Hello! I'm thinking about upgrading to Yosemite, I'm running on an old Macbook Pro Early 2008 with an SSD and 4GB memory. Performance oo Mavericks is great but interested to know if anybody else has tried upgrading with my model and if they have had any performance issues?
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Yosemite on Macbook Pro Early 2008
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I have an early 2008 MacBook Pro MB134LL/A (standard HDD and 6GB RAM). I would say performance is no better/worse than Mavericks. A little slower to boot I suppose.
Risk loading Yosemite on 08 MBP
Be very careful loading Yosemite on an early 08 MPB. This MBP is known to have
a flawed logic board an mine failed when I installed Yosemite Public Beta. It got very hot during the install, I had an OWC SSD and 6GB Memory. I ended up purchasing a new MBP. I tested the SSD from the 08 MBP as and external on the Mid 2014 MBP and Yosemite PB booted and ran well. I don't blame Yosemite, but the 08 MBP which had an earlier recall. I did get 7 years of good on the road service from this unit. I've been using Yosemite PB on the new MBP for 6 weeks and loaded the new released 10.10 the first day available. Both worked no noticeable problems.
MacRumors Forums > Apple Systems and Services > OS X > OS X Yosemite (10.10) OS X Yosemite crashed 08 MBP with OWC SSD
Be very careful loading Yosemite on an early 08 MPB. This MBP is known to have
a flawed logic board an mine failed when I installed Yosemite Public Beta. It got very hot during the install, I had an OWC SSD and 6GB Memory. I ended up purchasing a new MBP. I tested the SSD from the 08 MBP as and external on the Mid 2014 MBP and Yosemite PB booted and ran well. I don't blame Yosemite, but the 08 MBP which had an earlier recall. I did get 7 years of good on the road service from this unit. I've been using Yosemite PB on the new MBP for 6 weeks and loaded the new released 10.10 the first day available. Both worked no noticeable problems.
MacRumors Forums > Apple Systems and Services > OS X > OS X Yosemite (10.10) OS X Yosemite crashed 08 MBP with OWC SSD
Yosemite runs great on my early 08. Glad to see that these machines are still supported and I hope that they continue to do so in the future!
Mine has a 120GB Crucial SSD and 4GB of ram. Runs nicely. I also did some rendering last night in FCPX with 5GB of footage. Took 3 hours in compressor to render the 10 minute 1080p video. Final size was 1.62GB. Decent enough if you don't need the machine but not great either.
Mine has a 120GB Crucial SSD and 4GB of ram. Runs nicely. I also did some rendering last night in FCPX with 5GB of footage. Took 3 hours in compressor to render the 10 minute 1080p video. Final size was 1.62GB. Decent enough if you don't need the machine but not great either.
Works......
Just installed on my early 2008 MBP with 4 GB of RAM, and also 240 gig SSD from OWC. I had Mavericks previously and for me it seemed to run apps little more easier then Yosemite. I might even just go back still. I do like the new features and look of Yosemite, but rather have a smoother running Mac. Boot up time is a little longer but with a SSD but it's still no big issue. I immediately tested performance with Logic Pro X and it crashed on first try, error said system overload. After rebooting it seemed to fix that, but still was lacking performance compared to Mavericks. First thing I noticed too, is there's quite a few more processes running in the background now, so I'm sure that has something to do with it. Also, having an older Mac with the latest OS, you always are left out of some of the cooler features that most users are looking for, especially if you own an iPhone or iPad such as myself. For example, you can't use instant Hotspot. I'm still poking around to see what else does/doesn't work due to compatibility of my older MBP.
Just installed on my early 2008 MBP with 4 GB of RAM, and also 240 gig SSD from OWC. I had Mavericks previously and for me it seemed to run apps little more easier then Yosemite. I might even just go back still. I do like the new features and look of Yosemite, but rather have a smoother running Mac. Boot up time is a little longer but with a SSD but it's still no big issue. I immediately tested performance with Logic Pro X and it crashed on first try, error said system overload. After rebooting it seemed to fix that, but still was lacking performance compared to Mavericks. First thing I noticed too, is there's quite a few more processes running in the background now, so I'm sure that has something to do with it. Also, having an older Mac with the latest OS, you always are left out of some of the cooler features that most users are looking for, especially if you own an iPhone or iPad such as myself. For example, you can't use instant Hotspot. I'm still poking around to see what else does/doesn't work due to compatibility of my older MBP.
MBP 15" early 2008 - logic board
I had my MBP early 2008 model overheat on me just 2 weeks ago. I had recently updated to Mavericks and was running a music program called Maschine 2.0.
Symptoms: The sleep light and superdrive would turn on, no image on the screen, no boot up chime.
I was bummed out since it had lasted me faithfully for so long. I refused to give up on it . . . .
I looked online and saw that people who had similar symptoms had concluded it was a GPU chip issue, when it overheats, it detaches from the motherboard.
The fix: A GPU reflow! Much like what people where doing with their XBOX360's back in 2006.
Note: I'm an electronics engineering tech grad, so I felt confident I could reproduce their steps, and it worked.
Materials: MX4 Thermal Paste($10), WEP 858D Reflow Station ($70), Phillips set, Torx set.
While the laptop was taken apart, I also cleaned the fans of all the dust that had accumulated (this definitely played a part in the overheating), and cleaned off all the old thermal paste and applied new paste. I have a toothbrush I bought just to clean electronic ports, etc. I used isopropyl alcohol 99% to clean off the old paste, along with cotton swabs.
I reinstalled Snow Leopard and a 90 GB SSD I had laying around.
Results: This laptop feels as fast as my Mac Pro running Mountain Lion. It runs so cool now, the fans have yet to spin up in the past 2 weeks. Snow Leopard is, quite honestly, the best OS for this laptop! If you stick with it, it will reward you.
I had my MBP early 2008 model overheat on me just 2 weeks ago. I had recently updated to Mavericks and was running a music program called Maschine 2.0.
Symptoms: The sleep light and superdrive would turn on, no image on the screen, no boot up chime.
I was bummed out since it had lasted me faithfully for so long. I refused to give up on it . . . .
I looked online and saw that people who had similar symptoms had concluded it was a GPU chip issue, when it overheats, it detaches from the motherboard.
The fix: A GPU reflow! Much like what people where doing with their XBOX360's back in 2006.
Note: I'm an electronics engineering tech grad, so I felt confident I could reproduce their steps, and it worked.
Materials: MX4 Thermal Paste($10), WEP 858D Reflow Station ($70), Phillips set, Torx set.
While the laptop was taken apart, I also cleaned the fans of all the dust that had accumulated (this definitely played a part in the overheating), and cleaned off all the old thermal paste and applied new paste. I have a toothbrush I bought just to clean electronic ports, etc. I used isopropyl alcohol 99% to clean off the old paste, along with cotton swabs.
I reinstalled Snow Leopard and a 90 GB SSD I had laying around.
Results: This laptop feels as fast as my Mac Pro running Mountain Lion. It runs so cool now, the fans have yet to spin up in the past 2 weeks. Snow Leopard is, quite honestly, the best OS for this laptop! If you stick with it, it will reward you.
Hello just a quick update. I upgraded my MacBook Pro Early 2008 to Yosemite and not experienced any performance problems seems to work like a charm.
People are saying their logic boards have been having issues but this hasnt been the case for me. Although I had my logic board swapped out years ago so I probably have a fixed one already.
This system is running on 4GB of crucial memory and a 256GB crucial SSD.
People are saying their logic boards have been having issues but this hasnt been the case for me. Although I had my logic board swapped out years ago so I probably have a fixed one already.
This system is running on 4GB of crucial memory and a 256GB crucial SSD.
With 2 SSDs in my 2008 MBP i had the luxury of testing it on the ATA/IDE port. Even it's a 'slow' port, it runs very well with a fresh install.
When i have double checked my total workflow and made a full backup, i will upgrade my main system. i'm confident it will run smoothly.
When i have double checked my total workflow and made a full backup, i will upgrade my main system. i'm confident it will run smoothly.
Glad it's working for you too! Sounds like this the Early 2008 MacBook Pro still holds strong when using SSD's.
I have a Mid 2008 MBP so a very similar model. Yosemite has been absolutely fine. No issues whatsoever. I previously upgraded my hard drive with the OWC data doubler and my SSD seems absolutely fine too.
Yosemite Server?
Hi guys,
I have a white MBP 2008 with 4GB RAM and a bad video logic (backlight goes off - inverter was replaced, ext. monitor connection works perfect.
So, I would like to try Yosemite on it, the Server version, I will connect to it only remotely.
Did one tried this? How did you installed Yosemite? SFOTT, or the other options here in the forum?
It should be the same procedure for the Server, so I would like to give it a try.
Thx in advance.
Yassi
Hi guys,
I have a white MBP 2008 with 4GB RAM and a bad video logic (backlight goes off - inverter was replaced, ext. monitor connection works perfect.
So, I would like to try Yosemite on it, the Server version, I will connect to it only remotely.
Did one tried this? How did you installed Yosemite? SFOTT, or the other options here in the forum?
It should be the same procedure for the Server, so I would like to give it a try.
Thx in advance.
Yassi
The Apple Store replaced my logic board for free a long time ago. A few years later my display started fading. I paid Apple Store $300.00 to refurbish the whole Mac, new display, display board, logic board, some other boards, but not the keyboard... Shortly after that (a few weeks) the RAM went south, overheated, and they replaced the 4GB of RAM modules for free. I just need to update to an SSD as Mavericks runs very slow on it, but I think that's because I have too many Chrome windows open.
I also plan to up the RAM to 6GB. The only thing I don't like about the old MacBook compared to newer MBPs is the weight. It weighs a ton compared to the new ones, but the new ones are wireless only, which I find annoying...and no CD/DVD player! Looks like people have been having mixed results with the Yosemite upgrade on this model. My machine is still fine without any problems. I still can't believe this machine is still going! It's a real testiment to how rock solid this model was. The only thing I've done is upgrade to an SSD.
I am noticing though there are things which it's becoming too slow to do, editing video, processing batches of raw files in Lightroom takes a lot of time for me.
I think this might be the year I finally get a new MacBook, probably a retina 13 inch with a 512 SSD.
We will see! Hope other people are still rocking their MBP early 2008 models.
I am noticing though there are things which it's becoming too slow to do, editing video, processing batches of raw files in Lightroom takes a lot of time for me.
I think this might be the year I finally get a new MacBook, probably a retina 13 inch with a 512 SSD.
We will see! Hope other people are still rocking their MBP early 2008 models.
Decent advice has been to try it on an external drive first. Yosemite seems to be picky about hardware…works great on some, not so great on others, and some just can't adjust to its looks. I found 10.10.3 to be slower and maybe even buggier that 10.10.4 but you need to be a developer or part of the beta program to get it.