New Mac user, truly confused!

[G1190]

Hi there.

Stepped into the world of macbooks on Saturday when I bought a new macbook pro i7 core processor. Worked great for three days. Now all of a sudden it's as slow as any laptop older than a few years. What gives? The only programmes I have used thus far is garageband and safari. That's not too much processing for a £1500 macbook I'm sure of it. Theres no apps running in the bavkground so i really dont know whats happened all of a sudden! Anyway, any insight to what the issue might be is much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Ries]

Go to "Application" "Utilities" and start "Activity Monitor". Look if anything uses cpu or memory.

 

[G1190]

Go to "Application" "Utilities" and start "Activity Monitor". Look if anything uses cpu or memory.

hi thanks for the reply. I looked that up and the cup usage was tiny. It said I had something like 90% free. So I'm guessing that's not the issue here...

 

[JohnDS]

Try a reboot.

If that doesn't solve the problem, then what is it that is slow? Browsing the internet? Loading pages? Starting apps? Typing in a window? Doing calculations? Booting?

 

[G1190]

Try a reboot.

If that doesn't solve the problem, then what is it that is slow? Browsing the internet? Loading pages? Starting apps? Typing in a window? Doing calculations? Booting?

Yep, browsing the Internet, closing and opening any programs ( just freezes for like ten or twenty seconds). Playback in garageband. Just normal tasks. The thing is it was completing these in a split second before today..dunno what's up. I don't want to consider that I have a faulty model because I have already returned a new laptop for this reason. Are they supposed to be slow and laggy when new?!

Thanks

 

[Gochugogi]

Spotlight always seems to dog my new Macs (or OS install) for a few days, slowing everything down. Once it's had its fill of indexing, speed comes back. Google Updater went postal on me a couple months back--calling the mother ship multiple times per second--bringing my i7 Mini to its knees until I finally figured out how to nix the damn thing.

 

[Goatllama]

Where'd you get the computer?

Edit: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201716

 

[JohnDS]

Is it running a time machine backup to a time capsule by any chance? That can slow things down if you have weak wireless signal.

You could also open Disk Utility and run First Aid.

 

[G1190]

Is it running a time machine backup to a time capsule by any chance? That can slow things down if you have weak wireless signal.

You could also open Disk Utility and run First Aid.

Wow OK. Never thought of that. Thanks for the advice
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Spotlight always seems to dog my new Macs (or OS install) for a few days, slowing everything down. Once it's had its fill of indexing, speed comes back. Google Updater went postal on me a couple months back--calling the mother ship multiple times per second--bringing my i7 Mini to its knees until I finally figured out how to nix the damn thing.

OK thanks. Is there anything to be done to speed up the indexing.I don't really know what that means, I'm afraid. But it sounds promising

 

[JohnDS]

Are you in fact running a back up to a TimeCapsule? If so, can you open the Time Machine Prefs and post a screen shot? (To do a screenshot, type command-option-4. The cursor will turn to a cross-hair. Click on the top left of the area you want a screenshot of and drag to the bottom right and release the mouse-button. The screenshot should appear as a file on your desktop).

BTW, you should always do the first backup while connected by ethernet as wifi is too slow for a full backup. Wifi is okay for subsequent incremental backups provided you are not too far from the Time Capsule.

 

[jbarley]

Are you in fact running a back up to a TimeCapsule? If so, can you open the Time Machine Prefs and post a screen shot? (To do a screenshot, type command-option-4. The cursor will turn to a cross-hair. Click on the top left of the area you want a screenshot of and drag to the bottom right and release the mouse-button. The screenshot should appear as a file on your desktop).

BTW, you should always do the first backup while connected by ethernet as wifi is too slow for a full backup. Wifi is okay for subsequent incremental backups provided you are not too far from the Time Capsule.

A very good utility for finding problems is the Free "Etrecheck".
Download it and let it run, it will produce a report with a lot of info that can help diagnose issues.

 

[JohnDS]

Yes. And please post the EtreCheck report back here.

 

[bratman91]

Hi there.

Stepped into the world of macbooks on Saturday when I bought a new macbook pro i7 core processor. Worked great for three days. Now all of a sudden it's as slow as any laptop older than a few years. What gives? The only programmes I have used thus far is garageband and safari. That's not too much processing for a £1500 macbook I'm sure of it. Theres no apps running in the bavkground so i really dont know whats happened all of a sudden! Anyway, any insight to what the issue might be is much appreciated.

Thanks

I have an iMac in a garden office and have been very surprised at the huge variations I get in speed of internet browsing. For days, the speed can be the maximum my ISP provides and then it can drop to almost nil for days. I have tracked it down to variations in wifi signal strength plus other wifi routers in the area using the same channels. Before trying anythng else, it would probably be worth placing your macbook as close to your router as you can get and see if this improves things. Your problem may, of course, be due to something different but it takes but a few minutes to check that the problem isn't your wifi signal.

 

[JohnDS]

You might download and run the freeware Netspot http://www.netspotapp.com to see if there are other routers using the same channel as yours which might be interfering. Netspot will help you choose a free channel.

However, note that there is an overlap of channels. The only non-overlapping channels are 1, 6 and 11, so you should use one of those if you are in the 2.4 GHz spectrum

If your router and Mac will both handle a 5Ghz channel, you may find there is less interference on the 5 GHz spectrum

 

[KALLT]

Yep, browsing the Internet, closing and opening any programs ( just freezes for like ten or twenty seconds).

Difficult to say that might be causing it, but you are experiencing slow loading of applications and slow browsing speed? Does your device have an SSD? Indexing will not take days, it will take a few hours at most, especially on an empty machine (unless you plugged in some huge external drives or are performing a Time Machine backup, that can take quite some time).

You might download and run the freeware Netspot http://www.netspotapp.com to see if there are other routers using the same channel as yours which might be interfering. Netspot will help you choose a free channel.

However, note that there is an overlap of channels. The only non-overlapping channels are 1, 6 and 11, so you should use one of those if you are in the 2.4 GHz spectrum

If your router and Mac will both handle a 5Ghz channel, you may find there is less interference on the 5 GHz spectrum

You can just use the Wireless Diagnostics application for this.

 

[JohnDS]

True, but NetSpot is a lot easier to use.

 

[bratman91]

True, but NetSpot is a lot easier to use.

What's wrong with the little app in Dashboard?
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You might download and run the freeware Netspot http://www.netspotapp.com to see if there are other routers using the same channel as yours which might be interfering. Netspot will help you choose a free channel.

However, note that there is an overlap of channels. The only non-overlapping channels are 1, 6 and 11, so you should use one of those if you are in the 2.4 GHz spectrum

If your router and Mac will both handle a 5Ghz channel, you may find there is less interference on the 5 GHz spectrum

A genuine question: what do you mean by "an overlap of channels"?

 

[leman]

You have 90 days of free phone support with Apple. Why not call them? They have very good customer service and they have the means of remotely diagnosing your machine and helping you with all kind of issues.