and Sierra, SL only recognizes the Sierra partition as a greyed-out "10.7” and is not accessible by Finder.
 
Last edited:
B S Magnet said:
I have no idea!
Click to expand...

Just tried to run it on Catalina.

vCMOBlO.png


Looks like a no go.
 
TheShortTimer said:
Just tried to run it on Catalina.

vCMOBlO.png


Looks like a no go.
Click to expand...

Huh. I swore I once converted APFS to HFS+ for High Sierra with their utility. I’m not sure whether they released updates to that or not. Also, I recall they didn’t release that utility until early/mid 2018 — well after High Sierra’s release.

I’m now half-wondering whether they deliberately wrote the software in 32-bit only…
 
@mortlocli If you want to go back to Mojave for the sake of 32bit save all your stuff from your macOS 10.15 drive an go for a fresh install of MojavePatch:
1. prepare the MojavePatch-Installer 16GB USB-Bootstick
2. boot into the patcher-bootstick
3. run DiskUtility and erase the internal drive using HFS+/GUID
(optional: partition the drive for 1.Mojave(HFS+) 2. second partition for any convenience (data, Catalina etc) 3. 12GB partition to host the MojavePatch installer) #63
4. install patched Mojava onto the internal drive
5. restore/reinstall you saved files and Apps.
6. optional: install Catalina onto the 2nd portion // install MojavePatch onto the 3rd/last 12GB partition.

Note: since your hard drive has been formatted to APFS, it needs to be fully erased first (HFS+/GUID) to achieve an uncomplicated return to Mojave and HFS+.
You may clone your current Catalina-drive to an external drive using CarbonCopyCloner and clone it back to the second partion (step 6), but I guess the 2nd partition needs to be in APFS then (You may have the drive in HFS+/GUI and a single partition in APFS but the other way round it's much more complicated).
Running Catalina from external-USB2 drive is a hassle and even USB3 is no fun - so having a 2nd partition on your internal drive is the best you might get. But why?
Some 8-10€/$ external USB3-cases and cheap hard drives (both HDD and SSD) are real live savers to shove whole partitions back and forth for rescue or for a new home ...
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: mortlocli and TheShortTimer
SeenJeen said:
I have a C2D aluminum MacBook (the one off before Apple replaced with with the 13" MBP). With 8GB RAM and an SSD, it runs pretty decent!
Click to expand...
Oh, they are my favorite ones! Swapping the hard drive is really a snap!
And with SSD and 8GB of RAM it runs faster than my favorite early-2008 17"MBP daily driver ...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Amethyst1
bobesch said:
@mortlocli If you want to go back to Mojave for the sake of 32bit save all your stuff from your macOS 10.15 drive an go for a fresh install of MojavePatch:
1. prepare the MojavePatch-Installer 16GB USB-Bootstick
2. boot into the patcher-bootstick
3. run DiskUtility and erase the internal drive using HFS+/GUID
(optional: partition the drive for 1.Mojave(HFS+) 2. second partition for any convenience (data, Catalina etc) 3. 12GB partition to host the MojavePatch installer) #63
4. install patched Mojava onto the internal drive
5. restore/reinstall you saved files and Apps.
6. optional: install Catalina onto the 2nd portion // install MojavePatch onto the 3rd/last 12GB partition.

Note: since your hard drive has been formatted to APFS, it needs to be fully erased first (HFS+/GUID) to achieve an uncomplicated return to Mojave and HFS+.
You may clone your current Catalina-drive to an external drive using CarbonCopyCloner and clone it back to the second partion (step 6), but I guess the 2nd partition needs to be in APFS then (You may have the drive in HFS+/GUI and a single partition in APFS but the other way round it's much more complicated).
Running Catalina from external-USB2 drive is a hassle and even USB3 is no fun - so having a 2nd partition on your internal drive is the best you might get. But why?
Some 8-10€/$ external USB3-cases and cheap hard drives (both HDD and SSD) are real live savers to shove whole partitions back and forth for rescue or for a new home ...
Click to expand...
Ta Bob:
heres wot I did... I used linux to get the HD back to preAFPS so I could install High Sierra...keeping away from AFPS.
Then using the patch installer installed Mojave onto an external SSD. Yeah this is running via USB2 but is still quick enough. I wanted to see if there were any probs before installing onto the HD which still has High Sierra.
Found my 32 bit software would load ok...but theres a prob. I use eyetv (32bit) which operates a TV device via usb. While it runs.. it stalls at finding tv channels. I think its because too much load is on the usb connections ie a tv receiver and OSX on the SSD. Eyetv works fine from the HD with high sierra.

so options are:
to boot from the HD for high sierra and eyetv or boot from the ssd for Mojave and all the other stuff.
Or I could just install Mojave on the HD..using the set up you suggested, which sounds a rather good idea...so thank you for your time explaining that.

..actually re-reading your suggestions - I might install Mojave on the HD for 32 bit use and Catalina onto the external SSD for 64 bit use.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: TheShortTimer and Amethyst1
mortlocli said:
Ta Bob:
heres wot I did... I used linux to get the HD back to preAFPS so I could install High Sierra...keeping away from AFPS.
Then using the patch installer installed Mojave onto an external SSD. Yeah this is running via USB2 but is still quick enough. I wanted to see if there were any probs before installing onto the HD which still has High Sierra.
Found my 32 bit software would load ok...but theres a prob. I use eyetv (32bit) which operates a TV device via usb. While it runs.. it stalls at finding tv channels. I think its because too much load is on the usb connections ie a tv receiver and OSX on the SSD. Eyetv works fine from the HD with high sierra.

so options are:
to boot from the HD for high sierra and eyetv or boot from the ssd for Mojave and all the other stuff.
Or I could just install Mojave on the HD..using the set up you suggested, which sounds a rather good idea...so thank you for your time explaining that.

..actually re-reading your suggestions - I might install Mojave on the HD for 32 bit use and Catalina onto the external SSD for 64 bit use.
Click to expand...
My choice would be a 50bucks/500GB SSD with this partitions-schedule:
1)Mojave/HFS+ for 32bit
2)Data or another macOS of your choice
3/4) 12GB partitions for the @dosdude1 's patchers

And I'd use the USB-disks for CCC-clone-backups and other stuff, e.g. video-capture
(booting from external-usb2 is great for testing, but I wouldn't have the patience to use it on a regulare base.)

Great, that eyeTV-hardware still works for you. In my place DVBT2 killed all DVBT-hardware 2ys ago and I am still pretty upset about that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mortlocli and TheShortTimer
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back