How to keep my 2006 MacBook somewhat up to date?

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

This machine has been a fucking trooper. Only thing I have done to it was replace the battery a few years ago.

Only thing is that it is getting too old to upgrade in many ways. Can't get any newer Mac OSX or most new browser versions.

Its especially showing its age with flash based video. I pretty much only use this thing to surf the web and watch videos on pinkbike when I am bored at work.

What should I do to keep it alive until I can afford a new one?

[TexasGortex]

Max out the ram. Put in your specs to crucial.com and see what the max is, then compare it to what you have. Post up crucial's results here because I might even have a couple sticks of ram laying around I can give you that would bump up your system. (I upgraded my macbook pro and kept the stock ram). It's easy to swap yourself.

Ram and switching to a SSD are the two most noticeable upgrades I've done to computers, but going to a SSD probably isn't going to be very cost effective in your case.

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

RAM already maxed out at 2GB

[Beyond]

IMO you've done all you can do for a reasonable price. If you want to keep adding stuff like a new drive, you're approaching the costs of a new one. As it is, you've gotten more miles out of it than most of us. If $$$ are an issue, you might think about looking for a clean used one at a reliable repair shop; lot of folks just let go and get a new one when the repairs are for more than a few benjamins. So the repair place fixes it, sells it for a silly price. You win.

[bsavery]

If all you use it for is internet and videos just go buy an ipad.

[systemoverblow'd]

Go to OWC. They make ram kits that sometimes exceed what the manufacturer says is max. Mine says only 4GB but OWC had a kit to make it 6GB.

Also, back it up an run a defrag tool. Most people think they don't need to be done on OS X but they are wrong.

[stevesmith7]

Without digging through a bunch of spec sheets I'm not sure what you have. Back in that era some of the hard drives spun pretty slow compared to today's models. I've seen pretty good performance improvements going to faster drives. You've probably got something pretty small so a faster small drive could be pretty cheap.

[TexasGortex]

Go to OWC. They make ram kits that sometimes exceed what the manufacturer says is max. Mine says only 4GB but OWC had a kit to make it 6GB.

Also, back it up an run a defrag tool. Most people think they don't need to be done on OS X but they are wrong.

I've heard (anecdotally) that running over the max ram on some Apple computers makes them freak out.

RAM already maxed out at 2GB

Sorry, I started as basic as possible.

I'm also kind of thinking you are SOL in terms of reasonable costs and should be happy you've gotten as mush life out of it as you have. Maybe buy a cheap netbook/ultrabook and then do a total wipe and clean reinstall of OSX. It won't help with the missing updates, but it will put it back to performing like it did on day one.

I know the feeling. I have a Powerbook collecting dust on my desk. Still works fine and it was my favorite computer I've ever owned, it's just worthless to me for lack of updates, new programs and the "horsepower" required of a more modern computer.

[systemoverblow'd]

I've heard (anecdotally) that running over the max ram on some Apple computers makes them freak out.

I've been doing it since '01 with no problem for what it is worth.

[TexasGortex]

Good to know it works at least some of the time. Filed away in the back of my head for future use.

edit: some models are more receptive than others apparently. I'm stuck at the stated max of 8gb. This link might be helpful. Plus it seems Whiteroom's Macbook might take 4gb.

http://www.everymac.com/systems/by_c...y-of-macs.html

[coldfeet]

If you're not running flashblock (for Firefox, there may be similar things for other browsers), install it. It keeps flash from auto-playing, instead you get an icon to click on to load the flash video. This won't make your computer actually play the video faster, but it will keep annoying flash video ads from automatically running, which slows down the computer and eats memory.

Also, restart the web browser periodically and don't keep too many tabs open. Browsers tend to leak memory and get slow if not restarted.

[Flexon Phil]

nebber mind