Bought a used MacBook Pro

[jacoballen22]

Congrats on your purchase. I too want to add my 2¢ worth about upgrading RAM. I tried Mavericks on my 2012 MacBook Pro with 4 GB RAM and the speed was glacial. I upgraded to 8 GB and the speed was almost normal. Then I splurged and bought a SSD and now the machine is lightening fast. Recently, I really splurged and bought a 2013 27" iMac with a 3.5 GHz i7 & a 3 T Fusion Drive but still immediately upgraded the RAM to 24 GB. The speed of this machine is incredible. I just hope it lasts as long as my last iMac which is still running and is 9 years old. I am a fan of Crucial memory and bought my 16 GB upgrade for $167.99. Hey, I am not an employee of Crucial, but I have bought dozens of RAM upgrades from them in my old job and never had a failure. Crucial memory is actually Micron memory.

So I would be buying the DDR3 x2 8GB RAM? I don't want to purchase the wrong one.

PS What's normal speed? you're talking to a PC guy here, who uses a Nexus 5 for a phone. I don't know what normal speed is lol

 

[jacoballen22]

This is the the RAM I was thinking about getting but I don't know if it's the correct one http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/memory/ct2k8g3s160bm

 

[JimInSD]

So I would be buying the DDR3 x2 8GB RAM? I don't want to purchase the wrong one.

PS What's normal speed? you're talking to a PC guy here, who uses a Nexus 5 for a phone. I don't know what normal speed is lol

When I am not sure which DIMM to buy, I use their product guide. If you know the specs of your machine, choose Crucial Advisor tool. If you are unsure about choosing, use their Crucial System Scanner. A small program will be downloaded to your machine, scan its specs and go back to the Crucial website with suggestions on upgrading. It works well and it's not invasive.

I guess "normal" speed is relative, lol. When I first upgraded to Mavericks, the MacBook Pro was slower than Snow Leopard on my old 2006 32-bit iMac. After the RAM upgrade, the speed felt equivalent to my old iMac. After the SSD installation, it seemed the computer speed more than doubled. I would get no delays and no spinning beach balls.

 

[JimInSD]

Ok, I'm not gonna touch this, lol

This is the the RAM I was thinking about getting but I don't know if it's the correct one http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/memory/ct2k8g3s160bm

I really don't know your machine so use one of their advisory tools to be sure.

 

[jacoballen22]

​

I really don't know your machine so use one of their advisory tools to be sure.

Pretty sure I just found it CT3373653 - 8GB DDR3 PC3-12800 Unbuffered NON-ECC 1.35V 1024Meg x 64
$82.99

 

[Rod]

this is for a friend whose husband bought a new Mac Book Pro recently and then he died. She has no wway to access his data. do I assume she needs same advice ...just start over ?

Carol, you can reset and reinstall the OS that will enable you to set a new admin password but you will lose all the contents. So unless you can guess his password I'm afraid you really have no other option.
People are just starting to put this info in their wills. Electronic property is set to become a big issue. Facebook accounts, photos, music and data should be transferable.

 

[chas_m]

This is incorrect. You can, in fact, reset the password on a Mac without knowing the old one, but it'll require either having the disks that came with the machine (if any did) or the recovery partition.

 

[josam3]

I want to update to OS Maverick, however I don't have this person's Password who originally purchased the computer. Any way around that?

Same happened to me and I made an appointment at the local Apple Genius Bar. I explained the situation to them and they set it up with my Apple ID. All 3rd party apps remained intact.

Good luck

 

[Rod]

This is incorrect. You can, in fact, reset the password on a Mac without knowing the old one, but it'll require either having the disks that came with the machine (if any did) or the recovery partition.

Chas, I was under the impression that it was saving the data that was the issue. I may have misinterpreted that but I don't know a way to login without the admin password. Can it be changed without losing the contents via the recovery partition. I remember it could be done with original discs but since Lion I thought that changed.

 

[chas_m]

You can still do the reset password operation using the recovery partition, though you may need to know the Apple ID/itunes login for the owner, I'm not sure. Happily, I haven't had to do it in many a year!

Here's the instructions: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5028206

 

[Arkyjohn84]

Old Mac Pro

Hi:
If you also got his original disk, it is easy to change his password to your own. Just start up with it and let it run untill you see the Disk Utility, then use it to change it. Other disk might work if they are not computer unoque. Good luck.
john

 

[harryb2448]

As this is a 2012 model it surely never came with any discs as the last DVD with system software was OS X.6 Snow Leopard back in 2010/11. Probably came with Lion or Mountain Lion and since Lion operating systems are downloads from Apple via the Apple ID.