Argh! Crappy xmas-Old Mac wanted

General Random
21

OOOH I see to be in action again on the Mac!

After a fairly insane xmas/new year, involving Tyre blow outs, snapped fan belts, Recovery trucks, Xmas dinner, Millionaires, Rivers, Funerals, 7 days emptying a dead friends house, being haunted by something else (locked front doors bursting open at 2am as I sat on the toilet, followed by upstairs ones popping open in my face as I was checking out the house to see what the hell was going on … while being in a large empty house in a woodland… lovely! not at all spooky… oh, with rats too! for maximum benefit*)
driving back hundreds of miles round trips in a seriously overladen truck, creaking, …waiting for a place to unload his remaining stuff… and seeing about more horsey stuff (no horse stuff until now! impressed?)

… I have just decided to strip and rebuild the MacBook again at around midnight.
Disconnected the none removeable battery (I am suspicious of that - ten years old and being a bit cranky now) a few SMC resets, and squashing the connectors and poking around looking for sensitive areas on the powered up board, I pressed the display connector in a. bit and Buzz, display went pear shaped again.
Same thing that @vrooney was on about.
couldn’t get display back after poking that so reconnected battery, rebooted and OOOOH!
it seems stable again.
battery charge light come back on! (orange not green, not seen that for a while) gives a time until charged (which changes.reduces… but still stuck at 0% )

so I think I shall reset it again now see what happens.

or leave it soak and go to bed.
yes, very tired. go to bed, lets see if tis still alive in the morning.
g’night :slight_smile:

update!! woo hoo charging!
3%!!

I shall celebrate by sleeping.
Its been full on for 2 weeks, Im wrecked.

22

Not sure if this helps, but I have seen an abundance of used Macbooks in the 9-11 year old range for what appear to be reasonable prices on Facebook Marketplace.

23

Cheers for that @Printninja, it may be getting to that time … gulp.
BUT!..
it is … ALIVE!
(it may be sick, but currently, guess what I am typing on… for a bit :slight_smile: )

It survived the night! it stayed on -amazingly, it had actually gone to sleep and when I pressed a key it woke up…but with a corrupt login screen. gah and some flickering.
But then I logged in and… it all cleared up! Yeah I know, still doesnt sound good,
but worked for a few minutes, then … screen went dark. not black just …well, black, but the backlight was on (so maybe a nice uniform dark grey)

Oh well I thought. that is still an improvement, and the battery was 100% - it hasn’t managed that last few percent for a very long time.

Anyway, I immediately rebooted it and here I am! so far, no weirdness
It’s obviously untrustworthy at the mo, but the last rebuild, disconnected the Display connector (top corner of Mobo, ) dissconnecting the Battery (which I thought might be totally goosed and was causing a drain that may be sapping the actually Mac power for the rest of the mob and causing anomolies in the display as it struggled to manage the display output with reduced/erratic power)
… several SMC resets

a al

and…it is now running again.
we shall see how this goes, but if it makes it to and through a time machine backup I shall be delighted.

but… I have the hard drives… in the van. the van which is now full of Paranoid Al’s stuff (the dead mate)
and…im STILL waiting ot hear about storage space to unload, off my landlord… Gah!

but apart from all that, HAPPY NEW YEAR! :smiley:

24

I am impressed that it’s working for you and your perseverance. I don’t think I would have that much patience.

25

I admire perseverance but I am also acutely aware of costs vs benefits. For me, my computers = my business which = my livelihood. Cannot have any kind of anomalous behavior. They simply MUST work, so I will only put up with problems until they start costing me money, and then it’s off to the store to order a new machine.

26

Yep I hear you @Printninja.

That’s not my current situation though.
My life is a little ragged or messy atm (erm…sometime now, but, hey, moving on… ), so if anything, My computer is one of my hindrances in my life.
Ie, sitting at it, not actually getting anything serious done, or manifesting anything of meaning or worth, as my life other important things pile up.

So! I took it as a hint :slight_smile: from, well you know, the universe or the great big spaghetti monster in the sky or whatever, to re evaluate my life choices and re allocate time and resources some other way which may be more meaningful or productive… and just let the computer lay and rest as I ran around doing some of that and thinking.

Clearing out a dead friends house, who died rather unpleasantly…with plenty of money and no excuses (other than pretty serious medical issues and mental health ones, brought about by years of cannabis abuse - I highly recommend no one goes doesn’t that road, as it aint pretty in the long run) and seeing his paperwork with my name on it, and write a will…underneath it…which he never did…certainly makes one think about stuff.

So I then thought to attack my Mac again -and I have and…utterly bizarrely, it has just fired up from sleep, for the first time, with no artifacts!

I have now swapped to the better graphic card, from the mundane one it has, as it was swapping FROM the 9400 to the 9600 to game and then back again, which seemed to coincide with the start of the issue.

But, after all the stripping, pressing of the mother board in graphicy places, stripping and cleaning the screen connector, disconnecting and reconnecting the battery, umpteen SMC resets (battery wasn’t charging either which made me ponder that…and the date and stuff starting going awry) …it fired back up with the lowly graphic card.

wow.

SO I treated it with kid gloves for a bit… then soak tested it, it survived, then put it to sleep and it would wake with a corrupted but useable screen, which I could log back into, and it would then clear itself up.
yay!
…but still not quite right.
So I gamed with the lowly card…and would have flickering after a while…but it kept working and didnt die.
SO last night, I swapped it to the better card and gamed for HOURS AND HOURS… and
it just worked fine! and … it just woke from sleep the next morning, with no corruption!
WOO HOO.

I could justify this as production testing of hardware to myself. I could even continue to test via some games…but…

So maybe it was the lowly card or something in the SMC controller settings or suchlike to do with that.

…or maybe I need to spend less time at the computer…where I dont earn my living…as life takes me on some weird routes.

I mean …horses?..HORSES? who the hell could have predicted that?
and… they dont use computers, and you cant use computers AND look after horses at the same time.

Maybe the Big Spaghetti monster has other plans for my time and how I should spend it productively

Im so pleased we now have a Random channel on here (which I can never find!)

Edit… oh well, some screen corruption on the wake up screen again on THIS funkier graphic card… which then sorted itself on the second button press.
Sigh…well its working still, so time for several time machine backups and data back ups quick I guess.
At least it doesnt keep switching off now, so if it makes it to the end of a time machine back up Ill be happy. Even though Ive not ever had much success restoring a new system from one of them before.

27

Buy a new Mac, eat some carrots and write a book.

28

$$$$$$$$$
€€€€€€€
£££££££££

yes…not many of those for a new Mac.
:slight_smile:

I think my next will be an inherited Mac, hopefully mobile of whatever form
or a hackintosh, we shall see. right now, it is, weirdly… working again…mostly :slight_smile:

but the book might very well be an idea :slight_smile:
Ive been told to that sooo many times over the years.
and yes! Carrots. I shall now go and get some :slight_smile:

29

Ask some of your Millionaires to spend some $$$. I think you are a very talented writer, you should really think about it.

30

Why thank you @horman…it’s nice to think there is some talent somewhere… as I have yet to tap into it in my webby world.

I must have squirrelled it away somewhere else before I reincarnated.
:slight_smile:

I shall endeavour to find my mojo this year… and yes, maybe the millionaire friends might help out, but to be honest, I find the poorer people are, the more they give, of themselves. Expensive tech is another topic though :slight_smile:

My wealthy friends tend to be wealthy through hard work…and so reward themselves and, keep it close and for thier nearest and dearest -which doesnt even extend to their kids most of the time.
And, alas, I am currently emptying out my van full of the stuff of someone who had so much potential…but… took it, their Angst and their non existent Will to the grave…er…crematorium.

Man! it is a real wake up call.
And now I have got back to Wales to start to sort it all out, My main mate’s Mum just died yesterday or the day before. I cant even tell anymore, I’m that tired.I may have to help there, but… my van is already full! And the storage space didnt happen, so Im now unloading it into my own house…which is already half full of someone else mums stuff who died a couple of years ago, and… I er, umm, haven’t finished sorting.

Sorting… yes, maybe the year of sorting… and writing :slight_smile:
That would be nice… oh and horses…of course, and then maybe some web stuff.
Oh Christ!

Gonna be so busy.

31

You of course must follow your heart/gut/universe/higher power whatever it is that tells you how to live. As I get older, I become more and more aware of my own mortality and the limited time I have left here. Friends die. Parents and other family members die. And on top of all the grief and expense, it’s usually messy, and inconvenient, and just plain shittty. So use your days wisely, live them to the fullest, and try not to end up on your deathbed with a head full of regrets. That’s all I can say.

32

Do they have internet in heaven?

33

mmm, I wouldn’t have thought there was probably much of a demand for that much pr0n up there.
:slight_smile:
Mmm, but then again, it is heaven after all…

and sorry for delay. I am currently writing from several different dissasociated parts of my Mac as I again spent some hours getting it to work and now have the battery disconnected.
I think the SMC or Motherboard is loosing the will to live… luckily I’m not just yet.

However, considering the above, heaven is starting to look appealing, what with internet and all…

34

Well why not? After all it’s Christmas every day in heaven.

35

hahah a haaa! oh good thanks! that is just what I needed :slight_smile:I
I didnt realise I did but now I do :slight_smile:

I now have to apparently take all the stuff back up to England that I spent a week packing and clearing out from my dead friends rat infested, dope smoke stained house and the lunatics on the ex animal sanctuary set their dogs on my horses and promptly blew up a petrol covered fired next to my feed shed as I was bringing them in to feed and I wanted to kill them.

SO xmas time in Heaven.
yeah!

Oh and the Mac is sort of working again now and I am typing to you off various disassociated parts of it :slight_smile: I think its a bit deeper than the graphic card but very odd!
OH! and a storm yes, forgot that. mostly drenched here :slight_smile:

tra la la….Its Xmas time in Heaven…every single daaaAAAYYYYaaiii Sing along everybody!

36

OH man! this Mac is REALLY suffering now, weirdness on the screen galore!
2 days of rebooting trying to get it to start, then, erm, some hippy weirdness and it managed it, but dang!
there are some pretty funky artifacts to be seen!
Not sure just how long this will be running for.

oh and the dead friend who’s house I had to empty?

well, the Probate/guy didnt write a will so we take it all and say who gets what …people

Have got in touch and say they want it all back.
Fun fun fun.

My van is stuck to the floor, suspension groaning, house full to the brim of the last few collated dead friends stuff and now this.
ha!

Still, my horses are fine and funky and frozen and wet and covered in mud so today I made them a nice warm winter warmer hot mash to eat…oh the ears! the ears! you should see the ears…just flop down to the side as they go ooooooooh…aaaaah and eat.
:slight_smile:
oh yes, web stuff too…erm. um… good thing this is a random channel :slight_smile:

Oh well, mac died again. Pretty terminal graphics this time I fear

37

Gah!
Reiki ain’t no long term cure for Silicon based systems.
Damn,at least I tried.back on the android tablet and emptying my van of dead guys stuff and moving stuff around so I can get to a laptop…somewhere

38

And ten days later here I am!
unofortunatley , now back, to a LAPTOP! - leaning across boxes of stuff but…
ITs a PowerPC processor, so , still no Pinegrow for me!

Curses.

I now have a sick horse and an INSANE Probate solicitor threatening me and a friend with legal action unless we return OUR dead FRIENDS stuff- for them to then again remove and sell with a house clearence! Nuts.
So i have had to resuscitate this old laptop to compose my reply to them.

39

Oh no - the horse is sick again!! Mine is still happy on his trotters - knock wood. Good luck!

40

Cheers!
oh the joy of it all.!
Its now quarter to11 at night, just got back after having spent a lovely few hours with them, in the sun -but freezing, which was fun, as I had to do ariver crossing to get to them. (shortcut…kind of :slight_smile: )
gave Summer her Meds, (now down to 3.33 - from 100 a day in july :open_mouth: )

Then give Sky her pre and probiotics… and Dioralytes for… yes, wait for it…

Fecal Water Syndrome… yes my friends, my life is continuing its ever downward yet, entertaining downward spiral and I am now truly … in the s…h…*…t!

So yes, this wannabe web guy, whose first horse with a big hole in the neck, then had his second horse develop a very rare auto immune disorder, which nearly killed it and now the first horse , nearly over the neck thing after a year…has
a
new
…bum… thing!

So, not only do I have to take everyone elses sh*t in order to just get on…
now, it looks like, my horses will!!

I mean… a Fecal transplant?
sweet Jesus!