Macbook Pro 2012 question - about Ram and SSD

W

White Light of Death

Power User
I was hijacking a buddies thread so I felt bad about that and came here instead. my wife completely virus and malware filled our macbook pro over the last two or three years when i stopped using it.so i had to clean it.

Ian showed me the beauty of logic pro X with that demo so I got the software....

I have been trying to install it for a few days because the viruses and malware I had were so many that I couldn't get it to clean....i had to do a terminal/command sweep first....and finally after a few weeks of on and off and revisiting the machine i finally got FULLY updated

Catalina 10.15.4 (and all included mac OS X software, i.e. Safari, Finder, FaceTime, etc.)
Norton 360
Logic Pro X

That's basically all the's on this computer, and not any other software from any other developers....its aLLLLLLLLL apple (except norton)

My issue is its terribly slow and I need to upgrade if I want to record without errors or skipping

I can buy 8gb of Ram, and throw in a SSD, but besides that, do you think I will be able to run Logic without any more error warnings about ram

Hardware Overview:


Model Name: MacBook Pro A1278


Model Identifier: MacBookPro9,2


Processor Name: Dual-Core Intel Core i5


Processor Speed: 2.5 GHz


Number of Processors: 1


Total Number of Cores: 2


L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB


L3 Cache: 3 MB


Hyper-Threading Technology: Enabled


Memory: 4 GB


=======================
macbook pro 12-inch mid 2012


2.5 ghz dual core intel i5


4gb 1600 mhz DDr 204 pin


Which Ram should I buy (2x4gb 1600 mhm ddr3 204 pin, but which brand???) and should I get a SSD? and should I do anything else? Or should I just try to trade this in for a couple hundred bucks and get a new computer?

thanks you
 
If it was a quad core, I’d say go for it. With dual core though, spending money on ram and ssd is probably just throwing good money after bad. You’d end up with a system that’s not very good for recording.
 
GlennO said:
If it was a quad core, I’d say go for it. With dual core though, spending money on ram and ssd is probably just throwing good money after bad. You’d end up with a system that’s not very good for recording.
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I was teetering on that edge, aNd you basically just told me what i was most concerned about.....
Now, if i pull an OLD SSD I’m not using and can find ram for $50, ill do it, otherwise, i think your right

however, wired, what year is yours?
 
I loved my 2011. It got whatever that logic board problem they used to have a recall over, and just died on me. I still have it, thinking that I'd get a new board for it cheap at some point. 16Gb and fast SSD, and it really was a great workhorse.
 
spagthorpe said:
I loved my 2011. It got whatever that logic board problem they used to have a recall over, and just died on me. I still have it, thinking that I'd get a new board for it cheap at some point. 16Gb and fast SSD, and it really was a great workhorse.
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I have an early 2011 MacBook Pro that the main graphic chip fried in it which is the logic board problem. I replaced the chip once and it blew out again in 6 months. Its really a poor design, heat problem. The machine does have two graphics chips and I run the following shell script in single user mode to switch to the backup graphic chip. Create a file with a .sh extension ( igpu.sh) with below script and run it from the command line after booting the Mac in single user mode (hold command s when powering on). After running the below script type in “reboot”.

#!/bin/sh
sudo nvram fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9:gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00
echo "iGPU setting complete"
exit 0
 
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Just my opinion but a dual core i5 plus Norton running is going to be painful. Again just my opinion, give that computer to the wife and find a used 2012 MacBook pro 15" 2.6Ghz. Last MBP made with a CD drive can be had used in the $500 range and in most cases with the ram maxed at 16gb and an SSD already installed. Good solid bang for your buck MacBook pro. Don't install Norton its like a virus in its self, just be smart on the internet and don't click every chance to win free shit link. Download the free Malwarebyte app but don't let it monitor your system just run it manually once every so often.
 
My brother is 70 years old. He pretty much uses his Mac to read news and watch videos, guitar related stuff craigslist, crossword puzzles, medications and such. It's like clockwork every two weeks I have to spend an hour cleaning out shit he has been duped into clicking on. Mac Keeper, Mac Cleaner, Mac Gate some fake ass crapware installed from when he tried to bypass installing adobe flash update. 98% of the time Malwarebytes will clear out whatever it is he's installed this time. The other 2% is generally something that has highjacked the web browser and is a bit more work to get rid of.
 
IFITYWYBMAD? said:
I have an early 2011 MacBook Pro that the main graphic chip fried in it which is the logic board problem. I replaced the chip once and it blew out again in 6 months. Its really a poor design, heat problem. The machine does have two graphics chips and I run the following shell script in single user mode to switch to the backup graphic chip. Create a file with a .sh extension ( igpu.sh) with below script and run it from the command line after booting the Mac in single user mode (hold command s when powering on). After running the below script type in “reboot”.

#!/bin/sh
sudo nvram fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9:gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00
echo "iGPU setting complete"
exit 0
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I know, graveyard thread. I just wanted to say thanks, this did the trick.

I had actually taken the laptop apart, charger was in a different place, etc. My sister called me desperate for some pictures she knew I had on there, so I had the motivation to try it out. Worked great. It's at least usable to sit here with the AxeFx III.

Cheers.
 
Glad It's working for you. I use it the same way with with the AxeFX III utilities. If I orchestrate shutting down so the Mac is the last in the chain and use sleep mode it is almost like I have a real machine. Occasionally it will get stuck it sleep mode and I will need to reset the PRAM/NVRAM and boot in single user mode and run the script. Other than that everything works as normal.
 
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IFITYWYBMAD? said:
Glad It's working for you. I use it the same way with with the AxeFX III utilities. If I orchestrate shutting down so the Mac is the last in the chain and use sleep mode it is almost like I have a real machine. Occasionally it will get stuck it sleep mode and I will need to reset the PRAM/NVRAM and boot in single user mode and run the script. Other than that everything works as normal.
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Only think I I think I'd change is that I'd really like a larger monitor connected to it, but from what I'm reading, I can't use one since the discrete chip is what drives the Thunderbolt port?
 
spagthorpe said:
Only think I I think I'd change is that I'd really like a larger monitor connected to it, but from what I'm reading, I can't use one since the discrete chip is what drives the Thunderbolt port?
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The thunderbolt bus will still work for storage devices. Unfortunately if you have an Apple 27” thunderbolt display to connect it will require the primary graphic chip. Heavy graphics apps like Phoroshop won’t run. Pro Tools and Ableton run fine.
 
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