I've a "mid 2007" MacBook which I had previously upgraded to 2GB of RAM and OSX 10.6 (from the as supplied 10.4) but it was a bit sluggish.
While it didn't merit further substantial investment a few tens of pounds would buy a new "unbranded" SSD of the same size as the original (120GB) and that seemed to be money well spent.
I also bought a USB SATA enclosure and downloaded a trial copy of a disk cloner for Mac. After a few hours I had a bootable SSD (hold "alt" on boot to get a choice).
A quick Google and the instructions for getting in to the part of the laptop where the hard disk is to be found were located (take the battery out and use a small cross head to remove the cover).
The tab to get the SSD out worked well and that point I hit the first snag. The existing SSD was mounted on a meal tray by four Torx T6 screws and I didn't have a Torx screwdriver.
Afre some minor abuse of some other screwdrivers I got the Torx screws out and fitted the SSD using the same screws (and tool).
It went back in (once I got it the right way up !) and to my delight (and relief) the machine booted (perhaps a bit slowly).
Everything seemed to work but I got spells of "spinning beachball". Google suggested a reset (no obvious value) and repairing permissions (via disk utility) which seemed to generally fix the problem.
Thus far the SSD seems a success. I've ignored "TRIM" thus far. Further reports as needed.
UPDATE DECEMBER 2017
The "unbranded" SSD failed after a few months. They sent a replacement (after I sent the broken one back to China tracked for £10) but I decided a "normal" HDD drive of a larger size (500GB) and 7200 RPM (rather than the original 5400 RPM) was the best way to go.
That is now working fine and I won't be buying cheap SSDs again. The replacement SSD is in a low spec Windows 7 machine which runs 24x7 and going OK so far.
Wednesday 7 December 2016
Saturday 29 October 2016
T-Mobile 6 Month Web Booster - How far can you go ?
As previously noted, I'm in the last T-Mobile 6 month Internet booster I'll ever have.
A few days away from home in a hotel with broken Internet access (no DHCP on the router - a common problem with "guest" WiFi in hotels and elsewhere) and I used the T-Mobile 6 month Internet booster for tethering various media consuming devices.
When I went away I had used about 500MB in the month (so half of the 1GB "fair use policy" allowance).
The usage quickly went up, after 24 hours a couple of GB more had been used, half way through the following day the 80% of the FUP text came. About 6 hours later the "exceeded fair use policy" text arrived.
This seems to have triggered limited download and upload speeds of about 500kb/s (perhaps a quarter of what T-Mobile 3G can achieve in peak periods from my experience).
I'm now at 5.2GB used in the calendar month for £3.33.
This is why the offer had to end !
A few days away from home in a hotel with broken Internet access (no DHCP on the router - a common problem with "guest" WiFi in hotels and elsewhere) and I used the T-Mobile 6 month Internet booster for tethering various media consuming devices.
When I went away I had used about 500MB in the month (so half of the 1GB "fair use policy" allowance).
The usage quickly went up, after 24 hours a couple of GB more had been used, half way through the following day the 80% of the FUP text came. About 6 hours later the "exceeded fair use policy" text arrived.
This seems to have triggered limited download and upload speeds of about 500kb/s (perhaps a quarter of what T-Mobile 3G can achieve in peak periods from my experience).
I'm now at 5.2GB used in the calendar month for £3.33.
This is why the offer had to end !
Friday 7 October 2016
Stopping iOS updates and getting rid of downloaded but not installed updates
The following is a note derived from the following extremely useful post by SergZak at:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-9741
I don't want my iOS devices updated to iOS 10 as they work well at the moment and I've previously found Apple allow devices to be updated to a point at which their performance suffers.
To stop updates I've blocked mesu.apple.com using OpenDNS (which I use on my router).
I've also deleted the previously downloaded update by finding the iOS update app at:
Settings
General
Storage & iCloud Usage
Manage Storage.
There I found the iOS update app. By tapping on the app I could delete the app.
Once again, many thanks SergZak !
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-9741
I don't want my iOS devices updated to iOS 10 as they work well at the moment and I've previously found Apple allow devices to be updated to a point at which their performance suffers.
To stop updates I've blocked mesu.apple.com using OpenDNS (which I use on my router).
I've also deleted the previously downloaded update by finding the iOS update app at:
Settings
General
Storage & iCloud Usage
Manage Storage.
There I found the iOS update app. By tapping on the app I could delete the app.
Once again, many thanks SergZak !
The end of the T-Mobile 6MONTHWEB booster
Sadly the T-Mobile £20 for 6 months Internet data offer is ending (or has ended depending on when you read this).
Not much has been made of this but I happened across mention of it on the Thinkbroadband forums.
A further well targeted Google and the sad news was confirmed.
To ensure that nobody will buy it again the price has been doubled.
In a slight breach of copyright (I see it as review) but to ensure that this change isn't airbrushed out of mobile network history this is what EE (T-Mobile) have to say on the subject:
http://ee.co.uk/help/add-ons-benefits-and-plans/price-plans-and-costs/t-mobile-price-plans/t-mobile-pay-as-you-go-price-increase
on 07/10/16
The excellent Money Saving Expert also covers the change:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/phones/2016/09/data-booster-prices-double-for-t-mobile-customers
The T-Mobile data offer was the best PAYG data offer for years (I guess I have been using it for more than 5 years) and I'm sorry to see it go. My "high score" was 2GB in a calendar month, not bad for £3.33 !
Having put £18 on the SIM to buy my last 6 Months of WEB perhaps I'll get a PAYG upgrade from Carphone Warehouse with the SIM as well before it goes in the bin.
The best offers now seem to the the EE 6GB/3 month offers which can be ebayed for less that £20 or the 3 3GB/3 months for about £10. I guess the market price of these will increase as the "6 Month Web" buyers go somewhere else.
Not much has been made of this but I happened across mention of it on the Thinkbroadband forums.
A further well targeted Google and the sad news was confirmed.
To ensure that nobody will buy it again the price has been doubled.
In a slight breach of copyright (I see it as review) but to ensure that this change isn't airbrushed out of mobile network history this is what EE (T-Mobile) have to say on the subject:
T-Mobile pay as you go price increase
We know they’re not popular but
we haven’t actually increased any of our rates since 2013, and in that time the
costs of running our business have continued to rise. Our EE pay as you go
rates are staying the same and you can buy packs of minutes, data and texts to
get even better value.
Find out more about switching
seamlessly to EE by visiting one of our stores or go to ee.co.uk/movetoee.
How will I
know if my price is increasing?
All customers who are impacted by
the price increase will be contacted. You will receive a minimum of 30 days'
written notice (via text) notifying you before the increase takes place.
What the
2016 T-Mobile pay as you go price rises mean for you
From 10 October 2016 we’ll be
making changes to the costs of some internet boosters on T-Mobile.
Please see below the new charges
for your internet booster:
Internet Booster
|
Length
|
Before 10 Oct 2016
|
From 10 Oct 2016
|
Blackberry monthly data booster - Unlimited
browsing
|
30 days
|
£5
|
£12
|
Standard monthly data booster - not Blackberry
|
30 days
|
£5
|
£12
|
Standard 6 month data booster - not Blackberry
|
6
months
|
£20
|
£40
|
Blackberry 6 month data booster
|
6
months
|
£20
|
£40
|
From:
T-Mobile "So long, and thanks for all the data"
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