A recent discovery about the Macbook

"Mercedes Streeter" (smart)
04/13/2016 at 16:56 • Filed to: DARN YOU APPLE! DARN YOU TO HELL!

So if you’ve read any of my past computing posts, you’ll know that I triple boot between Linux, OS X, and Windows 10 on my Macbook, and that I circumvented idiotic BootCamp to do it...I’ve always wondered why the MacBook’s performance was a little “off”. That is, until I discovered something I had somehow missed or overlooked.

Last week, I was checking my MacBook 3,1 (Late 2007, Santa Rosa) System specs. For whatever reason, a few of my games (a couple of which came out a few years BEFORE the MacBook was made) didn’t play very well despite the fact that my system specs were well above and beyond the minimum reqs. And thinking about it, Windows did run a little clunky too. My initial thought was “oh crap, maybe a RAM stick failed?”

I could have sworn that I had 3GB of RAM installed, but it was only indicating 2.5GB. Turns out I was wrong (there’s a 2GB paired with a 512MB). But while I was checking those specs, I discovered something alarming!!! I had somehow installed a 32-Bit Windows 10 onto a system with 64-bit hardware! How could this be?

Looking back, I now remember what happened. When I popped in my Windows installation disk a year or so ago, it warned me that my system was incompatible with that version of Windows. So I popped in a 32-bit of the same version of Windows and it installed easy peasy. From that moment forward, I had simply assumed that I had a 32-bit MacBook.

Fast forward to last week. I see Windows claiming that I had 64-bit hardware. I also Googled it and sure enough, the Santa Rosa MacBooks have 64-bit hardware, confirmed by Apple. So, I facepalmed myself, then decided to pop one of my very many 64-bit Windows recovery DVDs (I have several copies of 7, 8.1, and 10 lol) into the MacBook. It didn’t like that...I instead was greeted with a fun “Select CD ROM Boot Type:” message...a message that also seems to disable the keyboard and any external keyboards, effectively making it impossible to choose one of the two (blank) choices. Goddammit, what the hell is going on here? None of the DVDs worked, and the MacBook decided it didn’t even want to read a bootable USB with a 64-bit system on it. I thought my system was going to run this no problem?

Such isn’t true. Apparently while the computer has 64-bit hardware, Apple paired it up with an EFI that does not meet the ISO 9660 standard...effectively rendering all 64-bit OS from installing. Nearly 9 years after my MacBook (and similarly, other early Intel Macs) was released, Apple offers no 64-bit EFI support. Ugh, so what now?

I checked guides on the net, and let’s be honest here, they all were pretty darn hard, and all were unsuccessful.

So, I created my own and MUCH easier way to get around Apple’s idiotic EFI. Following one of the previous guides, I had used a script to modify the Windows bootloader to work with the MacBook, then created a new ISO and saved it to a DVD...a method that lots of people claimed worked. Welllllll...I wasn’t that lucky. It NEVER worked for me. Pop disc in, boots to 32-bit Windows 10 and ignores the DVD...K

That’s when I thought about my old friend, rEFIt. Now, I know that the boot utility doesn’t claim to fix this issue (in fact, it seems nobody has even thought to use it), but at this point, I was willing to try anything.

So...I installed rEFIt (I had it installed before, but on another HDD) and popped in my DVD...

Holy shite, it worked!!! And it only took me a week of cursing my Mac to accomplish!!!! :D

First impressions are that the computer is definitely more stable, like, it’s incredibly smooth!!! But I will need to up the RAM to make use of the 64-bits of joy.

64-Bits! YAY!

Have this GIF of a not-Mustang nearly crashing into people for your time. :)

DISCUSSION (18)

BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. > Mercedes Streeter
04/13/2016 at 17:11

How many dimm slots are there? Two?

You could get 2x4gb for pretty cheap now. Especially if it’s DDR2.

Boxer_4 > BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest.
04/13/2016 at 17:16

DDR2 is quite cheap these days. I just picked up a 2x2gb set for one of my systems for $14.

Mercedes Streeter > BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest.
04/13/2016 at 17:19

Two! Max supported memory by the hardware is apparently 6gb (one 2gb, one 4gb). Apparently, running 8gb causes really bad instability.

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > Mercedes Streeter
04/13/2016 at 17:21

I have a Macbook of this era as well. I’m very tempted to dual boot that now. My daily use computer is a MBA from 2013, which has no upgradability :(

Mercedes Streeter > Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap
04/13/2016 at 17:26

Right out of the box, you should be easily able to dual boot OS X with any 32-bit and/or x86 OS (so long as you have a DVD or a bootable USB, you can completely ignore BootCamp). If you want to run a 64-bit Windows (which I do highly recommend as opposed to 32-bit Windows), I could write up some easy instructions. :)

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > Mercedes Streeter
04/13/2016 at 17:28

Thanks for the offer, but given that I have 6 GB of free drive space, another OS is just not an option.

Mercedes Streeter > Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap
04/13/2016 at 17:39

Aww. If I had another high capacity HDD lying around (my Macbook is using a 500gb HDD from a dead Acer), I’d send you it. :)

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Mercedes Streeter
04/13/2016 at 18:24

Hnnng, polycarb macbooks. Annoyingly enough, this is actually still a problem! x86-based Atom tablets and notebooks like the Dell Venue 8 Pro use a 64-bit quad-core Atom processor... with a 32-bit UEFI that renders any 64-bit OS impossible to boot! I have no idea why Intel decided to cripple a perfectly great chipset with such an idiotic little gotcha.

ktfright | Kinja Neighborhood Black Guy > Mercedes Streeter
04/13/2016 at 19:33

My older sis had that same model and loved it, though she had tons of screen issues. I didn’t even know those models could run Linux!

BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. > Mercedes Streeter
04/13/2016 at 20:20

That’s an odd split. What model is the laptop specifically?

facw > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
04/14/2016 at 04:39

I’d strongly suspect they don’t want Atom cannibalizing their higher-end parts, so they make sure there’s no point to using it in better systems.

Nauraushaun > Mercedes Streeter
04/14/2016 at 07:55

How do you be so into computers yet use something so old!? I’m all for not replacing something until necessary...but 9 years is a very long time in the world of computers.

Mercedes Streeter > Nauraushaun
04/14/2016 at 09:59

That’s part of the fun for me! I can go out, buy some parts, then build a super snazzy computer that can be future proofed for years and run like a much more expensive pre-built computer (Alienware, I’m looking at you)...But what’s really fun for me is taking a computer that’s totally not meant for a certain task, then making it do it. It’s especially fun with Apple computers since Apple still kinda makes using anything but OS X a pain.

My trusty MacBook has at some point, solely run Windows 10. I got it to run Windows 10 as if Windows were its factory installed OS.

Mercedes Streeter > BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest.
04/14/2016 at 10:05

MacBook 3,1 (Santa Rosa) - MB062LL/B

Personally, I’ve never tried putting a 8gb of memory in it, but everyone I’ve asked in the past strongly advised against it because OS X 10.7 realllllly didn’t like that much RAM. lol

Mercedes Streeter > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
04/14/2016 at 10:11

I could understand Apple doing it with their first gen Intel processors, but that honestly sucks that it’s still a thing today. But I guess it does make sense why it happened with the Atom...keeps people from taking hardware they paid less for and fully unlocking its potential...thus attempting to “encourage” buyers to get the more expensive options.

BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. > Mercedes Streeter
04/14/2016 at 12:47

I guess 6 is the limit then.

Nauraushaun > Mercedes Streeter
04/14/2016 at 18:48

I like the idea of it. But in practise I’m too committed to getting done the things I want to get done, I just want it to work.

Kudos to you!

Mercedes Streeter > Nauraushaun
04/14/2016 at 19:16

Can’t blame you! Computers are a lot like cars...Technically, it should be running more than sitting around in pieces. :)