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Just bought a used Macbook (first mac ever.. help please)

N

NachoNut

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 8, 2011
6
0
I want to make sure the Macbook I just purchased is up to standards, else I can return it for my $ back.

I've never had a Mac before so this is my first leap (other than an Ipod touch 1g).

I bought an Apple MC516LL/A MacBook 13.3in MC516LL/A Laptop C2D 2.4GHz/250GB HDD/2GB DDR3/DVDRW (this is the mid 2010 version).

Now i'm currently downloading Lion to upgrade the OS and get everything up to date. The battery has 175 cycles on it which I heard is pretty good. But I want to try to test out the hardware or how the system performs to ANYTHING... I just have no idea where to start really. Mac's are an investment, but a good one.. so I want to make sure I went down the right road. The applecare is expired, so I have no way to bring it to the mac store and just say... look.. is this ok?

I bought 2 of them, and was going to decide which one I like better and return the other. 1 of the 2 has a noise coming from the DVD drive, so I think that one is going to be the one going back.

If anybody has some links, or something that's even built in for me to test.. I would owe you a ton!

Thanks in advance.

-New Mac User
 
If you have lion installed, you can do a hardware test: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1509

Just on the spot, I would check the hard drive with "disk utility" (it's in the program's folder, and then the utility's folder). Then perhaps play an HD video and see if any artifacts show up. But I actually don't have any real ideas (beside the hardware test) to see if everything is still ok.
 
arjen92 said:
If you have lion installed, you can do a hardware test: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1509

Just on the spot, I would check the hard drive with "disk utility" (it's in the program's folder, and then the utility's folder). Then perhaps play an HD video and see if any artifacts show up. But I actually don't have any real ideas (beside the hardware test) to see if everything is still ok.
Click to expand...

Thank you. This definitely gives me a place to start! I just loaded Lion last night. I'll search a way to reset the system to factory settings so I can start from scratch and go from there.
 
Once You Have Checked

NachoNut said:
Thank you. This definitely gives me a place to start! I just loaded Lion last night. I'll search a way to reset the system to factory settings so I can start from scratch and go from there.
Click to expand...

Things out, I would seriously consider taking your RAM up to 4GB, things will run a lot more smoothly and quickly, and it won't break the bank to do it. Google Crucial, and let the app inform you of your options.

Putting extra RAM in is an easy job to do, and there is plenty of advice in threads here as to how to go about it....Apart from that I'd say you should be fine as long as everything checks out in DU.
 
Macman45 said:
Things out, I would seriously consider taking your RAM up to 4GB, things will run a lot more smoothly and quickly, and it won't break the bank to do it. Google Crucial, and let the app inform you of your options.

Putting extra RAM in is an easy job to do, and there is plenty of advice in threads here as to how to go about it....Apart from that I'd say you should be fine as long as everything checks out in DU.
Click to expand...

I've already started to look into a 8gig kit. I've read that even though apple states 4gig as the supported, 8gig works fine.
 
GermanyChris said:
But it won't run well on 2, so don't judge based on that.
Click to expand...

2 day shipping on amazon and should have the memory any day. Probably the same day as the replacement bottom for the recall on this unit. So i'll have it open at the same time, might as well kill 2 birds with 1 stone (sorry PETA).

I'll try running the test either way on the unit. It does say that Lion has a min of 2gigs, so it should run DECENT.. but not up to my standards of what a mac should be i'm sure.

Thanks again everybody.
 
Just wanted to give a thanks to everybody for helping. I got the replacement bottom and the 8gig ram kit in the mail yesterday. Put it all in and ran the extended AHT (which ran like almost 3 hours btw) and it found nothing wrong.

Next up, bootcamp and windows 7 (for my windows phone to sync).

Thanks again
 
NachoNut said:
Just wanted to give a thanks to everybody for helping. I got the replacement bottom and the 8gig ram kit in the mail yesterday. Put it all in and ran the extended AHT (which ran like almost 3 hours btw) and it found nothing wrong.

Next up, bootcamp and windows 7 (for my windows phone to sync).

Thanks again
Click to expand...

There is a Windows Phone app in the Mac App Store. Try that before moving to bootcamp just for that purpose. I personally hate windows so I wouldn't recommend it but that is my opinion.
 
saberahul said:
There is a Windows Phone app in the Mac App Store. Try that before moving to bootcamp just for that purpose. I personally hate windows so I wouldn't recommend it but that is my opinion.
Click to expand...

I wish it was that easy. I have a windows phone with a developer account, so the things I want to do with the phone actually require windows 7 to even install the dev tools.

Either way, I already tested it out last night (installed 32 bit by accident), so I "departitioned" the drive and will reinstall bootcamp tonight with windows 64bit. I didn't know there was a major difference on how windows handles my RAM through bootcamp. Not cool only having a tad over 2gigs available in windows. Well, the best way to learn is to do it wrong the first time anyway.
 
Macman45 said:
Things out, I would seriously consider taking your RAM up to 4GB, things will run a lot more smoothly and quickly, and it won't break the bank to do it. Google Crucial, and let the app inform you of your options.

Putting extra RAM in is an easy job to do, and there is plenty of advice in threads here as to how to go about it....Apart from that I'd say you should be fine as long as everything checks out in DU.
Click to expand...
Exactly...I second you:)
 
Batt said:
Lion runs fine with 2GB.
Click to expand...

It runs with 2GB but it isn't very smooth when closing or opening browser or other things and sometimes lags a little with youtube videos

I would upgrade to 8GB or 16GB from newegg or macsales.com
 
David085 said:
It runs with 2GB but it isn't very smooth when closing or opening browser or other things and sometimes lags a little with youtube videos

I would upgrade to 8GB or 16GB from newegg or macsales.com
Click to expand...

I've been running Lion on 2 gigs since day one and have noticed none of the above.
 
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