updating OS

jackrussel

hey all. need a little help here.

my macbook, which is a few (5-6) years old, has stopped letting me update other programs. i cant update the OS either. the OS that im using at the moment is 10.4.11. so my question is, can i just buy "snow leopard"10.6 and install it or should i buy a different OS? or is it time just to get a new macbook?

any info is greatly welcome. thanks

Losty Dublin

jackrussel wrote: »

hey all. need a little help here.

my macbook, which is a few (5-6) years old, has stopped letting me update other programs. i cant update the OS either. the OS that im using at the moment is 10.4.11. so my question is, can i just buy "snow leopard"10.6 and install it or should i buy a different OS? or is it time just to get a new macbook?

any info is greatly welcome. thanks

Lion OS won't work on some of the older Intel based models. Indeed, a few older models may not even take Snow Leopard to run as well as it should do.

These links should help you.

http://www.apple.com/support/lion/installrecovery/

http://support.apple.com/kb/sp575

muggyog

Exactly which model MacBook do you have? There is a list here which gives the highest version of OS X ( 10 ) that can run on any Mac. If you select a model, look at the Identifiers under the model title and see is the same as your own.

ZENER

10.4 was released in in 2005 so maybe it's a bit more than "5-6" years old ? Up until 10.4.4 it was PPC only. If you do in fact have an iBook or Powerbook rather than a Macbook then 10.5 (Leopard) is as far as you can go.

A Macbook from that era (Jan 2006 onwards) would be a Core Duo CPU so I think Lion and onwards won't be ideal if you could get them to run.

When you say "other software won't update" what software are you referring to ?

Ken

jackrussel

thanks for the replies guys. i didnt think my macbook was that old so i guess its time for a new one or a refurbished one. the software i was referring was the programs (firefox,skype,vlc,itunes etc).

ive been looking at refurbished macbooks from CompuB. seems to be cheaper to get a better one from the english website than in an actual CompuB here, bones of a 100 quid cheaper. twice as much ram, twice the space, better processor. 699 for the lesser spec here, 605 on english website.

thanks again for the replies folks,

ZENER

I'm guessing that by "stopped letting me update other programs" you mean the applications concerned don't support your OS any longer ? If you max out the RAM (2GB I'm guessing ?) then installing Snow Leopard should get you another bit of life from the old girl (assuming it's an Intel CPU).

Can you post the model number or a screen grab of "About This Mac" ? We may be able to advise better with more info.

Ken

Hotblack Desiato

ZENER wrote: »

10.4 was released in in 2005 so maybe it's a bit more than "5-6" years old ? Up until 10.4.4 it was PPC only. If you do in fact have an iBook or Powerbook rather than a Macbook then 10.5 (Leopard) is as far as you can go.

A Macbook from that era (Jan 2006 onwards) would be a Core Duo CPU so I think Lion and onwards won't be ideal if you could get them to run.

Only the very first Macbooks were Core Duo and Tiger. There were 2 revisions with Core 2 Duo and Tiger.
I got my Macbook 2.1 in June 07 and it's a Core 2 Duo. Came with 10.4, Leopard didn't come out until later in the year.
This is still my daily use machine (with 2GB RAM and a larger HDD and a recent replacement battery) and will take Lion.