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Another "Why is my MacBook Pro Running so Slow" Thread

KeegM480

KeegM480

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 13, 2013
780
31
Nashville, TN
So, for quite a while now my Quad Core i7 MacBook Pro is atrociously slow. So slow that my PowerMac G5 is running faster... It seems to be the finder is constantly crashing, taking forever to open apps, move files, using Final Cut Pro is such a hassle Im installing FCP 6 on the PowerMac... HELP!

Its going to take 45 minutes to copy less than 4GB worth of files to a flash drive (My iMac G4 copies quicker than that!)

Hard Drive going bad? Call Apple? what should I do?
 
maflynn said:
Could be, what does the Disk Utility say about the SMART Status? Did you check it for errors using the Disk Utility?
Click to expand...

Something is very wrong with this computer.. I have never seen so many issues when verifying the disk permissions... 2.6 billion issues with iBooks, a lot with Quicktime, a lot with the dock, and a lot with system files that are "un-repairable" The scrollbar is less than a millimeter big. Lets see if this fixes it. Where would I see SMART status?

carjakester said:
is all your software up to date?
Click to expand...

Absolutley

EDIT: Currently on hold with Apple, disk Permissions didn't do anything but fix disk permissions, its still freezing up.
 
Last edited:
KeegM480 said:
Something is very wrong with this computer.. I have never seen so many issues when verifying the disk permissions... 2.6 billion issues with iBooks, a lot with Quicktime, a lot with the dock, and a lot with system files that are "un-repairable" The scrollbar is less than a millimeter big. Lets see if this fixes it. Where would I see SMART status?



Absolutley

EDIT: Currently on hold with Apple, disk Permissions didn't do anything but fix disk permissions, its still freezing up.
Click to expand...

mine has been doing the same with disk permissions, it finds a bunch I repair them and still same performance
 
KeegM480 said:
We have nearly identical Specs.. Maybe this is just a bad time frame.. this computer has been nothing but problems since I bought it
Click to expand...

ya Im out of ideas, I have tested the RAM using MemTest, SMART in disk utliity does not show errors, I have done a clean install of OSX, half my hard drive is empty

similar to you I have to force quit more often then just normally quit out of apps, and Finder has to be relaunched a few times a day
 
heisenberg123 said:
ya Im out of ideas, I have tested the RAM using MemTest, SMART in disk utliity does not show errors, I have done a clean install of OSX, half my hard drive is empty

similar to you I have to force quit more often then just normally quit out of apps, and Finder has to be relaunched a few times a day
Click to expand...

Lets see what this guy has me do.
 
heisenberg123 said:
ya Im out of ideas, I have tested the RAM using MemTest, SMART in disk utliity does not show errors, I have done a clean install of OSX, half my hard drive is empty

similar to you I have to force quit more often then just normally quit out of apps, and Finder has to be relaunched a few times a day
Click to expand...

Cleared everything in the cache in safe mode, repaired the disk, removed all startup items, and its running just as slow :)
 
heisenberg123 said:
ya Im out of ideas, I have tested the RAM using MemTest, SMART in disk utliity does not show errors, I have done a clean install of OSX, half my hard drive is empty

similar to you I have to force quit more often then just normally quit out of apps, and Finder has to be relaunched a few times a day
Click to expand...

Last person I talked to after several hours of diagnosing, they are suggesting its a hard drive issue.
 
KeegM480 said:
Last person I talked to after several hours of diagnosing, they are suggesting its a hard drive issue.
Click to expand...

Sounds like it.

Save up and buy an SSD. Then watch your Mac boot up in 12 seconds.

My 15" 2011 MBP had 2.3GHz quad core i7, 16GB of RAM and 1GB of 6750M. It ran slow because of the stock 7200rpm drive and took 4 minutes to boot into a usable state.

Not too long ago I bought a Samsung 840 Pro 512GB and slotted it into my MBP. Now it's running blazing fast. Boots into a usable state within 12 seconds.
 
yjchua95 said:
Sounds like it.

Save up and buy an SSD. Then watch your Mac boot up in 12 seconds.

My 15" 2011 MBP had 2.3GHz quad core i7, 16GB of RAM and 1GB of 6750M. It ran slow because of the stock 7200rpm drive and took 4 minutes to boot into a usable state.

Not too long ago I bought a Samsung 840 Pro 512GB and slotted it into my MBP. Now it's running blazing fast. Boots into a usable state within 12 seconds.
Click to expand...

Wow! Ill take the free replacement from AppleCare for now, but I do want an SSD
 
yjchua95 said:
Most probably Apple will replace it with a retina MBP, which already has an even faster PCIe SSD in it.
Click to expand...

I think s/he means that Apple is planning to replace the drive, not the entire computer.

KeegM480 said:
Wow! Ill take the free replacement from AppleCare for now, but I do want an SSD
Click to expand...

Of course, you can take the new drive that Apple gives you and (once you're certain that the problem is solved) stick it in an optical bay caddy and get yourself an SSD. That's the thing I find most upsetting about the demise of the cMBP form factor--The versatility of having two drive bays.
 
Same question here. Mid 2010 MBP. It's getting slower by the day. I didn't really look into it because I was too busy with other things but it's now doing my head in. I'm using the version before Mavericks. I have frequent beach balls. Is there a diagnostic tool I can run? One hardcore approach would be to do a fresh install of mavericks, but I'm delaying because I read too many bad reviews of mavericks.
 
Swampus said:
I think s/he means that Apple is planning to replace the drive, not the entire computer.



Of course, you can take the new drive that Apple gives you and (once you're certain that the problem is solved) stick it in an optical bay caddy and get yourself an SSD. That's the thing I find most upsetting about the demise of the cMBP form factor--The versatility of having two drive bays.
Click to expand...

Im going to do my best to convince Apple to just get me a rMBP, I have a bad display, hard drive, and it doesn't charge properly, plus my 4 previous repairs in the past 6 months. But otherwise I will yes, get a caddy and an SSD
parajba said:
Same question here. Mid 2010 MBP. It's getting slower by the day. I didn't really look into it because I was too busy with other things but it's now doing my head in. I'm using the version before Mavericks. I have frequent beach balls. Is there a diagnostic tool I can run? One hardcore approach would be to do a fresh install of mavericks, but I'm delaying because I read too many bad reviews of mavericks.
Click to expand...

quite a few compatibility issues with mavericks and software. You could also have a bad hard drive, it apparently is a fairly common issue. I figured they were built to last
 
KeegM480 said:
Im going to do my best to convince Apple to just get me a rMBP, I have a bad display, hard drive, and it doesn't charge properly, plus my 4 previous repairs in the past 6 months. But otherwise I will yes, get a caddy and an SSD...
Click to expand...

Oh, I missed the part about the other four repairs. Yeah, you might just come away with a new one. Good luck to you!
 
parajba said:
Same question here. Mid 2010 MBP. It's getting slower by the day. I didn't really look into it because I was too busy with other things but it's now doing my head in. I'm using the version before Mavericks. I have frequent beach balls. Is there a diagnostic tool I can run? One hardcore approach would be to do a fresh install of mavericks, but I'm delaying because I read too many bad reviews of mavericks.
Click to expand...

You could try SMART Utility to check your drive. If drive seems okay, you could then run EtreCheck and post the results here to see if anything catches an eye.
 
Thanks all for the kind replies...

Swampus, here's the results.

SMART Utility didn't find anything unusual, test status is 'PASSED'.

EtreCheck results below. A few questions...

(1) Can I remove ProTec6b from startup? how? Can I remove VirtualBox from startup? How?
(2) What are all the extensions in the Kernel section, they all seem to relate to VirtualBox? Seems like VirtualBox left lots of rubbish around my system? (I'm not using VirtualBox or Parallels anymore, I uninstalled both ages ago).
(3) How can I uninstalled the IKEA Internet plug in?
(4) What is the BrowserPlus under User Internet Plug ins and 3rd Party Preference Panes? I don't think I need it?
(5) I don't want Time Machine to be running in the background, I want to launch it only when I want to do a back-up. Shall I just enter Time Machine preferences and switch it off?

Any help/advice on the above (and anything you think might improve the performance of my system) is greatly appreciated.

===========================================

Hardware Information:
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2010)
MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro6,2
1 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2 cores
4 GB RAM

Video Information:
Intel HD Graphics - VRAM: 288 MB
NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M - VRAM: 256 MB

System Software:
OS X 10.8.5 (12F37) - Uptime: 0 days 0:11:2

Disk Information:
Hitachi HTS545032B9SA02 disk0 : (320.07 GB)
disk0s1 (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
Macintosh HD (disk0s2) /: 319.21 GB (176.75 GB free)
Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB

MATSHITADVD-R UJ-898

USB Information:
Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Apple Internal Memory Card Reader

Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Apple Inc. Built-in iSight

FireWire Information:

Thunderbolt Information:

Kernel Extensions:
org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv (3.2.8)
org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB (3.2.8)
org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt (3.2.8)
org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp (3.2.8)

Startup Items:
ProTec6b: Path: /Library/StartupItems/ProTec6b
VirtualBox: Path: /Library/StartupItems/VirtualBox

Problem System Launch Daemons:

Problem System Launch Agents:

Launch Daemons:
[System] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist 3rd-Party support link
[System] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist 3rd-Party support link
[System] Nalpeirond6b.plist 3rd-Party support link

Launch Agents:

User Launch Agents:
[not loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist 3rd-Party support link

User Login Items:
None

Internet Plug-ins:
JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 14.5.0 - SDK 10.8 Outdated! Update
FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 11.9.900.170 - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support link
QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.1
Flash Player: Version: 11.9.900.170 - SDK 10.6 Outdated! Update
NP_2020Player_IKEA: Version: 5.0.94.1 - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support link
CitrixICAClientPlugIn: Version: 11.4.3 - SDK 10.0 3rd-Party support link
OfficeLiveBrowserPlugin: Version: 12.2.7 3rd-Party support link
GarminGpsControl: Version: 4.0.3.0 Release - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support link
SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.1.0 3rd-Party support link
Silverlight: Version: 5.1.10411.0 - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support link
iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0

Audio Plug-ins:
AirPlay: Version: 1.7 - SDK 10.8
iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.1 - SDK 10.8

User Internet Plug-ins:
BrowserPlus_2.9.8: Version: 2.9.8 3rd-Party support link

3rd Party Preference Panes:
BrowserPlus 3rd-Party support link
Flash Player 3rd-Party support link

Bad Fonts:
None

Old Applications:
Citrix Receiver: Version: 11.4.3 - SDK 10.0 3rd-Party support link

Time Machine:
Skip System Files: NO
Auto backup: YES
Volumes being backed up:
Macintosh HD: Disk size: 297.29 GB Disk used: 132.68 GB
Destinations:
MacOS [Local] (Last used)
Total size: 465.44 GB
Total number of backups: 9
Oldest backup: 2010-11-30 22:21:15 +0000
Last backup: 2013-12-20 23:14:52 +0000
Size of backup disk: Adequate
Backup size 465.44 GB > (Disk used 132.68 GB X 3)
Time Machine details may not be accurate.
All volumes being backed up may not be listed.

Top Processes by CPU:
14% WindowServer
3% Safari
3% EtreCheck
1% hidd
1% WebProcess

Top Processes by Memory:
217 MB WebProcess
152 MB Safari
74 MB mds
55 MB WindowServer
37 MB Dock

Virtual Memory Information:
2.08 GB Free RAM
964 MB Active RAM
222 MB Inactive RAM
648 MB Wired RAM
206 MB Page-ins
0 B Page-outs
 
Could anybody please quickly look into my results to see if there is anything that stands out...? I have too frequent beach balls, takes ages to boot and to switch off, whole experience is quite slow (for such computer).
 
parajba said:
(1) Can I remove ProTec6b from startup? how? Can I remove VirtualBox from startup? How?
(2) What are all the extensions in the Kernel section, they all seem to relate to VirtualBox? Seems like VirtualBox left lots of rubbish around my system? (I'm not using VirtualBox or Parallels anymore, I uninstalled both ages ago).
(3) How can I uninstalled the IKEA Internet plug in?
(4) What is the BrowserPlus under User Internet Plug ins and 3rd Party Preference Panes? I don't think I need it?
(5) I don't want Time Machine to be running in the background, I want to launch it only when I want to do a back-up. Shall I just enter Time Machine preferences and switch it off?

Any help/advice on the above (and anything you think might improve the performance of my system) is greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

1. Sys. Prefs> Users&Groups> Login items> Select item> click " - "
2. https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/11171082/
3. Safari Prefs> Extensions> Select ext.> Uninstall
4. http://www.yahoo-browserplus.software.informer.com
5. Yes, but I wouldn't.
 
niteflyr said:
1. Sys. Prefs> Users&Groups> Login items> Select item> click " - "
2. https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/11171082/
3. Safari Prefs> Extensions> Select ext.> Uninstall
4. http://www.yahoo-browserplus.software.informer.com
5. Yes, but I wouldn't.
Click to expand...

Thanks heaps, please see below...

1. Login Items in Sys Prefs is already empty...? How can EtreCheck say that I have these startup items?
2. Perfect thanks, deleted all VirtualBox instances.
3. Safari Prefs / Extensions is...empty?
4. Thanks
5. OK, will keep it on.
 
I had the same problem lately, so I brought it to the Apple Store today. They did a few diagnostic tests, and found out it was a problem with the operating system. So I backed it up to an external hard drive, wiped the computer clean, reinstalled OS X, and transferred the data back on the computer, and it's running like new!

It's a more drastic solution, but moral of the story is that you should bring it to a genius bar and let them diagnose the problem. It worked like a charm for me, even after experiencing the same problems you described.
 
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