MacBook Pro 2009 upgrading worth it?

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MacBook Pro 2009 upgrading worth it?

Hello all. I have an old MacBook Pro 2009 2.26GHz with 4GB memory and a 160GB hard disk. This machine is getting slow running El Capitan and I'm not surprised at that - it is old after all. I'd like it to be a bit more nimble - enough for MS Office work and simple browsing as the portable extension of my digital life which routinely exists on my much more powerful home office iMac. I use this computer for travels or when I am doing a few tasks in front of the TV, away from my desk. I also find it handy that this computer has an optical drive. I don't burn DVDs and only rarely burn CDs but this optical drive comes in handy for installing certain software and loading audio CDs to my optical-drive-free iMac.

The system is paging in and out at times and showing the spinning beach ball too but I mostly notice a perceptible lagging in response when I am opening apps, larger documents or re-booting the system.

So, I was thinking of upping the memory to 8GB (cost around £80) and installing a 250GB SSD (cost around £68). My question for any upgraders out there is: Will this be worth the cost and effort?

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Mar 1, 2018 11:56 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

y_p_w

Level 6

17,762 points

Mar 1, 2018 1:55 PM in response to Gareth McFadden

Gareth McFadden wrote:

y_p_w wrote:

...

Are you getting a lot of "beachballing" and typically slow application starting/quitting?

That is exactly the problem I'm experiencing, especially after a recent re-start of the OS.

That's typical of delays accessing the drive. I've got a mid-2012. I had a hard drive corruption and replaced it with a 7200 RPM drive. It was a little bit faster but still had those issues. When it has to grab data from all these random points on a hard drive it may end up with the drive arms just constantly moving from one spot to another. The worst for me was when I right clicked "Open With" for something like a PDF file. I have two dozen options including web browsers, photo editors, Preview, Adobe Reader, etc. I'm not sure what it did exactly but I'm guessing it was looking up stuff on the drive. Right now with an SSD it's taking less than a second to produce applications to open the file. Before it was taking up to 40 seconds, and I would have to hold it there or I would have to start all over again.

BTW - earlier that should have read "more responsive".

Bob may be right that it's not worth spending a whole lot, but if you're willing to put in a small amount for an SSD I think it's worth a try. The other thing is that you're going to need tools, including a T6 Torx screwdriver and a #00 Phillips screwdriver. The Phillips screwdriver is easy to find. In the US I would have suggested one of the major home improvement stores (like Lowe's or Home Depot) but I looked up the two big ones (Wickes and Homebase) in the UK and they don't have it. Amazon UK does, but I'm not sure about shipping.

PRECISION 6 PC PIECE TORX STAR SCREWDRIVER SET: Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools

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Answer 2

Tesserax

Level 10

158,208 points

Mar 1, 2018 1:10 PM in response to Gareth McFadden

I would offer that if this notebook has been reliable that the upgrades you suggest would be worth it for how you intend to use it.

FWIW. I don't have this exact model, but have two MBPs that I recently upgraded both RAM and to SSDs. A 2006 and a Mid 2010 model. Both showed significant improvements in perceived "speed." The 2006 was limited to running OS X Lion which is only problematic as it can't run web browsers that use the latest TLS security so I don't use it to access secure web sites, otherwise it works great.

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Answer 3

Mar 1, 2018 2:02 PM in response to Gareth McFadden

Hi, I did such upgrade on a second hand Mac Book Pro 2009, adding SSD 500 Go and two 4Go RAM… it totally worth it if the case/keayboard/battery and screen is in good condition. I'm running ElCapitain too and will not go further I think. I did a same for a friend, he's happy too. Best, Eric

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Answer 4

Mar 1, 2018 2:26 PM in response to Gareth McFadden

Based on your needs as in what you used that particular macbook for I wouldn't put money on it first.

I would downgrade to Yosemite (OS X 10) and try it for a few days to see how it feels with the Microsoft Office install after words.

If possible a clean install by the way. I believe this is worth trying as it might relief all the symptoms for free 🙂

If this doesn't work I would indeed think a 2009 is still worth upgrading, the amount of money I would put in would depend on how much I need the machine.

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Answer 5

y_p_w

Level 6

17,762 points

Mar 1, 2018 1:29 PM in response to Gareth McFadden

Any Core 2 Duo machine may not be the best machine for running El Capitan (or Sierra/High Sierra) but I'd think with an SSD and more RAM it would be more responsible. I think the limit to the performance of the SSD will be the SATA II (3.0 Gbit/sec) speeds, but without all the seek time from a rotating hard drive should help.

Are you getting a lot of "beachballing" and typically slow application starting/quitting?

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Answer 6

Mar 1, 2018 1:31 PM in response to Tesserax

Tesserax wrote:

I would offer that if this notebook has been reliable that the upgrades you suggest would be worth it for how you intend to use it.

FWIW. I don't have this exact model, but have two MBPs that I recently upgraded both RAM and to SSDs. A 2006 and a Mid 2010 model. Both showed significant improvements in perceived "speed." The 2006 was limited to running OS X Lion which is only problematic as it can't run web browsers that use the latest TLS security so I don't use it to access secure web sites, otherwise it works great.

It sounds from your experience that I may not be misguided. I don't have a lot of cash at the moment to lay down on a new MBP so squeezing some more performance out of the one I have is attractive.

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Answer 7

y_p_w

Level 6

17,762 points

Mar 1, 2018 1:59 PM in response to Gareth McFadden

Gareth McFadden wrote:

It sounds from your experience that I may not be misguided. I don't have a lot of cash at the moment to lay down on a new MBP so squeezing some more performance out of the one I have is attractive.

It's worth a try. The biggest limitation is that you've got a Core 2 Duo machine, and the lack of processing power more than anything limits the performance. However, if you're just using it for basic web browsing and other basic things then it's not bad to have around.

Personally I'd think it would help immensely. I think El Capitan was designed with the performance of SSDs in mind. You won't necessarily get the speed benefits of an APFS file format though.

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Answer 8

y_p_w

Level 6

17,762 points

Mar 1, 2018 1:23 PM in response to BobTheFisherman

BobTheFisherman wrote:

I would not spend any money on a 2009 computer. Post an etrecheck report and maybe we can help you make it run a little better.

Less than $75 on an SSD wouldn't be too much of an expense. It might even be more of a hobby than anything else to see if it helps.

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Answer 9

y_p_w

Level 6

17,762 points

Mar 1, 2018 2:40 PM in response to Abetastic

Abetastic wrote:

If this doesn't work I would indeed think a 2009 is still worth upgrading, the amount of money I would put in would depend on how much I need the machine.

Replacing a hard drive is kind of a fun thing to do, and it's not hugely expensive. Also an 8+ year old 160 GB hard drive in an of itself may be worth replacing proactively, especially with a fairly inexpensive SSD.

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Answer 10

Mar 1, 2018 1:29 PM in response to Gareth McFadden

I would not spend any money on a 2009 computer. Post an etrecheck report and maybe we can help you make it run a little better.

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Answer 11

Mar 1, 2018 1:19 PM in response to Gareth McFadden

Thank you all for the helpful responses so far.

Here is the Etrecheck report on my problem: I see the beachball too much.

EtreCheck version: 4.1 (4A162)

Report generated: 2018-03-01 21:12:44

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 5:50

Performance: Below Average

Problem: Beachballing

Major Issues:

Anything that appears on this list needs immediate attention.

No Time Machine backup - Time Machine backup not found.

Battery failure - Your battery is reporting that it needs to be serviced.

Heavy CPU usage - Some processes are using an unusually high amount of CPU.

Obsolete hardware - This machine may be considered obsolete.

Minor Issues:

These issues do not need immediate attention but they may indicate future problems.

Upgradeable - This machine’s RAM could be upgraded and the mechancial hard drive could be replaced with an SSD. This would dramatically improve your machine’s performance.

High battery cycle count - Your battery may be losing capacity.

Unsigned files - There is unsigned software installed. It appears to be legitimate but should be reviewed.

Low performance - EtreCheck report took over 5 minutes to run. This is unusual.

Hardware Information:

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2009) - Obsolete!

MacBook Pro Model: MacBookPro5,5

1 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (Duo) CPU: 2-core

4 RAM Upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1067 ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1067 ok

Battery: Health = Service Battery - Cycle count = 733

Video Information:

NVIDIA GeForce 9400M - VRAM: 256 MB

Color LCD 1280 x 800

Drives:

disk0 - Hitachi HTS545016B9SA02 160.04 GB (Mechanical)

Internal SATA 1.5 Gigabit Serial ATA

disk0s1 - EFI [EFI] 210 MB

disk0s2 - M************D (Journaled HFS+) 159.18 GB

disk0s3 - Recovery HD [Recovery] 650 MB

Mounted Volumes:

disk0s2 - M************D 159.18 GB (92.32 GB free)

Journaled HFS+

Mount point: /

Network:

Interface Bluetooth-Modem: Bluetooth DUN

Interface en0: Ethernet

Interface fw0: FireWire

Interface en1: Wi-Fi

802.11 a/b/g/n

One IPv4 address

Interface en2: Bluetooth PAN

System Software:

OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 (15G18013)

Time since boot: About 2 hours

System Load: 1.61 (1 min ago) 1.55 (5 min ago) 2.30 (15 min ago)

Security:

System	Status
Gatekeeper	Mac App Store and identified developers
System Integrity Protection	Enabled

Unsigned Files:

Launchd: /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist

Executable: /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper

Details: Exact match found in the whitelist - probably OK

System Launch Agents:

[Not Loaded]	8 Apple tasks
[Loaded]	162 Apple tasks
[Running]	70 Apple tasks

System Launch Daemons:

[Not Loaded]	43 Apple tasks
[Loaded]	161 Apple tasks
[Running]	86 Apple tasks
[Other]	2 Apple tasks

Launch Agents:

[Loaded]	com.microsoft.update.agent.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2018-01-27)
[Other]	com.adobe.ARMDCHelper.cc24aef4a1b90ed56a725c38014c95072f92651fb65e1bf9c8e43c37a2 3d420d.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2018-02-14)

Launch Daemons:

[Loaded]	com.adobe.ARMDC.SMJobBlessHelper.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2018-02-14)
[Loaded]	com.microsoft.autoupdate.helper.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2018-01-27)
[Loaded]	com.adobe.fpsaud.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2018-02-01)
[Loaded]	com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist (? 6d8cb30e - installed 2010-08-25)
[Loaded]	com.adobe.ARMDC.Communicator.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2018-02-14)
[Loaded]	com.microsoft.office.licensingV2.helper.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2016-02-12)

Internet Plug-ins:

FlashPlayer-10.6: 28.0.0.161 (installed 2018-02-06)

QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (installed 2018-01-08)

AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: 17.012.20098 (installed 2018-02-24)

AdobePDFViewer: 18.011.20038 (installed 2018-02-24)

Flash Player: 28.0.0.161 (installed 2018-02-06)

Default Browser: 601 (installed 2016-09-08)

SharePointBrowserPlugin: 14.7.7 (installed 2017-09-20)

3rd Party Preference Panes:

Flash Player (installed 2018-02-01)

Time Machine:

Time Machine Not Configured!

Top Processes by CPU:

Process (count)	Source	% of CPU
spindump	Apple	37055908
WindowServer	Apple	6
kernel_task	Apple	2
com.apple.WebKit.Networking	Apple	0
ReportCrash	Apple	0

Top Processes by Memory:

Process (count)	Source	RAM usage
com.apple.WebKit.WebContent (4)	Apple	596 MB
kernel_task	Apple	388 MB
Microsoft Word	173 MB
mdworker (9)	Apple	124 MB
Safari	Apple	110 MB

Top Processes by Energy Use:

Process (count)	Source	Energy usage (0-100)
WindowServer	Apple	3
com.apple.WebKit.WebContent (4)	Apple	0
com.apple.WebKit.Networking	Apple	0
nsurlstoraged	Apple	0
PTPCamera	Apple	0

Virtual Memory Information:

Available RAM	1.15 GB
Free RAM	19 MB
Used RAM	2.85 GB
Cached files	1.13 GB
Swap Used	0 B

Diagnostics Information (past 7 days):

2018-02-26 19:46:26 com.apple.WebKit.WebContent CPU

End of report

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Answer 12

Mar 1, 2018 1:28 PM in response to y_p_w

y_p_w wrote:

...

Are you getting a lot of "beachballing" and typically slow application starting/quitting?

That is exactly the problem I'm experiencing, especially after a recent re-start of the OS.

Reply

Answer 13

Mar 4, 2018 5:13 PM in response to Gareth McFadden

I'm glad it's working for you. Cheers!

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Answer 14

Mar 4, 2018 4:26 PM in response to Abetastic

Abetastic wrote:

Based on your needs as in what you used that particular macbook for I wouldn't put money on it first.

I would downgrade to Yosemite (OS X 10) and try it for a few days to see how it feels with the Microsoft Office install after words.

If possible a clean install by the way. I believe this is worth trying as it might relief all the symptoms for free 🙂

Thank you! your suggestion worked nicely. I took me a while to figure out how to downgrade to Yosemite and then a lot of frustration followed with trying to get the network settings to function correctly in Yosemite. I fiddled and fiddled and fiddled and then my sharing connection to my iMac started working for no reason after I gave up in a huff. So, I now have my key software working nicely. No beachballs and for free!

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MacBook Pro 2009 upgrading worth it?

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