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MBP 13" issues (sort of)... HELP!

O

ordo1980

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 28, 2007
92
0
Pittsburgh, PA
Hey everyone, so I have a 3 weeks old MBP, and it's just been kinda slow the last week. For example, when I boot up, I click on Safari and it takes 7 bounces to load. Clicked iTunes just now and it took 6 bounces and the spinning wheel for a couple of seconds and then it loaded. Word took 11 bounces and a spinning wheel. I have 4 gigs on this machine. And those three applications are the only things I've loaded. I downloaded a bunch of crap when I first got this, and the hard drive has been gradually filled up. I have the 160gb hard drive, and it's about half full. I'm just wondering, is this normal for it to get this slow this quickly? I know with windows it's a certainty since you have registry and such. For startups, I'm fairly certain the only thing that starts up is a network scan utility thanks to my canon printer's installation software. I start law school in 2 weeks, so should I just back up only the things I need, and then do a clean install of leopard? Maybe I cluttered my hard drive up too much? Backing up is no problem since I could just move all my stuff to my hp laptop, do the clean install, and move back what I need. Anyone have any ideas why my computer got suddenly slow?

I plan to get an external hard drive eventually, just so I can keep all my stuff off my hard drive permenantly. I may just move and keep some stuff on an old ipod I have that I'm using purely in disk mode. Thanks for any ideas/suggestions.

Oh, and one more thing too... From coconut battery - my computer is plugged in nonstop, and it will remain so until I start taking it to class. I calibrated it once already, and coconut is saying current battery charge at 97% with a current battery capacity of 95%. Loadcycles = 2, and my mac is 3 weeks old. Is this normal? Doesn't it seem a bit off that my health is down to 95% after only 2 cycles? Should I try recalibrating again? Resent PRAM and/or SMC? Okay, thanks for the help!
 
Interesting. I swear it was quite a bit faster when I first got it. Did it slow down a bit only cuz I've filled my hard up to half-full? Would that be the culprit?

Anyone have any ideas about the battery? Thanx all.
 
fehhkk said:
Regarding the bounces to open the apps, yeah, pretty much that's the time it took mine to open stuff.
Click to expand...

Half full means you still have plenty of space. The performance sounds poor to me, and I wouldn't expect it to slow down so much in just three weeks. Sounds like you have something chewing up resources that is causing your slowdowns.

What does Activity Monitor show you?
 
Well is there something specific u want to know from activity monitor? Is there a way to take a screenshot and put it here instead? I'm new to everything mac. Lifelong windows user who just made the switch. Sorry. But if u can please point me in the right direction itd be a wonderful help. Thanks so much!
 
Well, you're basically walking through troubleshooting 101 at the moment - but you are looking for the same sort of thing as you would be looking for in the Windows world as well.

In Activity Monitor, make sure you are looking at All Processes. Is anything eating up CPU? Memory? Do you see anything running that you don't expect to see? Sorry to be a bit vague, think of Activity Monitor as something like a Task Manager equivalent. The troubleshooting from there is the same as in your "old" Windows world.

You could also do a disk check using Disk Utility, running a verify and checking disk permissions - but from the sound of it, you've seen roughly a 50% degradation of system performance. There's no way that would be expected, so something has to be going on (whether software or hardware related).
 
This is completely normal. All of it.

Application launches are limited by your hard drive. Upgrade to a 7200RPM drive, a SSD, or a 500GB drive if you want to speed them up. The stock 160GB drive is S L O W! I've just about had it with the slowness of my Mac Mini's HDD.

Regarding your battery health, it fluctuates by as much as 10%. Recalibrating your battery will lower this flux. Apple won't replace a battery if it has >80% health, is older than a year, or has more than 300 load cycles. You should also put a minimum of one charge cycle every month, but more is better.
 
"from the sound of it, you've seen roughly a 50% degradation of system performance."

Where do you get this from exactly? The OP didn't really mention a baseline from which to deduce that number. The performance on my 3 week old MBP 13" with stock drive is also similar in the time it takes to launch apps, but I don't remember those apps necessarily opening any quicker when I first got the laptop.
I do expect the application launch times to reduce after I replace the HDD but this is hardware specific.

I do agree that a simple Activity Monitor search can clear up a lot of things. I had a MouseWorks application driver from Kensington running all the time that I forgot about that was eating up some resources and I just turned it off. Looking for things that stand out like that can often clear up the issue.

I notice that applications which control hardware such as SMC fancontrol and LabTick decrease boot-up/shutdown performance when left on permanently in preferences. Simply shutting them off brings that back on-line.
 
otispondscum said:
"from the sound of it, you've seen roughly a 50% degradation of system performance."

Where do you get this from exactly? The OP didn't really mention a baseline from which to deduce that number. The performance on my 3 week old MBP 13" with stock drive is also similar in the time it takes to launch apps, but I don't remember those apps necessarily opening any quicker when I first got the laptop.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I deduced it based on executing the same actions on a UMB that one of the folks nearby me is using. It doesn't take Safari any longer than 3-4 "hops" to start up, since OP is describing "7 plus a beachball" that's the 50% I referred to.

OP is talking about degraded performance, and while it is anecdotal (of course, it always is without using tools to measure) if true, it is not "normal" nor "expected."

I hypothesize that OP downloaded something that is running behind the scenes without them realizing it, and chewing up resources - but that is a complete wild guess, based entirely on the information provided by OP - thus pointing them to Activity Monitor as a starting point to determine if this is the case.
 
I couldn't find anything obvious from activity monitor. I tried to verify disk and it FAILED. So I am currently attempting to repair permissions. I may just move everything to my hp and just do a clean install. I don't know how my hard disk could have gotten to the point that it fails to verify. It failed twice. The errors were ...

Checking volume information.
Invalid volume file count
(It should be 648170 instead of 648171)
Invalid volume directory count
(It should be 165083 instead of 165082)
The volume Macintosh HD needs to be repaired.

Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.

I'm fairly certain this is going back to my canon printer installation software i put on here. I KNEW I should have only installed the drivers. It's multifunction print/copy/scan. I know how to use the printer. And I can't imagine I have any use for the actual software itself. And just now, the repair was successful. Now I'm going to restart and do the verify again and hopefully it will be ok. There were a couple of things from activity monitor that I couldn't figure out what they meant or pertained to. I'll let you know in a few after my restart and verification is completed. Thanks.
 
This is my activity monitor of all processes. I'm not sure what some of these even mean. I have 3gigs of memory free and 98% processor idle. But here is activity monitor anyways...

0 kernel_task root 1.2 57 51.08 MB 1.66 GB Intel
132 Safari ordonez 0.6 12 45.73 MB 1.01 GB Intel
63 WindowServer _windowserver 0.8 5 32.38 MB 947.77 MB Intel
130 Activity Monitor ordonez 1.8 5 18.68 MB 979.88 MB Intel
32 mds root 0.0 16 16.98 MB 712.80 MB Intel
109 Spotlight ordonez 0.0 6 14.75 MB 1,023.46 MB Intel
58 coreservicesd root 0.0 2 12.61 MB 605.11 MB Intel
112 Dock ordonez 0.0 3 10.84 MB 911.63 MB Intel
118 Finder ordonez 0.0 7 9.94 MB 927.99 MB Intel
116 SystemUIServer ordonez 0.0 7 9.80 MB 932.16 MB Intel
113 ATSServer ordonez 0.0 2 5.14 MB 674.16 MB Intel
33 loginwindow ordonez 0.0 3 5.09 MB 914.74 MB Intel
127 Canon IJ Network Scan Utility ordonez 0.0 1 3.83 MB 912.76 MB Intel
11 DirectoryService root 0.0 5 3.18 MB 588.85 MB Intel
105 AirPort Base Station Agent ordonez 0.0 2 3.01 MB 906.86 MB Intel
73 mdworker ordonez 0.0 4 2.97 MB 599.14 MB Intel
110 UserEventAgent ordonez 0.0 3 2.70 MB 589.23 MB Intel
126 iTunes Helper ordonez 0.0 2 2.29 MB 848.61 MB Intel
114 mdworker _spotlight 0.0 3 2.28 MB 598.88 MB Intel
46 blued root 0.0 2 1.99 MB 597.00 MB Intel
22 securityd root 0.0 4 1.94 MB 588.63 MB Intel
14 configd root 0.0 4 1.87 MB 587.71 MB Intel
49 socketfilterfw root 0.0 3 1.57 MB 585.93 MB Intel
37 hidd root 0.0 3 1.45 MB 587.23 MB Intel
61 krb5kdc root 0.0 1 1.38 MB 586.05 MB Intel
10 kextd root 0.0 2 1.26 MB 586.19 MB Intel
131 pmTool root 0.9 1 1.23 MB 595.69 MB Intel
16 mDNSResponder _mdnsresponder 0.0 2 1.17 MB 587.49 MB Intel
60 ocspd root 0.0 1 1.06 MB 585.86 MB Intel
35 kdcmond root 0.0 2 1,020.00 KB 585.73 MB Intel
42 diskarbitrationd root 0.0 1 960.00 KB 585.69 MB Intel
115 coreaudiod root 0.0 2 956.00 KB 586.31 MB Intel
27 usbmuxd _usbmuxd 0.0 2 940.00 KB 587.46 MB Intel
38 fseventsd root 0.0 10 916.00 KB 591.19 MB Intel
26 ntpd root 0.0 1 844.00 KB 586.12 MB Intel
15 distnoted daemon 0.0 1 716.00 KB 585.59 MB Intel
40 dynamic_pager root 0.0 1 704.00 KB 585.61 MB Intel
47 autofsd root 0.0 1 672.00 KB 585.62 MB Intel
34 KernelEventAgent root 0.0 2 652.00 KB 585.68 MB Intel
111 pboard ordonez 0.0 1 588.00 KB 586.63 MB Intel
1 launchd root 0.0 3 564.00 KB 586.74 MB Intel
80 launchd ordonez 0.0 3 512.00 KB 585.74 MB Intel
13 syslogd root 0.0 4 460.00 KB 587.24 MB Intel
12 notifyd root 0.0 2 448.00 KB 586.17 MB Intel
93 vmnet-bridge root 0.0 1 372.00 KB 586.70 MB Intel
28 update root 0.0 1 288.00 KB 585.57 MB Intel
70 vmnet-natd root 0.0 1 240.00 KB 586.14 MB Intel
81 vmnet-dhcpd root 0.0 1 196.00 KB 585.93 MB Intel
91 vmnet-dhcpd root 0.0 1 168.00 KB 585.93 MB Intel
85 vmnet-netifup root 0.0 1 148.00 KB 586.64 MB Intel
88 vmnet-netifup root 0.0 1 148.00 KB 586.64 MB Intel
 
Dang, this is very odd. I tried to verify and it failed again. Same error but with different numbers. Here it is....

Checking volume information.
Invalid volume file count
(It should be 648213 instead of 648214)
Invalid volume directory count
(It should be 165081 instead of 165080)
The volume Macintosh HD needs to be repaired.

Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.

Wow, I'm confused. So is reformatting and restoring now looking the better way to go here guys? Or should I just keep repairing, restarting, and verifying and eventually it'll be ok? I really have no problem with a clean install. I've never done one and it'd be kind of cool to see how it's done anyways! hahaha. But seriously, I can back up my needed programs to my HP using my home network, and then I can just get it all back. So it's no big deal, I'm not at risk of losing my data. Clearly, though, this is teaching me that a dedicated external backup drive is the way to go. I'll definitely look into it and get one ASAP. I small 160gig external shouldn't cost much, and I'm sure it'd be worth it. Thoughts on all this?
 
I have the same Macbook with less ram, Safari takes 1 bounce.

The Canon software could be causing it, I once had a Canon scanner driver that would take 100% CPU when idling.

If you can't uninstall it, give reformat a go.

Also if your planning to use Time Machine instead, get a drive that is decently larger than the volume being backed up, 160gb would be too small. Either way backup is always a good idea.
 
Have you upgraded to the new hard drive firmware 1.7?

I've noticed my 13" mpb has gotten slower ever since I applied the firmware. Beachball seems to come up every few minutes
 
If you cannot repair or verify your hard drive with disk utility, there is a problem with your hard drive.
Make sure you make a backup before you head over to the Apple store.
 
Hey. So my being so new to mac just made me feel so stupid. I was trying to repair disk permissions not the disk. I didn't realize I had to reboot from the os disc to do the repair. I repaired it and verified and it appears the drive is fine.

But its still weirdly slow and still taking quite a few bounces to start basic programs like safari. I might just do a backup tonight and then a clean install.

Also I did not upgrade firmware as I believe it came preinstalled. Sata was at 3 from the start so I'm pretty sure that's not the answer. Maybe I just downloaded/installed/removed too much stuff or something? Is there no defrag for mac? Any further ideas?
 
andiwm2003 said:
batteries have a limited number of charging cycles. i thought it's better to leave them plugged in and conserve the battery. worked on my PB and on my MBP.
Click to expand...

No, you need to go through at least a charge cycle every month for best battery health. The more cycles the better (to an extent).
 
geoffreak said:
No, you need to go through at least a charge cycle every month for best battery health. The more cycles the better (to an extent).
Click to expand...

did you read the link? that is not what a number of sources on the web say. the only way to increase battery life is removing it and keeping it cool and that is not worth the work.

I thought the monthly discharge/charge cycle is for calibrating the battery to get accurate battery life measurements and not to increase the lifetime of the battery.

in any case it's still better to alway have it plugged in that to discharge it 60 times a month.

Please correct me if I'm wrong on that one. Given the price of batteries it's important to have that right.

EDIT: seems apple really recommends frequent charge/discharge cycles (http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html)

I stand corrected.:eek:
 
Welcome to the Mac world. First, as a new user you should know that almost all repair utilities need to be run from a different startup (boot) disk than the target disk for the repairs. In my opinion Disk Warrior is the best of the type, but I am not sure if their latest version will boot the latest Macbook Pro machines. Disk Utility does a good job, but it is rather basic.
You could try uninstalling your scanning, printing software and reinstalling it after checking for the lags.
Check the System Preferences, Accounts, Login Items pane, anything except iTunes helper in there?
As said in the thread above, some HDs are slower than others but even a slow HD shouldn't make opening applications 2 or 3 times slower, judging from the other replies on opening applications.
It is considered that defragmenting is not necessary with OSX now, and in support of that, I have used Drive Genius 2 to defrag a 500GB HD (only 15% full anyway) and noticed no improvement. So I do not think that is the source of your troubles.
Good luck:cool:
 
geoffreak said:
No, you need to go through at least a charge cycle every month for best battery health. The more cycles the better (to an extent).
Click to expand...

As 2003 has said, a simple calibration once a month or so is enough to keep the battery in optimal shape. Increasing cycles by draining the battery needlessly will guarantee that the battery runs out of juice quicker, so "more cycles" is not better.
 
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