Help Speeding up my Macbook Pro

[joey.b]

I've had my Macbook since 2008 and only with in the past 6 months or so it really started slowing down. What can you suggest to get it back up to speed? Software? Hardware? Uninstalling programs? Clearing files? PLEASE HELP!

Had my mac for awhile, but i'm still kind of new when it comes to Mac OS. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Here's what i'm running...

• Processor - 2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• Memory - 2GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
• Graphics - NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 512 MB
• Software - Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2

 

[GGJstudios]

For performance issues, there are a few things you can check:

• Check your Login Items under System Preferences > Accounts to see what you have automatically launching.
• Also check /Library/LaunchAgents/ and /Users/yourusername/Library/LaunchAgents/ for items launching at startup
• Look at what widgets you may have running.
• Launch Activity Monitor and change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes". Then look to see what may be consuming system resources.
• Take a look at the System Memory tab at the bottom of Activity Monitor to see if you have excessive "page outs", a sign that you may benefit from more RAM.
• Make sure you're not running any 3rd party antivirus app, as many of those will drain resources, reducing performance. They're not needed to protect your Mac.

 

[Spencer Reynen]

Upgrading RAM can be a simple and cheap way of boosting your system speeds. Or if you want, you can spend a little more and get an SSD for your MBP.

 

[thundersteele]

• Software - Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2

Did upgrading to Lion by chance overlap with the loss of performance? It uses quite a bit more RAM than the previous OSX versions, and can lead to a slowdown on older MBPs.

I would do what spencer reynen suggested, upgrade to 4GB or 6 GB of RAM (I think your model can't take 8 GB). A SSD is a bit more expensive, but really worth it in my opinion.

This should give you two more years with the machine, maybe more, until at some point the CPU will become too slow for everyday tasks.

 

[VMMan]

I've had my Macbook since 2008 and only with in the past 6 months or so it really started slowing down. What can you suggest to get it back up to speed? Software? Hardware? Uninstalling programs? Clearing files? PLEASE HELP!

Drink beer, and your computer will seem faster.

 

[thundersteele]

Drink beer, and your computer will seem faster.

Even better: Drink beer, spill beer, buy new laptop -> faster!

 

[Artagra]

If you haven't done a clean, fresh install in a while I would do that.

Otherwise, as others have said either an SSD or an upgrade to 4gb memory would make a big difference. I had a Core 2 Duo 2.0ghz Macbook with a 160gb SSD and 4gb memory until recently, and it performed beautifully even with a slower CPU

Your memory is *definitely* holding you back and it's a cheap upgrade, so after you've done a fresh install that's the first thing I would do.

 

[miniConvert]

Check Activity Monitor > System Memory.

Is there much green on your pie chart? Do you have "Page outs" when things are going slow?

If so, the simplest way to improve performance is to install more RAM. That should be your first port of call before you start tinkering with anything else.

Changing from a regular hard drive to a solid state drive will also greatly improve performance but look into the RAM first and then see if you want to go further.

 

[fmjordan23]

Is there a way to clean up files first to see if that is part of the issue, as I am also experiencing some slower performance and have updated to Lion.

 

[GGJstudios]

Is there a way to clean up files first to see if that is part of the issue, as I am also experiencing some slower performance and have updated to Lion.

Did you check out the items in post #2? What were the results? The presence of files doesn't slow your system, unless you're almost out of disk space. Your performance is directly related to what's running, not what's stored on your drive.