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Mid 2012 MacBook Pro upgrade questions

C

CrzyIcE

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 24, 2010
98
2
Hi everyone,

I received a mid 2012 MacBook Pro from my sister and I was wondering if there are any upgrade options I can perform.
Occasionally, I seen posts of people talking about the 2012 MacBook Pro being upgradable (RAM and HDD I believe?).
Although wiki says the RAM is not upgradable, so I am a bit confused.

What is the maximum I can go up to for the RAM and I am assuming the CPU is not upgradable?

Is there any Retina model out there that is upgradable?

Current Specs:
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012)
2.5 GHz Intel Core i5
4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB
Model A1278

Thanks!
 
I believe there are some retina MBPs that can be upgraded but I don't think what you have is a retina model since you listed it as mid 2012. I believe the memory and hard drive are upgradeable in the model you listed, based on what I've read here.
 
Max RAM is 16GB (2x8GB DDR3 1600MHz SODIMM). It's user upgradable.

Other upgrade is swapping the HDD for an SSD. No other upgrades are possible.
 
I have a mid-2012 (that I just replaced with a new 15"). I added memory to 16GB, replaced the HDD with SSD, took out the ROM drive and put a bracket in there to house another HDD or SSD. The RAM and disk bracket were purchased from OWC (macsales.com), an excellent company for upgrades to Macs.
 
You can upgrade the memory (up to 16 GB DDR3L 1600) and replace the hard drive with an SSD (ie. Crucial MX300 1TB).
 
And it will FLY, and cost so much less than the current stuff.... And rock solid :)
 
I also recently picked up a 2012 non-retina MacBook Pro. I have a Samsung 850 Evo SSD I'm planning on installing. Can someone recommend a 16gb memory upgrade? There are several on Amazon/NewEgg with different timing and cas latency, not sure what to grab.
 
Last edited:
Just wondering, if I don't need anything from my current HDD, could I just pop in the new SSD and boot it from the Internet Recovery through Cmd + R?

Or do I need to do a clone of my current HDD for the restore options?
 
CrzyIcE said:
Thanks everyone!
I'm gona get the Samsung 850 Evo too and 16 gigs of crucial RAM (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007B5S52C/ref=twister_B00H8JVIKM?_encoding=UTF8&th=1).
Click to expand...

Thanks! That was one of the ones I was looking at. I was also looking at the Corsair which is $20 more.

With this being my first Macbook, what is needed to install os to a new SSD? Do I need to create a boot disk? What exactly is the internet recovery you are talking about? Is there a way I can download the OS to a flash drive? I've also read about trim. Is that something that needs to be turned on? So much conflicting information on the web. Thanks again!
 
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I think both those memory should be okay.
The internet recovery is so I can reformat the drive and install Mac OS without cloning the prior drive.

Opening up the laptop and swapping out the memory & HDD was easy with the correct tools.
Although I'm running into lots of issues with reformatting the SSD. Kept getting errors - can't partition/reformat it, can't erase it.

Some people that had the same issues said it was the SATA cable. So I'll wait till my SATA to usb cable to arrive and hopefully try it again.

Another article said it could be a faulty SSD.
I'll try again tomorrow with the new cable and report back the updates.
 
The internet recovery may install an earlier os version than you currently have. You can still restore after that from a TM backup.
 
CrzyIcE said:
I think both those memory should be okay.
The internet recovery is so I can reformat the drive and install Mac OS without cloning the prior drive.

Opening up the laptop and swapping out the memory & HDD was easy with the correct tools.
Although I'm running into lots of issues with reformatting the SSD. Kept getting errors - can't partition/reformat it, can't erase it.

Some people that had the same issues said it was the SATA cable. So I'll wait till my SATA to usb cable to arrive and hopefully try it again.

Another article said it could be a faulty SSD.
I'll try again tomorrow with the new cable and report back the updates.
Click to expand...

Good luck with your install! I'm hoping to get mine upgraded too.

protoxx said:
The internet recovery may install an earlier os version than you currently have. You can still restore after that from a TM backup.
Click to expand...

Since the High School owned this MacBook prior to me, El Captain is not in my purchased items in the App Store. I believe I will either need to download a copy of Sierra and install from a usb drive or I will need to copy the hard drive to the SSD. Does this sound right?
 
CyHawk60 said:
Since the High School owned this MacBook prior to me, El Captain is not in my purchased items in the App Store. I believe I will either need to download a copy of Sierra and install from a usb drive or I will need to copy the hard drive to the SSD. Does this sound right?
Click to expand...

Firstly - I hope they removed the computer from their management system, and their management from the computer.
Second - just do Internet Recovery, install whatever OS that gives you then upgrade to Sierra right away. macOS is nothing like Windows when it comes to doing in-place major OS upgrades.
 
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hallux said:
Firstly - I hope they removed the computer from their management system, and their management from the computer.
Second - just do Internet Recovery, install whatever OS that gives you then upgrade to Sierra right away. macOS is nothing like Windows when it comes to doing in-place major OS upgrades.
Click to expand...

I assume so, the person I bought it from purchased it last month from the school, they did a tech sale where they sold a bunch of older MacBooks. Either way, I coach football at the same school, I've already emailed the tech guy with some questions. Thanks for the reply!!!
 
Lots of headaches so far with the SSD change.
My USB to SATA cable came, was finally able to reformat the entire SSD through USB connection and install Mac OS.
Plugged the SSD back internally and the MacBook did not seem able to read the drive. It brings me up to the apple logo with the loading wheel but it never loads up.

No issues booting up Mac OS on my SSD via USB to SATA cable.

I'm still unable to pinpoint whether the issue is with the SSD or the internal cable since other threads seem to say its the SSD but it seems to be more the cable (otherwise, shouldn't the SSD not work thru USB either?)

First attempt I did was to upgrade the OS (Lion) to Sierra to my SSD via USB and then plug it back in internally to see if that would do anything. Now the MacBook actually tries to boot up through the SSD but halfway on the load bar w/ the Apple logo, it turns to a cancel sign.

Second attempt now is to plug it back in via USB again, do a 3x erase, partition again, but try to install Mac OS internally and see if that works.

Otherwise, I am out of idea besides getting another SSD and/or SATA cable.
 
hallux said:
do Internet Recovery, install whatever OS that gives you then upgrade to Sierra right away. macOS is nothing like Windows when it comes to doing in-place major OS upgrades.
Click to expand...

Is the internet recovery the better option? Or would be creating a bootable usb of Serra be a better option?
Thanks!
 
hallux said:
Firstly - I hope they removed the computer from their management system, and their management from the computer.
Click to expand...

Well I did the upgrade last night. Everything went smoothly until I tried to the internet recovery. Wouldn't you know it, firmware locked. I've reached out to the schools IT administrator, and I'm planning a visit on Monday. I'm also going to call the closest Apple store and ask what they normally do.

I've also tried to perform a reset shown in some online videos, changing the amount of ram, starting up while pressing Option-Command-R-P, no luck with that, it goes straight to the lock screen for password input. Does anyone has some suggestions to remove this lock? I have a mid 2012 Macbook Pro.

Thanks!
 
Got my new SATA cable, replaced the old one and SSD working great now.
No issues so far. Hope your issue gets resolved CyHawk60! Before I could reformat the drive, I had to use my sis' login to unlock the HDD. Otherwise, I couldn't do anything at all.

Thanks to everyone else for helping out!
 
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CrzyIcE said:
Hope your issue gets resolved CyHawk60!

Thanks to everyone else for helping out!
Click to expand...

Thanks CrzyIcE! I took the MacBook to the school on Monday and they apologied and unlocked it for me. Even told me if I was having issues installing OS to bring it back and they would install it for me. I haven't had time to swap the drive yet. Thanks for letting my hijack and to everyone who answered questions, thanks!
 
So I finally installed my SSD last night. I'm having issues with iMessages synching. The other drive has El Captain and synced up everything right away, first time logging into a MacBook. Do I need to sign out of iCloud on the other drive before signing in on the new one? To tell you the truth Sierra setup has been a bit frustrating compared to El Captain setup. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!
 
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