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MP 1,1-5,1 HELP! My mac Pro is too old to update! What can i do?!

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Mysticdrummer

macrumors newbie
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Nov 6, 2023
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So i have an old Mac Pro deskttop and the newest OS i can put on it is Snow Leopard. I cant use the internet as it wont "establish a secure connection" or keeps giving the "your clock is wrong" B.S. and im extremely frustrated. I boughtthe thing to record music but cant even access the presonus website to download the software for my interface so im pretty much screwed. What the hell can i do, because im about ready to take this thing out back and unload mulitple magazines into it and say **** apple and all their products.
 

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You have a vintage computer that, like a vintage car, needs careful attention to be usable in a modern context. First off, you need to know which model of Mac Pro it is (don't post a screenshot showing the machine's serial number), then you can find out its maximum macOS version, and what third party software and hardware can improve that.

You're not going to be able to get practical help without that information, unfortunately.
 
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Im not a mac guy, i prefer windows systems and im considering putting windows on it instead
 
mattspace said:
You have a vintage computer that, like a vintage car, needs careful attention to be usable in a modern context. First off, you need to know which model of Mac Pro it is (don't post a screenshot showing the machine's serial number), then you can find out its maximum macOS version, and what third party software and hardware can improve that.

You're not going to be able to get practical help without that information, unfortunately.
Click to expand...

mattspace said:
You have a vintage computer that, like a vintage car, needs careful attention to be usable in a modern context. First off, you need to know which model of Mac Pro it is (don't post a screenshot showing the machine's serial number), then you can find out its maximum macOS version, and what third party software and hardware can improve that.

You're not going to be able to get practical help without that information, unfortunately.
Click to expand...
Its the first mac pro model, A1186. There is no OS past snow leopard that it will accept. I would love to know what hardware i can change to get a newer os because i really need it to function fully so i can utilize it for the purposes i need.
 
There were 3 MacPro models sold with the model number A1186, up to the Early 2008 (MacPro3,1)
Even your earliest A1186 (the MacPro1,1) can upgrade past Snow Leopard, and can go all the way to Lion (Mac OS X 10.7.5). But that's only a slight upgrade, and ultimately would not help with your frustration.
My relatively-uneducated suggestion is to find a 2008 MacPro3,1 (at the very oldest) - which will at least give a chance to be useful by upgrading to a patched version of OS X - with even the possibility to go with an open-core legacy solution up to current macOS systems, which would also be best to do with other hardware upgrades, such as graphics cards. Nothing like that can help the first couple of MacPro models now... All you have right now is a "toy" computer, one that is not worth trying to use for actual work.
 
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DeltaMac said:
There were 3 MacPro models sold with the model number A1186, up to the Early 2008 (MacPro3,1)
Even your earliest A1186 (the MacPro1,1) can upgrade past Snow Leopard, and can go all the way to Lion (Mac OS X 10.7.5). But that's only a slight upgrade, and ultimately would not help with your frustration.
My relatively-uneducated suggestion is to find a 2008 MacPro3,1 (at the very oldest) - which will at least give a chance to be useful by upgrading to a patched version of OS X - with even the possibility to go with an open-core legacy solution up to current macOS systems, which would also be best to do with other hardware upgrades, such as graphics cards. Nothing like that can help the first couple of MacPro models now... All you have right now is a "toy" computer, one that is not worth trying to use for actual work.
Click to expand...
Yeah. Mine is a 2006 i believe. I think im gonna just make it a windows machine and save myself money, time and aggravation. My firat, and definitely last Mac.
 
Mysticdrummer said:
Yeah. Mine is a 2006 i believe. I think im gonna just make it a windows machine and save myself money, time and aggravation. My firat, and definitely last Mac.
Click to expand...

Without TPM, or modern processor extensions,SSE etc is it going to be able to be much different to any other workstation from 2006 in terms of non-hacky Windows support?
 
mattspace said:
Without TPM, or modern processor extensions,SSE etc is it going to be able to be much different to any other workstation from 2006 in terms of non-hacky Windows support?
Click to expand...
I dont really care honestly. I just need a machine that i can download my presonus software to, i dont care about using it any further than recording music and editing videos.
 
Mysticdrummer said:
I dont really care honestly. I just need a machine that i can download my presonus software to, i dont care about using it any further than recording music and editing videos.
Click to expand...
Can you not just do the download on a different computer, then sneakernet it over on a usb stick? If the software runs on Snow Leopard, then keeping it as an offline Snow Leopard machine would work fine.

There's probably also LTS versions of Firefox which still work on Snow Leopard if it's an issue with certificate expiry.
 
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Win10 support ends in less than three years FYI if you do put windows on it, it will not be upgradable to 11 according to Microsoft as of now.

You’re slowly boxing yourself off from having an Internet connected device. If it’s not gonna connect to the Internet, then there are people here much more knowledgeable than me that can tell you what to do.
 
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TOO LONG: DID NOT READ. Your computer is too old, and even if you can get it online, the drivers you want won't work for your equipment. You'll need a Mac Pro 2010 at the earliest if you want native support, or a Mac Pro 2009 if you're willing to hack/ get messy with the command line.

Here's the detailed answers:

1. According to the excellent MacTracker, the first MacPro is able to go up to Mac OS X 10.7.5 ("Lion") - one version above Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6). You should be able to find a copy of Lion for sale, it was sold on USB sticks by Apple at one time - or they MIGHT still sell it at stores.

2. You should be able to install Windows 10 on your MacPro (see: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...1-2-1-without-usb-or-dvd-or-bootcamp.2151782/ for how to do it without bootcamp). However, remember that Macintosh programs will not work under Windows, and your MacPro is a Windows machine.

3. I'm not sure where the errors are coming from:

>"establish a secure connection"

Is that message when you open a website using Safari? I don't think Safari for Snow Leopard uses the latest security protocols, and a lot of websites won't open with Safari. You should be able to download a (more recent) version of FireFox that will let you connect to websites (but don't expect it to last too much longer).

If this message is when you're connecting to the internet, could it be because the machine doesn't know the protocol of the wifi network? For example, do you use WPA 3 when your system can only use WEP?

>"your clock is wrong"

Is the date/month/year set correctly on your computer?

Out of curiosity, I decided to go to PreSonus's website.
1. It requires an HTTPS connection. I don't know if Snow Leopard can connect to websites with HTTPS connections.
2. The website is extremely modern, and I doubt Snow Leopard's Safari can render it correctly.
3. I don't think the software would work on your machine.

- Studio One 6 and Studio One+ requires MacOS 10.14 (https://www.presonus.com/en-US/studio-one-tech-specs.html) or an i3 processor for Windows.
- Capture requires MacOS 10.13 64 bit only or an i3 Processor for Windows (https://legacy.presonus.com/products/Capture/tech-specs)
- Notion requires Mac OS 10.13 64 bit or an i3 Processor for Windows (https://legacy.presonus.com/products/Notion/tech-specs)

I'm not able to find old version of their software that might be compatible with that machine.

For drivers, I decided to look at the Studio Live Series 3 mixer. It requires MacOS 10.14 (https://www.presonus.com/en-US/mixer-system-requirements.html) or 64 bit version of Windows 10. Now why you're using a $2,000 USD mixer on an old computer I don't know...

Likewise, the StudioLive Series of mixers also requires MacOS 10.14 or Windows 10, 64 bit. (https://www.presonus.com/en-US/usb-audio-interface-system-requirements.html)

Honestly, you need a minimum of a Mid 2010 MacPro to run this equipment (since a 2010 MacPro can run MacOS 10.14). PreSonus's program, "Universal Control", requires at least 10.13 (source: https://legacy.presonus.com/products/Universal-Control/downloads)
 
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Mysticdrummer said:
Its the first mac pro model, A1186. There is no OS past snow leopard that it will accept. I would love to know what hardware i can change to get a newer os because i really need it to function fully so i can utilize it for the purposes i need.
Click to expand...
I don't think there's any way possible to get Mac OS 10.14 installed on a Mac Pro 2006. I did some Googling (I used the text Upgrading CPU MacPro 2006) and there is no way to get 10.14 (released in 2018) installed on that machine :(

My advice would be to sell it and get a Mac Pro 2009. Mac OS 10.14 can be installed with some hacks.
 
Mysticdrummer said:
Yeah. Mine is a 2006 i believe. I think im gonna just make it a windows machine and save myself money, time and aggravation. My firat, and definitely last Mac.
Click to expand...
You are really complaining about a 16 year old Mac not working in a modern environment? That’s rich.
Yes, a 2006 Windows machine might/would probably work better today. But that has nothing to do with the Mac. It’s a Mac. Apple has always been stingy about vintage support so this is no surprise to anyone who has ever even bothered to research a thing about old Mac support. Why did you get it in the first place if windows works for you? Did you look up anything in advance concerning vintage Mac support?
 
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This is an extremely old Mac from the Windows XP/Vista timeframe. I don't think Apple deserves any blame for such a computer's inability to connect to the modern Internet and run the latest software at this point. Even a Windows machine from this era would be completely useless now for anything but making an abandonware playground.

I suspect the reason your system time is off is because the computer is so incredibly old now that its clock battery has given up the ghost and needs replacing. If that's the case, I don't know what kind of battery you'd need for that specific machine, what it would cost, or how complicated you'd find it to try installing it yourself.

Another thought is that the internal spinning hard disk it comes with may also be near the end of its life and could suddenly fail on you once you store important data on it. You may want to be extremely aggressive with backups once you get the machine working. I'm not completely sure it's even possible to buy a new hard drive anymore that would be compatible with this thing.

If running Windows is an option, maybe you should just go buy a modern machine. Even the cheapest, most miserably rock-bottom Windows budget desktop computer you can still find new should have several times more processing speed and memory than the computer you are trying to work with, and will actually be compatible with today's Internet. You could sell this Mac Pro on eBay or something so it could get in the hands of someone who will treasure and appreciate it for what it is.

JustAnExpat said:
2. You should be able to install Windows 10 on your MacPro (see: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...1-2-1-without-usb-or-dvd-or-bootcamp.2151782/ for how to do it without bootcamp). However, remember that Macintosh programs will not work under Windows, and your MacPro is a Windows machine.
Click to expand...

Wow that page looks like a nightmare. 😵‍💫

Probably worth adding to this that Windows 10 requires a minimum of 2GB of RAM for the x86-64 build, or 1GB of RAM for the x86-32 build. Mystic's machine may have only 1GB of RAM in which case the x86-32 build would be necessary even though the processor is x86-64. Even then since that's the dead minimum requirement it will probably be agonizingly slow. Microsoft has always been horribly optimistic with their RAM requirements. I can't imagine Windows 10 running reasonably well on anything less than 4GB.

Looks like Amazon has multiple Windows 10 desktop computers with 16GB of RAM for under 200USD.
 
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Luna Murasaki said:
Wow that page looks like a nightmare. X(

Probably worth adding to this that Windows 10 requires a minimum of 2GB of RAM for the x86-64 build, or 1GB of RAM for the x86-32 build. Mystic's machine may have only 1GB of RAM in which case the x86-32 build would be necessary even though the processor is x86-64. Even then since that's the dead minimum requirement it will probably be agonizingly slow since Microsoft has always been horribly optimistic with their RAM requirements. I can't imagine Windows 10 running reasonably well on anything less than 4GB.

Looks like Amazon has multiple Windows 10 desktop computers with 16GB of RAM for under 200USD.
Click to expand...

Is Mactracker wrong about the Mac Pro 1,1s? It says Apple claims they can have 16GB of RAM, but can have up to 32GB.

But I agree with you though. Getting any basic Windows machine for about $200 USD would be much better than doing anything with that Mac Pro. A quick search on Amazon brings up a Dell OptiPlex 705 with 16GB of RAM, Core i5-6500t, Windows 10 Pro mini PC for $150 USD (https://www.amazon.com/Dell-OptiPlex-7050-Micro-Bit-Multi-Language/dp/B08GCX4JKJ/) . It'll run circles around the MacPro, and it'll be cheaper to operate, and it looks like it'll take up almost no space because of how small it is. They have even cheaper options too.

For the battery (if that's what's wrong with it), it's easy to replace. It's a common CR2032 coin cell battery, and takes about 3 minutes to replace. https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/128046/Changing+a+Battery+in+mac+pro+3.1
 
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I think it would be helpful if you tell us the exact model of this Mac Pro:
In this case, open the terminal and paste this command:

Applications > Utilities > sysctl -n hw.model (type it in the terminal)

You should see a model of this Mac Pro.
 
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mateo14 said:
I think it would be helpful if you tell us the exact model of this Mac Pro:
In this case, open the terminal and paste this command:

Applications > Utilities > sysctl -n hw.model (type it in the terminal)

You should see a model of this Mac Pro.
Click to expand...
The only thing we know for sure is that:
1. His machine is an A1186
2. He needs Mac OS 10.14 to run Studio One 6, Studio One+ or the drivers for his mixers, or Mac OS 10.13 to run Capture or Notion.
3. The A1186 can be a Mac Pro 1,1; 2,1; 3,1

With all the hacks and everything possible, a Mac Pro 1,1 and 2,1 can only run Mac OS X 11.6 (Source: https://blog.greggant.com/posts/2018/05/07/definitive-mac-pro-upgrade-guide.html). A Mac Pro 3,1 *can* run 10.13 https://dosdude1.com/highsierra/ which MIGHT be enough to run Capture or Notion - but not the drivers he wants to interface with his mixing board.

I found a guide on installing Windows 11 on a Mac Pro 1,1 at https://jensd.be/1954/windows/install-windows-11-on-a-mac-pro-11-or-21 . BUT, I don't know if his capture cards will work, since it's expecting an i3 processor.
 
JustAnExpat said:
The only thing we know for sure is that:
1. His machine is an A1186
2. He needs Mac OS 10.14 to run Studio One 6, Studio One+ or the drivers for his mixers, or Mac OS 10.13 to run Capture or Notion.
3. The A1186 can be a Mac Pro 1,1; 2,1; 3,1
Click to expand...

This command shows him the exact model of this computer.

sysctl -n hw.model

We have to wait for his answer.
 
JustAnExpat said:
A Mac Pro 3,1 *can* run 10.13 which MIGHT be enough to run Capture or Notion - but not the drivers he wants to interface with his mixing board.
Click to expand...
An MP31 can run everything up to Sonoma. So, if his A1186 is an MP31, then he can do a lot and as someone correctly said, the OP needs to provide what model it is he is running exactly before providing advice on what can be done or not done (hopefully based on facts).

The screenshot below from here on Macrumors should tell you what you need to know:
000-Capture-Sonoma.JPG
 
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