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MBP (mid 2009) Bogging down HARD.

E

ezwider

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 18, 2009
8
0
Hey everyone, it's been a while since I've been back, I was happy to see that I DID indeed have an account here lol.

Here's my problem.

Just a couple of weeks ago my MBP 10.7.5 OSX 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 8 GB of DDR3 ram (the most you could get at the time) has started to lag terribly.

Applications like Final Cut Pro, Gameboy Advance emulators, and Safari (while using youtube or other video streaming involving flash) have been using upwards of 100-150 percent of the CPU when Activity Monitor (CPU) is showing.

Videos lag, the fans reach an excess of 10,000 rpms, and as a professional videographer, I can't edit any of my work if it lags after 2 seconds of playing the video in the workspace. I'm at a dead end here and I need help.

The steps I have taken so far....

1) Cleaned all dust out of the laptop (check)
2) Ran a permissions check and repair (all drives appear to be ok)
3) Backed up all of my information

I'm scared that my logic board, or whatever the apple guys call a motherboard, might be failing... my AppleCare ran out a few months ago (of course...) so I'd like to know if I can save my ass before purchasing another laptop or paying a ridiculous amount for repairs.

Thanks everybody, I had no where else to turn :(
 
ezwider said:
Hey everyone, it's been a while since I've been back, I was happy to see that I DID indeed have an account here lol.

Here's my problem.

Just a couple of weeks ago my MBP 10.7.5 OSX 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 8 GB of DDR3 ram (the most you could get at the time) has started to lag terribly.

Applications like Final Cut Pro, Gameboy Advance emulators, and Safari (while using youtube or other video streaming involving flash) have been using upwards of 100-150 percent of the CPU when Activity Monitor (CPU) is showing.

Videos lag, the fans reach an excess of 10,000 rpms, and as a professional videographer, I can't edit any of my work if it lags after 2 seconds of playing the video in the workspace. I'm at a dead end here and I need help.

The steps I have taken so far....

1) Cleaned all dust out of the laptop (check)
2) Ran a permissions check and repair (all drives appear to be ok)
3) Backed up all of my information

I'm scared that my logic board, or whatever the apple guys call a motherboard, might be failing... my AppleCare ran out a few months ago (of course...) so I'd like to know if I can save my ass before purchasing another laptop or paying a ridiculous amount for repairs.

Thanks everybody, I had no where else to turn :(
Click to expand...

I'd probably replace the HDD and do a clean install of your choice of OS's that'll clean out crud and replace the what I believe is going wrong...
 
GermanyChris said:
I'd probably replace the HDD and do a clean install of your choice of OS's that'll clean out crud and replace the what I believe is going wrong...
Click to expand...

Hmmm... I was afraid of this. Why would my permissions checks come out positive then?


simsaladimbamba said:
What application did you use to read out the fan speeds? The maximum fan speed is 6,000 RPM.
And what codec do you use to edit video?

If you want to enhance the performance of your Mac, be sure to check these two articles, do not just use applications, that promise to do it for you.
Click to expand...

I was using a widget called iStat Pro, you can hear the fans going nuts, and the computer getting extremely hot.

I don't think the codec has to do with anything, I'm using Final Cut Pro and an Apple Pro Res 422 (Eos 1 PLug In) for log and transfer, but I've been doing that for over a year with no problems or lag. I'll take a look at those articles but I don't think they will help. Thank you though guys! Anyone else?
 
Sorry for the double post.

In the first article it mentions "remove any non-essential apps" lol how do I know what is essential and what is not? That didn't help.

I tried running AHT (Apple Hardware Test), but holding down the D key does not boot anything up for me. This is frustrating, I really don't want to go to the apple store...
 
Not sure how you would classify apps by importance, but this is an example of how I would do it:

Non-Essential: Angry Birds, The Weather Network, Caffeine etc. Honestly can't see how any of these would be classified as essential. Although, my 1 year old may disagree with me on the Angry Birds one.

Essential: Depends on your main use for the system. For somebody doing photography, Photoshop would be essential, for somebody in Web Dev perhaps Coda 2 is essential, etc.
 
duervo said:
Not sure how you would classify apps by importance, but this is an example of how I would do it:

Non-Essential: Angry Birds, The Weather Network, Caffeine etc. Honestly can't see how any of these would be classified as essential. Although, my 1 year old may disagree with me on the Angry Birds one.

Essential: Depends on your main use for the system. For somebody doing photography, Photoshop would be essential, for somebody in Web Dev perhaps Coda 2 is essential, etc.
Click to expand...

That's what I figured, just wanted to clarify. About a week or two before this issue started, I upgraded to Lion, maybe that had something to do with it, other than that, the only things I installed before the problem occurred, were some widgets, but I can't find the widget that let's you add and remove widgets...

Nvmnd, I found it, removed the widgets, those things are useless anyways.
 
ezwider said:
Hmmm... I was afraid of this. Why would my permissions checks come out positive then?




I was using a widget called iStat Pro, you can hear the fans going nuts, and the computer getting extremely hot.

I don't think the codec has to do with anything, I'm using Final Cut Pro and an Apple Pro Res 422 (Eos 1 PLug In) for log and transfer, but I've been doing that for over a year with no problems or lag. I'll take a look at those articles but I don't think they will help. Thank you though guys! Anyone else?
Click to expand...

try zeroing out your drive and do a clean install of L/ML/SL
 

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GermanyChris said:
Here under security options
Click to expand...

The version I installed of Lion came from a friend who made a disk image for me, turns out it was cracked from a torrent site like Piratebay. I seem to have found my problem then yes? I'm just gonna buy 10.8, although 10.6 is what I loved the most.
 
Writing zeroes to the drive and reinstalling won't accomplish anything more than just a reinstall. Nothing carries over from the drive after a reinstall.

iStatPro should tell you whether it's a CPU load or a memory load, or both. If it's CPU open activity monitor and sort by the % CPU column to see what's running. I'd do this with no load and with a normal load.

If it's memory make sure your system is recognizing all 8 gigs in "About this Mac" and then sort by the memory column in Activity Monitor, same as above.
 
ratfink said:
Writing zeroes to the drive and reinstalling won't accomplish anything more than just a reinstall. Nothing carries over from the drive after a reinstall.

iStatPro should tell you whether it's a CPU load or a memory load, or both. If it's CPU open activity monitor and sort by the % CPU column to see what's running. I'd do this with no load and with a normal load.

If it's memory make sure your system is recognizing all 8 gigs in "About this Mac" and then sort by the memory column in Activity Monitor, same as above.
Click to expand...

except that it insures there is no bad sectors, SMART won't usually pick up a bad until it's really bad secure erase will..

Many like myself secure erase a brand new computers gives the same assurance that there is no disk issue from the factory.

----------
ezwider said:
The version I installed of Lion came from a friend who made a disk image for me, turns out it was cracked from a torrent site like Piratebay. I seem to have found my problem then yes? I'm just gonna buy 10.8, although 10.6 is what I loved the most.
Click to expand...

Put 10.6 on it if you have the disk.. 10.8 isn't all that special.
 
GermanyChris said:
except that it insures there is no bad sectors, SMART won't usually pick up a bad until it's really bad secure erase will..

Many like myself secure erase a brand new computers gives the same assurance that there is no disk issue from the factory.

----------



Put 10.6 on it if you have the disk.. 10.8 isn't all that special.
Click to expand...

I see a lot of people recommending writing zeroes to find bad sectors and saying that it's what Apple recommends. But searching Apple support documentation doesn't turn up any references for using this method in OS X, only OS 9. Do you have a link to a support article referencing OS X?
 
ratfink said:
I see a lot of people recommending writing zeroes to find bad sectors and saying that it's what Apple recommends. But searching Apple support documentation doesn't turn up any references for using this method in OS X, only OS 9. Do you have a link to a support article referencing OS X?
Click to expand...

No and I've never looked for it in Apple KB...

Finding bad sectors in HDD's is OS independent
 
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