Anyone still using the 2008 aluminum unibody MacBook?

[amgff84]

I've been looking at getting one of these to have as a basic laptop, just wanted to know if anyone else is still using this machine, and if you've tried using Mojave on it, let me know how it runs.

I use one. Just bought one for $50 because it randomly freezes. I tore it apart upgraded it and replaced the thermal paste. Still did it... Research turned up little. Replaced the logic board, thought that would fix it... Still does it. Seems to only do it when loading big webpages... sometimes. Other times it just does it when it seems to be working hard, then again, it also does it for no reason. Not sure what's wrong with it and I am stumped on this one, but I restart it and it's usually good to go for the rest of the day.

But man is she a beautiful machine.

 

[retta283]

I've actually just replaced this thing with a MacBook Pro, so no more terrible screen and battery for me.

Mine had some stuff wrong with it after all these years too so I wasn't willing to put the time in.

 

[amgff84]

I've actually just replaced this thing with a MacBook Pro, so no more terrible screen and battery for me.

Mine had some stuff wrong with it after all these years too so I wasn't willing to put the time in.

Awesome. This is fine for me consdering I only use it here or there, but still almost everyday. I can deal with the freezing because I don't do anything critical on it. It works for me when I get me Remicade infusions for my Crohn's, so I'm good with that. The battery is still under 200 cycles, so it lasts the full 4 hours.

 

[avz]

Awesome. This is fine for me consdering I only use it here or there, but still almost everyday. I can deal with the freezing because I don't do anything critical on it. It works for me when I get me Remicade infusions for my Crohn's, so I'm good with that. The battery is still under 200 cycles, so it lasts the full 4 hours.

I was about to write that you might have a bad battery, but wow your battery seems to be doing great. Is it still an 11-year old original battery?
With regards to the freezing, it might be an El Capitan issue. My 2GHz late-2008 unibody MacBook never gave me any troubles when running Mojave. It is very strange that your 2.4GHz MacBook is choking on a webpage. I can even watch a 4K video in IINA player(not smooth of course).

 

[amgff84]

I was about to write that you might have a bad battery, but wow your battery seems to be doing great. Is it still an 11-year old original battery?
With regards to the freezing, it might be an El Capitan issue. My 2GHz late-2008 unibody MacBook never gave me any troubles when running Mojave. It is very strange that your 2.4GHz MacBook is choking on a webpage. I can even watch a 4K video in IINA player(not smooth of course).

It is an original Apple battery, but I'm not sure if it's the original Apple battery. I picked it up off eBay for $50 because this issue drove the last owner crazy, I'm guessing. It was listed and they made it seem much worse. That cycle count is 39 and battery is in normal condition. This machine wasn't used much and came with snow leopard still on it. I have tried almost all versions of Mac, different hard drives, SSD's, Ram sticks and different configurations. Just about everything. I even ran apple hardware test after finding a copy on GitHub. After finding that it repeats after the logic board swap, I believe it's only coincidence when it freezes on a webpage or something resource heavy. I believe it's an issue with the other devices on the MacBook (keyboard, cables, camera...) I did notice a little gold spec on the storage drive cable right where it bends. I noticed this last night when I tore it apart quick. I know some later MacBooks had an issue with this cable rubbing and wearing out and failing. This failure would cause this exact problem, however, this would probably be the only late 08 MacBook to have this issue too as it's probably just some freak thing. I placed a little electrical tape over it, and I wait... lol. It truly has me stumped that I can't figure it out.

 

[avz]

It is an original Apple battery, but I'm not sure if it's the original Apple battery. I picked it up off eBay for $50 because this issue drove the last owner crazy, I'm guessing. It was listed and they made it seem much worse. That cycle count is 39 and battery is in normal condition. This machine wasn't used much and came with snow leopard still on it. I have tried almost all versions of Mac, different hard drives, SSD's, Ram sticks and different configurations. Just about everything. I even ran apple hardware test after finding a copy on GitHub. After finding that it repeats after the logic board swap, I believe it's only coincidence when it freezes on a webpage or something resource heavy. I believe it's an issue with the other devices on the MacBook (keyboard, cables, camera...) I did notice a little gold spec on the storage drive cable right where it bends. I noticed this last night when I tore it apart quick. I know some later MacBooks had an issue with this cable rubbing and wearing out and failing. This failure would cause this exact problem, however, this would probably be the only late 08 MacBook to have this issue too as it's probably just some freak thing. I placed a little electrical tape over it, and I wait... lol. It truly has me stumped that I can't figure it out.

Yes, the HDD/SSD ribbon SATA cable would have to be your first call, I am surprised that you replaced the logic board(hopefully you did not throw it away). It always makes sense to replace the cheaper parts first to isolate the issue. Coconut battery will give you the manufacture date of your battery, the health appear to be close to 90-100% since it lasts 4 hours. It was still possible to buy the original battery at the Apple stores in 2013-2014.

 

[amgff84]

Yes, the HDD/SSD ribbon SATA cable would have to be your first call, I am surprised that you replaced the logic board(hopefully you did not throw it away). It always makes sense to replace the cheaper parts first to isolate the issue. Coconut battery will give you the manufacture date of your battery, the health appear to be close to 90-100% since it lasts 4 hours. It was still possible to buy the original battery at the Apple stores in 2013-2014.

Being a 2008, the logic board was only $45 bucks. There are more expensive options, but this one was cheap. Makes me wonder if it's any good, but it seems to be working no different than before, so I am leaning towards it being just fine. The SATA cable wasn't affected on these models, so I didn't think to try that first. I thought it might have been the logic board because of... Nvidia. However, it doesn't present like a GPU issue.

I am curious if these older Macs have any processing done through the GPU apart from video. I understand that with CUDA, there are some operations done through the GPU.

Either way, I'll swap the cable out. They are probably cheap.

 

[retta283]

Being a 2008, the logic board was only $45 bucks. There are more expensive options, but this one was cheap. Makes me wonder if it's any good, but it seems to be working no different than before, so I am leaning towards it being just fine. The SATA cable wasn't affected on these models, so I didn't think to try that first. I thought it might have been the logic board because of... Nvidia. However, it doesn't present like a GPU issue.

I am curious if these older Macs have any processing done through the GPU apart from video. I understand that with CUDA, there are some operations done through the GPU.

Either way, I'll swap the cable out. They are probably cheap.

Actually video playback is mostly handled by CPU on Macs iirc. There could be some advantages given by the GPU, but I believe CPU is the main driver.

 

[MagicBoy]

Unless it was the year 2009, you'd be mistaken. These MacBooks have the GeForce 9400, which does H.264 decode from OS X 10.6.3 onwards. Nothing to do with CUDA, Apple shunned it in favour of OpenCL. It's the video decode block.

Cast your mind back 10 years and decoding video, especially the new fangled YouTube when they used Flash would consume battery and have the fans ramped up. Then Apple added the frameworks, added HTML5 support to Safari. Once YouTube get themselves sorted performance was good, fans were quiet and CPU usage was about 5% for 1080p.

VLC and XBMC (now Kodi) also supported decode pretty quickly. I used the 2009 Mac mini as a media centre for years.

 

[amgff84]

Unless it was the year 2009, you'd be mistaken. These MacBooks have the GeForce 9400, which does H.264 decode from OS X 10.6.3 onwards. Nothing to do with CUDA, Apple shunned it in favour of OpenCL. It's the video decode block.

Cast your mind back 10 years and decoding video, especially the new fangled YouTube when they used Flash would consume battery and have the fans ramped up. Then Apple added the frameworks, added HTML5 support to Safari. Once YouTube get themselves sorted performance was good, fans were quiet and CPU usage was about 5% for 1080p.

VLC and XBMC (now Kodi) also supported decode pretty quickly. I used the 2009 Mac mini as a media centre for years.

To who was your post directed to? The 9400 seems to be a pretty solid, but basic and slow gpu for these older machines. They make perfect... sorta netbooks. I mean I use mine to watch Netflix in 720 and it performs great. My issue was that randomly it would freeze. Usually when under a heavy load, like signing in to photos for the first time, or loading Walmart.com or Home Depot.com. But not always. If I add an external monitor, it will play for ten minutes and then freeze. A week ago I took it apart and placed tape over the hdd cable where I saw a little gold color, and it hasn't seemed to freeze since. I dunno. I think it's just old even though it was lightly used. No scratches or dents or wear on the trackpad or keys, I enjoy using this. I consider it a rare gem. here's the thing, I have 2 other machines with this chipset and they don't share any of the issues.

 

[MagicBoy]

Precious two posts mainly. Sure the 9400 is basic and slow by 2019 standards. It's a 2008 machine though, and a massive leap from the Intel iGPUs used previously. The GPU definitely helps with the modern web - they're noticeably more responsive with video content than a late-2007 MacBook Pro with a GeForce 8600.

Check the RAM if you've got corruption/lockups and it's been upgraded. The Nvidia chipset machines don't like RAM faster than 1066MHz.

 

[amgff84]

Precious two posts mainly. Sure the 9400 is basic and slow by 2019 standards. It's a 2008 machine though, and a massive leap from the Intel iGPUs used previously. The GPU definitely helps with the modern web - they're noticeably more responsive with video content than a late-2007 MacBook Pro with a GeForce 8600.

Check the RAM if you've got corruption/lockups and it's been upgraded. The Nvidia chipset machines don't like RAM faster than 1066MHz.

okay. funny you should mention that as the speed of the ram is the one thing I don’t think I checked. I did downgrade the ram to 6gb using 1066 sticks around the same time I had it apart last.
Thank you.

 

[mrboult]

I loved mine Given away to a young man learning to code on my last trip to a poorer country. It's terrible that what sits in our drawers unused could change someone else's life! Not trying to big myself up here, I simply had an easy opportunity to pass it on to a good cause.
But they're amazing laptops that stood the test of time and I hope mine stands up a while longer