Lagging Macbbook Pro, Is My HD Dying?

[ProducedbyHANS]

hello forum

my macbook has been lagging like crazy for the last week or so, its weird because it started out of nowhere. Basically anything i do, regardless of what program im using, will eventually bring up the beach ball. When i watch videos, the screen will freeze, with the audio still playing, and then jump forward to wherever the video has progresssed. This happens every 20-30 seconds, with it getting better/worse with no apparent reason.

Ive read up on a lot of similiar posts and have repaired disk permissions, checked my CPU activity and found nothing abnormal, and i did a disk repair using the install disc (disk utility found that my HD needed a repair, after the repair, all checks have shown my HD is fine now).

What are my next options? I dont really want to take it to the apple store if this is something i can figure out on my own. And i dont want to go out and replace the HD only to find the problem still there.. Could anyone please help me out? Thanks for reading such a long post.

 

[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.

 

[Yumunum]

My father's MBP has been doing the same thing... Hopefully someone here has an answer.

 

[Naimfan]

That is certainly a classic sign of a failing hard drive. How old is it?

One thing to do immediately: Make a backup.

Then, either take it to Apple (especially if it's still under warranty) or try a different hard drive and see if it helps.

 

[miniConvert]

Definitely check if large amounts of data are paging out in Activity Monitor. Sounds like it's paging.

If not, yeah I'm thinking your HDD may have seen better days!

 

[jamespal1]

Dying MacBook pro too??

New to this thread I see that some of the same occurrences I've be being plagued with are asked about here. Reading the replies I have to ask since I'm not a particular techie:

what value constitutes excessive "page outs" in the activity monitor? I use a first gen mbp close to 6 yrs old, on it's 2nd hd and am wondering about it's life span.

thanks;

JP

 

[GGJstudios]

what value constitutes excessive "page outs" in the activity monitor?

There's not a hard and fast value. However, if page outs are in excess of 1GB under normal workloads, it's a sign you may benefit from more RAM. Remember that page outs are cumulative since your last restart, so it's best to restart your Mac, then track page outs under your usual workload.

 

[jamespal1]

I guess it's not excessive...

Thanks for the reply; I'd say that I'm not in need of more RAM then, but the behavior leaves me wondering. I've gone through the routine mentioned earlier and nothing abnormal jumps out, but the erratic behavior continues.

JP