From: Alan Friedman <alan@greatarrow.com>
Date: July 10, 2019 9:54:50 AM MDT
To: "Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com" <Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] Bypassing Radeon chip on 2011 Macbook Pro?
Hi Tim,
I also had a 2011 MBP which went through 3 logic boards courtesy of Apple. The last time it failed, I found the board unavailable in the spare parts world and sadly put it to sleep. I removed the hard disk (which I had upgraded to a 1TB SSD) and put it in a USB 3.0 case so that I can access the old data on the rare occasions that I need it.
I have had no problem running AstroIIDC on Mojave, though I am aware that the next version of the OS will not support Quicktime. For this reason, I went out last month and purchased the latest version MacBook Pro 13” with Touch Bar. It is running 10.14.5, as is my Mac mini in the office. This OS will run AstroIIDC just fine. I have been capturing video using a Thunderbolt to Firewire 800 adapter on my 2014 MBP just fine. With the new laptop, I need a second adapter to go from Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 which allows connection of the old adapter. A few more dongles than I would like optimally, but it runs well. I no longer use the internal SSDs for capture - nor do I use them for working files. I have a couple of 2TB SSD external drives that are tiny and connect via Thunderbolt 3. The transfer speed is very brisk and capture directly to the external drives works just fine.
If you have the Golden Key to AstroIIDC I would encourage purchase of a new MBP before they begin shipping with the next iteration of the MacOS. And be sure to turn off auto updates on the operating system. This should give several years of happy astro-imaging, during which time we will work to convince Milton to come out of retirement and update our beloved Astro IIDC.
Cheers!
Alan
Alan Friedman
On Jul 10, 2019, at 10:57 AM, tjp314@pacbell.net [Astro_IIDC] <Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
Has anybody tried this: https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2017/fixing-2011-macbook-pro-booting-grey-screen-amd-radeon-video-glitch
I loved my 2011 Macbook because it ran so many things I most often use as well as my touchbar mac, plus it has a firewire 800 port that ran all my Pt Grey cameras and Astro IIDC well. But it has the "dreaded logic board failure".
It might actually run fine for a while, because it's been sitting in a drawer for about a year or two now. But it had gotten to the point where it would crash repeatedly on startup until it warmed up, would then run for a while (sometimes for days on end), then would start crashing while warm.
If this fix works, though, I might be able to use it again? I have an OWC Doc for the touchbar mac that has a firewire 800 port, but it doesn't seem to provide enough power to run the cameras. And now Mojave won't run Astro IIDC anyway.
-Tim.