What are worthy upgrades for my mid-2009 MBP?

My 13in Macbook Pro is coming to the end of its AppleCare warranty and is currently in the shop for freezing issues. The thing ran great when I first got it but its really starting to show its 3 y/o age now. I have six more years of graduate school/training to do and I hope to use this laptop as long as possible but I'm wililng to make minor upgrades. With that, which of the following things do you think would upgrade speed/functionality
It's the mid-2009 13in MBP with:
2.53ghz Core 2 Duo
4gb ram
250gb HD at 5400rpm
The obvious things to me are the 4gb ram and 5400rpm hard drive. I could go up to 8gb ram (I like a lot of windows open) or get an SSD drive. I want an upgrade option that will signficantly improve the performance.
Thanks for any advice!

OWC offers what they call a "data doubler" http://eshop.macsales.com/Search/Search.cfm?Ntk=Primary&Ns=P_Popularity%7c1&Ne=5 000&N=7854&Ntt=data+doubler
It is a mount that you can use to replace your MBP's optical drive with a hard drive. What I would recommend is installing a smaller less expensive SSD and moving your current HDD (or a newer larger traditional HDD) over to your optical drive's spot. They also make conversion kits to turn your superdrive into an external USB optical drive. You're computer is most likely out of warranty, but it wasn't this would certainly void your warranty.
My personal disclaimer, only endevour to upgrade something you're completely comfortable executing.

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Upgrade or replace mid-2009 MBP for 4 year doc program

My question:
I'm new to this forum - thanks in advance for your help!
I love my 5 year old MBP, and I loved the one I had for 5 years before it. I assumed I would buy a new one for this doctoral program that starts in 10 days, which I expect will take 3-4 years to complete. I am flummoxed by what Apple has done with the MBP line (SSD drives with tiny storage capabilities, retina displays I worry will prompt massive storage needs as apps upgrade to take advantage of them, and most offensively the soldering of HD and RAM to the motherboard), and really questioning whether any of the machines they are now selling will be useful to me during my 4 years at school. I am leaning toward buying the maxed out version of the last non-retina model while I still can.
Should I upgrade my existing machine (hard drive, OS, what else?) or buy that last MBP model that isn't soldered shut before they discontinue it (and maybe upgrade it anyways)? Will the new machine be significantly better, or even more upgradeable, than my current one?
Concerns that make me hesitate to buy a new machine:
Hard drive size and upgradability: This is by far the biggest issue. My current machine's hard drive is overloaded and I think that's the biggest problem for performance right now. I refuse to pay through the nose for a way-too-small (smaller?!), non-upgradable, hard drive, no matter how fast it loads entertainment apps. This is my only computer and I will not carry around a separate storage drive. The retina machines are not an option for me for this reason (I'm also anxious about the upcoming storage demands for apps with retina capabilities). I made peace with the idea of having a separate external optical disc drive, but that's pretty awkward when I want to watch a movie in bed or on a plane!
What has the MBP lost since 2009?: I think I read something about the current MBP model not having speakers - I love my speakers! They aren't necessary to do my schoolwork, but I love them just the same. What else has disappeared on the MBP since 2009? I'm paranoid that I may have missed other changes since it's been so long since I paid attention to the product line.
Value for the money: If I'm going to spend $1,300+ on a machine I expect significantly better performance. I can't tell if the newer machine with it's faster (though not as fast as the retina machines) processor will be much faster, or much better in general. Buying it basically saves me the trouble of figuring out all of the details for how to upgrade my current machine, which is worth a lot to me. But will the new machine really be better? How so? By how much? Will I be able to upgrade it in the future beyond what Apple offers now (1TB hard drive/512 GB SSD), OSx Mavericks, 8GB RAM, Intel Core i7)? If it is really going to be better or offer more longevity, I'll snatch one up in a heartbeat, because I expect it will be a couple years before those SSDs are big enough to satisfy me. And I'll let Apple max it out for me for $300 because it will save me the trouble of doing so while I'm preparing for school.
Retina second thoughts: Am I crazy for not wanting the retina machine? Maybe I should wait for the SSD to come down in price so one of those machines are more practical (though still not upgradable?!). Or even get one with 512 GB SSD and plan to upgrade in 2 years?
Refurbished option: Should I look for a refurbished non-retina 15" MBP? I like the 13" screen, but think there were bigger upgrade options on the last 15" one.
About my current machine:
I bought my baby new in 2009 for my master's program and he has been incredibly good to me. My only regret now is that I didn't upgrade to the fastest processor at that time - if I had I wouldn't be posting this because I'd just be upgrading. He started slowing down around 2011 so I upgraded the RAM, OS, and I think even the Hard Drive (80 to 160GB?), and at that time I got a new battery and power cord due to a recall. 10 months ago I took him in because he had become painfully slow and the Genius re-installed my OS, but I have noticed a bit of that slow-down returning lately. Google Chrome, Google Apps, MS Office, and iTunes are by far my most used apps, but I do like to open a million tabs in Chrome at once while doing research. I value his speakers because I love music but I do have speakers at home so maybe speakers aren't necessary? He has been tossed around quite a bit - I bought him a neoprene sleeve back in the day but never actually used it and he's definitely taken some nasty spills without any protection.
Complaints about my current machine:
Hard drive storage: My biggest issue is that I had a huge surge in data storage (video and photo for a special project) over the past year and didn't take the time to upgrade his hard drive to make space, so now I have a mess of data in a borrowed iPad and multiple external drives. I want to dump all of that onto the same machine, and it easily fits onto a 1TB external drive, but I do not want to keep it there indefinitely. I like having all of my storage on one machine and I am not ready to buy into the cloud beyond Google Apps. Can I upgrade my hard drive to 1TB or even 500MB? How much does that cost, and what else in my machine will be affected by this change? Should I be looking at SSDs? What are the implications for going that route? Where would it go physically and what would I be giving up?
Speed: He is a little bit laggy sometimes, especially when I open a million tabs on Chrome when I'm researching. I don't switch back and forth between a ton of different programs so startup speed doesn't bother me a ton, but he is a little slow there too.
Battery life: It isn't awesome. It's sufficient but waning for sure.
I spilled water on him: This just happened recently and right afterward I noticed that the track pad is a bit buggy now. It is just a little off of what I expect it to be and sometimes refuses to let me navigate. I haven't tried my wireless mouse since that happened but I imagine that will work fine, and I'm hoping it will go back to normal (open to suggestions to fix that for sure!) soon.
Google Chrome crashes: This has been recent. I've had 20+ tabs open and seen crashes somewhat often. I didn't have this problem before.
He runs hot: I think this is worse since the 2011 upgrades, but honestly doesn't bother me as long as he's safe to use.
He runs loud sometimes: I can hear the fans pick up and kick in sometimes when he's working hard, but it doesn't bother me too much.
Glossy screen is obnoxious: I never bought an anti-glare screen cover to deal with this as I had originally planned. And no, I still don't want a retina MBP.
Possible physical damage from rough handling: I have been rough with him over the years without a case and I worry that he is on his way to some type of physical damage that hasn't shown up yet.
My current machine:
13" MacBook Pro Mid-2009 Model
Processor 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory 8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
2X Size: 4 GB
Type: DDR3
Speed: 1067 MHz
Status: OK
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 9400M 256 MB
Serial Number WQ9240Y466D
Software OS X 10.8.5 (12F45)
NVidia MCP79 AHCI - Hitachi HTS545016B9SA02:
Capacity: 160.04 GB (160,041,885,696 bytes)
Model: Hitachi HTS545016B9SA02
Full to the brim and overflowing
Running OSX 10.8.5
I am considering purchasing this machine:
MacBook Pro, 13-inch Item Price: $1,319 (This is the education pricing for this model, plus I would buy seriously discounted AppleCare and MS Office)
Available to ship: 1-3 business days
Hardware
2.9GHz Dual-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz
8GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM — 2x4GB
1TB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Backlit Keyboard (English) & User's Guide
Accessory Kit

Whygirl,
it reads as though an internal disk upgrade (and possibly a battery replacement) would suffice for you, and those two together would be far less expensive than a new MacBook Pro. Yes, you could install either a HDD or a SSD in place of its current internal HDD. You could look at the Hitachi Travelstar 7K1000 as an example of a suitable 1 TB HDD; SSDs are more expensive per unit of storage than a HDD, but might be worth the extra cost if your apps are disk-bound. (I put a Samsung 840 PRO into my 13-inch Mid 2010 model, and it’s been working well.) Note that Chrome might be responsible for the extra heat (and the extra heat is responsible for the increased volume from the fans kicking in); Chrome isn’t optimized for use on 64-bit versions of OS X, like 10.8.5.

Reason for my mid 2009 MBP coming with a 60Watt Power Adapter?

It was the year that the 60W charger came with the 15" MBP. My dog chewed it up, and I soldered it back together (which worked for some time) but now I have gone out and purchased another (An 85 watt) because my old one completely crapped out. I guess my main question is, It came with the 60W (the manual confirms this) ...did they think this was a poor decision? (heat issues, charge time length, ect...) or was there a hardware change that made the 85W necessary? the guy at the Apple Store assured me the 85W was the one for me... but now my curiosity has been peeked as to why this happened.

My guess is that the Apple store didn't have the 60W version in stock so they sold you the 85W version. It will work fine. The MBP will only take what it needs from the adapter which is probably much less that 60W.

What are my options for a data plan + upgrade?

So my old phone (Samsung Intensity) broke today, and I'm looking to upgrade to a smartphone. I would prefer an iPhone, but really it's not that big of a deal if I get a Droid. I'm eligible for an upgrade currently. What are my options for a smartphone and a data plan? I'm looking for what's the cheapest option as far as this goes. People tell me an iPhone is free with an upgrade, and that the cost is $20 a month, but I just want to be sure.

Unless you have an old calling plan, you should be able to add a tiered data plan for your new smartphone (i.e., $30 for 2 GB). If you switched to the Share Everything plan, your monthly cost would be $40 line access + at least $50 for 1 GB data (includes unlimited minutes/texts and mobile hotspot, although the hotspot data usage comes out of your data plan), plus, of course, taxes/fees (and insurance, if applicable).
You can check pricing for phones via your on-line MyVerizon account if you click on the Upgrade button. If you are mainly interested in free phones (keep in mind that there's a $30 upgrade fee), there's the Nokia Lumia 822, Spectrum 2, Droid Razr M, iPhone 4, Galaxy Stellar, Marauder, Rhyme, and the Lucid. Several of those are 3G phones.

4.6C to ERP6.0 Upgrade - what are the recommendations for Unicode and Java

Hi All,
Forgive such a basic question.
We are just beginning to look at our ERP6.0 upgrade and am unclear whether we should convert to unicode at the same time, and also what are the uses for the Java stack.
Unicode?
We are a single language Latin-1 site so don't need Unicode. However will it become mandatory eventually? Are we better, if we have the opportunity now, just to convert. Also I believe the Java stack is only Unicode. Does ASCII ABAP and Java Unicode complicate things?
Java?
Will we need it? We are proposing a technical upgrade from our 4.6c Javaless environment. Where does Java come in to play in ERP6.0? Doesn't it increase greatly the iSeries HW requirements? (I'm looking at a 2 way 550 at the moment)
Look forward to hearing your views.
Regards
Steve

Hi Stephen,
at the moment, in a latin-1 environment Unicode is for old customers not a requrirement. This might change in 5-10 years ...
Java: No problem at all with ASCII (in latin-1 environments)
=> there is no need for you, but you could go for it. We did several Unicode conversions already and these Latin-1 conversions are pretty easy and simple especially on iSeries, because of the special InPlace Unicode Conversion.
... but this can be done at any time ...
Regards
Volker Gueldenpfennig, consolut.gmbh
http://www.consolut.de - http://www.4soi.de - http://www.easymarketplace.de

HT2305 I want to upgrade IMovie, IPhoto, Garageband and ITunes. My MacBookAir is one year old. But what are the prices for updates?

My MacBookAir is one year. I want to upgrade IMovie, IPhoto, Garageband and ITues, But What are the prices for these upgrades. How do I get around?

Actually, if you are updating the free iLife apps (iPhoto, iMovie & GarageBand) that came with your new Mac, the updates are free. Only if you are upgrading to newer major paid versions would you be charged.
iTunes is always free, but is located in Apple Downloads, not the Mac App Store;
http://support.apple.com/downloads/

Replacement options for keys on mid-2009 MBP

i have a mid-2009 MBP that i am extremely unhappy with and which i /was/ going to just give to my mom but it acts so oddly that i am afraid she will get too confused and won't be able to use it.
/anyway/ i had this thing in to the genius bar and asked them to replace all the keys as there are a lot of these that are very wobbly and make typing sort of a challenge. the technician asked me to tell him which /specific/ keys were a problem - i didn't sit down to test this - and then proceeded to give me some kind of song and dance explaining the technical reasons why the keys would fail and he assured me that as long as there was not some failure with the mechanism under the keys that they would replace the keys for the life of the machine at no charge.
two questions:
1. i have written down the 23 keys that feel like they are hard to work with and i am wondering if it is unreasonable to expect them to just replace all of them now so i (or the person i give the machien to) won't have to deal with this periodically.
2. is it in fact the case that i should expect to get other keys fixed for free when they go bad?
3. is there some reason why the technician at the genius bar may not have wanted me to do another repair on this machine within the warranty period since i have had it in complaining about various issues very often and they finally found a battery and a logic board problem about three months before my warranty expiration? i mean, i have not trusted the advice i get which is a complete 180 degrees from when i was first on mac before i had to move to PC and i am wondering if there may be a reason why they did not want to simply go ahead and do the key replacement for me under warranty. it seems really sort of mean and cheap to turn me away on this at the 11th hour with some kind of verbal assurance when i've never been happy with the machine or the explanations on the problems with the machine anyway.
is there some kind of magic words to get them to just replace all the keys so i won't have this as an ADDED problem to my battery life, beachball hangs, sleep battery drain, etc, etc, etc?
THANKS

What Bob is saying is that according to the table there are different versions of Bootcamp which can be run on each Mac which load the various drivers for the specific versions on Windows.
Windows 8 is designed to run 64bit but it will run 32bit as well it just means you dont get all the benefits and can loose Disc & Ram, but the host mac needs a 64bit compatible processor and it needs to meet the spec for the version of Windows being run and you need the various drivers.
Often this level of support and development wont be provided on older machines as they knnow it will run into problems at some point.
That doesnt mean you cant or shouldnt go for it, as long as you accept it may not be a stright forward install
This thread should provide all the info you need as the user has done what you are looking to do:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4897066?tstart=0

I have a mid-2009 MBP and I've been using my BOSE Companion 20 with it for about half a year now. It was fine until recently, when i want to adjust the volume using the pod on the BOSE Companion 20, it will cause like a surge in volume, spiking it up

I have a mid-2009 MBP and I've been using my BOSE Companion 20 with it for about half a year now. It was fine until recently, when i want to adjust the volume using the pod on the BOSE Companion 20, it will cause like a surge in volume, spiking it up and down. It will not stablise itself! It's very fustrating. Anybody with the same issue?

I have the BOSE Companion 5 speakers and have had the same problem. I've searched everywhere and gotten nowhere. My speakers are way past their warranty, so calling Bose would probably get me no where either. Only thing I can think of is that the speakers overheat which causes the spikes in the volume. I've tried unplugging them for a few minutes and then plug them back on. The problem does go away, but after about 5 minutes, same problem.

Can I migrate from WCS 7.0 to PI 1.2. If so, what are the guidelines for migration?

Can I migrate from WCS 7.0 to PI 1.2. If so, what are the guidelines for migration? Do we have any Instructions/steps?

Migration from WCS 7.0 to PI 1.2 can be performed. If the customer wants to migrate data you need to first upgrade to NCS 1.1.1 You can download NCS 1.1.1 from Cisco.com if you have a valid service contract.
For the migration step involving NCS an evaluation license is sufficient. You can obtain an NCS evaluation license from http://www.cisco.com/go/license > Get Demo > Network Mgmt Products > Cisco Prime NCS Evaluation License.
Instructions for migrating data from WCS 7.0 to NCS 1.1.1 are available in NCS 1.1.1 Release Notes. Do not upgrade to NCS 1.1.2 as this release is not upgradeable to Prime Infrastructure 1.2. If you are ordering a Cisco Prime physical appliance (PRIME-NCS-APL-K9) be sure to select the NCS 1.1 image which you can later upgrade to Prime Infrastructure 1.2 after you have migrated your WCS data.
There is a post in the support forum which can be refered.
https://supportforums.cisco.com/docs/DOC-26972

Still on PS3? What are you waiting for?

Are you still playing PlayStation 3? Why haven't you moved to the new generation with PlayStation 4? What are you waiting for? A specific game? The right price? Morpheus?

i'm broke at the moment, but in all fairness, I've got plenty of stuff to keep me busy as it is on my PS3 (as well as my WiiU, Amiga, Spectrum, 3DS, PC and Atarti2600) so I have no real need to upgrade. Furthermore, I'm not sure where to go next gen yet. It's tooe arly days to make a sensible decisison. Morpheus is callling to me, but currently I am much more impressed with the XboxOne with all its functionality, external HDD support and codecs, than the rather barren and user-unfriendly (for me anyway) PS4. I am also very angry and unforgiving with Sony for all the content removal on both my PS3 and SmartTV (which has lost Facebook, Midnight Pulp, Sony Entertainment TV, Crackle, Viewster and a whole host of other apps they decided they didn't want to run anymore.) As well as loads of things on the TV that just dont work properly that they cant be bothered to fix, incluing something that casues Youtube to crash all the time. The loss of PSHome was the final straw for me with Sony. Contrary to what a lot of people like to think it was very busy, and for me it was quite important, due to health issues I am fairly housebound, and it was a very good way for me to socialize.I just don't trust Sony anymore to make something that won't be downgraded in the near future. If Morpheus is great then I might be tempted to PS4 in time, but with rumors starting to emerge that the XboXone might support the Oculus, Sony have even lost the VR edge. Just wait and see for now.

Theres are free upgrade for my mac on our apple store and i cant seem to download it, theres are free upgrade for my mac on our apple store and i cant seem to download it

theres are free upgrade for my mac on our apple store and i cant seem to download it, theres are free upgrade for my mac on our apple store and i cant seem to download it?

It'd be really helpful it you told us what the upgrade is, which Mac you currently have, and what OS you're currently using. And you only need to say it once.

I've read that Promise Pegasus2 series does not sell replacement parts. I'm buying the new MacPro but am concerned about spending $2K for storage that may break and cannot be fixed. What are others buying for storage for the new MacPro?

I've read that Promise Pegasus2 R6 thunderbolt 2 series does not sell replacement parts (no replacement parts for any of the Pegasus line). I'm buying the new MacPro but am concerned about spending $2K for storage (12tb version) that may break and cannot be fixed (am told that one must purchase a new unit if a part breaks). What are others buying for storage for the new MacPro? Thanks so much for your help.
Discussion about this issue at MacWorld.com: http://www.macworld.com/article/2082783/first-look-promises-pegasus2-r6-thunderb olt-2-raid-array.html

I've used the original Pegasus R6 units for a couple of years now and have been very pleased with them. On the two occasions I've had to call on their technical sujpport, I've found them readily available, knowledgeable, and very helpful. In one case it involved the reset of a unit after a power failure at an inopportune time; in the other case it was a question about upgrading disk drives to higher capacities (1 Gb gto 4 Gb). I was pleased to learn that their tech support people were in California and as good if not better than upper-tier AppleCare reps. The hardware itself has functioned flawlessly so far.

Where is the cheapest place to buy 8gb ram upgrade for my early 2009 iMac?

Where is the cheapest place to buy 8gb ram upgrade for my early 2009 iMac, I have bought before but current upgrade is causing mac to crash randomly!? Need to know a place I can buy Ram which is confirmed to work my my mac model, the current upgrade is working but Mac is very unstable.

I meant more reasonable priced than apple
That'll be almost anywhere else then!
Yes, if it is made by Crucial and confirmed as suitable for your model of mac you will be fine. You can also buy direct from Crucial:
http://www.crucial.com/eu/?cpe=pd_msn_uk
which is what I would do (did).

My ipod nano 6th gen fell out of my pockey and the screen cracked badly, is there any coverage for this under warranty? I just bought it a month ago. If not what are the options for getting it fixed

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Debbie:
deborahfromwindsor wrote:
he advises restarting by inserting the OSX disc and pressing down the C button to reboot from there then selecting disk utility, hard disk and repair.... Does he mean me to hold down the C key on the alpha keyboard or the ctrl key?
Should I just ask for my money back??? If it is a simple repair do I just literally push the disc in, push the power button and hold down the C button?
That's where I would begin, too, with
Repair Disk
Insert Installer disk and Restart, holding down the "C" key until grey Apple appears.
Go to Installer menu (Panther and earlier) or Utilities menu (Tiger) and launch Disk Utility.
Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in the left panel.
Select First Aid in the Main panel.
(Check S.M.A.R.TStatus of HDD at the bottom of right panel, and report if it saysanything but Verified)
Click Repair Disk on the bottom right.
If DU reports disk does not need repairs quit DU and restart.
If DU reports errors Repair again and again until DU reports disk is repaired.
If DU reports errors it cannot repair you will need touse autility like TechTool Pro,Drive Geniusor DiskWarrior
First we need to determine if the issue you are experiencing with the computer is software or hardware based. Once we have gotten things sorted out there should be time enough to make you decision about keeping or returning it.
cornelius

In Address Book, Lion, what are the checkmarks for when you Edit a Contact?

In Address Book for Lion, when you are in the Add/Edit a Contact window, what are the checkboxes for?

I am not seeing any checkboxes when I edit in Address Book in Lion, can you take a screen shot (Shift Command 4) of what you're seeing and post it?
BTW please fill out your profile (under Your Stuff above) so we know what machine and version of Lion you're using.

What are worthy upgrades for my mid-2009 MBP?

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