Mac OS - High Sierra

[Dave2002]

Has this solved the endless problems with the cr*p design of the "Magsafe" adaptor?
On my main machine i'm on the 4th one (and have cracked open others to solder on new cables)

I don’t recognise this problem. Is your problem due to bad connections inside the machine, or to dodgy cables? I thought the MagSafe concept was great, and even if the cable does get damaged, that’s better than having the whole machine trashed through sudden and rapid contact with a concrete floor.

However I would warn against running a vacuum cleaner over the MagSafe cables - they may not survive (ours did -just ...) and like other Apple products are ridiculously expensive to replace because it’s not only cable which has to be replaced, but the PSU it’s connected to as well.

[MrGongGong]

I don’t recognise this problem. Is your problem due to bad connections inside the machine, or to dodgy cables? I thought the MagSafe concept was great, and even if the cable does get damaged, that’s better than having the whole machine trashed through sudden and rapid contact with a concrete floor.

However I would warn against running a vacuum cleaner over the MagSafe cables - they may not survive (ours did -just ...) and like other Apple products are ridiculously expensive to replace because it’s not only cable which has to be replaced, but the PSU it’s connected to as well.

The problem is where the cable comes out of the transformer
these overheat, melt and fall apart
utter utter shite and even though the Magnetic connection is a great idea and
the build quality of the transformer is fine but the cable falls apart IF you have to move about with the machine which is the whole point of having a laptop in the first place

[Richard Barrett]

The problem is where the cable comes out of the transformer

That problem has been dealt with now since the charging cable has a USB-C plug at either end; but the abandonment of the magnetic connection is obviously a backward step I think.

[MrGongGong]

That problem has been dealt with now since the charging cable has a USB-C plug at either end; but the abandonment of the magnetic connection is obviously a backward step I think.

aaagh
The magnetic connection is brilliant and has saved many on stage accidents
shame they have abandoned that
Will have to get soldering, it wouldn't be very difficult to make a lead with an inline magnetic connection.

[Dave2002]

The problem is where the cable comes out of the transformer
these overheat, melt and fall apart
utter utter shite and even though the Magnetic connection is a great idea and
the build quality of the transformer is fine but the cable falls apart IF you have to move about with the machine which is the whole point of having a laptop in the first place

I suppose it depends how much moving about you do, both between different locations, and also "in situ" in your working location.

I do think the magnetic connection is great - and my MBP would probably have been trashed by now if we hadn't got that - also the Air in our house. I feel very sad that Apple have given up on one of their much better innovations - totally retro step.

Re the other connections - yes - they are a pain - but as long as one doesn't actually mangle up the end of the cable usually OK. Surely most cables should be plug in at each end - like USB cables - or does that pose even bigger problems than having one end permanently (??) fastened at the PSU end?

Re the point of laptops - currently mine is in for a battery replacement - and for much of last year I had to take the PSU with me - up to the point where it got silly. You may be doing sessions longer than I was, but I found I could generally get a morning's work (around 3 hours) out of a full battery charge, and with so many places now providing power points - even on trains - it's not always so hard to top up the battery - though with the slight added inconvenience of having to take the PSU on the road (or on the trip).

I am really looking forward to having it returned, hopefully with comparable performance to what it used to have.

[MrGongGong]

My "working location" varies massively
from .. in a rucksack closed (but working) running all the sound for a travelling performance in a public park with an audience wearing wireless headphones (Yesterday)
to
connceted to a multi-channel speaker system in a University concert hall (Today)
to
on the train , frantically trying to edit the audio for a website (Tomorrow)

So no pattern
though the battery life is more or less ok as long as i'm not bus-powering too many other things

YES, the cables should have a plug at each end, so I think i'm going to hack into an old transformer and make a "bomb proof" one

[Dave2002]

YES, the cables should have a plug at each end, so I think i'm going to hack into an old transformer and make a "bomb proof" one

I suppose if you have the requirements you have, and maybe you already have a few previously "trashed" cable + PSU combos, you could make your own connection - if you can identify the wires inside the cable and coming out of the PSU box to connect up. I'm not sure what would be best - perhaps a small circuit board for soldering connections inside a small box - Maplin style maybe. Wouldn't necessarily be unpluggable, but you could make it so that if something came adrift it would be a relatively simple job to put it back, rather than having to chuck the PSU part away yet again and fork out another £50+. There might be suitably robust plugs and sockets which could do - though - I just don't know.

One of my friends seems to have had to pay out for new PSUs for these - I've avoided that so far, though we may have lost a PSU for iPads (it might still be lurking somewhere round here, though ...) on a trip a year or so back, so I did bite the bullet and get a new one.

Apple prices for these things - particularly the cables, are unnecessarily high IMO. (that's putting it politely ...)

Will have to get soldering, it wouldn't be very difficult to make a lead with an inline magnetic connection.

msg 34

Great if you can figure that out.

[Richard Barrett]

The USB-C power connection does pull out fairly easily, so I don't think tripping over the cable would send the laptop flying off the table, as happened with my G3 Powerbook back in 1997 (and the power input was soldered directly to the motherboard so that had to be replaced too). I haven't tested that however. At least the other end isn't going to go wrong... but actually I never had any trouble with the old ones, on account of always making a loop in the cable before wrapping it around the little hooks that open out at the sides of the unit.

[MrGongGong]

I suppose if you have the requirements you have, and maybe you already have a few previously "trashed" cable + PSU combos, you could make your own connection - if you can identify the wires inside the cable and coming out of the PSU box to connect up. I'm not sure what would be best - perhaps a small circuit board for soldering connections inside a small box - Maplin style maybe. Wouldn't necessarily be unpluggable, but you could make it so that if something came adrift it would be a relatively simple job to put it back, rather than having to chuck the PSU part away yet again and fork out another £50+. There might be suitably robust plugs and sockets which could do - though - I just don't know.

One of my friends seems to have had to pay out for new PSUs for these - I've avoided that so far, though we may have lost a PSU for iPads (it might still be lurking somewhere round here, though ...) on a trip a year or so back, so I did bite the bullet and get a new one.

Apple prices for these things - particularly the cables, are unnecessarily high IMO. (that's putting it politely ...)

msg 34

Great if you can figure that out.

I've repaired several of these
and it's pretty simple once you have broken into the case
Lot's of online guides

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-open-and-replace-the-MagSafe-cord-on-an-App/

You do need a bit of brute force to open it up but once you have done that it's simple
and a replacement magsafe connector cable costs about £5.00

[Dave2002]

And here are the cables - I didn’t know this was possible - http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/magsafe-cord

Seem cheap enough.

Thanks.

[Nick Armstrong]

I've just gone ahead and installed because I find that sooner or later you have no real choice, anyway. My MacBook Pro seems to be running Fitter, Happier; Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.

Same here - belatedly installed High Sierra last week (when I realised how many updates I wasn't able to instal on the old 10.8 Mountain Lion OS I'd been chugging along with)... My mid-2010 MacBook Pro (with its upgraded Solid State Drive) seems to be lapping it up.

Hope I haven't tempted fate....

[Dave2002]

Same here - belatedly installed High Sierra last week (when I realised how many updates I wasn't able to instal on the old 10.8 Mountain Lion OS I'd been chugging along with)... My mid-2010 MacBook Pro (with its upgraded Solid State Drive) seems to be lapping it up.

Hope I haven't tempted fate....

I still have machines running earlier versions of Mac OS X/macos. Indeed it is getting harder to keep them working with some software, though I think El Capitan is still not too bad.

My MBP has been on HS for a while now. One thing which doesn't work now is the use of an iPad Pro as a second screen using the Duet app. That's probably because the app hasn't been updated - I've reported it to the developers, but when I last looked that hadn't been fixed.

Other issues relate to the use of Apple's iCloud which I try not to use. Screenshots might get moved to iCloud which you might not mind. HS seems to treat screenshots as photos, and macos appears to assume that any photo has to be uploaded if iCloud is active. It is possible to turn this off, but the upload might (probably will) happen before it's switched off. If the screenshot happens to contain confidential/private data which you'd had up on the screen you might be concerned. HS will I think migrate anything on the desktop to iCloud if you let it - which personally I think is a poor set up.

Installing software from developers not authorised by Apple seems easier than in earlier versions, and specific to the software being dowloaded or installed (Systems Preferences -> Security & Privacy) rather than generic.

[richardfinegold]

My mother just turned 90. We are having a family reunion in Detroit this weekend to celebrate. She is using a Mac Mini that I had bought in 2011 for my practice and then gave to her when I sold it. It ran fine until a few weeks ago and she is greatly distressed. She spends a lot of time on the Computer and I think it’s been great for her mind. Talking with her about Computer issues is very frustrating (and not helped by her deafness) because she doesn’t know the remotest bit of terminology and in the past I can usually help when I sit at her computer and although I’m no techie it’s been something simple in the past, but this time I think she tried to load the new OS and then for some reason tried to add a firewall.
She can well afford a new Computer and I’m trying to convince her to buy one, mainly so that she can get the Apple Care support policy and then drive the Apple Techies crazy instead of me. I’ve told her the Mac Mini probably doesn’t have the processing power to run the newer OS.
In reality if I spent the time removing the firewall and the new OS it might fix her issue but that wasn’t how I had envisioned spending the weekend. I’m wondering if what I told her is in fact true, that the Mini of that vintage is to scrawny
for later generation OS.

[Bergonzi]

I have a Mac mini running H Sierra and it's fine (2012 vintage). I have music editing and processing and no problems.

[richardfinegold]

I have a Mac mini running H Sierra and it's fine (2012 vintage). I have music editing and processing and no problems.

Not the answer that I wanted....