New to macbook pro

[MzAnnB]

I brought my MacBook Pro six months ago but didn't have time to use it. Now I have been using it and getting to know it over the past 3 months. I am surprised by the performance of the MacBook Pro. I really like the notebook but its not as fast as I thought it would be. I don't have any games or music on it for I am getting some pop ups, and the little colorful circle goes around and around a lot and something for a long time. I tried the defrag instructions and it helped a little. Do you think I pick up a virus somewhere along the way of going from site to site. Can you think of anything else I should try , if not I am a bit disappointed because I was hoping it didn't act like Windows. I am taking a class from Udemy on using the MacBook Pro. But I thought I would come here and ask people that uses Apple products all the time.

Thanks!

 

[ohbrilliance]

Hi, what model and specs does your MBP have? The classic MBPs with hard drives won't perform as well as the retina MBPs with SSDs. RAM could also be limiting performance.

 

[MzAnnB]

Model???

Ohbrilliance - I am sorry but I don't know how to ans your questions. But when I click the little apple it has MacBook Pro, 13 inch , Mid 2013, 4 GB, not sure if that tells you but I dont think this has the retina ... hmmm.

 

[yjchua95]

Ohbrilliance - I am sorry but I don't know how to ans your questions. But when I click the little apple it has MacBook Pro, 13 inch , Mid 2013, 4 GB, not sure if that tells you but I dont think this has the retina ... hmmm.

You mean mid-2012?

Yup, if it's the non-retina model, it will never boot up in just 11 seconds and be responsive, because of the lack of an SSD.

 

[alphaod]

Double the RAM to 8GB and get an SSD, and this machine will fly.

If you can't do this, ask a computer savvy friend to do it.

 

[Meister]

MacBook Pro, 13 inch , Mid 2013, 4 GB, not sure if that tells you but I dont think this has the retina ... hmmm.

unless they made a "MzAnnB special edition", mentioned model doesnt exist.
What are you running on your macbook?

 

[kelon111]

Ohbrilliance - I am sorry but I don't know how to ans your questions. But when I click the little apple it has MacBook Pro, 13 inch , Mid 2013, 4 GB, not sure if that tells you but I dont think this has the retina ... hmmm.

You probably have the mid 2012 model. If you bought it in 2013 that doesn't necessarily mean it's a 2013 model.

Are you sure it doesn't say "mid 2012"?
There is a early 2013 model and late 2013 model but they are both Retina models.

 

[MzAnnB]

OMG! Too funny....

unless they made a "MzAnnB special edition", mentioned model doesnt exist.
What are you running on your macbook?

Meister - You are correct they didnt make MzAnnB spc edition but should have. I was not wearing my glasses its say Mid 2012. So is this the reason it runs slow. I am not running any thing really I am not a computer junkie therefore the only thing I have is some pics, no music, emails, and my virtual world IMVU. Surely MAC can handle this much of data it dont seem like a lot to me. That little colorful thing drives me crazy and plus theres been like 3 times yesterday I had to just shut it down because it keep freezing...You think I have a virus somehow.

 

[yjchua95]

Meister - You are correct they didnt make MzAnnB spc edition but should have. I was not wearing my glasses its say Mid 2012. So is this the reason it runs slow. I am not running any thing really I am not a computer junkie therefore the only thing I have is some pics, no music, emails, and my virtual world IMVU. Surely MAC can handle this much of data it dont seem like a lot to me. That little colorful thing drives me crazy and plus theres been like 3 times yesterday I had to just shut it down because it keep freezing...You think I have a virus somehow.

Nope, it's the spinning HDD hard drive. That drive is the reason why your Mac is so slow. Even new Macs with 2.5" 5400rpm HDDs like yours will perform just as slow.

Swap it out with an SSD and watch it go 10x faster.

 

[MzAnnB]

Ssd ????

Are you guys telling me to swap out the hard drive or to replace the MAC notebook all together?

 

[Meister]

Nope, it's the spinning HDD hard drive. That drive is the reason why your Mac is so slow. Even new Macs with 2.5" 5400rpm HDDs like yours will perform just as slow.
Swap it out with an SSD and watch it go 10x faster.

With her little useage this is not due to the hdd. My mini has the same specs as the mid 2012 and it doesnt do this at all. There is something else really wrong.

Mzannb - backup your system.
Then: disk utilities --> repair disk permissions.
Then boot in recovery mode .(http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4718) --> reinstall the OS.

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Double the RAM to 8GB and get an SSD, and this machine will fly.
If you can't do this, ask a computer savvy friend to do it.

double ram + ssd? An expensive upgrade! What do you base this advice on?

 

[tillsbury]

double ram + ssd? An expensive upgrade! What do you base this advice on?

I think it's based on the fact that machines with 4Gb RAM and hard drives are dog slow, by the standards of the last few years. My son is fine with his 2013 Mac mini as he's used to it, but it drives me bonkers how slow it is...

 

[Meister]

I think it's based on the fact that machines with 4Gb RAM and hard drives are dog slow, by the standards of the last few years. My son is fine with his 2013 Mac mini as he's used to it, but it drives me bonkers how slow it is...

4gb or 8gb of ram make no difference whatsoever. Why should they?
An ssd will make everything more responsive, nevertheless with the OPs usage there should be no beachballing.

Maybe your sons mini is broken.
For basic tasks like websurfing, text editing and file sorting my mini is as responsive as my rmbp or mba.

 

[simonsi]

I think it's based on the fact that machines with 4Gb RAM and hard drives are dog slow, by the standards of the last few years. My son is fine with his 2013 Mac mini as he's used to it, but it drives me bonkers how slow it is...

She has nothing to compare it with so unlikely to be the issue.

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...You think I have a virus somehow.

No but you may have some software behaving badly. Go to the launchpad and run the Activity Monitor, click on the CPU tab and see what is using the CPU (biggest number)...

Failing that, take it to your class and show the teacher, he will likely use it as an opportunity to show the class how to find the cause of such issues and fix them.