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What have you done with an early Intel recently?

While I prefer to use PowerPC, having my 2007 black MacBook lying around came in serious handy today. I was able to use it to help me restore a working install of Sorbet Leopard to my new SSD. It's also reminding me how Mountain Lion is actually pretty decent for what it is.
 
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Further MBP 8,2 shenanigans.
Having got them both going, the Late 2011, my favourite, continued to do weird things. Some more research pointed at the battery, which was an oldie with a 1000+ cycles. So I swapped in the 40-cycle iFixit from the other 8,2 and all is well. Ordered a Huarigor battery from ReplaceBase UK for the other 8,2, which to be fair, managed with the dying battery better than than its mate. Fit that, fully charge, then the machine starts beeping as I'm using it on the calibration discharge cycle. Much wiggling of the sole working RAM slot and its module seems to have cured it, but I'm getting suspicious of the module. It came as part of a pair, and the other one failed some time back. Anyhow, all is working for the moment, so will hold off replacing the module until it gives me no option.
 
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My plan to thin out my MacBook lineup has not been successful. Been lazy on it and occupied with other projects. I should get active on it, swap some parts, empty some drives and publish ads on classified sites. Well, maybe next week... ;)

Meanwhile, I could resist and bought a MBP 17" i7 early 2011. :rolleyes:;)

Seems to be in very good condition, was priced ok etc. usual things. It has no HDD, 16GB RAM and the matte display. I shall install a SSD, my USB3 card, some suitable OCLP -set and try to really use it.

The 2011 model seems to have the Radeon HD 6750M and Intel HD Graphics 3000 GPU's (like my iMac 2011 too). How are these on the 2011 MBP GPU-gate front? More or less the same as the notorious 15" MBPs?
 
DCBassman said:
Same, so far as I'm aware. Just bigger!
Click to expand...
That is what I suspected. Ok, it works as long as it works and then it is hardware GPU delete time. I wonder: if I need to kill the discrete GPU at some point does the Thunderbolt still remain operational for other connectivity? I mean I hope the GPU is connected to the TB and TB is not routed through the GPU?

What I gain vs. 2010 model? Lets compare: 2 more processor cores (21.5% better single core performance), faster bus (2.5 vs 5 GT/s), faster SATA (3 vs 6 Gb/s), faster RAM (1066 vs 1333), double the RAM (8 vs 16GB), faster GPU, double and faster VRAM, thunderbolt and the optional matte display.

Didn't even realize the difference is that big. 😲 🤯
 
And in yet more MBP 8,2 (Late) messings-around, I installed 16GB of DDR3L-1600. When the machine originally failed, I'd shuffled the now-spare RAM into the two Minis. One of those is sold and the other will go soon, I hope. When I first got this machine, it had a 4GB DDR3L-1600 stick in it, so I knew it would work, and that RAM is pretty cheap right now. So not only is it up and running again, but it's maxed out also.
 
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Heindijs said:
Ordered an AMD Firepro M5100 to put into my parents' aging 24" 2009 iMac. Running Catalina on it is starting to become a bit of a problem, so I'd like to have at least Monterey running on it, but not without Metal

If Sequoia runs decent enough on it, that's fine too. I wonder how well Tahoe would run once OCLP 3.0.0 is out...
;)
Click to expand...
IMG_7087.jpeg

Oh well, the card was a dud. :confused:
 
ToniCH said:
My plan to thin out my MacBook lineup has not been successful. Been lazy on it and occupied with other projects. I should get active on it, swap some parts, empty some drives and publish ads on classified sites. Well, maybe next week... ;)

Meanwhile, I could resist and bought a MBP 17" i7 early 2011. :rolleyes:;)

Seems to be in very good condition, was priced ok etc. usual things. It has no HDD, 16GB RAM and the matte display. I shall install a SSD, my USB3 card, some suitable OCLP -set and try to really use it.

The 2011 model seems to have the Radeon HD 6750M and Intel HD Graphics 3000 GPU's (like my iMac 2011 too). How are these on the 2011 MBP GPU-gate front? More or less the same as the notorious 15" MBPs?
Click to expand...
what do you mean with my USB card? The pre 2012 Macs are USB2, which "card" do you mean?
By the way the MBP 17" i7 2011 has Thunderbolt, is really fast with an external LaCie TB drive.

How much did you pay for your MBP 17" i7 2011?
I just bought a bundle of three MacbooksPro for just 120€:
#1: a MBP 17" i7 2011 with 16GB RAM and the matte display 1620*1080 and a 256GB SSD and a battery with 76%.
#2: a MBP 13" i7 2012 with 8GB RAM with no disk and dead battery.
#3: a MBP 13" core duo late 2008 with 4GB RAM and a 512 HDD and a battery with 60%

All of them with no OS.

The MBP pre-2012 are a bit tricky to start on more recent OSes, since they cannot originally boot from APFS.

#3 got a Dosdude install of Mojave with the HDD formatted HFS+, it works fine and is reasonably responsive. It will stay with the HDD and will be a score reader for my piano on an external 2K screen.

#1 got a first Dosdude install of Mojave with SSD formatted HFS+, just to run OCLP and is now booting Monterey.

#2 ran Mojave from an external APFS disk just to run OCLP and is now booting Monterey.
 
rin67630 said:
what do you mean with my USB card? The pre 2012 Macs are USB2, which "card" do you mean?
By the way the MBP 17" i7 2011 has Thunderbolt, is really fast with an external LaCie TB drive.

How much did you pay for your MBP 17" i7 2011?
Click to expand...
ExpressCard/34 with 2x USB 3 ports. I have another one with 1x USB3 too. I've used them with my 2010 MBP 17s.

I paid 100€.

You got a Super deal! 👍Few years ago I bought 2x iMac 27" 2011 + MBP 13" 2012 for 200€.

I've had no trouble at all booting OCLP usb stick and installing Monterey to 2010 MBPs directly. No need to install Mojave or anything else first.
 
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ToniCH said:
I've had no trouble at all booting OCLP usb stick and installing Monterey to 2010 MBPs directly. No need to install Mojave or anything else first.
Click to expand...
I just needed Mojave to get the OCLP installer adjusted to each model.
 
rin67630 said:
Where do you plug an express card on a MBP 2011?
Click to expand...
To the expresscard port of course. The 2011 17" models have it, just like 2010 17" models.

Take a peek at your 17" left side, under the kbd. ;)

MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.3 17" Early 2011 Specs (Early 2011 17", BTO/CTO, MacBookPro8,3, A1297, 2352-1*): EveryMac.com

Technical specifications for the MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.3 17" Early 2011. Dates sold, processor type, memory info, hard drive details, price and more.
everymac.com everymac.com
Connectivity includes AirPort Extreme (802.11a/b/g/n), Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, Gigabit Ethernet, a Firewire "800" port, three USB 2.0 ports, separate audio in and out ports, an ExpressCard/34 expansion slot, and a new "Thunderbolt" port that is backwards compatible with Mini DisplayPort and, likewise, supports an external display at 2560x1600 and passes an audio signal. Thunderbolt also supports other peripherals that use the Thunderbolt standard which provides up to 10 Gbps of bandwidth in both directions.
Click to expand...
 
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rin67630 said:
I just needed Mojave to get the OCLP installer adjusted to each model.
Click to expand...
Seems like a lots of unnecessary work. I just do it with whatever Mac I have available. Usually with my iMac 2011 which is my main daily computer. You do know that you can change the machine model and other setting in OCLP independent on what computer the USB stick or drive is connected to at the moment?

So, just make stick once with one machine and then change the settings to mach the target machine, save to the stick. Boot the other machine using the stick, install os. Again change the settings to match the next machine, repeat..

I have done it dozens of times. Never install any other OS first. Prefer clean install.
 
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ToniCH said:
Seems like a lots of unnecessary work. ... Prefer clean install.
Click to expand...
Normally I use to boot from USB into Mojave, don't need to install it and from there I run OCLP.
That does not need a second computer.

I install many computers that way: boot from USB into Mojave, clone it with ccc (there I have all my settings and most goodies apps that work across macOS versions) when I install later atop of that, it installs unattended directly into my usual environment, that saves a lot of time to adjust after installation.

Older Macs however cannot boot from APFS.
So I have now made a HFS+ based USB-Mojave for that sake.
 
Talking of 17" MBPs, my 2007 3,1 was dead when I got it out of the cupboard the other day. Didn't have much time or luck with getting it going, so put it away again. The only signs of life were the optical drive initialising and the light on the front.
Today I did some more. Eventually, I did the SMC reset for the upteenth time, but just kept everything pressed. Eventually, the machine gave a really loud beep, very different from the memory error sound, and lit up. Just to check, I did it again, and it again made this very loud noise. Oh well, it's working. Did a PRAM reset too, just for a little certainty, and it's been fine since.
And as above, I dug out an Expresscard 34 twin USB3 card and added that too.
 
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Wonder what the big beep was? I know Macs do it when they do the bootrom (firmware) update. And there was some button procedure to activate it. But from what I remember from last time the screen was not the same as what it is during normal boot.

If you have old screenshots where you can see your bootrom version compare it to your current version. Maybe something happened by accident?
 
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I updated MX on my 08 unibody MacBook over night and it borked XFCE. Turns out some updates held back for some reason so I am now manually reinstalling those via terminal. Hopefully this fixes whatever dependencies that broke initially.
image.jpg
 
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AN UNFORTUNATE SERIES OF EVENTS THAT ENDED IN LEARNING AND RECOVERY.

A bit of short backstory…

January 2025: I am the recipient of three additional displays. But I need a third video card to run them. I have been semi-updating OCLP on my MacPro until I start to see that most of those updates largely pertain to Sequoia and I'm on Sonoma.

I buy a new video card that supports four additional displays. I have a momentary thought about updating root patches after I have installed this card, but discard the thought.

About a month ago: I install Tinkertool and made two setting changes that affect the system graphically (but minorly). The system wants a restart. No thanks, I'll wait. A few weeks later, I'm up early and I see that my MP will not wake from sleep. There are gray screens. No matter., restart.

Uh-oh. Gray screens on automatic login. Reinstall the OS, reinstall root patches and no joy. So, I remember that I had those changes with TinkerTool. I boot into safe mode and revert the changes. Reboot. Yay! All good!

Until Saturday morning (the 19th of July 2025). Uh-oh, gray screens again.

Saturday, July 19, 2025: Begin a series of reinstall OS, reinstall root patches, remove root patches, etc, etc. Nothing works. I put it aside until this morning.

Sunday, July 20, 2025: I remember that back in January, the root patches I had installed were those when my two original video cards were the ONLY cards installed. It occurs to me, that perhaps OCLP is seeing the third video card and installing the WRONG drivers. The third video card is a PC card, not flashed to Mac. My two original cards WERE flashed to Mac (with boot screens).

It slowly dawns on me that perhaps I should pull the third video card, reinstall root patches and THEN reinstall the third video card. Voila! All ten displays are back!

FIRST LESSON LEARNED: Do NOT install or use anything that may mess with any system stuff concerning graphic or video!

The first time around with the gray screens, had I simply booted in to safe mode and reverted the Tinkertool changes, I would probably not be typing this message.

SECOND LESSON LEARNED: If you EVER reinstall root patches again (and I'm talking to myself here), PULL THE THIRD VIDEO CARD FIRST!!!!!! Then reinstall root patches!

I wish to thank God here, for whom I asked guidance on this. He brought things back to mind when I prayed about it. I really did not want to revert to Catalina or any other OS. And considering that I'd still be dealing with that third video card none of it might have worked.

Anyway, I am now on Sonoma 14.7.6, instead of 14.6.1. Screens are now set to never sleep, but only start screensaver.
 
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Luckily, that fixed it. The interwebs to the rescue lol. I was not in the mood for anything more in depth lol. I have been wanting to set up iphone texting on this linux box so I can continue conversations with my wife here & not just on my phone or other macs and found bluebubbles. I have plenty of macs around to set the server component up on so might give this a go this month time permitting of course. I also was unsuccessful connecting via bluetooth to a speaker wihich this box saw just fine but forwhatever reason would not connect to which was a bummer. I'll fiddle with that later.

Screenshot_2025-07-20_12-34-05.png
 
eyoungren said:
AN UNFORTUNATE SERIES OF EVENTS THAT ENDED IN LEARNING AND RECOVERY.

A bit of short backstory…

January 2025: I am the recipient of three additional displays. But I need a third video card to run them. I have been semi-updating OCLP on my MacPro until I start to see that most of those updates largely pertain to Sequoia and I'm on Sonoma.

I buy a new video card that supports four additional displays. I have a momentary thought about updating root patches after I have installed this card, but discard the thought.

About a month ago: I install Tinkertool and made two setting changes that affect the system graphically (but minorly). The system wants a restart. No thanks, I'll wait. A few weeks later, I'm up early and I see that my MP will not wake from sleep. There are gray screens. No matter., restart.

Uh-oh. Gray screens on automatic login. Reinstall the OS, reinstall root patches and no joy. So, I remember that I had those changes with TinkerTool. I boot into safe mode and revert the changes. Reboot. Yay! All good!

Until Saturday morning (the 19th of July 2025). Uh-oh, gray screens again.

Saturday, July 19, 2025: Begin a series of reinstall OS, reinstall root patches, remove root patches, etc, etc. Nothing works. I put it aside until this morning.

Sunday, July 20, 2025: I remember that back in January, the root patches I had installed were those when my two original video cards were the ONLY cards installed. It occurs to me, that perhaps OCLP is seeing the third video card and installing the WRONG drivers. The third video card is a PC card, not flashed to Mac. My two original cards WERE flashed to Mac (with boot screens).

It slowly dawns on me that perhaps I should pull the third video card, reinstall root patches and THEN reinstall the third video card. Voila! All ten displays are back!

FIRST LESSON LEARNED: Do NOT install or use anything that may mess with any system stuff concerning graphic or video!

The first time around with the gray screens, had I simply booted in to safe mode and reverted the Tinkertool changes, I would probably not be typing this message.

SECOND LESSON LEARNED: If you EVER reinstall root patches again (and I'm talking to myself here), PULL THE THIRD VIDEO CARD FIRST!!!!!! Then reinstall root patches!

I wish to thank God here, for whom I asked guidance on this. He brought things back to mind when I prayed about it. I really did not want to revert to Catalina or any other OS. And considering that I'd still be dealing with that third video card none of it might have worked.

Anyway, I am now on Sonoma 14.7.6, instead of 14.6.1. Screens are now set to never sleep, but only start screensaver.
Click to expand...
Man those displays and that mac are your money maker too. Your set up is such a specialized rig, I'd have flipped a gasket if the gray screen of death happened to me LOL.
 
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Certificate of Excellence said:
Man those displays and that mac are your money maker too. Your set up is such a specialized rig, I'd have flipped a gasket if the gray screen of death happened to me LOL.
Click to expand...
Well, two of the displays are, but not the actual Mac. And those two are connected via a KVM to the Mac that IS the money maker. I just used the work M2 for the time the MacPro was down.

But this is one reason I tend to put things on either my NAS or server. My backups are accessible because they are on the NAS, as are most of my critical files. It's a spot I don't want to be in - where the one Mac that has the file I need won't/can't boot.

But here's the bizarre thing. The Mac continued to function in the background - I just could not see anything, either on screen or through screen sharing. So, backups were going off still.

Having been in the spot of flipping out, this is why I've worked very hard to make sure I can access critical data SOMEWHERE. If the NAS had failed, I still had Dropbox. Just a matter of downloading the backup to another Mac. And I have plenty of those.
 
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