Mac OS - High Sierra

[Dave2002]

Richard

The 2011 models might be OK, or they could be challenged. How much memory does yours have? 4 Gbyte, 8Gbyte or more. Does it have USB 2 or USB 3 ports. Memory can be upgraded to useful effect if that's a limiting factor. What processor does it have? That can be a definite limiting factor. If it's only got USB 2 interfaces, then that can be a major limitation and an indication of the overall level of performance possible.

Of course it's possible that the intended use is such that even a relatively slow system will be good enough - emall, some web browsing, word processing, spread sheets, some simple graphics packages.

Things which don't work well on slower systems from around 2011 include: photo editing, video editing, 3D modelling, other compute intensive jobs. Otherwise users might find things a bit slow, but not impossible to manage.

My hunch is that if it has USB 3 capability it should be possible to get it working quite well, but if it's only USB 2 then it may always be slow and not really worth putting a lot of effort in.

Looking at your post 43 again however, it does sound as though it was working fine for your mother. untll "something" happened. If there's a hardware failure then you could check that out with diagnostic tests. A Mac mini of that vintage in working order should be OK for some applications, such as running a music server for example. It probably could be upgraded to HS, but would need the hardware checks etc. first.

[richardfinegold]

Actually Part of me wants to convince mom that she needs a new computer, complete with Apple Care, so that she can bug Apple support and leave me alone. The other part of me wants to Che k out how to fix this. For her limited useage , I suspect that the Mini still has some life in it

[Dave2002]

I rather figured that out.

New ones should "just work", and hopefully there wouldn't even be a great need to bug Apple support for quite some time. The world is probably different where you are. There was a time here when older kit could be passed off to younger people who'd get things fixed and use it, but now the younger people want to go straight for new/best stuff. You possibly don't want it back yourself to use/fiddle with unless you've got nothing better to do. One other factor you might have is whether Apple support is simply phone support, and support by remote/mail order, or whether you have an accessible Apple Store nearby. Here there is an Apple Store which it is feasible to get to in a modest amount of time, so some more difficult problems can be fixed (e.g. the new battery in my MBP - which only took a couple of visits) without having to keep sending the kit backwards and forwards to a repair outfilt. A new machine should give you a few years without problems - hopefully. Sadly the old one might go to landfill, or clutter up someone's loft space for a while - though I'd hope it could be made to work and put to some useful purpose.

[Anastasius]

Looks like you're out of luck, Richard

https://support.apple.com/kb/SP765?locale=en_GB

[richardfinegold]

I am in Detroit now, saw her yesterday uninstalled her firewall and now all is well, she isn’t blocking the sites that she needed to access. I haven’t had the chance to reinstall it, but from my limited reading does she need one? Her router is supposed to have some kind of firewall and she’s never been hacked .

[Anastasius]

I am in Detroit now, saw her yesterday uninstalled her firewall and now all is well, she isn’t blocking the sites that she needed to access. I haven’t had the chance to reinstall it, but from my limited reading does she need one? Her router is supposed to have some kind of firewall and she’s never been hacked .

No she most definitely does not. Apple's OS has a built-in firewall already. Unless it was that which she turned on ? Whether your router has one will depend on the router but bear in mind that there are 'firewalls' and there are 'firewalls'.