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Help! Major lag in 2010 13" MBP! Why?

Reach9

Reach9

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Aug 17, 2010
2,417
224
In America
Hey guys,

i've noticed that recently my Mac has been lagging big time, i'm seeing the rainbow pin wheel everywhere, it takes forever for even Apple apps like iMovie, iPhoto Photo Booth to start up, and everything just freezes and i see this pin wheel constantly.
This even happens when i have multiple Safari windows open and i'm trying to switch between them. Not to mention 3rd party apps.

I have MacKeeper installed and i do daily cleanups, yet it's still slow.
I expected better performance from my MacBook Pro, the system it once was when i bought it is no more. How can i get it back to how it was before?

My battery also has been decreasing as it's currently at 91% according to iStats at 142 cycles. Last week it was at 87%! whats happening? I calibrate it once a month too!
 
Reach9 said:
I have MacKeeper installed and i do daily cleanups
Click to expand...
This may be part of your problem. You don't need apps like MacKeeper for your Mac to perform well. Some such apps do more harm than good.
Reach9 said:
I expected better performance from my MacBook Pro, the system it once was when i bought it is no more. How can i get it back to how it was before?
Click to expand...
Open Activity Monitor, change the "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes", click the CPU column to sort in descending order by CPU utilization to see what's consuming system resources. Also click the System Memory tab at the bottom and check your "page outs" and "swap used" to see if you're maxing out your RAM.
Reach9 said:
My battery also has been decreasing as it's currently at 91% according to iStats at 142 cycles. Last week it was at 87%! whats happening? I calibrate it once a month too!
Click to expand...
This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions:
 
GGJstudios said:
This may be part of your problem. You don't need apps like MacKeeper for your Mac to perform well. Some such apps do more harm than good.

Open Activity Monitor, change the "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes", click the CPU column to sort in descending order by CPU utilization to see what's consuming system resources. Also click the System Memory tab at the bottom and check your "page outs" and "swap used" to see if you're maxing out your RAM.

This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions:
Click to expand...

I thought MacKeeper was the best rated app? It got rave reviews in MacWorld though.

So i did what you told me and i see that 'kernel_task' is high up on the list and so is 'fontd' when i get the pin wheel.
Anything i can do about that?
 
Reach9 said:
I thought MacKeeper was the best rated app? It got rave reviews in MacWorld though.
Click to expand...
Just because an app gets rave reviews doesn't mean it's necessary.
Reach9 said:
So i did what you told me and i see that 'kernel_task' is high up on the list and so is 'fontd' when i get the pin wheel.
Click to expand...
What else is high on the list? And what about your page outs and swap used?
 
GGJstudios said:
Just because an app gets rave reviews doesn't mean it's necessary.

What else is high on the list? And what about your page outs and swap used?
Click to expand...

Hmm, good point. Okay i'll delete the app and log my performance.

Well the app i'm opening is high on the list and 'WindowServer'.
If i'm using Flash then Flash plugin is also high on the list.

My Page outs are 4.5 MB
and Swap used is at 17.9 MB
 
Reach9 said:
Hmm, good point. Okay i'll delete the app and log my performance.
Click to expand...
The only effective method for complete app removal is manual deletion:
Reach9 said:
Well the app i'm opening is high on the list and 'WindowServer'.
If i'm using Flash then Flash plugin is also high on the list.
Click to expand...
Flash can definitely consume system resources. If you're using Safari, get ClickToFlash plugin or ClickToFlash extension to control when Flash is run.
 
Reach9 said:
Yeah i use AppZapper to completely delete the app
Click to expand...
AppZapper, AppCleaner, CleanApp, TrashMe, and similar apps do not do a thorough job of removing all files/folders related to deleted apps. I tested several of these, using Skype as the app to be removed. Of 17 items to be removed:
AppZapper missed 13 items
AppCleaner missed 11 items
AppDelete missed 8 items
Hazel missed 9 items​
I also tested AppTrap, CleanMyMac and a few others, but don't recall how many items they missed. All left files/folders behind. In most cases, they remove .plist files and a few others, but leave behind much larger files and folders. (you will find a discussion of these tests in the thread linked below)

One app that I would not recommend, based on the number of complaints that have been posted in this forum and elsewhere, is CleanMyMac. As an example: CleanMyMac cleaned too much
 
Thanks for the tip!

I'm noticing that a lot of the times the apps i'm trying to use stop responding. Like iPhoto or iTunes, it gets pretty frustrating and all i see is the pin wheel, and wine is at the top of the CPU list in Activity Monitor.
Is this normal?
 
It's hard to say without looking at it, but it could be that hard drive is starting to fail. It happened to my iMac twice, the first symptoms were similar to yours. Go to Disk Utility and click on Verify Disk, if it's reporting something weird, or if it hangs, it's the drive.
 
I just did a Verify Disk, and it came up as green as that it "appears to be OK"
should i take it to the Apple store? I'm still under warranty.
 
It could be something else then. If you got time just take it to the apple store and let them check it out.
 
I had EXACTLY the same problem as you-same laptop type, same kinda apps using up CPU-but unfortunately I am still having major lag issues, mostly with Pages, Word and Powerpoint opening and iMovie. Whenever I use iMovie my CPU usage for just iMovie soars above 90 regularly. Sorry to detract from the topic a little, just wanted to see if anyone commenting on this thread could help me out. Oh, and wat exactly is "WindowServer" if anyone knows? "WindowServer" and iMovie lag my Mac really badly.

Edit: One last question, why does the CPU usage of iMovie remain sometimes at 100% even when it's minimized?
Edit 2: I'm gonna post this on the Apple Support forums, no need to reply to this post unless you can give me a quick, easy answer
 
Last edited:
Reach9 said:
Yeah i use AppZapper to completely delete the app.

Thanks!
So it seems my system is fine otherwise? Surprisingly it's not lagging anymore.
Click to expand...

So you removed Mackeeper and it got better?

Reach9 said:
I just did a Verify Disk, and it came up as green as that it "appears to be OK"
should i take it to the Apple store? I'm still under warranty.
Click to expand...

Yes. Take it to them for support.

Vincent2128 said:
I had EXACTLY the same problem as you-same laptop type, same kinda apps using up CPU-but unfortunately I am still having major lag issues, mostly with Pages, Word and Powerpoint opening and iMovie. Whenever I use iMovie my CPU usage for just iMovie soars above 90 regularly. Sorry to detract from the topic a little, just wanted to see if anyone commenting on this thread could help me out. Oh, and wat exactly is "WindowServer" if anyone knows? "WindowServer" and iMovie lag my Mac really badly.

Edit: One last question, why does the CPU usage of iMovie remain sometimes at 100% even when it's minimized?
Click to expand...

probably trying to create thumbnails.
 
Mackeeper popping up on misdirects - Fraud!!

I would not touch MacKeeper with a barge pole. Any product that tries to sell itself by misdirects from websites, which is currently happening with MacKeeper, is not to be trusted. This looks very similar to a Mac version of the Lizamoon site injection fraud, currently affecting Internet Explorer users. I did not open the misdirect and actually had to shut and reopen Safari to get rid of it, as the page would not close. I suspect it might have told me fraudulently, that there was an issue with my Mac, if I had been stupid enough to click anywhere on the misdirect page. BE WARNED folks, our Macs are under attack nowadays by fraudsters and crooks.
 
Reach9 said:
I just did a Verify Disk, and it came up as green as that it "appears to be OK"
should i take it to the Apple store? I'm still under warranty.
Click to expand...

That test isn't as stringent as the diagnostic they use at the Genius Bar. I had similar symptoms and found out at the store that it was a bad drive, despite passing the disk utility verification test.
 
hey,sometimes the factory default install of osx is less than stellar,ie its not alwayds perfect,so first thing i do is clean reinstall when i get a new machine,afterall,its done at factory,so mistakes can happen,
also,sometimes it takes a while for your machine to settle down,mine was slow few weeks back when i fist got it,was a bit glitchy beachballs etc,but now,its a flying big time yes!!!
 
Create a new user account and see if the machines still slow on that account, if it isn't then it's software on the regular user account and a fresh install could help...
 
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