How can I make my MacBook Pro run faster?

[kpcislo]

Help - anything wrong here?

I have a 2009 MacBook Pro and my computer is constantly lagging. Esp. when I go to log back into my account, the screen stays black and I have to keep clicking on the pad and the space bar to fully wake it up. I just downloaded snow leopard and brought it to apple to have them check it out, and they said it looked fine and just to clear out my downloads. I did that and it is even slower after I took it there!

Here are screen shots of my system memory and also a screen shot of the icon up top, which does not have a pulsing dot in the middle.












any tips?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Get more RAM, 2 GB RAM is not enough for Mac OS X 10.7 Lion or OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion.

Upgrading RAM in MacBooks and MacBook Pros​

Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor​

 

[BuiltforSin]

Wondering if I can get some advice. I recently deleted a Trojan off my MBP, but I still feel it's running slow. I was thinking of upgrading to a new 15", but I'd like to "revive" my 13" MBP if possible. It's a:

2009 MBP [Haven't upgrade from Leopard yet, happening soon]
2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
2GB 1067 MHz DDR3 Memory

Here are my screenshots:

 

[GGJstudios]

Wondering if I can get some advice. I recently deleted a Trojan off my MBP, but I still feel it's running slow. I was thinking of upgrading to a new 15", but I'd like to "revive" my 13" MBP if possible. It's a:

2009 MBP [Haven't upgrade from Leopard yet, happening soon]
2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
2GB 1067 MHz DDR3 Memory

Here are my screenshots:

You may benefit from more RAM. Your MBP can support up to 8GB. Also, I recommend you uninstall Sophos, as it can actually increase a Mac's vulnerability, as described here and here. 3rd party antivirus apps are not needed to keep a Mac malware-free, as long as the user practices safe computing, as described in the following link.

Mac Virus/Malware FAQ​

 

[BuiltforSin]

Thank you for your help.

 

[dma550]

I always prefer to add the column "CPU time" to gauge this best. It's too hard to capture spikes from some processes using CPU.

 

[ivybryce]

My computer is dreadfully slow. Is it a RAM related issue? I know I need more but will that help the slowness?

 

[GGJstudios]

My computer is dreadfully slow. Is it a RAM related issue? I know I need more but will that help the slowness?

Read post #17.

 

[worshiper28]

How can i make my macbook run faster?

I have an older macbook "all white", and lately the internet is been running slow. I use the same macbook to record my music. I use the software protools 8 w/ digital interface MBOX 2. I just want to know how can i make my mac run faster so it won't interfere with my recording, How do i know what to delete or if I need to delete anything?, and How can I maintain my macbook so it will continue to run faster?

My setup:

Total Amount of Gigs: 111.47
Amount Used: 73.29 GB
Amount Free: 38.18 GB

MacBook4,1 (white)
Mac OS X 10.5.8
Processor 2.1 GHz Intel Core 2 Du
Memory 1 GB 6667 Mhz
DDR2 SDRAM (512/512)

My studio set up:
External Hard Drive Western Digital "My Book" (Black) 250 gig (connected to my Macbook through USB)
-states I have 225 GB (free space available)

Digidesign Mbox 2 Recording Interface (connected to my Macbook through USB)
Protools 8.0 LE software
Rode NT1A connected to the mbox 2 through XLR Cables
2 Rokit 5 studio monitors each connected to the mbox 2 through XLR Cables

 

[GGJstudios]

How do i know what to delete or if I need to delete anything?, and How can I maintain my macbook so it will continue to run faster?

Did you read the thread, especially post #2?

 

[worshiper28]

How can i make my macbook run faster?

Did you read the thread, especially post #2?

Here it is

 

[GGJstudios]

Here it is

You've got page outs which, if that represents normal workload for you, means you could benefit from more RAM. Your MB can take up to 6GB of RAM. Also, follow the performance suggestions in the link in post #2.

 

[antpod]

hey guys, can anyone do similar and read these shots of my mac's processes to see if they can diagnose anything? i'd appreciate it!

heres and imgur album I posted 3 shots in
http://imgur.com/a/lTDtC

 

[macjm007]

Please Help - Here are my screenshots - Thanks!

I have a Macbook Pro - 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo - Memory 2 GB
Running OSX 10.8.3

It is super slow to respond. Can you please help me?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

I have a Macbook Pro - 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo - Memory 2 GB
Running OSX 10.8.3

It is super slow to respond. Can you please help me?

You seem to have enough RAM for your computational needs and the CPU is not even used to its full extent.
It is probably your HDDm that causes some slowness?
You can use the following applications to benchmark the speed of your HDD / SSD, to see, if it is the culprit:

• AJA System Test
• Blackmagic Disk Speed Test
• Xbench

----------

hey guys, can anyone do similar and read these shots of my mac's processes to see if they can diagnose anything? i'd appreciate it!

heres and imgur album I posted 3 shots in
http://imgur.com/a/lTDtC

You also seem to have enough RAM and the CPU is also not taxed. Look at the disk benchmark utilities I posted above.

 

[macjm007]

Did the test. What do I do now?

Did the test. What do I do now?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Did the test. What do I do now?

Report the numbers you got or post a screenshot of the results:

Can you make a screenshot and attach it to your next post?

 

[worshiper28]

How to make my mac run faster

You've got page outs which, if that represents normal workload for you, means you could benefit from more RAM. Your MB can take up to 6GB of RAM. Also, follow the performance suggestions in the link in post #2.

I checked out your post#2 and i've been following the steps. I found an apple tech off craigs list who after looking at my mac book agreed that more ram was needed. However he said you can increase the RAm but your mac could still be laggging because your software needs to be cleaned up due to the years of use. So his advise was to back up my macbook on an external hardrive and he gave me a price on how much it would be to clean my software and install the updates for that software (since i can't upgrade because of my protools and mbox device i use). Then he gave me a price, for increasing my ram.. .

My question is: Do you know what he means by "cleaning, or restoring my software" and Is this something I can do on my own?

 

[GGJstudios]

My question is: Do you know what he means by "cleaning, or restoring my software" and Is this something I can do on my own?

You don't need to pay anyone to clean up your Mac or to install RAM. You can do both quite easily yourself.

Back up your entire drive to an external drive, using a tool like Carbon Copy Cloner, before you do anything major on your Mac, like reinstalling software.

You can use version 3.5.1 ($40) or 3.4.7 (free, and works well on OS X 10.6, 10.7 and 10.8).

The most thorough approach would then be to reformat your drive, reinstall OS X, then reinstall all your apps, then restore your user data from your backup.

 

[worshiper28]

Thanks a lot bro

You don't need to pay anyone to clean up your Mac or to install RAM. You can do both quite easily yourself.

Back up your entire drive to an external drive, using a tool like Carbon Copy Cloner, before you do anything major on your Mac, like reinstalling software.

You can use version 3.5.1 ($40) or 3.4.7 (free, and works well on OS X 10.6, 10.7 and 10.8).

The most thorough approach would then be to reformat your drive, reinstall OS X, then reinstall all your apps, then restore your user data from your backup.

Your the best man... genius

 

[worshiper28]

Thanks again

You don't need to pay anyone to clean up your Mac or to install RAM. You can do both quite easily yourself.

Back up your entire drive to an external drive, using a tool like Carbon Copy Cloner, before you do anything major on your Mac, like reinstalling software.

You can use version 3.5.1 ($40) or 3.4.7 (free, and works well on OS X 10.6, 10.7 and 10.8).

The most thorough approach would then be to reformat your drive, reinstall OS X, then reinstall all your apps, then restore your user data from your backup.

You may have answered this already, so I apologize in advance if i missed the answer. But what do you think is the best approach in finding out what programs are taking up your hard drive space. And how many megabytes they are. When trying to delete unnecessary programs.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

You may have answered this already, so I apologize in advance if i missed the answer. But what do you think is the best approach in finding out what programs are taking up your hard drive space. And how many megabytes they are. When trying to delete unnecessary programs.

You switch to Finder via CMD+TAB or clicking the Finder icon in the Dock, go to the Applications folder (Sidebar shortcut, CMD+SHIFT+A or Menu Bar > Go > Applications), press CMD+J and check "Calculate All Sizes" and press CMD+J again.
Then wait a while while the OS shows you the file sizes.

To find out, where you storage capacity is being used, you can use the following free applications:

• DiskInventory X
• OmniDiskSweeper
• JDisk Report
• GrandPerspective

Maybe try a combination of several, if you still can't find the "missing" capacity.

 

[GGJstudios]

You may have answered this already, so I apologize in advance if i missed the answer. But what do you think is the best approach in finding out what programs are taking up your hard drive space. And how many megabytes they are. When trying to delete unnecessary programs.

As some apps store data in various locations, there's no simple way to list apps by all the space they take up. If you're deleting apps and want to maximize freeing up space, use the following instructions:

Best way to FULLY DELETE a program​

You can use OmniDiskSweeper, JDisk Report, Disk Inventory X, DaisyDisk or GrandPerspective to see how space is being used on your drive. Some of these apps may show more detail than others, so try several.

This may also help: Freeing up drive space in Mac OS X

 

[worshiper28]

How do I reformat?

Your the best man... genius

I've downloaded the Carbon Copy and backed up my Macbook Hardrive on to my external hard drive "My Book" 250 Gig.

You mentioned the next step is to reformat my drive? How do I do that?

Thanks again

 

[simsaladimbamba]

I've downloaded the Carbon Copy and backed up my Macbook Hardrive on to my external hard drive "My Book" 250 Gig.

You mentioned the next step is to reformat my drive? How do I do that?

Thanks again

You go to System Preferences > Startup Disk* and select the cloned copy of your internal HDD to boot from.

Restart the Mac.
Verify everything you want has been copied while booted from the clone.
Go to Disk Utility: How to format a new HDD to install Mac OS X onto (or make a bootable copy onto)
After that is done, clone the contents from the clone back to the internal HDD, again go to Startup Disk and select the internal HDD/SSD to boot from and restart.
Again, verify everything is in order.