Mid-2013 MBPR - PRAM Needs Resetting Constantly

[Lawney]

I have a "mid-2012" MacBook Pro Retina, and I've been having a few issues lately. Every time I boot my computer, I have black letterbox bars on the boot screen. So I reset my PRAM and everything is fine for one boot. Then I reboot, and it's back to it's letterboxed boot sequence. What's going on?

I've been having some real performance issues in my finder, safari, Adobe Premiere, and video games such as TF2. Lots of lag, lots of crashing, lots of memory leaks (in the case of Premiere, but I think that's an Adobe-side issue). Whereas my computer used to handle full video settings at 1080p in TF2, now I'm getting lag at less res with the lowest video settings. Safari is often lagging and crashing, as is the finder. There are a few other issues that have been happening consistently, but I am forgetting them right now. It's still a completely usable computer, but there is definitely something wrong. I feel like the PRAM reset not persisting may be the key.

Basically, it's not running smoothly, and with the boot sequence always behaving abnormally, and requiring PRAM resets to remedy (but only for a short while), I'm beginning to suspect that there is something malfunctioning from within the computer. It's been getting worse and worse.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what this could be?

I'll be making a Genius appointment soon, but I am trying to deliver a video project at the moment. And yes, I have wiped and reinstalled a fresh OS many times (from my USB and from Apple's servers). I have also tried the new Yosemite Beta 5, but that didn't do anything, either. Same issues.

Oh, and I'm sitting at 12.43GB of ram used with only Safari open with only 3 tabs. I keep hitting my memory's ceiling without intensive programs runing.

 

[Atomic Walrus]

Can you locate the source of the memory consumption from the activity monitor? You should be able to list all processes and arrange by memory usage, that would at least clarify what's wasting 10 gigs (!) of your RAM.

 

[Lawney]

Can you locate the source of the memory consumption from the activity monitor? You should be able to list all processes and arrange by memory usage, that would at least clarify what's wasting 10 gigs (!) of your RAM.

I'm looking in my activity monitor, and it's only Safari and tabs that are denoted as plug-ins (lego brick icons for Safari tabs, running sandboxed so that you can crash individual pages like in Chrome I guess). Then just a lot of different little things. I notice that there is a Safari process that is not responding. And spotify helper is not responding. A bunch of little things like that. I'm sitting at 5gb used right now, so not as bad as before (and a reboot).

I was a little overzealous when stating I was hitting my ceiling without intensive programs running. I'm hitting my ceiling with Premiere, often. As you can see, just Safari was bringing me close, though. At least before.

So is there any situation in which the Mac bootscreen would be letterboxed, but normal after a PRAM reset? And then reverting to that letterboxed (ie not normal) boot screen soon thereafter? I'm just afraid that I'll go into the Apple store and they'll not be able to find anything, even with what I've said. Basically going in with a fully functioning and clean computer that has been having some odd memory issues/pram issues that mean very little to the naked eye.

 

[Atomic Walrus]

If you haven't already I'd say you should try running the hardware test built into the system, which will run an extensive RAM test.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1509

Basically you just hold D while booting, select a language after the testing system loads, and check the box for "extended testing" before you press "Test." It's going to take a while, but it will thoroughly check your system memory for issues. Make sure to record any error codes it outputs at the end.

If it does find something then you're looking at a hardware issue, but at least you'll have data to give Apple when you bring it in.