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macbook 2008 black. mountain lion ?

are there any plans to make mountain lion work on a 4 year old macbook ??? i use a black 13" 2008 macbook which is fine and healthy. i feel like apple is taking the mickey by not making its new (stable) OS available to me

Posted on Jul 30, 2012 2:14 AM

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28 replies

Jul 30, 2012 6:30 AM in response to pumpkineater100

No, the model 4,1 Early 2008 MacBook will not be able to run Mountain Lion, but it can run 10.7 Lion. Lion is still available from Apple. You will have to call Apple Customer Care 1-800-692-7753 or 1-800-676-2775. to purchase it Then within 3 days you will get an email with a code which you can use to download Lion from the App Store. The price is still $29.

http://www.apple.com/osx/how-to-upgrade/

Your Mac must be one of the following models:

MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)

It's the video card. Yours has the 144mb Intel GMA X3100 with non-upgradeable 32bit drivers. The model 5,1 Late 2008 and newer have at least the 256mb NVIDIA GeForce 9400M with 64bit drivers. Mountain Lion requires 64bit native drivers. Mountain Lion no longer supports Intel's GMA 950 or GMA X3100 graphics processors.

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57470261-263/older-64-bit-macs-out-of-the-p icture-for-mountain-lion/?tag=mncol;txt


http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57387846-263/will-your-mac-run-mountain-lio n/

Jul 30, 2012 9:56 AM in response to pumpkineater100

I have the 4,1 MB as well and a 2010 MB that I have upgraded to ML. Really, the handful of features in ML are not all that great so you really are not missing much.


The Black MB is still a very capable machine running Lion and it's OS limit will not cause me to go out and buy another Mac that will. I'll keep using it until it quits running.

Jul 31, 2012 3:30 AM in response to pumpkineater100

Frustrating as it is for users, and I am one who has both old and new equipment, decisions have to be made about platforms that will and will not be supported as operating systems progress. There is complaining about the original iPad (have one of those) not being in line for the iOS 6 update this fall. But Apple has made the determination that the hardware will not be able to perform at an acceptable level with all of the demands of the new system so it will not install. They have to do the same with computers, if hardware will not performa at an acceptable level with all of the features of a new Mac OS version, then it is blocked from installing.


As a user it seems we should have the option of accepting degraded performance if we want that...but from a corporate view that may not work becasue of not wanting to listen to the problems people would end up having.


All I am saying is I can understand both sides of the issue and both have their points.

Aug 3, 2012 4:01 AM in response to frederic1943

x3100 is not a powerful graphics processor. but it is 64bit compatible. in fact, it has 64bit drivers for windows and linux. and even apple has released an incomplete 64bit driver for osx.

if there‘s any problem in this case, the problem is not about the hardware. which means it is just a software problem. and any software problem could be fixed by updating the sourcecode.

so, what do you mean "non-upgradeable"? do you really beleave it?

Aug 3, 2012 8:18 AM in response to x_xo_o

From CNET "These software advancements surpass the capabilities of some of Apple's earlier graphics processors, such as the Intel GMA 950 that was included in a number of older Intel Macs. Since these graphics processors will not handle Apple's graphics developments in the new OS very well (if at all), Apple has halted support for them and therefore has not updated their drivers to be 64-bit capable. As a result, even though Mountain Lion could technically run on these systems, it would perform similarly to booting in Safe Mode with massive interface lag and other slowdowns."


http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57470261-263/older-64-bit-macs-out-of-the-p icture-for-mountain-lion/?tag=mncol;txt


Aug 7, 2012 12:20 PM in response to IndyBoiler

Mine was purchased in April of 2008 so officially it is four years old. For whatever reason Apple has in not allowing these black 4,1 MacBooks to run ML, I will refuse to buy a new computer just to be up to date.


I'lll keep using this one until it quits and then will likely buy a used Mac that is 1-2 yesrs old just as I did with my 2010 MB. I can't afford to buy new Macs anymore and the old ones work just as good regardless of OS.

macbook 2008 black. mountain lion ?

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