Mac Book

AdamZ

AdamZ

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Adam Zucker
Hey Mac geeks! Question. My daughter has a Macbook that she got about 4 years ago. 100 % of her school work is done on it and just about everythng else that a 16 year old will do on a computer, FB, Pandora etc. last Spring it started acting funky, getting very slow and freezing up and exhibiting the spinning pin wheel of death.

So I took it to the Apple Store and they sold me an upgrade to snow leopard and sprinkled some magic dust over it or something and it helped ever so slightly but not much. They basically said eh its getting old.

I live in fear of the day that she finishes a school project and the thing gives up the ghost ( that won't be pretty) She does back everything up but still.

She stores all of her work from 7th-10th grade on it and she just started 11th. I can move that stuff to another drive but its mostly papers and I can't see it taking up that much room to slow the thing down that much.

She wants to go off to college in two years with a Mac Laptop that will last her through college and is fearful that if we get a new one now it will give her another 4 years and kick the bucket after two years of college, so I offered to get her a PC laptop to cover the gap ( because the macs are so darn expensive) and get a new mac when she goes to college. She's not thrilled about that idea and we were wondering if Like a PC can you just buy a new Hard Drive for a mac and pop it in and transfer everything over?
 
Some Mac laptops can be opened up and you can upgrade the RAM and HD pretty easily. Others, however, are effectively sealed.

Assuming no hardware problems, it's often the case that the symptoms you describe arise from too little memory and/or too much accumulated cruft on the system. A memory upgrade and a clean OS install will usually cure what ails you. Run Activity Monitor religiously and keep an eye on the memory usage.

It's not a bad practice to get a new HD periodically, do a clean install of the OS, and then migrate your data over to it.

I have a MacBook Pro that I've had since 2009. I've upgraded it to 8G and a 120G SSD and OS 10.8. No plans of retiring it, unless I end up giving it to my folks or something.
 
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My daughter has a MacBook Pro for college - so far, after 3 years, no complaints from her. I think she's upgraded the OS once, but I'm not sure.

I don't know the performance differences between the Macbook and the Pro version.

I think she also has an external drive (some Apple product) for backups - pretty sure that can also be used as a way to xfer from one Mac to another.
 
Yes, you can. Buy her an SSD and it should get her through. I'd suggest an OCZ Vertex 4 with sufficient capacity.
 
AdamZ said:
Hey Mac geeks! Question. My daughter has a Macbook that she got about 4 years ago. 100 % of her school work is done on it and just about everythng else that a 16 year old will do on a computer, FB, Pandora etc. last Spring it started acting funky, getting very slow and freezing up and exhibiting the spinning pin wheel of death.
Click to expand...

This could be the symptoms of a dorked up hard drive, or perhaps even not having enough RAM.

AdamZ said:
So I took it to the Apple Store and they sold me an upgrade to snow leopard and sprinkled some magic dust over it or something and it helped ever so slightly but not much. They basically said eh its getting old.
Click to expand...

Grrr. BS.

We gots to know what model Macbook it is before we can give advice. Then we can point you to RAM and hard drive updates. Most of them still easily replaceable.

Can you please pick it out of this lineup?

http://support.apple.com/specs/#portablecomputers

You can also go here, and enter in the serial number of the unit, and Apple's site will tell you what it is:

https://selfsolve.apple.com
 
jason said:
Yes, you can. Buy her an SSD and it should get her through. I'd suggest an OCZ Vertex 4 with sufficient capacity.
Click to expand...
+1 on an SSD. I've heard stories of amazing zip given to the older white Macbooks by installing one of these.
 
Delete the external browsers. Reboot clean. Run a malware program before you reboot and reinstall chrome or Firefox

Also, after a couple of days if she is using Firefox it just kills memory - it drains memory like an open drain. You need to shut it down. And it I hogging so much ram that it takes forever to shut on. I liked Firefox but ever since version 10 it's just been so leaky on memory that I ind myself uing chrome and safari but now I will not see Safari upgrades on my leopard machines I cannot use safari there.
 
Probably too much stuff in memory, that can slow Macs down. Go to our local Microcenter and buy an external hard drive, they're cheap. Back up EVERYTHING. Performa clean system installation on the computer. With Macs that part is really easy. Reinstall your software, and then have her put stuff back on she needs. Not everything. That will likely solve your problem for some time to come.

Both my Mac laptops are far older and work far better, though the switch on the pad on one has bitten the dust. Might break down and get it fixed.
 
When it slows down, open Activity Monitor and see what it is.

Also if she's in the habit of leaving lots of things running instead of truly closing them, build the habit of Apple-Q to Quit.

Typically Mac slowdowns are:

- Things running you didn't know we're running. Application Monitor. Then truly Quit things you're not using, don't just click the X, that just closes the Window. And scrub the Startup items in "Users" for her user in the System tools. Make sure it's all necessary. Look carefully at items running in the upper toolbar. Really needed? Plugins for browsers? Really using them?

- Failing hard drive. (They can also fragment a bit, but fragmentation isn't nearly the problem it once was with modern hard disk firmware managing that.) Replace it. Upgrade while you're in there.

- Needs more RAM or more CPU for newer versions of the same old bloatware. Modern software never gets smaller or more efficient.

Macs also suffer from an interesting side effect of full drives. They spend a lot of time re-arranging stuff when the drive is more than 90% full. Delete unnecessary junk.

Start with the easy stuff. Work toward harder...

- Look for things set to start at startup and if not needed all the time, uninstall or ditch them.

- Put more RAM in it. Especially if she works with lots of little files or really big ones.

- Check SMART status of hard disk in Hardware "About This Mac". Make sure it's not reporting errors or an imminent failure.

- Failing or not, a faster disk is always good. SSD is stellar but spendy in large sizes. If she's not storing the Library of Congress on it, SSD is nice. What you're looking for is faster rotational speeds in RPM on spinning platter drives and raw access speeds on SSDs. Downside is often heat and battery life, however. Also avoid "green" drives unless you're going for battery life. They shut off constantly and have to be woken up and slow everything when they do that.

I split the difference on my MBP. I bought a very inexpensive Seagate Momentus XT 750GB drive. It has a large flash cache that performs similarly to an SSD and firmware that controls a bog-standard 7200 RPM spinning platter behind that in one unit. The firmware keeps heavily accessed files in the flash. Boots are screaming fast, file access is about average for a 7200 RPM drive which is better than the 5200 RPM drive originally in it. STAY AWAY from the 500 GB version of this drive. It has serious firmware issues. Seagate fixed it permanently in the 750 GB version.

Replacing Mac drives is cake. Numerous methods.

Backing up the full drive onto another works but isn't recommended if hardware is changing. Can have odd problems. It does work though. Recommend Carbon Copy Cloner.

Backup to something Apple-style is pretty good. A full Time Machine backup to any disk can be used during their standard install program to move a system. Old hard drive removed and put in a USB external case is easiest. New hard drive in the system.

Full install to new clean drive and then moving Applications and data yourself is cleanest. Mac doesn't really have a 'registry' so just copying Applications from the Applications folder on an old disk in a USB external case into Applications on a newly installed drive works for almost everything.

Common problems are that some programs do keep settings and keys for licensing in "plist" files that either have to also be moved (Google is your friend for specific Applications - MS Office is an offender here, as is Parallels, both need full reinstalls if not cloning the original disk) or you set your settings and things again.

If she's a heavy user of the Apple Keychain for passwords and what-not, the Apple installer can bring those over or a tool called Migration Assistant available on every Mac.

I did something else to mine when I upgraded. I bought a tray that goes inside and replaces the optical drive with a spot for a second hard drive and moved the old drive into that spot. Reinstall was easy. Copy stuff from old drive to new after reinstall, wait a couple of days to make sure I got everything and it was stable, format second drive for more space. Optical drive went into an external USB case for the rare times that I need an optical drive. This kills Apple's DVD playback from it, but VLC played DVDs from an external drive fine on a Mac. Plus it's in a drawer now and I don't watch DVDs on the MBP anyway.

The Mac can boot from external drives or the one on the internal optical bay's serial IDE chain by holding down the Option key at power up, so I could always go back to the old drive and boot it if the new one wasn't behaving well.

Someone mentioned OCZ SSDs. They're alright but cheap and airplane co-owner runs a PC repair and sales biz. He's stopped selling them due to far too many returns and failures under warranty. He moved to Kensington I believe.

Taking apart a Mac is a bit fiddly. I recommend looking through the well-photographed and documented projects at ifixit.com to see if you feel up to it. They have RAM and hard disk replacement step-by-step instructions and cover all models of MBP.

Definitely need some tiny quality screwdrivers and patience with small connectors.

Someone else mentioned the model number. Go to Apple logo top left, drop the menu, click "About this Mac" and send the name it gives you there. Better is the model number in the details.

And...

If that machine is old enough it won't run Lion, it's time to consider ditching it if she's going to need a machine for a few more years.

I could swap the hard drive in about 15 minutes on any MBP plus copy time for the data and Apps. Most folks can do it in an evening if they don't break something. The swap plus adding the internal tray took about 45 minutes plus install/copy time.

Any questions, ask...
 
Kool Aid powder... That's the Magic Dust the 'Geniuses' at the Apple Store use. Obviously this wasn't potent enough to just sprinkle it on, you need some serious magic. First grab 3 packets of unsweetened mix, add them into the contents of as many Pixie Stix as the computer has ports and openings. Then while the rest of the family chants "Hari Apple, Apple Apple, Apple Krishna" she needs to blow the contents of the Pixie Stixs into all the ports and then slam the lid down while proclaiming as loud as she can, "Let the Devil spirits come out...HEAL!" Follow this with a baptism into a casserole dish filled with mixed Kool Aid and then have the entire family drink the Kool Aid.

If this doesn't work, you'll probably need an exorcism which involves the spraying of a lot of chicken blood and some burnt offerings.
 
Henning said:
Kool Aid powder... That's the Magic Dust the 'Geniuses' at the Apple Store use. Obviously this wasn't potent enough to just sprinkle it on, you need some serious magic. First grab 3 packets of unsweetened mix, add them into the contents of as many Pixie Stix as the computer has ports and openings. Then while the rest of the family chants "Hari Apple, Apple Apple, Apple Krishna" she needs to blow the contents of the Pixie Stixs into all the ports and then slam the lid down while proclaiming as loud as she can, "Let the Devil spirits come out...HEAL!" Follow this with a baptism into a casserole dish filled with mixed Kool Aid and then have the entire family drink the Kool Aid.

If this doesn't work, you'll probably need an exorcism which involves the spraying of a lot of chicken blood and some burnt offerings.
Click to expand...
:needpics:

:rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
Just a comment here, even brand new hard drives can fail. Also while Macs are a lot less likely to get a virus, it could happen. Or she might accidentally delete an important paper... or the laptop could get stolen.. or a myriad of other things.

Backups are a must if you have anything on a computer you can't afford to lose. For a student I'd be partial to an automatic online backup solution like Carbonite. You can get a USB stick/hard drive and do it that way too but most people never remember to do that regularly.

For a mac, you can use Apple's time machine which will do it automatically if it's on your LAN. Of course, being an Apple product it costs an arm and a leg.
 
cowman said:
Just a comment here, even brand new hard drives can fail. Also while Macs are a lot less likely to get a virus, it could happen. Or she might accidentally delete an important paper... or the laptop could get stolen.. or a myriad of other things.

Backups are a must if you have anything on a computer you can't afford to lose. For a student I'd be partial to an automatic online backup solution like Carbonite. You can get a USB stick/hard drive and do it that way too but most people never remember to do that regularly.

For a mac, you can use Apple's time machine which will do it automatically if it's on your LAN. Of course, being an Apple product it costs an arm and a leg.
Click to expand...

Or you just plug in any commodity USB hard drive and back it up with the same Time Machine (I think that you mean Time Capsule).
 
rpadula said:
This could be the symptoms of a dorked up hard drive, or perhaps even not having enough RAM.



Grrr. BS.

We gots to know what model Macbook it is before we can give advice. Then we can point you to RAM and hard drive updates. Most of them still easily replaceable.

Can you please pick it out of this lineup?

http://support.apple.com/specs/#portablecomputers

You can also go here, and enter in the serial number of the unit, and Apple's site will tell you what it is:

https://selfsolve.apple.com
Click to expand...

Ok it says its a late 2008 13 inch macbook.

Opened Activity Monitor
Activity monitor shows the following:
System Memory ( numbers are dynamic)
Free 9.4MB
Wired 256.6
Active 506
Inactive 249.4
Used 1011.1MB

( The pie chart says 1.00GB

Disc Usage shows the following:
Space Utilized 33.76 GB
Space Free85.93 GB

Not sure if that tells you anything.

And she does use Time Machine.
 
cowman said:
AdamZ said:
I live in fear of the day that she finishes a school project and the thing gives up the ghost ( that won't be pretty) She does back everything up but still.
Click to expand...
Just a comment here, even brand new hard drives can fail. Also while Macs are a lot less likely to get a virus, it could happen. Or she might accidentally delete an important paper... or the laptop could get stolen.. or a myriad of other things.

Backups are a must if you have anything on a computer you can't afford to lose. For a student I'd be partial to an automatic online backup solution like Carbonite. You can get a USB stick/hard drive and do it that way too but most people never remember to do that regularly.

For a mac, you can use Apple's time machine which will do it automatically if it's on your LAN. Of course, being an Apple product it costs an arm and a leg.
Click to expand...
She does...
 
AdamZ said:
Ok it says its a late 2008 13 inch macbook.

Opened Activity Monitor
Activity monitor shows the following:
System Memory ( numbers are dynamic)
Free 9.4MB
Wired 256.6
Active 506
Inactive 249.4
Used 1011.1MB

( The pie chart says 1.00GB

Disc Usage shows the following:
Space Utilized 33.76 GB
Space Free85.93 GB

Not sure if that tells you anything.

And she does use Time Machine.
Click to expand...

It means that you need to add memory and that she's not using much hard drive space. An upgrade to an SSD should be affordable and easy and will make a big difference in getting you through.

It's upgradeable to 4GB of memory and it only has one installed.

Can you give me the Model ID number via this method? I think it's a MacBook5,1.

http://eshop.macsales.com/Customized_Pages/nwt_battery/imgs/model_id_screen.gif

If you give me that I'll send you what I would put in it.
 
cowman said:
Just a comment here, even brand new hard drives can fail. Also while Macs are a lot less likely to get a virus, it could happen. Or she might accidentally delete an important paper... or the laptop could get stolen.. or a myriad of other things.
Click to expand...

Times have changed. Macs are vulnerable to all the stupidity coming out of Oracle with holes in Java. It's a significant threat now.

Apple has responded by disabling the Java engine in their browser by default UNLESS you use it, and then it asks you if it's ok to do so, but it's on your head if you get bad things from a website that launches Java Apps locally on the machine. That's by far the most common attack vector right now.

Apple was also very slow with their response. I won't make any excuses for them on that one. They've also published a clean-up tool for a specific infection, but the number and type utilizing the gaping holes in Java are accelerating.

cowman said:
For a mac, you can use Apple's time machine which will do it automatically if it's on your LAN. Of course, being an Apple product it costs an arm and a leg.
Click to expand...

Time Machine is the backup software on the Mac itself and the user interface. It can back up to any attached drive to that Mac, be it on the USB, FireWire, or network (there's some limitations of which types of network drives work but generally you can make anything work, it'll just store it in a giant SparseImage file).

Time Capsule is Apple's combined network drive, WiFi access point, and Gigabit router. It just happens to provide a network drive, so it gets confused with Time Machine and the terminology gets mixed up. It works well, but backups don't require it. Any Network Attached Storage will work. Or locally attached drive.
 
denverpilot said:
Ditto Jason's comments just for confirmation. Needs RAM. SSD is a nice to have but not required.

If you're not near the machine, you can have your daughter open those windows and shoot a screenshot which will end up on the desktop, and have her attach it to an e-mail to you.

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/screencapturemac/ht/macscreenshot.htm
Click to expand...

After working with one for the past year and a half...it's pretty much on the required list for me. And, trust me, I'm putting my money where my mouth is. SSDs are pretty much becoming the standard configuration within our company. IMO, for a computer like this, it would make as big of a difference in her ability to get by for the next year as the RAM would.

That said, I'll fully admit that I'm pretty spoiled when it comes to computing. My computer goes from black to fully booted in just a few seconds and takes no more than another few seconds to launch all of the applications that I need to get started with my work. SSDs rock. And 8GB of memory doesn't hurt, either. :yes:
 
Heh. Yeah, I was being very literal with the "not required". A nice big fast airplane isn't required to go flying either, but it sure makes it better!

I'll also say from talking with you and Jesse, you guys are significantly ahead in your thinking regarding company computing hardware. Both the user machines and the work you've done with your servers.

Our place and many others I've been at are PC only, single brand name shops. My official work machine is a turd of an HP. Spec'd for making the helpdesk's lives easier, not mine. Luckily they're just barely okay with Bring-Your-Own gear for clueful IT and upper level staff. So far.

The Security folks want full disk encryption (no problem) centrally-managed (problem) with remote-wipe capabilities (problem). It may be a lucky thing they can't afford it, and that our new parent company probably doesn't agree.

Or I'd be lugging that stupid HP around.
 
Adam,

Another vote to upgrade the RAM - Take it all the way to 4GB if it isn't ridiculously expensive. With that much free space, the drive should be fine and I would see if the RAM upgrade makes enough of a difference before spending the money on the SSD.

Also, let me reiterate Nate's recommendation of ifixit.com - They have excellent instructions for RAM upgrades and hard drive replacements for all Mac models, and they'll tell you what tools you need - probably a very small Phillips screwdriver and a T-8 Torx driver, I would guess - But maybe not the latter if you're lucky - Apple is pretty good about making RAM upgrades easy, I just can't remember what the deal is on that particular model.

Good for you having her use Time Machine to back up. One of the best things Apple has ever done, IMO, is to make backing up easy. Saves a helluva lot of grief when you need it.

BTW, I use a 3-year-old MacBook Pro for work every day. Yeah, I could use an upgrade, but I'm running two operating systems (gotta have Windoze for work) and I currently have roughly 100 browser tabs open, too...
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Adam,

Another vote to upgrade the RAM - Take it all the way to 4GB if it isn't ridiculously expensive. With that much free space, the drive should be fine and I would see if the RAM upgrade makes enough of a difference before spending the money on the SSD.

Also, let me reiterate Nate's recommendation of ifixit.com - They have excellent instructions for RAM upgrades and hard drive replacements for all Mac models, and they'll tell you what tools you need - probably a very small Phillips screwdriver and a T-8 Torx driver, I would guess - But maybe not the latter if you're lucky - Apple is pretty good about making RAM upgrades easy, I just can't remember what the deal is on that particular model.

Good for you having her use Time Machine to back up. One of the best things Apple has ever done, IMO, is to make backing up easy. Saves a helluva lot of grief when you need it.

BTW, I use a 3-year-old MacBook Pro for work every day. Yeah, I could use an upgrade, but I'm running two operating systems (gotta have Windoze for work) and I currently have roughly 100 browser tabs open, too...
Click to expand...

4GB on RAM is $29. The SSD is $99. These aren't expensive upgrades and there isn't much reason that he shouldn't do both. The combination of the two upgrades will make this like a new laptop.

Adam,

After looking some more it is possible to get that computer all the way to 8GB of memory (which would cost $51) if you're running at least Snow Leopard (10.6.6) and the right boot ROM versions. I could help you figure out what you'll need to do.
 
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AdamZ said:
Ok it says its a late 2008 13 inch macbook.
Click to expand...

Is it one of these? Follow Jason's advice to get the model number and let us know.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Apple_MacBook_MacBook_Pro/Upgrade/Macbook_selector

AdamZ said:
Opened Activity Monitor
Activity monitor shows the following:
System Memory ( numbers are dynamic)
Free 9.4MB
Wired 256.6
Active 506
Inactive 249.4
Used 1011.1MB

( The pie chart says 1.00GB
Click to expand...

Yep, mo' RAM will be needed!

AdamZ said:
Disc Usage shows the following:
Space Utilized 33.76 GB
Space Free85.93 GB

Not sure if that tells you anything.

And she does use Time Machine.
Click to expand...

She's good with free hard drive space. The good news is it's only a 120GB drive, so, while not completely necessary to spend the bucks, SSD's are going for about $0.60 per GB, so you should be able to pick up a 120GB one at a reasonable price.

Keep an eye on http://dealmac.com/ for pricing.

I'm pretty sure the hard drive is fairly easy to get to in these. I used to have an original white Macbook, and Apple had gone back to making them accessible on those models. It (and the RAM) were hidden behind a L-shaped metal bracket held with captive screws. They even provided a small flap attached to the drive to help you pull it out of there. Very convenient! Both OWC and iFixit sites have excellent take apart help.

SSD+ max RAM the thing will take will definitely keep your daughter happy for the next 2 years. At least as far as computing goes. ;)
 
denverpilot said:
Times have changed. Macs are vulnerable to all the stupidity coming out of Oracle with holes in Java. It's a significant threat now.

Apple has responded by disabling the Java engine in their browser by default UNLESS you use it, and then it asks you if it's ok to do so, but it's on your head if you get bad things from a website that launches Java Apps locally on the machine. That's by far the most common attack vector right now.

Apple was also very slow with their response. I won't make any excuses for them on that one. They've also published a clean-up tool for a specific infection, but the number and type utilizing the gaping holes in Java are accelerating.
Click to expand...

Yes, Apple was slow, but I think they've seen the light. Just released a Mac OS update to Java that brings them current w/Oracle. Only a week difference between the two, it seems.

http://www.macrumors.com/2012/09/05/apple-releases-updates-java-for-os-x-10-6-10-7-and-10-8/
 
denverpilot said:
Someone mentioned OCZ SSDs. They're alright but cheap and airplane co-owner runs a PC repair and sales biz. He's stopped selling them due to far too many returns and failures under warranty. He moved to Kensington I believe.
Click to expand...

From what I've read, the Vertex 4 seems to be an improvement over their other models. Also read some mud-slinging about the quality of chips they use. Heh.
 
rpadula said:
Yes, Apple was slow, but I think they've seen the light. Just released a Mac OS update to Java that brings them current w/Oracle. Only a week difference between the two, it seems.

http://www.macrumors.com/2012/09/05/apple-releases-updates-java-for-os-x-10-6-10-7-and-10-8/
Click to expand...

A week is plenty of time to get nailed. ;)

Not that this isn't a problem with all patch distribution schemes from all vendors...

And not that you always want to grab a patch the day it's released, since any problems will be found in a few days with people screaming bloody murder on the Net. ;)
 
As long as she doesn't stockpile large high detail media it looks like 120GB is plenty for her. SSD sure is nice. Consider it the same as the replacing vacuum pump at 500 hours quandary with a benefit in performance as well.
 
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denverpilot said:
A week is plenty of time to get nailed. ;)

Not that this isn't a problem with all patch distribution schemes from all vendors...

And not that you always want to grab a patch the day it's released, since any problems will be found in a few days with people screaming bloody murder on the Net. ;)
Click to expand...
Given Apple's history, I never grab an update on the first day. Always wait for the screamers!

But do you want it fast or do you want it done right? Which screed are you on today?? ;)
 
Another fun computer problem. The clicker on the pad on my Macbook went out. I thought it was going to be an expensive repair. Turns out the battery has just expanded over time to the point where it hits the button. Pull the battery and whala, working clicker!
 
steingar said:
Another fun computer problem. The clicker on the pad on my Macbook went out. I thought it was going to be an expensive repair. Turns out the battery has just expanded over time to the point where it hits the button. Pull the battery and whala, working clicker!
Click to expand...

Call Apple (or get a Genius Bar appointment and head to an Apple store) - There have been a number of battery recalls over the years because of certain battery manufacturers' issues. If you have an expanding battery, they may deem it "unsafe" and send you a new one for free.
 
Wow great info everyone, Jason, Rich, Nate Kent at all thanks. I pinged Jason and Nate the model is a 4,1
 
AdamZ said:
Wow great info everyone, Jason, Rich, Nate Kent at all thanks. I pinged Jason and Nate the model is a 4,1
Click to expand...

Good to know. The only bummer about that is that you're now on the backside of the RAM price curve (kinda like the power curve) -- you now have to spend more money for older DDR2 RAM.

OWC's RAM is $59.99 for 4 GB (2x 2GB sticks), but jumps to $121 for a 6 GB kit (1 4GB stick plus 1 2GB stick). Plus shipping. Probably not worth it to go to 6GB, IMO.

Or if you like shopping Amazon, here's a Kingston 4GB kit for $54

http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Modules-Macbook-KTA-MB667K2-4GR/dp/B001265GI2/

At this point, it'd be easiest just trying RAM upgrade only. IIRC, all you should need are some very small screwdrivers (eyeglass or jewelers kit like) to remove the L bracket hidden behind the battery. You could do that in 5 minutes!
 
I sent him the links to the appropriate ifixit.com articles. That machine is the easiest RAM and HD change of almost any model.

It is a bit on the backside of the power curve in that I don't believe it can run Lion, so Snow Leopard it is.

There were also two types of 4,1 machines. I sent screenshots of MacTracker data on both but they're the same RAM and drive type.

RAM first, and a cheap SSD would also significantly help that machine.

Can post more later, have a maintenance window for work in 3 min.
 
Without a PC machine to gain experience on in her life, she will graduate college handicapped in the business world having to learn a new OS. I think you should get her a PC laptop with a full office suite to work in and learn to use it.
 
My daughter has the MacBook Pro - for college she's been using the MS Office for Mac. She's also since had to install some flavor of Windows as well, because some of the apps her classes use will only run properly under Windows. So it's possible to get the 'best' of both worlds.
 
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