Macbook air problems HELP

[downs523]

Hi we have a MacBook air, I believe 2011 model and we are having issues with it. It will not turn on normally, I have to hold the power button for ages, sometimes this doesn't work.

When it turns on I get the grey screen with the load bar and this takes about 5 minutes.

When my home screen comes on the loading circle appears and when I attempt to scroll using the finger pad it's really laggy.

Things take a while to load, I ran avast thinking it was a virus and it took 12hrs to complete- it normally takes under 1hr.

I have no idea what is wrong, hoping someone on here can help.

Thank you.

 

[hobowankenobi]

Could be several things, including failing storage.

If you can scrounge up an external drive, you could try booting to it. This would help isolate/rule out the internal storage, as well OS problems.

If it behaves the same from an external, you may be looking at hardware problems. If it performs well (taking into account the bus and external drive speed), then it is likely that the storage and/or OS is the culprit.

You could also try Recovery mode, and run Disk Utility. Pay attention to how the machine performs once booted. If all is well (behaves normally), this also points to the internal storage as the likely culprit.

If the storage drive is the issue....it can be replaced/upgraded, depending on model.