Question for anyone familiar with Apple products: I have a ten or 11 year old MacBook Pro that still works - most of the time. Occasionally it just completely shuts down for no apparent reason, then takes forever to reboot. Or if I forget to plug it in and it’s in the sleep mode, it goes completely dead fairly quickly and once it’s plugged back in, takes multiple tries to get it to reboot. Otherwise it’s a good unit with the largest screen and a built in DVD player, I think the last year they made them with one? I mostly use it for typical home computer use - surfing the internet, rarely watching a movie and some word processing with Google Drive for some volunteer work I’m doing with a Catholic periodical. Is there anything simple I can do to avoid it randomly shutting down while I’m using it? Is it worth taking it to an Apple tech shop for it to be looked at? Conversely, would an Mac Mini serve my purposes? Or an iPad? Is there anything a MacBook or iMac can do that a MacMini cannot? I already have the Bluetooth Apple keyboard and mouse, but I don’t have a separate Apple monitor, and unfortunately money is an issue; I can’t afford a new MacBook or iMac. Any thoughts or advice? Any valid reason to go back to a Windows based machine other than cheaper units? I really don’t miss Windows.
I wish I could help. I do know Apple is hard to do business with if you need to bring your mac in for help. At least here. You need an appointment--basically 10 minutes. I gave up my iPhone because I got caught in that. I've been on an android ever since. I hope someone here can help you.
Is there a Best Buy in Winchester? They have a Geek Squad who might be able to fix it. You might want to call them before you drive all the way up there. My son is an Apple person. I’ll ask him tomorrow.
Sounds like an overheating problem Brian. Could be a firmware issue as well I know older apple models had deliberate firmware installed under pretence of security patches which forced batterys etc to die so the units became end of life... I'd give the unit a good clean around the fans
Ok thanks. A friend did install a small app that increased the fan speed to decrease the operating speed.
Yep that will run the battery down quicker Should have mentioned before Brian I started working with computers as a hardware engineer before I moved to software
Get a cooling pad, the fan is probably getting old and it is overheating. Cooling pad being a set of fans in a pad the computer sits on. All of my computers have them.
I had that problem recently. I deleted some apps and cleaned my browser. I have google chrome installed and updated it and turned off the extensions that would load upon login. Now its running much faster and not randomly shutting down where I would need to hold the power button for at least 3 minutes to try and turn back on. .
