Macbook Pro VERY slow

[patseguin]

I have a 2008 MBP and I upgraded it with a 960 EVO 1 TB SSD and 16GB RAM a couple years ago. Performed like a champ up until a month or so ago. It started operating really slow and freezing up randomly. I ran a first aid and it showed a problem with some kind of catalog, I forgot what it was called.

I did a network reinstall of High Sierra and it look 26 hours. When I went to test it, everything was the same. All my files were there, preferences, none of the stuff you do when you clean install macOS. Moving the pointer is very laggy and trying to open anything was severely laggy. I'd click on Safari and wait literally 2 minutes for it to open. I finally managed to download macOS and created a bootable USB. From setup, I erased the SSD and reinstalled macOS. After about 3 hours last night with it at like 25%, I went to bed. I got up this morning and was at the iCloud setup and completed installation. Everything is still extremely slow. Just moving the pointer alone is very laggy. Trying to open any folders or anything has sever lag. I ran another first aid and it found no errors.

Does this sound like I need to replace the SSD? I was thinking about trying to install macOS to external drive I have and see how things run.

 

[Fishrrman]

I'd try another SSD, or even a platter-based hard drive if you have one around.

Could it be a problem with the ribbon cable that connects the drive to the motherboard?
If a drive behaves "slowly" while mounted internally, but suddenly "livens up" when connected externally, it could point to the connecting cable.

 

[patseguin]

I started to partition my external drive with a place to put OS X this morning at 7am. I just went home and check it 7 hours later and it was still working on it. Why would the whole system, even an external drive, be going so slow?

 

[DeltaMac]

If your internal SSD is still internal - try disconnecting the SSD, and then try the install on an external drive.
Also, try booting to the SSD installed in an external enclosure. You will have a pretty slow connection on a USB 2 bus, but if it is quite a bit faster than what you are experiencing now, try replacing the internal SATA ribbon cable (those do fail)

 

[patseguin]

If your internal SSD is still internal - try disconnecting the SSD, and then try the install on an external drive.
Also, try booting to the SSD installed in an external enclosure. You will have a pretty slow connection on a USB 2 bus, but if it is quite a bit faster than what you are experiencing now, try replacing the internal SATA ribbon cable (those do fail)

I will try that when I get home. I actually have an enclosure I can use to test that.

 

[avz]

Could it be the RAM? Does 2008 MacBook really supports 16GB? Maybe you should try using only 8GB.

 

[patseguin]

Could it be the RAM? Does 2008 MacBook really supports 16GB? Maybe you should try using only 8GB.

I actually asked about that here. It does support it and I've been using it for 3 years. I guess maybe it could be bad ram? Isn't there a way to boot into a diagnostic mode and check ram?

Also, could I possibly just need to reset pram or whatever?

I started a partition on an external drive this morning, and 10 hours later it's still on "shrinking file system". I'm not sure why an external drive would also be acting so slow.

 

[DeltaMac]

Assuming that external drive is good - 10 hours is too long. Likely that drive is failing. Is that the same SSD that was installed in your MBPro? Is there any drive that is internal now? If yes, remove that drive - and remove the ribbon cable, too. Then, try your external drive.
Which 2008 MacBook Pro do you have? Early or Late 2008? 15" or 17"
Each of those MBPros have different hardware test CDs that you can download, but you need to know which one.

Or, is it the 2011 MBPro in your signature (?) The 2008 won't install High Sierra natively, but you said you were taking a long time with a "network" install of High Sierra, which would only happen with a patched installer for that on any 2008 Mac.

 

[patseguin]

Assuming that external drive is good - 10 hours is too long. Likely that drive is failing. Is that the same SSD that was installed in your MBPro? Is there any drive that is internal now? If yes, remove that drive - and remove the ribbon cable, too. Then, try your external drive.
Which 2008 MacBook Pro do you have? Early or Late 2008? 15" or 17"
Each of those MBPros have different hardware test CDs that you can download, but you need to know which one.

Or, is it the 2011 MBPro in your signature (?) The 2008 won't install High Sierra natively, but you said you were taking a long time with a "network" install of High Sierra, which would only happen with a patched installer for that on any 2008 Mac.

Now I'm not sure. All this time I thought it was an early 2008 but maybe it is 2011. I'll check. I know that Mojave is the only os not supported.

So does the mere existence of a bad ssd cause speed problems even when booting off external? The partition finally finished this morning and I started the install on the external. After rebooting, I waited 30 minutes and the progress bar moved maybe 2 pixels.

 

[DeltaMac]

I have sometimes seen this symptom, where the internal drive is failing.
It, in effect, creates a block on the drive bus, causing problems with any device that is connected to your system until you disconnect/remove that internal drive.
You should troubleshoot by disconnecting that internal drive.
You can get a similar fault from a failed SATA drive cable. The only way to troubleshoot that is to replace the cable, and test again.

 

[patseguin]

I have sometimes seen this symptom, where the internal drive is failing.
It, in effect, creates a block on the drive bus, causing problems with any device that is connected to your system until you disconnect/remove that internal drive.
You should troubleshoot by disconnecting that internal drive.
You can get a similar fault from a failed SATA drive cable. The only way to troubleshoot that is to replace the cable, and test again.

OK thanks. Good to know. I'll have to remove it after work and see what happens. I wouldn't think that an SSD would fail like that so maybe it's the cable.

 

[patseguin]

OK. I pulled out the SSD and put it in an enclosure and booted off it via USB. Seemed to boot pretty fast, but then on desktop I had the same issues. Everything extremely laggy and slow. I shut down and plugged in annother drive I had and booted from my OS X USB installer stick I made. 20 minutes in and it's still 50% through booting off that.

Sound like maybe it's a RAM issue now?

 

[patseguin]

Looks like the problem is the battery. I held down d when booting and ran a test. It reported the battery. I'm using the MacBook pro plugged in, does a bad battery slow down system performance like this?

Also, my previous posts were wrong, it's an early 2011 MacBook pro.

 

[geejay9876]

I suggest to check whether it's not overheating. Fan clogged with dust, perhaps?

 

[MacNut]

It's time to retire that machine, 2008 is way beyond it's useful life at this point. I can't see you having anything but issues with it going forward.

 

[cube]

It's time to retire that machine, 2008 is way beyond it's useful life at this point. I can't see you having anything but issues with it going forward.

It is still enough for basic use. There are much worse and newer laptops.

 

[geejay9876]

That's a Sandy Bridge machine, should be still very adequate. I use those and they work great. Slow usually points to throttled processor and that happens when it overheats due to dust.

 

[smbu2000]

Looks like the problem is the battery. I held down d when booting and ran a test. It reported the battery. I'm using the MacBook pro plugged in, does a bad battery slow down system performance like this?

Also, my previous posts were wrong, it's an early 2011 MacBook pro.

Yes, a bad battery will cause extremely slow performance on a 2011 model. I had a late 2011 15" MBP before and when performance tanked, I opened it up and checked inside. The battery had started to swell up. After I swapped it out for a new one, then it performed perfectly fine.

It's fairly straightforward replacing the battery on the 2011 models and I'd advise you to do that, especially if you are getting a message from the Apple test about it.

I believe the bottom case can be removed with a regular phillips head screwdriver and the battery has three triwing screws. It's fairly easy to replace, especially compared to the later models.
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+15-Inch+Unibody+Early+2011+Battery+Replacement/5889

 

[puma1552]

You sure about that machine supporting 16 GB of RAM? I'm almost positive it doesn't, I had a 2.8 GHz 2008 that was the top spec BTO 15" and that did not support 16 GB RAM, it supported 8 IIRC. Also, the high end 2010 that replaced it was also capped at 8 GB RAM, so I'm almost positive that your 2008 does not support 16 GB RAM.

 

[patseguin]

Yes, a bad battery will cause extremely slow performance on a 2011 model. I had a late 2011 15" MBP before and when performance tanked, I opened it up and checked inside. The battery had started to swell up. After I swapped it out for a new one, then it performed perfectly fine.

It's fairly straightforward replacing the battery on the 2011 models and I'd advise you to do that, especially if you are getting a message from the Apple test about it.

I believe the bottom case can be removed with a regular phillips head screwdriver and the battery has three triwing screws. It's fairly easy to replace, especially compared to the later models.
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+15-Inch+Unibody+Early+2011+Battery+Replacement/5889

Yep, thanks. I ordered a replacement battery on Amazon for $40. I use the machine as a desktop, always plugged in. Is that bad for the battery or did I just reach the end of it's normal life?

And yes Puma, it supports 16GB of RAM. Been running it for 3 years. When I added the SSD and 8GB more RAM, it was like a new computer. Performs really great and the only reason I'll probably have to upgrade at some point is so I can get Mojave and beyond.

 

[puma1552]

Yep, thanks. I ordered a replacement battery on Amazon for $40. I use the machine as a desktop, always plugged in. Is that bad for the battery or did I just reach the end of it's normal life?

And yes Puma, it supports 16GB of RAM. Been running it for 3 years. When I added the SSD and 8GB more RAM, it was like a new computer. Performs really great and the only reason I'll probably have to upgrade at some point is so I can get Mojave and beyond.

Which model is it? Seeing 16 GB of RAM and using it are two different things. The high end machine two years newer did not support it, neither did my highest end BTO from the same year as yours, so I can't see how yours actually does.

 

[DeltaMac]

You sure about that machine supporting 16 GB of RAM? I'm almost positive it doesn't, I had a 2.8 GHz 2008 that was the top spec BTO 15" and that did not support 16 GB RAM, it supported 8 IIRC. Also, the high end 2010 that replaced it was also capped at 8 GB RAM, so I'm almost positive that your 2008 does not support 16 GB RAM.

OP did report in post #13 that it was a 2011, not a 2008 (and OP has that 2011 in the signature area of each post. Seems to be THAT Mac, eh?). Any 2011 MBPro certainly can work with 16GB.
I hope that Patsequin will not be affected by the graphics/logic board issues that have afflicted that era of MacBook Pros.

 

[puma1552]

OP did report in post #13 that it was a 2011, not a 2008 (and OP has that 2011 in the signature area of each post. Seems to be THAT Mac, eh?). Any 2011 MBPro certainly can work with 16GB.
I hope that Patsequin will not be affected by the graphics/logic board issues that have afflicted that era of MacBook Pros.

Ah, missed that line. Yes, the 2011s can support 16.

 

[smbu2000]

Yep, thanks. I ordered a replacement battery on Amazon for $40. I use the machine as a desktop, always plugged in. Is that bad for the battery or did I just reach the end of it's normal life?

Most likely just an end of life thing as it is 7 years old now. I had a 2015 15" machine with between 300-400 cycles and it had already started expanding badly before I replaced it. My gf's late 2013 13" has even fewer cycles and is perfectly fine. You just never know.

 

[patseguin]

OP did report in post #13 that it was a 2011, not a 2008 (and OP has that 2011 in the signature area of each post. Seems to be THAT Mac, eh?). Any 2011 MBPro certainly can work with 16GB.
I hope that Patsequin will not be affected by the graphics/logic board issues that have afflicted that era of MacBook Pros.

I was ;-). I brought it in to Apple about a year and a half ago and they put in a new logic board.

My new battery came in yesterday and I installed. Pretty cool that they include the tools needed with it. I can't believe how fast my Mac is now. Feels just as fast as my home built coffee lake gaming machine. I wonder how long the battery was dead and affecting my performance.

So, regarding battery. Am I not supposed to use my MBP plugged in all the time in clamshell mode as a desktop system? Or did the battery just naturally reach end of life? The instructions for the new one state that you can't ever let it get below 3%. I don't know how anyone can be sure of that. What if I leave it running and go do something and it drains to 0? It gets ruined?