2008 A1268 Macbook Pro 15" 2.53GHz - what to do?

[emmahaneed]

HI,
I have a 2008 A1268 Macbook Pro 15" with 4GB Ram and 160GB HDD.
It's currently running Yosemite, but I'm finding it becoming more and more useless.

What would be the cheapest way to get it useable for say, Facebook, Youtube and for printing documents from?

Bit of a newb, so apologies if this is all a bit tedious.

Thank you!!

 

[PBG4 Dude]

Other than switching to SSD or adding more RAM, there isn’t much you can do, unless you want to give Linux a try.

 

[emmahaneed]

Other than switching to SSD or adding more RAM, there isn’t much you can do, unless you want to give Linux a try.

Thanks. What would SSD and more Ram enable the machine to do please?

 

[PBG4 Dude]

Thanks. What would SSD and more Ram enable the machine to do please?

I missed that you already had 4GB RAM so more probably wouldn’t help. An SSD would speed up everything related to your hard drive though. I put a 250GB SSD in mine and it gave my son a few years of use before it got too slow for his games.

 

[emmahaneed]

I missed that you already had 4GB RAM so more probably wouldn’t help. An SSD would speed up everything related to your hard drive though. I put a 250GB SSD in mine and it gave my son a few years of use before it got too slow for his games.

Thanks. I'm finding that I can't look at certain websites. Would SSD help with this?

 

[Amethyst1]

Thanks. I'm finding that I can't look at certain websites. Would SSD help with this?

An SSD alone won’t help at all with this. Your problems are due to an outdated browser. Current browsers no longer run on Yosemite.

Most importantly, you need to install a (reasonably) current operating system that can run a current browser, e.g. Linux, Windows — or a “patched” more modern version of macOS. Your MacBook Pro can theoretically run macOS Ventura.

If you’re fine with macOS Catalina (10.15), I’d suggest looking into this patcher to easily get Catalina running on your MacBook Pro. Catalina can still run the current version of Mozilla Firefox, for instance.

Performance of Catalina will be pretty terrible using a 2.5” hard drive though, so upgrading to an SSD is also recommended. This will make the system boot (much) faster and applications launch more quickly.

 

[emmahaneed]

An SSD alone won’t help at all.

Most importantly, you need to install a (reasonably) current operating system that can run a current browser, e.g. Linux, Windows, or a patched more modern version of macOS. If you’re fine with macOS Catalina (10.15), I’d suggest looking into this patcher to easily get Catalina running on your MacBook Pro.

Performance of Catalina will be pretty terrible using a 2.5” hard drive though, so upgrading to an SSD is also recommended.

Thanks very much.. I've never heard of this type of thing before. Do you have a way of explaining it briefly to a novice please?

 

[Amethyst1]

Do you have a way of explaining it briefly to a novice please?

You mean the "patching"?

OK. The newest version of OS X (macOS) your MacBook Pro will run officially is El Capitan (10.11) from 2015. This is one version newer than Yosemite (10.10) which it currently runs. El Capitan will still have problems due to outdated browsers. So, you need a newer version of macOS that can run a current browser. Using a current browser will allow you to access all those websites out of the box.

But these newer versions of macOS will have to be "talked" into installing on your MacBook Pro, since they think it's "too old". A person named dosdude1 has made a series of patchers for macOS Sierra (10.12), High Sierra (10.13), Mojave (10.14) and Catalina (10.15) that make it easy to "talk" newer versions of macOS into installing on older Macs, such as your 2008 MacBook Pro.

You just need a USB flash drive. Using one of these patchers, such as the one for Catalina, will prepare the flash drive so you can use it to install macOS Catalina on your MacBook Pro. It will also make the necessary modifications so that features (such as Bluetooth, WiFi etc.) will work. The website for these patchers describes the process and caveats quite well.

Once you have a newer version of macOS on your MacBook Pro, you'll be able to use current browsers that can access those websites which are giving you issues right now. There are other "tricks" that may allow you to access those websites (to some extent) without needing to upgrade to a newer version of macOS, but the "cleanest" way to solve those problems... is to use a current browser.

However, your MacBook Pro still has its original hard drive, which will make newer versions of macOS run very slowly/sluggishly. If that bothers you, you'll have to replace the hard drive with a much faster solid state drive (SSD). Those are very cheap these days and installing one isn't too difficult.

 

[theMarble]

However, your MacBook Pro still has its original hard drive, which will make newer versions of macOS run very slowly/sluggishly. If that bothers you, you'll have to replace the hard drive with a much faster solid state drive (SSD). Those are very cheap these days and installing one isn't too difficult.

Would just like to chip in here: If you are planning to install a version of macOS that uses the newer "APFS" filesystem, you need an SSD. This typically means High Sierra (10.13.x) or later, however I would also include Sierra (10.12.x) as well.

From my own experience, performance is so unusably slow that it becomes a living nightmare to use. The system grinds to a halt as soon as you start doing anything on it.

If you don't want to get an SSD, I'd say that El Capitan (10.11.x) is the newest version you could use, although since I'm admittedly an "SSD or nothing" person, I think that Snow Leopard (10.6.x) is the last version that performed decently on an HDD. Lion is when SSD's started to become more attractive.

In your MacBook Pro (15" Late 2008), upgrading to an SSD only takes a few minutes since you don't to take the bottom cover off like the newer 2009-2012 models.

This guide from iFixit is super helpful: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBoo...008+and+Early+2009+Hard+Drive+Replacement/841

 

[AlixSPQR]

An SSD and a modded browser like Chromium-legacy will do the trick! 👍🏻

 

[rampancy]

HI,
I have a 2008 A1268 Macbook Pro 15" with 4GB Ram and 160GB HDD.
It's currently running Yosemite, but I'm finding it becoming more and more useless.

What would be the cheapest way to get it useable for say, Facebook, Youtube and for printing documents from?

Bit of a newb, so apologies if this is all a bit tedious.

Thank you!!

If access to modern web browsers for compability with YouTube and Facebook is all you need (and you don't necessarily need compatibility with macOS apps, or if you have an alternative Mac to run your apps on), then another alternative would be installing Linux on it. As with using a patched unsupported version of OS X, it's highly recommended that you replace your hard drive with an SSD.

There are many types of Linux to choose from, but Xubuntu, Lubuntu and Zorin OS Lite are my favorites, that strike a good balance between features and performance.

I generally burn the .iso files to DVDs, and use those the way I would an old-fashioned OS X install disk, but you can also create USB installers for them using balenaEtcher.

 

[TheShortTimer]

I'd also recommend that you upgrade the RAM to the maximum 8GB because otherwise your machine will struggle with most browsers unless you only have a couple of tabs open.

 

[theMarble]

I'd also recommend that you upgrade the RAM to the maximum 8GB because otherwise your machine will struggle with most browsers unless you only have a couple of tabs open.

Yes. One thing to remember is that you need PC3-8500 / DDR3 1066 memory. These MBP's with NVIDIA chipsets are super fussy on what memory speed they want.

 

[Mr. Dee]

Downgrade it to Leopard and keep it as an art piece.

 

[theMarble]

Downgrade it to Leopard and keep it as an art piece.

Depends on whether OP wants to use it as their main machine or not. As a collection piece, I would already have it on Leopard, but it's not very practical as a main OS anymore.

 

[TheShortTimer]

Depends on whether OP wants to use it as their main machine or not. As a collection piece, I would already have it on Leopard, but it's not very practical as a main OS anymore.

Yeah and why run Leopard on an Intel Mac when you can run Snow Leopard?

10.5.8 is fine for the PPC world where it's (officially) the end of the line but the OP's machine could run Catalina fairly well with a couple of upgrades which won't break the bank.

 

[theMarble]

why run Leopard on an Intel Mac when you can run Snow Leopard?

Purely nostalgia. Not many other reasons to run it. If you want an original Intel experience, run Tiger. If you want a later, but still relatively early experience, run Snow Leopard.

 

[emmahaneed]

Thanks everyone.
So, If i install a bit more RAM, an SSD hard drive and run the patch to Catalina, does anyone have an idea of how many more years I might get from it and be able to access the internet?
Is it worth it?

 

[Amethyst1]

So, If i install a bit more RAM, an SSD hard drive and run the patch to Catalina, does anyone have an idea of how many more years I might get from it and be able to access the internet?

That's hard to provide a definite answer to.

But as a pointer, the current version of Mozilla Firefox requires macOS 10.12, which was released in 2016. That means you can still have a current browser on a seven-year-old version of macOS. If we apply the same logic to Catalina which was released in 2019, Firefox might support it until 2026, maybe a bit longer. And even when you can no longer run the current version of Firefox, the last version to run on Catalina isn't going to become useless all of a sudden. It'll probably take some time before it starts having major issues with websites.

Fortunately though, Catalina isn't the end of the road for your MacBook Pro: it can run macOS Ventura (i.e. the current version) too, but that requires a different patch (OpenCore Legacy Patcher). That means you should be able to run a current browser for another couple of years once Catalina is no longer supported by Firefox.

Is it worth it?

Depends on what your options are. Getting up and running with Catalina is going to be (much) cheaper than buying a new(er) Mac. If I were in your situation, I'd definitely give it a try. You've got nothing to lose but some time.