2007 A1226 MacBook Pro poor performance help

Hi, I'm new to Mac Forums and this is my first post. I'd like to ask about my 2007 MacBook Pro. I bought it in 2012 as a used machine and it was slower than my 2009 iMac. I expected this as the iMac has better specs.

However, I soon realised the MacBook seemed to get very hot with what I would consider to be non-strenuous tasks including using iTunes, Word and surfing the interweb. I'd regularly get the beachball rearing it's head frequently and along with that, freezing of the program I was using. The bottom of the MacBook gets hot enough for me to be unable to keep my hand under it for more than a few moments.

The specs are as follows:
15" MacBook Pro (I believe mid to late 2007)
2.2 intel processor
1gb ram
Snow Leopard
Only runs with charger attached due to FUBAR battery

I now have a new retina MacBook Pro so I'd like to know if it is worth trying to resolve the speed and overheating issues that my old Pro is suffering with so that my children can use it without being roasted or should I just cut my losses and not bother because it would be uneconomical to fix?

Any info would be helpful,

Many thanks.

For me it depends upon what is causing the problem. Here are a few things I would try if you haven't already:

1. Create a new user account on the machine and run from that account for a while and see if the problem continues. Don't add anything to the login items but otherwise go about your normal routine. If the problem goes away it suggests that some piece of software is causing the problem.

2. If you run for a while with Activity Monitor open what seems to be taking up the most resources when the problem occurs?

Slydude said:

For me it depends upon what is causing the problem. Here are a few things I would try if you haven't already:

1. Create a new user account on the machine and run from that account for a while and see if the problem continues. Don't add anything to the login items but otherwise go about your normal routine. If the problem goes away it suggests that some piece of software is causing the problem.

2. If you run for a while with Activity Monitor open what seems to be taking up the most resources when the problem occurs?

Click to expand...

Hi Slydude, I forgot to mention that I have already done a full re-install twice. The only extra software added to Snow Leopard was Microsoft Office 2004 student edition (I've had it from the days of my ibookG4). Everything else already came on the install disk for OS X.

I'll run the activity monitor and see how that goes, I do remember trying that previously and whatever program was running seemed to make the cpu go into the red quite frequently.

ferrarr said:

For me, it's not economical to fix.

Click to expand...

Cheers, this is what I am thinking. I may just put it on the Bay as is and list it as not working.

It is eight years old. None of us is as good as we were eight years ago. And today with 1GB of memory, wonder it runs at all.