Any tips on how to get my Macbook Pro to run faster?

[cozythings]

Hello. I have a Macbook Pro from 2009 running El Capitan 10.11.6. I noticed some slowness. I assume it has to do with the amount of hard drive space I am using.

 

[casperes1996]

I wouldn't think so. 136GB free is quite a lot and shouldn't be an issue at all
2009 is a rather old machine and modern software is written expecting faster computers so you could just be looking at a limitation of your processor at this point.

Though try and keep an eye on Activity Monitor to see if maybe you're hitting a memory ceiling

 

[Fishrrman]

It's probably CPU age, etc., more than anything "easily fixed".

I would close unused applications, and limit the number of browser windows left open.

 

[BrianBaughn]

casperes1996 is correct. The free space on your SSD isn't a factor.

How much RAM is in there? 8GB is your maximum. Even with 8GB, the MBP may be doing a lot of "paging" (using the SSD as RAM) depending on what you're doing…and the SATA bus speeds on those old MBPs are a modest 3 Gb/s which will make the paging even slower.

Stay away from Google Chrome and, probably, any other Chrome-based browser. I have an old MacBook and it's such a hog that normal browsing makes the fans kick off.

 

[avz]

El Capitan might be an issue as well. My Late 2008 MacBook with 240GB SSD is still very fast with Mojave(APFS).

 

[cozythings]

casperes1996 is correct. The free space on your SSD isn't a factor.

How much RAM is in there? 8GB is your maximum. Even with 8GB, the MBP may be doing a lot of "paging" (using the SSD as RAM) depending on what you're doing…and the SATA bus speeds on those old MBPs are a modest 3 Gb/s which will make the paging even slower.

Stay away from Google Chrome and, probably, any other Chrome-based browser. I have an old MacBook and it's such a hog that normal browsing makes the fans kick off.

I will have to look up the RAM, but I do know I use Google Chrome.

 

[cozythings]

El Capitan might be an issue as well. My Late 2008 MacBook with 240GB SSD is still very fast with Mojave(APFS).

I assumed I couldn't go any higher than El Capitan.

 

[cozythings]

I wouldn't think so. 136GB free is quite a lot and shouldn't be an issue at all
2009 is a rather old machine and modern software is written expecting faster computers so you could just be looking at a limitation of your processor at this point.

Though try and keep an eye on Activity Monitor to see if maybe you're hitting a memory ceiling

I went from the 2009 Macbook Pro to the 2017 iMac because of the slowness on the Macbook Pro. I had just bought an iPad and I have a windows laptop for classes, so I didn't see the need for another new laptop. That was why I went with the iMac.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I assumed I couldn't go any higher than El Capitan.

You can't without installing it in the unofficial manner.

 

[cozythings]

You can't without installing it in the unofficial manner.

oh, bummer. Thank you for letting me know.