2011 Macbook Pro beachballs all th etime

[JasonR]

So I picked up this Machine off of eBay, was bought in August 2011 so there is AppleCare still left. 15" 2.2 Ghz, 8 Gb ram, high-res anti-glare. This thing beach balls all the time, whether I'm writing a simple post or just growing the internet. It's becoming really frustrating. I have safari open and that's it and I just don't understand why the damn thing is slow.

Any ideas on a fix?

 

[GGJstudios]

So I picked up this Machine off of eBay, was bought in August 2011 so there is AppleCare still left. 15" 2.2 Ghz, 8 Gb ram, high-res anti-glare. This thing beach balls all the time, whether I'm writing a simple post or just growing the internet. It's becoming really frustrating. I have safari open and that's it and I just don't understand why the damn thing is slow.

Any ideas on a fix?

Launch Activity Monitor and change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes", then click on the CPU column heading once or twice, so the arrow points downward (highest values on top). Also, click on the System Memory tab at the bottom. Then take a screen shot, scroll down to see the rest of the list, take another screen shot and post them.

 

[heisenberg123]

So I picked up this Machine off of eBay, was bought in August 2011 so there is AppleCare still left. 15" 2.2 Ghz, 8 Gb ram, high-res anti-glare. This thing beach balls all the time, whether I'm writing a simple post or just growing the internet. It's becoming really frustrating. I have safari open and that's it and I just don't understand why the damn thing is slow.

Any ideas on a fix?

have you tested its using all 8GB of RAM, as GGJ pointed out in Activity Monitor on the Memory tab make sure its using all 8GB if its using less than 4 than 1 stick could be defective

 

[JasonR]

I'll check it out when I get home. But even with 7 GB of ram I should not be seeing beachballs while browsing the web or writing a simple post.

 

[SurferMan]

Even if one stick were defective it shouldn't be having that issue as there is still 4GB left which is more than enough for the avg user, especially with you saying it's happening with only Safari running. I've used a computer before where one stick was defective and it was fine untill doing heavier stuff with virtual system, wherein we found out one stick wasn't working. Try pulling one stick or the other and see if one or the other let's the computer run fine. Might want to check disk permissions, or try a fresh install and see what happens.

Sounds dumb but do you know which RAM it's using? Some people have mix-matched sticks before not knowing and caused glitches like this too.

 

[mac jones]

post your findings.

I'm curious....actually

See if you can troubleshoot this yourself, otherwise a time consuming trip to an Apple store will do it.

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Even if one stick were defective it wouldn't be having that issue as there is still 4GB left which is more than enough for the avg user, especially with you saying it's happening with only Safari running. Try pulling one stick or the other and see if one or the other let's the computer run fine. Might want to check disk permissions, or try a fresh install and see what happens.

Sounds dumb but do you know which RAM it's using? Some people have mix-matched sticks before not knowing and caused glitches like this.

Oh yes that's right, repair disk permissions in the disk utility. You need to do this anyway. It's not a big deal, but needs to be done occasionally, and sometimes really can be an issue in rare occasions.

note: I wonder why this isn't more automated? (permissions, that is). I don't know. There must be a reason I don't know about (as in...I don't know squat anyway )

 

[user418]

Excellent thought. Automated permissions verification. Would be a great enhancement.

 

[GGJstudios]

Oh yes that's right, repair disk permissions in the disk utility. You need to do this anyway. It's not a big deal, but needs to be done occasionally, and sometimes really can be an issue in rare occasions.

Some people repair, or recommend repairing permissions for situations where it isn't appropriate. Repairing permissions only addresses very specific issues. It is not a "cure all" or a general performance enhancer, and doesn't need to be done on a regular basis. It also doesn't address permissions problems with your files or 3rd party apps.

Five Mac maintenance myths

Repairing permissions: What you need to know
About Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions feature​

Disk Utility repairs the permissions for files installed by the Mac OS X Installer, Software Update, or an Apple software installer. It doesn’t repair permissions for your documents, your home folder, and third-party applications.

You can verify or repair permissions only on a disk with Mac OS X installed.

Does Disk Utility check permissions on all files?

Files that aren't installed as part of an Apple-originated installer package are not listed in a receipt and therefore are not checked. For example, if you install an application using a non-Apple installer application, or by copying it from a disk image, network volume, or other disk instead of installing it via Installer, a receipt file isn't created. This is expected. Some applications are designed to be installed in one of those ways.

Also, certain files whose permissions can be changed during normal usage without affecting their function are intentionally not checked.

There are times when repairing permissions is appropriate. To do so, here are the instructions:

Repairing Disk Permissions​

If repairing permissions results in error messages, some of these messages can be ignored and should be no cause for concern.

Mac OS X: Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions messages that you can safely ignore​