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Macbook 1.1 ghz - Slow?

F

Flunkyturtle

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 20, 2011
298
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Guys - I've had the macbook since it came out and recently it's really started to slow right down.

I have photoshop/lightroom/iphotos/itunes installed which are the biggest apps, but at the moment i'm not even using anything except itunes and photo's.

I'm getting the beachball on startup before anything has even opened.

the only other thing i can think of is Norton is installed (after i had my credit card cloned, i wasn't sure where it happened) and is slowing it down.

I'm going to do a fresh install tonight but wondered if anyone else is encountering it?

I'm considering selling it and buying a RMBP instead.

Thoughts?
 
Flunkyturtle said:
Guys - I've had the macbook since it came out and recently it's really started to slow right down.

I have photoshop/lightroom/iphotos/itunes installed which are the biggest apps, but at the moment i'm not even using anything except itunes and photo's.

I'm getting the beachball on startup before anything has even opened.

the only other thing i can think of is Norton is installed (after i had my credit card cloned, i wasn't sure where it happened) and is slowing it down.

I'm going to do a fresh install tonight but wondered if anyone else is encountering it?

I'm considering selling it and buying a RMBP instead.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Review below instructions in the order they're written please. We'll go from there.

1) Check SSD SMART Data by downloading SMART Utility. If it says anything other than OK, take it into Apple for replacement SSD.

2) Run volume verification through Disk Utility. Any corruptions (red writing)? If there are, quote this and we'll take you through how to do a repair within the recovery OS.

3) Restart the computer with the option 'Reopen windows when logging back in' disabled. Any better?

4) Download AppCleaner and get rid of Norton. It's utter crap at the best of times.

5) Ensure your OS is fully up-to-date and update to El Capitan if you haven't already.

Speak soon.
 
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keysofanxiety said:
Review below instructions in the order they're written please. We'll go from there.

1) Check SSD SMART Data by downloading SMART Utility. If it says anything other than OK, take it into Apple for replacement SSD.

2) Run volume verification through Disk Utility. Any corruptions (red writing)? If there are, quote this and we'll take you through how to do a repair within the recovery OS.

3) Restart the computer with the option 'Reopen windows when logging back in' disabled. Any better?

4) Download AppCleaner and get rid of Norton. It's utter crap at the best of times.

5) Ensure your OS is fully up-to-date and update to El Capitan if you haven't already.

Speak soon.
Click to expand...

Thanks bud will run through this tonight.
 
Steve121178 said:
I'm not sure what value Norton adds to OS X.
Click to expand...

I mainly needed a scan to be honest and it did pick up a virus in my data (probably from torrents)

I thought i may have a dodgey version of flash.

I'll probably uninstall it tonight
 
If you installed El Capitain, that may be the culprit. It's been bringing two of my Mac Quad cores to their knees. Yesterday's update has helped a bit, but I wish I;d never heard of El Crap.

The woman's MacBook (also a 1.1) has been running circles around my iMac 27 and the rMB Quad that I've been playing with, lately. She still has Yosemite, and I have beachballs galore!

But the 11.1 update seems to have helped.
 
whodatrr said:
If you installed El Capitain, that may be the culprit. It's been bringing two of my Mac Quad cores to their knees. Yesterday's update has helped a bit, but I wish I;d never heard of El Crap.

The woman's MacBook (also a 1.1) has been running circles around my iMac 27 and the rMB Quad that I've been playing with, lately. She still has Yosemite, and I have beachballs galore!

But the 11.1 update seems to have helped.
Click to expand...

Installed 11.1 and got rid of norton and everything seems snappier :)

Cheer guys
 
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whodatrr said:
If you installed El Capitain, that may be the culprit. It's been bringing two of my Mac Quad cores to their knees. Yesterday's update has helped a bit, but I wish I;d never heard of El Crap.

The woman's MacBook (also a 1.1) has been running circles around my iMac 27 and the rMB Quad that I've been playing with, lately. She still has Yosemite, and I have beachballs galore!

But the 11.1 update seems to have helped.
Click to expand...
Exactly the opposite. El Capitan is the fastest and most stable OS X release for a while. Better than Mavericks and way better than the slow Yosemite.

It's been butter smooth and just generally fast since the first betas.
 
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Skylitfly said:
Exactly the opposite. El Capitan is the fastest and most stable OS X release for a while. Better than Mavericks and way better than the slow Yosemite.

It's been butter smooth and just generally fast since the first betas.
Click to expand...
Agree.
El Capt in my experience is better than Mavericks and way better than Yosemite, even on my wife's crippled MacBook Air (2 Gb of RAM).

mcvaughan said:
Never consider having anything "Norton" on any of your computers, EVER.
Click to expand...
.... this since 1998 or so.
 
whodatrr said:
If you installed El Capitain, that may be the culprit. It's been bringing two of my Mac Quad cores to their knees. Yesterday's update has helped a bit, but I wish I;d never heard of El Crap.

The woman's MacBook (also a 1.1) has been running circles around my iMac 27 and the rMB Quad that I've been playing with, lately. She still has Yosemite, and I have beachballs galore!

But the 11.1 update seems to have helped.
Click to expand...

Do your Macs with quad cores have HDDs or SSDs perchance?
 
Skylitfly said:
Exactly the opposite. El Capitan is the fastest and most stable OS X release for a while. Better than Mavericks and way better than the slow Yosemite.

It's been butter smooth and just generally fast since the first betas.
Click to expand...

Not for my mum's Late 2012 iMac (8GB RAM), had to downgrade to Yosemite. Tried a reinstall of the OS, and that didn't help.
 
Many PC buyers is funny in that we're always chasing these benchmarks with little regard for what these numbers will mean to our actual work and personal productivity.

I'm not a benchmark guy, but let's look at GeekBench for just a second. The 64 bit multicore scores are in the 5,000 range, which sucks by the standards for most of today's computers. But look at the systems at or below that score: 2013 13" MBA (which I happen to own), 2011 13" MacBook Pros, 2010 iMacs, 2010 17" MacBook Pro, etc, etc., etc. I'd bet that quite a few people reading this thread are on similar-class performing systems. They're certainly not the latest and greatest, but they can take care of most business needs.

Consider also that many earn our keep with programs like Office 2011. If that software ran fine on a MacBook Pro with worse performance in 2011, why would it run so much worse on a more powerful system in 2015? Heck, I even find Office 365 to use less resources than 2011, so things are even snappier.

We all chase numbers, but the fact is that even the humblest of today's systems have the guts to do more work productivity stuff than most of us actually use.

Personally, I prefer a beefier system as my main workhorse, but this rMB is proving good enough for my mobile work needs.
 
Last edited:
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I have a base rmb and its totally fine, speed-wise. I don't see any real difference from my 2014 base 11" mba.
 
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I thought I would join the conversation. My 1.1 rMB can be frustratingly slow at times, but it is only occasionally, and then it is definitely a software bug type of thing, not a CPU throttle or benchmark type of thing. Whenever it bogs down, I look at CPU, and it is almost idle. I thought upgrading to latest OS might help, but it still happens occasionally.

For example, playing a video smoothly. Hook up external display through adapter. Still plays smoothly. Change from display to a movie projector, now video is choppy. Unplug projector, plug in monitor, smooth. Unplug monitor, smooth. Monitor and projector both HDMI at exactly same resolution.

Others have already reported the laggy Mail. My iOS mail on phone and tablet work fantastic and I like having a single place to view all my mail. Mail on rMB refuses to send mail, refuses to update accounts, locks up, freezes, burps, etc. Just almost unusable. Again, I heard rumors latest OS update cures this, so I updated, but still have issues.

Other than software related issues, when running smoothly, I have had absolutely no issues with CPU speed or thermal throttling. Glad I went with the 1.1, as I never seem to need more.
 
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