Installing new OS on mid 2007 Macbook A1181 - problems!

[Amethyst1]

In that case, I'm curious about how machine specific the grey disks are, [...]

The version of Mac OS X on the discs is not machine-specific at all. It's just that the installer checks for a specific model identifier. Your MacBook has a MacBook2,1 identifier. If a grey disc's installer checks for, say, MacBook7,1 it will fail on yours. You just need to remove that check... and end up with a fully functional, machine-agnostic install medium.

Why are these blasted discs machine-specific then if Mac OS X is not? To prevent Mac buyers from making big bucks by selling their grey discs as fully functional install media, which would be naughty-naughty.

 

[Edwin_Shedwin]

If you've been using macOS, I'd suggest trying to restore the 10.5.4 or 10.6.3 DMG to the USB drive using Disk Utility's Restore feature instead. Before using it, make sure the USB drive is partitioned using the "GUID Partition Table" scheme and only contains one big partition formatted as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)".

Then, double-click the DMG to mount it and use the "Mac OS X Install DVD" volume as the source and your USB drive's partition as the target.

So I have tried creating the bootable USB with disk utility again, and this is what I get: using the DMG of 10.6.3 downloaded from here

Don't tell anyone ( ) but you can find a copy of Snow Leopard here. The second download on that page is the retail version. Burn that to a double-layer DVD or to a USB flash drive, boot the MacBook with the hard drive installed internally and see if it behaves the same as with Tiger.

The flash disk can be formatted correctly no problem
However, when the DMG is mounted, if I begin the 'restore' process and try to select the 'Mac OS X Install DVD', then 'choose' is greyed out:

I guess this is because this software is too old to run on the machine I'm trying to do this on (2015 Macbook pro), right? Many thanks!

 

[Amethyst1]

However, when the DMG is mounted, if I begin the 'restore' process and try to select the 'Mac OS X Install DVD', then 'choose' is greyed out:

I see. Try unmounting the DMG and selecting the DMG itself as the source. If that also fails (I have a feeling it will... Disk Utility just ain't what it used to be), try restoring the contents of the "Mac OS X Install DVD" volume to the flash drive using SuperDuper!: in its window, select "Copy Mac OS X Install DVD to Untitled" and click "Copy Now".

I guess this is because this software is too old to run on the machine I'm trying to do this on (2015 Macbook pro), right?

No, the contents of the image are irrelevant. It should™ do an exact block-by-block copy regardless of the contents.

 

[Edwin_Shedwin]

A miracle has occured!!! It is done!!!

I hadn't seen this post, but decided to try Carbon Copy Cloner, which I understand is similar to CCC.

I could only use CCC 5 or 6 on my 2015 Macbook Pro running Big Sur, so I tried that. I got a warning that creating bootable disks for earlier versions of OSX was not supported, but continued anyway. Using the download of the installer for 10.6.3, CCC 6 created the installer successfully. The boot menu on the 2007 machine picked up the installer, and opened it. I got to the 3rd stage, as before, there were no options in the 'select disk to install OS to' window. So, I went to Disk Utility, and noticed straight away that although the installer didn't find the HDD, DU was finding the disk and correctly identifying it as 1tb in size. So, I attempted to erase and partition (single partition, GUID, Mac OS journaled (extended) ), was successful, went back to the installer, lo and behold, the disk was there, the installer worked smoothly from that point, and I am now up and running with 10.6.3. KABOOM!

The takeaway for future reference is that the 10.4.10 installer which came with the machine was not picking up the HDD correctly, I guess because the HDD was later and in some way not compatible. In any case, my old Macbook is BACK IN BUSINESS! I also hope this is useful to someone in future, just keep plugging away!

Many many thanks for all the help and advice

 

[Amethyst1]

The takeaway for future reference is that the 10.4.10 installer which came with the machine was not picking up the HDD correctly, I guess because the HDD was later and in some way not compatible.

Thanks for sharing your progress. Glad to hear this tough nut has finally been cracked and the MacBook is up and running again.

 

[Edwin_Shedwin]

Thanks for sharing your progress. Glad to hear this tough nut has finally been cracked and the MacBook is up and running again.

Thanks again. It might not have been nearly as tough for someone with more experience. I could not have done it without your guidance!

The most interesting thing was how many people offline and online said it looked like a SATA cable / SATA bus / logic board issue.

Now I'm going to upgrade to 10.7.5 which is a free download from Apple, then I'll see how much I can actually do with the machine. It might be useful to use with older hardware, eg I believe I need an older machine to configure my Airport Express. If I can use it for other stuff like youtube, I may upgrade the RAM and buy an SSD and just keep it as a back-up machine for simple things.

 

[Amethyst1]

The most interesting thing was how many people offline and online said it looked like a SATA cable / SATA bus / logic board issue.

I have to admit to never having experienced this issue before and being thrown off by the fact that 10.4.10 had no issues with the drive when it was in the enclosure. So I apologise for not having suggested trying a later version of Mac OS X earlier.

Now I'm going to upgrade to 10.7.5 which is a free download from Apple, then I'll see how much I can actually do with the machine.

This is a good starting point for web browsers.

If you're feeling adventurous, you can also coax Mountain Lion (10.8.5) onto the machine.

If I can use it for other stuff like youtube, I may upgrade the RAM and buy an SSD and just keep it as a back-up machine for simple things.

You can put in 4 GB RAM using two 2 GB PC2-5300 (DDR2-667) SO-DIMM modules but the machine will only use 3 GB. Still, having two identically sized modules is recommended to enable dual-channel mode. As for an SSD, theoretically any 2.5" SATA SSD should work. I use Crucial BX500s in my 2007 MacBook Pros (same chipset and SATA controller): they work fine and are affordable. If your battery is dead or missing, getting a new one is also recommended because the CPU heavily underclocks to 1 GHz otherwise.

 

[Edwin_Shedwin]

... I apologise for not having suggested trying a later version of Mac OS X earlier.

I thought you did!!!

This is a good starting point for web browsers.

I have already found that page, and it is very useful. Now I need to figure out how well I can get this machine to do stuff like stream youtube. It seems finding compatible video plugins is tricky. Maybe this machine is a bit old for decent video now.

If you're feeling adventurous, you can also coax Mountain Lion (10.8.5) onto the machine.

I am not feeling adventurous! After a few hiccups, 10.7.5 is now installed, and I'm happy to stay with that.

You can put in 4 GB RAM using two 2 GB PC2-5300 (DDR2-667) SO-DIMM modules but the machine will only use 3 GB. Still, having two identically sized modules is recommended to enable dual-channel mode. As for an SSD, theoretically any 2.5" SATA SSD should work. I use Crucial BX500s in my 2007 MacBook Pros (same chipset and SATA controller): they work fine and are affordable.

I will check these out, thank you. This is the correct RAM module, right? Not too pricey.

If your battery is dead or missing, getting a new one is also recommended because the CPU heavily underclocks to 1 GHz otherwise.

Battery seems to be in great shape! The machine started malfunctioning in 2011, freezing and suddenly shutting down, and so I bought a new Macbook Air. Then, as the problems turned out to be due to a known battery issue (the battery had swelled and apparently damaged other components) Apple replaced a load of parts for free, logic board, top case and keyboard, display, iSight camera, magsafe board, and battery. As I had already bought another machine, this one had very light use after that, essentially just sitting on a table and playing music and video, video mainly from DVD rips rather than streaming. The battery still looks brand new, I just checked, and the battery has a cycle count of 31, which is nothing.

 

[rampancy]

The thread postulates “Advanced Format” (4-KB rather than 512-byte sectors) is the culprit, which your drives also uses. This doesn’t explain why everything works fine when the drives are in the enclosure though — unless the issue only shows if the drive is installed internally.

Without having a super detailed knowledge of just how USB-SATA bridge chips work, I'm guessing that the chipset in the enclosure was able to present the drive in such a way that the Mac could properly see it (i.e as generic USB mass storage). That's perhaps why the Tiger installer worked fine with the drive in the enclosure, but not with the drive natively connected (which is the impression I got from the OP).

 

[Edwin_Shedwin]

... the Tiger installer worked fine with the drive in the enclosure, but not with the drive natively connected (which is the impression I got from the OP).

Yes, that is exactly what happened.

 

[Snowlover]

The 2007 MacBook has a 32-bit EFI firmware; these Linux distributions probably expect a 64-bit EFI firmware. You need to modify the USB installer to make it bootable on Macs with a 32-bit EFI firmware

Also see this for macs with 32-bit efi firmware.

Linux DVD images (and how-to) for 32-bit EFI Macs (late 2006 models) | mattgadient.com

Apple's 32-bit EFI implementation on late 2006 Macs makes it tricky to get 64-bit Linux distros installed. Tricky, but not impossible...

mattgadient.com

 

[Edwin_Shedwin]

So after a few days, the machine was running ok, though slow clunky and hot - just one task would make the fan go fast and loud, istat menus told me that the CPU was at about 80c and the fan was running at 6800 when the machine was doing almost anything.

So, I decided to upgrade the RAM from 2gb to 4gb, put in a solid state internal disk, replace the thermal paste, and give the fan and exhaust a good clean. I figured the only real outlay was the RAM, as a hard disk is always useful, and I also did the thermal paste on my 2015 Macbook Pro.

The exhaust was about half choked with fluff, and the thermal paste was cracked and dry.

It runs a LOT better now, much smoother, much cooler, I don't get that flat-out audible fan sound at all. However, the machine is old, and limited, it can just about stream HD on youtube, but it is choppy, and not really pleasant. Ordinary web browsing is fine, streaming audio is fine.

One interesting question is how much of the 4gb the machine actually uses, I have read 3gb, I have read 3.5gb.

Anyway, what do you guys do with your machines of this age?

 

[Amethyst1]

Anyway, what do you guys do with your machines of this age?

For me, it’s pretty boring stuff: period-correct applications, some light web browsing and doing whacky experiments with the GPU. No video streaming.

 

[rampancy]

So after a few days, the machine was running ok, though slow clunky and hot - just one task would make the fan go fast and loud, istat menus told me that the CPU was at about 80c and the fan was running at 6800 when the machine was doing almost anything...

Applying new thermal paste and cleaning out the heatsink and fan is probably the best, fastest and cheapest way to prolong the life of your machine and boost performance. iStat menus is a great system monitoring application, but for fan control my go-to app is smcFanControl, as it's the easiest and most convenient way to manually adjust and set fan speeds. And it never ceases to amaze me how horrific the factory application and use of thermal paste was on their MacBooks and MacBook Pros during this time period.

Due to an odd quirk of the Intel i945 chipset used in the pre-Santa Rosa MacBooks and MacBook Pros (i.e. the MacBook/Pro 1,x and 2,x), the system hardware recognizes only ~3.3 GB of RAM if 4 GB is installed. Apple and other manufacturers responded to this by only "officially" supporting a maximum of 2 GB RAM in these machines (despite the fact that they take 4 GB of RAM just fine), while other manufacturers actually stated that their machines could take 3 GB of RAM.

As for streaming video I always run Tampermonkey with the "Disable YouTube 60 fps" userscript, which forces YouTube to run at 30 fps. Sure, I'm not watching 4K or HD video, but given that I'm running hardware that is 15 years old, I'm willing to make some concessions for modern internet useability. And depending on how far you're willing to go, you could replace OS X with a Linux to get access to more up to date web browsers.

I just love to work with these machines. Accessing the internals is a breeze. (People complain about all of the screws needed to remove the topcase, but that's nothing compared to many comparable consumer Windows laptops of that era, which often required a near teardown of the entire machine to gain access to the motherboard.) They're incredibly versatile. In addition to running Windows, 10.6, 10.7, or 10.8, you can also use a lightweight Linux distro like Zorin, Xubuntu or Lubuntu. Not only are they great tinkering machines, they're also fantastic for retro Mac gaming and Windows gaming via WINE.

 

[eyoungren]

Anyway, what do you guys do with your machines of this age?

I have a 2006 Mini that is Snow Leopard only (well, I could get Lion on it, but I'm not prepared to go through those macinations). I use it as a Download server.

What I mean by that is that anything my other Macs download goes to the hard drive of that Mac. I also use it for scanning. I have an old flatbed scanner that uses TWAIN and so Photoshop CS2 is useful for that (because it still uses TWAIN). Finally, I use it (via Airserver) to stream music to my other Macs or to my TV soundbar via Bluetooth. On rare occasions I use it to view video (it's attached to my 55" HDTV) but I mainly access it via VNC (there is no keyboard or mouse attached).

I also have a 17" MBP which is actually SL max. That's used for light word processing mainly right now.