Is it worth fixing up my MacBook Pro 13" Mid 2009?

Sorry I'm late to the conversation. Upgrading is better than replacement.

I just purchased a battery ($63), 240GB SSD ($145), and USB external enclosure ($12) for less than $250 (crucial website for SSD and amazon for battery)

This is for my wife's mid 2009 13" MacBook pro. IMO, you will see more performance gain from an SSD than the 8GB of RAM. Don't get me wrong, 8 would help, but SSD would help more. I ordered wife's MacBook with 4GB of RAM, so going to 8 is not going to show as big of a difference for hers.

Check the model number of your hard drive. If it is a 5200 RPM drive, then I would recommend an SSD over RAM.

USB enclosure will make the old HDD useable for storage and backup.

If you have to do 1 item at a time because of funds, I completely understand. Definitely get that battery done first if it's swelling.

Think of it as this, do I put $250 into this laptop or spend $1200+ on a new one?

Good luck!

I will be replacing parts in about a week.

I have the exact same macbook pro and I had many of the similar issues.. I recently spent $300 to upgrade it and I dont regret it. Added 8 Gigs or RAM (previously 4), 500GB ssd (previously 500 GB 5400 RPM HD), Replaced the battery..

The computer runs lightning fast now, boots in 20-22 seconds. everything is super fast..

Considering how expensive these laptops are, it'd be worth it to upgrade your existing computer rather than buying a new one.

I am in pretty much the exact same situation. Having the same specs on this machine as OP, my battery suddenly reports being in the "Replace Now" condition, causing the trackpad issues. I plan to upgrade the HDD to a 120gb SSD, 8GB Ram and a new battery. These three fixes should add new life to the pro and the specs will be comparable to the new machines out there, bar the extra ports, thinner profile, processor and graphics card. Since this macbook pro is not going to be my primary machine, the processor and graphics are good enough, and the speed boost will make me fall in love with the pro all over again. Definitely worth considering the upgrade compared to buying a new pro.

Over the years I've upgraded several older Macs with SSDs, RAM and batteries. All have been totally worth the cost. So I had great expectations when I recently upgraded my wife's 2009 MacBook Pro (13"). I put in a new battery, 256GB SSD, and RAM to bring it up to 8GB.

Once done, the machine would not boot reliably. So I replaced the hard drive cable thinking I had damaged the delicate thing while replacing the drive. No improvement! The machine will boot reliably - albeit slowly - when the SSD is in an external enclosure. All I can figure is that the hard drive cable socket on the main logic board has been damaged.

So after spending about $250 on the machine, I think I owe my wife a new reliable Mac! She will be able to use the new SSD in an external enclosure with her new Mac, so that wasn't a waste of money.

So usually these upgrades of old machines work well, but sometimes you gamble and lose!