On Mon, 12 Nov 2018, Mojca Miklavec wrote:
Since you are talking about the optical drive and 10.6: is your
I take it you mean 10.12.6 (Sierra)? The OS works fine, but Mojave is officially not supported on this model (and I couldn't install High Sierra).
hardware even officially supported? The last OS officially working with my MacBook pro from 2009 (hardly different from those from 2012, the last ones being sold with optical drives) was 10.11. The fun thing is that once I finally decided to upgrade it, I could no longer even download 10.11. Yes, I could probably upgrade to 10.12 in one way or another, but I would then likely get into troubles with security patches, and I could run into performance issues, at which point I would probably be better off with hackintosh :)
The model here (after much digging around) is "MC207xx/A, 13" screen, serno 45008Q7Exxx, late 2009, firmware 6,1 (note the comma)" with 4GB memory (dealer-installed). I'm told that it can go to 8GB to cut down on the paging, but it's not a supported configuration (otherwise it would compete with the MacBook Pro), and I don't feel like futzing around with the firmware to make it pretend that it's a Pro.
I replaced the SATA cable only three or four times, I bet it could be the same problem at your end (I've never heard of sata cables failing on other laptops). But probably not worth fixing if you plan to stop using it soon anyway.
The motherboard connector for the SATA cable is broken, hence the external USB 2.0 drive (and hence is as slow as a wet weekend when active). I was staying in a hotel at the time, and I suspect a housemaid dropped it (but no-one would admit to it, of course).
-- Dave
