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Model A1297 Unibody: Early 2009, Mid 2009, Mid 2010, Early 2011 & Late 2011

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Latest updates crash my Early 2011

The Apple Store helped me last week, said my laptop should not have accepted the latest update and took several hours at the store, then I took it home to reinstall at home from my TimeMachine backup external drive.

Now it’s crashed again! Apple tech chat says my machine is Obsolete and they can’t do anything to upgrade me.

What about independent techs, are there components to upgrade so I can get away from my High Sierra, and download Big Sur? Apparently the first thing I need to replace is my (non solid state) hard drive.

Update (05/29/2021)

Apparently I am going to stay with High Sierra, hopefully the Apple store will help me back out of the bad install (presumably I didn’t block it from doing auto-updates) and use Time Machine again, before I swap the hard drive and add memory

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O’boy! How to make a sows ear into silk purse! I had one at the time it was a killer system, but that was then not today.

Apple and the rest of the industry have move to much more powerful CPU’s and as they have more power. more powerful OS’s and apps have followed.

So while the old Ford model T was a great car in its day, I doubt you’ll see one driving on the interstate! Thats the case here as well.

Your system is limited to macOS High Sierra (10.13.6) While you can add a bit of zip replacing your slow HDD for a much faster SSD and push the RAM to 16 GB.

The GPU (AMD Radeon HD 6750M) is just not powerful enough for todays heavy graphics apps & games. If you push it hard it will fail, which is the end of your system, so don’t push it!

Otherwise, its time for a newer system (used or new)

MacBook Pro 17" Unibody Hard Drive Image

Guide

MacBook Pro 17" Unibody Hard Drive Replacement

Difficulty:

Moderate

—

15 - 30 minutes
MacBook Pro 17" Unibody RAM Image

Guide

MacBook Pro 17" Unibody RAM Replacement

Difficulty:

Easy

—

10 minutes

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Thanks for the resources included in your answer. I’m going to change to the solid state drive and add the memory you suggested. We don’t use it for games at all, hopefully will get us through til Apple comes out with a new computer worth buying.

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@peggyannmitchel - Don't forget to accept the answer! Thanks

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I would say upgrade the computer, but that is not always possible. What I would try is upgrading your hard drive to a Samsung EVO(they are cheap) in 2.5in form factor and install it. Installing Big Sur might be a stretch but it doesn’t hurt to try. If all else fails, Install Mojave or maybe even Catalina.

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