New life for my old MacBook

New life for my old MacBook: Macbook 5,1 macOS Sierra unibody

( macOS 10.12 Sierra on a Macbook 5,1 )

3 easy upgrades to extend the life of an 8-year old laptop:

Basically I added more RAM, put in an SSD, and upgraded the OS. It’s like a new machine.

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Did that to mine, but it says it’s too old to upgrade to Sierra.

Follow the link – there’s a fix.

Yes, I’m looking at that right now. I guess it’s an install vs an upgrade. I guess I’ll have to update the Mac mini to Sierra first.
If she will let me…

I just did a clean install. Use that linked tool to create a USB drive.

The key is to reboot into the USB even after it installs, and do the post-install stuff.

Can I do this on my 2007 imac? I don’t have a cute little pink owl, will it still work without one?

Maybe. What colour is your little owl?

What kind of iMac is it? Can you go to the Apple Menu and go to “About This Mac” and see what it says?

Unfortunately it looks like that model is only compatible if you upgrade the CPU first.

Probably not worth the trouble at this point. You could still add some RAM and an SSD if you wanted to speed things up, but it won’t go beyond OS X 10.10.

http://dosdude1.com/sierrapatch.html

Machines that ARE NOT supported:
-2006-2007 Mac Pros, iMacs, MacBook Pros, and Mac Minis (MacPro 1,1 and 2,1, iMac 4,1, 5,1, 5,2, 6,1 and 7,1, MacBook Pro 1,1, 2,1, and 3,1, Macmini 1,1 and 2,1)
*The 2007 iMac 7,1 is compatible if the CPU is upgraded to a Penryn-based Core 2 Duo, such as a T9300.

Oh no, and I just bought myself a cute little green owl!

haha! You can still put in an SSD and/or more RAM. That would still speed things up.

Finally tried the Sierra upgrade on the mini. Crashed every time on youtubes. Then went nutzoid with kernel panics. No solution found Googling.
Finally used USB stick and erased MacintoshHD and installed El Capitan. Runs fine now.
Lent her a Win10 DuoCore w 4GB while I muddled through 3 days of trial & error w the mini, she complained so much - it’s SO SLOW it’s UNUSABLE…
Have no RAM that I can use to upgrade that machine - 3 brands of DDR3-1066 all make it crash on boot. SSD upgrade through bottom hole looks as easy as removing one’s own appendix with a flashlight and tin snips…