A case of a slow macbook pro

[JThom]

Hi!

I have Macbook Pro 13" mid 2010 (2x 2GB RAM) that has become very slow. Based on these forums and other articles, I've tried a lot of things, without much results. I will try to describe the issue, and would be forever thankful for any further ideas

It started running slow some time after Mavericks was introduced, though it didn't seem like upgrading to Mavericks was the problem. It takes a lot of time to open applications, of course longer time the heavier the application, and it can't handle a lot of programs running at once. I can't see anything in particular on the activity monitor that takes a lot of the CPU.

This is what I have tried so far:

- Freed hard drive space (now 50 GB free out of 250 GB capacity).
- Cleared the dashboard widgets
- Upgraded to Yosemite
- Repaired disk permissions and disk
- When repairing disk, I got a message saying I had to reformat, and so I did that and reinstalled Yosemite.

When I had a clean mac after the reformatting, it definately performed better, but not as good as new. As soon as I put all my backed up files in again, it became slow again.

I feel these things have helped a bit, but it's way too slow, still.

Anything else I can try? I could insert more RAM, but it doesn't seem like that's the problem, when I can reboot the mac, have no programs running, and still see it taking forever to open for example safari.

Thanks!

 

[yjchua95]

Hi!

I have Macbook Pro 13" mid 2010 (2x 2GB RAM) that has become very slow. Based on these forums and other articles, I've tried a lot of things, without much results. I will try to describe the issue, and would be forever thankful for any further ideas

It started running slow some time after Mavericks was introduced, though it didn't seem like upgrading to Mavericks was the problem. It takes a lot of time to open applications, of course longer time the heavier the application, and it can't handle a lot of programs running at once. I can't see anything in particular on the activity monitor that takes a lot of the CPU.

This is what I have tried so far:

- Freed hard drive space (now 50 GB free out of 250 GB capacity).
- Cleared the dashboard widgets
- Upgraded to Yosemite
- Repaired disk permissions and disk
- When repairing disk, I got a message saying I had to reformat, and so I did that and reinstalled Yosemite.

When I had a clean mac after the reformatting, it definately performed better, but not as good as new. As soon as I put all my backed up files in again, it became slow again.

I feel these things have helped a bit, but it's way too slow, still.

Anything else I can try? I could insert more RAM, but it doesn't seem like that's the problem, when I can reboot the mac, have no programs running, and still see it taking forever to open for example safari.

Thanks!

It sounds like you need an SSD. With an SSD your Mac will boot within 15 seconds, with instant app launching.

 

[Altemose]

Anything else I can try? I could insert more RAM, but it doesn't seem like that's the problem, when I can reboot the mac, have no programs running, and still see it taking forever to open for example safari.

Thanks!

OS X Mavericks and Yosemite are less optimized for spinning hard drives than previous versions of OS X but should still run with ample performance. Under 10.9 and 10.10, you can open Activity Monitor and look at the Memory Pressure graph. If you see it reaching the yellow and red marks under your usage then you need more RAM. Do not pay attention to RAM used as unused RAM is wasted RAM so OS X will use as much as necessary.

Are you getting the beach ball a lot? If so that could be symptoms of a bad hard drive or hard drive cable. Have you ever taken this MacBook apart and removed the drive? Those cables are extremely delicate and are easily damaged.

 

[JThom]

OS X Mavericks and Yosemite are less optimized for spinning hard drives than previous versions of OS X but should still run with ample performance. Under 10.9 and 10.10, you can open Activity Monitor and look at the Memory Pressure graph. If you see it reaching the yellow and red marks under your usage then you need more RAM. Do not pay attention to RAM used as unused RAM is wasted RAM so OS X will use as much as necessary.

Are you getting the beach ball a lot? If so that could be symptoms of a bad hard drive or hard drive cable. Have you ever taken this MacBook apart and removed the drive? Those cables are extremely delicate and are easily damaged.

Thanks for your answer! Yes, I get the beach ball a lot. The Memory Pressure graph is stable at green.

I opened the machine last week to change the battery, but never did anything with the drive. It was running slow way before that, anyway.

 

[JThom]

It sounds like you need an SSD. With an SSD your Mac will boot within 15 seconds, with instant app launching.

Did some research on this, seems like you're right. But what is the reason why I a suddenly need an SSD? Is it because Mavericks and Yosemite are less compatible with the old hard drive? If so, seems like the problem is solved. If not, there has to be another reason why it slowed down.

Any recommendation on what SSD I should buy for this particular macbook?

 

[yjchua95]

Did some research on this, seems like you're right. But what is the reason why I a suddenly need an SSD? Is it because Mavericks and Yosemite are less compatible with the old hard drive? If so, seems like the problem is solved. If not, there has to be another reason why it slowed down.

Any recommendation on what SSD I should buy for this particular macbook?

Mavericks and Yosemite don't perform well with regular HDDs.

I'd recommend a Samsung 840 Evo. Note that you may have to run the performance restoration firmware fix on it via a Windows PC first.

 

[Fishrrman]

One more recommendation that you replace the platter-based HDD with an SSD.

HOWEVER -
I -DON'T- recommend a Samsung drive, because of reports I've seen here on macrumors from others who have installed Samsung drives and are having problems -- CPU runs "full blast", computer overheats, seems to have something to do with Samsung's firmware. I believe Samsung has issued a firmware updater, and perhaps it's no longer an issue with brand-new drives.

I'd suggest either a Crucial or Intel SSD...

 

[Altemose]

Thanks for your answer! Yes, I get the beach ball a lot. The Memory Pressure graph is stable at green.

I opened the machine last week to change the battery, but never did anything with the drive. It was running slow way before that, anyway.

There are two potential reasons. The first is that the hard drive cable was accidentally damaged when replacing the battery. Don't discount this theory as it is possible when removing parts that you hit it just the right way. They are extremely delicate. The second reason is that you are demanding too much from the hard drive and it is not providing data fast enough. An SSD would fix this issue.

I personally have the Samsung 840 Evo which is the best balance of performance and affordability in my opinion. I am running OS X Yosemite and use TRIM Enabler without issue. You will probably want a 250 GB model if that is what you are used to having. Definitely clean install and manually bring data back over so you are sure you are starting fresh.

Since the Memory Pressure is in the high green, it would not hurt to bump it to 8 GB if you can afford it.