Just curious. I made the mistake of installing Yosemite. It lags and barely plays Youtube videos. It's going to be a 3rd Mac in our house, but was wondering what OSX version they have on it and if people had any suggestions on how to use it better. By the way, it's the 2GB version (wish 4GB was sold at BB)
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Anyone still rocking a 11" Mid-2011 MBA?
- Thread starter madflava54
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Still using one with 4GB RAM and 128 GB SSD. I've installed Yosemite (Public beta) runs very well. still getting 4-5 hours of battery life.
But for you if Yosemite doesn't run well why don't you downgrade to Mavericks or Mountain Lion?
But for you if Yosemite doesn't run well why don't you downgrade to Mavericks or Mountain Lion?
I still have, and use, my 2011 MBA 11" with 2 Gb of RAM. Originally had the 64 Gb SSD Card, but replaced with a 240 Gb OWC Card within the first few months.
My battery life is still good. But, for me it is a living room surfer. It almost never leaves the house. So I always have the power cable on the floor next to my chair.
I do have the same lag issues that you have with YouTube, or any flash based content. Once it starts lagging the fan spins up to full speed and it gets very hot on the bottom.
I am currently running Maverick. It seems to me that the lag issues got worse each time I upgraded the OS. So I never upgraded to Yosemite.
Now I am starting to have screen flickering issues. The back light goes dim to bright, back and forth. Not all of the time, just occasionally.
I am contemplating upgrading to a new 13" MBA. Trying to decide if I want to save a few dollars and get the 2014 on a clearance price, or go ahead and get the 2015.
My battery life is still good. But, for me it is a living room surfer. It almost never leaves the house. So I always have the power cable on the floor next to my chair.
I do have the same lag issues that you have with YouTube, or any flash based content. Once it starts lagging the fan spins up to full speed and it gets very hot on the bottom.
I am currently running Maverick. It seems to me that the lag issues got worse each time I upgraded the OS. So I never upgraded to Yosemite.
Now I am starting to have screen flickering issues. The back light goes dim to bright, back and forth. Not all of the time, just occasionally.
I am contemplating upgrading to a new 13" MBA. Trying to decide if I want to save a few dollars and get the 2014 on a clearance price, or go ahead and get the 2015.
Mine is still going strong. I don't have any of the issues you describe, but I did get the 4GB version.
Got a 13" 2011 MBA, trying out a 13" rMBP today. Still a very beautiful machine, Haswell battery whoops it and I long for a retina display hence the upgrade but man it's been good to me and I would still use it without cringing the experience.
I think I'm still going to keep the air around (potentially), unless I can offload it for the right price.
I think I'm still going to keep the air around (potentially), unless I can offload it for the right price.
Got the 4GB version, probably best decision I ever made.
It runs great. My 2009 iMac struggles mightily with Yosemite (probably the graphics, since it has 8GB RAM), but not the Air. Selling a 2GB machine in 2011 was a disgusting move from Apple (much like selling a 16GB phone in 2015), and anyone who knows anything about tech should never have bought one
It runs great. My 2009 iMac struggles mightily with Yosemite (probably the graphics, since it has 8GB RAM), but not the Air. Selling a 2GB machine in 2011 was a disgusting move from Apple (much like selling a 16GB phone in 2015), and anyone who knows anything about tech should never have bought one
Corrupted Disk
I have two MBA 11" (2011), and they have been great. I recently experienced a variety of problems on one unit (lagging, apps not launching, etc.), and the folks at the Apple Store wiped the disk and reinstalled Yosemite. I then restored from a Time Machine backup, and everything seems to be fine. A good place to start is verifying the disk w/ the disk utility. Good luck!
I have two MBA 11" (2011), and they have been great. I recently experienced a variety of problems on one unit (lagging, apps not launching, etc.), and the folks at the Apple Store wiped the disk and reinstalled Yosemite. I then restored from a Time Machine backup, and everything seems to be fine. A good place to start is verifying the disk w/ the disk utility. Good luck!
Yeah, I have 4GB of ram in my late 2011 MBP that has a aftermarket SSD and it runs very well. I think 4GB is the absolute minimum.
Again: Lag during flash playback cannot be memory related.
I strongly recommend you check what is causing your issues. Fans spinning up is a sign of a cpu issue.
What browser are you running?
Have you looked at the activity monitor?
I have used both Safari and Firefox.
Activity Monitor does not show anything unusual taking up resources.
I have run the permissions and reset pram multiple times over the years. Never changes the situation.
If I continue with the activity. It will eventually get so hot that it slows down so far that it is unusable. I have to hard power it off and wait for it to cool down before I can power on and use it again.
The only diagnostic step I have never tried is to wipe the drive and reinstall from scratch to see if a clean OS has the same issue.
What percentage is your cpu usage at?
Is the memory pressure green?
And yes, a clean OS reinstall would be a possible next step.
I have the same. I think I am running Maverick (OS 10.9.5) and it is running well. Haven't been brave enough to upgrade to Yosemite.
Running a 11" Mid-2011 here with 4GB RAM / 128GB SSD and run Yosemite just fine - no issues at all really other than occasionally wishing I had 802.11ac. Had been looking forward to a Retina 12" Air as a possible replacement as although the 11" does work fine for me, I do find the screen real estate a bit limiting at times but 13" probably a bit too big - 12" seemed like a sweet spot.
When the 12" Retina MacBook was announced as a non-Air I was initially very keen on it, however think I may hold back until I see how the Core M stacks up vs the i5 MBA / rMBP - plus it is quite expensive compared to the Airs (considering that lower power CPU) and even the 13" rMBP which could also be a possible replacement for me.
When the 12" Retina MacBook was announced as a non-Air I was initially very keen on it, however think I may hold back until I see how the Core M stacks up vs the i5 MBA / rMBP - plus it is quite expensive compared to the Airs (considering that lower power CPU) and even the 13" rMBP which could also be a possible replacement for me.
Yosemite's running fine on my base mid-2010 2GB 128GB C2D; sure it doesn't like having too many applications open at the time, and it prefers that I run a plug-in blocker for internet browsing, but other than that it's surprisingly good.
We've got one (the i5 model with 4GB RAM) as our "loaner" at work - it's running Yosemite just fine, and feels faster than a lot of newer Macs. I suspect yours needs a quick software checkup (as many others have suggested), but otherwise should be a great machine.
Take the back cover out and blow the dust out of the fan with compressed air. I am still "rocking" a 2010 MBA11. I opened it up and found the fan choked with dust.
How much space do you have left on the SSD?
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Even i have the base 11" 2011 model. Installed Yosemite last month. Some time it gets slow, Rest everything is fine. Also 2 GB ram now days is very less most of the tasks require more than 2 GB ram, Also the SSD is full since last couple of years 
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I think i will get the new Macbook which is perfect replacement for 11" 2011 users.
. I think i will get the new Macbook which is perfect replacement for 11" 2011 users.
I have a 2013 and I'm still running 10.9.5 also = don't see the need to go to Yosemite yet either.