Restore or reset MacBook Pro to improve performance?

[GonzagaDynasty]

So my 2013 MacBook Pro seems to be running pretty sluggish. I don't have hardly anything on it though, so I don't think it's full of crap. I literally only use it for web browsing. I've deleted all history and cookies and stuff like that..

It will occasionally freeze up and web pages that are long or have a bunch of pictures never seem to scroll smoothly which is REALLY frustrating. The reason why I bough this MacBook in the first place was to avoid the annoying garbage performance all the PCs I've ever owned seem to give me.

I was thinking about just restoring it completely and wiping it clean and seeing if that fixed it, because like I said, I don't really have anything on it that I need to keep. I just use it to browse the web so restoring it would be fine with me, if it would improve the performance. What are your thoughts? And what's the best way to do that?

 

[yjchua95]

So my 2013 MacBook Pro seems to be running pretty sluggish. I don't have hardly anything on it though, so I don't think it's full of crap. I literally only use it for web browsing. I've deleted all history and cookies and stuff like that..

It will occasionally freeze up and web pages that are long or have a bunch of pictures never seem to scroll smoothly which is REALLY frustrating. The reason why I bough this MacBook in the first place was to avoid the annoying garbage performance all the PCs I've ever owned seem to give me.

I was thinking about just restoring it completely and wiping it clean and seeing if that fixed it, because like I said, I don't really have anything on it that I need to keep. I just use it to browse the web so restoring it would be fine with me, if it would improve the performance. What are your thoughts? And what's the best way to do that?

You most likely bought the cheapest MacBook available, the mid-2012 non-retina 13" MacBook Pro.

Of course you'd get crappy performance since it doesn't have an SSD inside.

Try restoring it first, but I wouldn't expect any change in performance. Yosemite doesn't seem to play nice with regular HDDs.

Have a look at the last line of my signature

 

[boast]

Easiest thing would be to create a new user account and use that to see if its faster.

 

[simonsi]

So my 2013 MacBook Pro seems to be running pretty sluggish. I don't have hardly anything on it though, so I don't think it's full of crap. I literally only use it for web browsing. I've deleted all history and cookies and stuff like that..

It will occasionally freeze up and web pages that are long or have a bunch of pictures never seem to scroll smoothly which is REALLY frustrating. The reason why I bough this MacBook in the first place was to avoid the annoying garbage performance all the PCs I've ever owned seem to give me.

I was thinking about just restoring it completely and wiping it clean and seeing if that fixed it, because like I said, I don't really have anything on it that I need to keep. I just use it to browse the web so restoring it would be fine with me, if it would improve the performance. What are your thoughts? And what's the best way to do that?

Is this on Safari or Chrome?

Unlikely to be because you have an HDD unless there is something else going on, when you have the issue go into Activity Monitor, CPU tab and sort by highest CPU at the top, then post a screenshot here and we can advise based on what you actually have going on rather than blanket guessing. If it was fine, it can be again.

 

[maflynn]

So my 2013 MacBook Pro seems to be running pretty sluggish. I don't have hardly anything on it though, so I don't think it's full of crap. I literally only use it for web browsing. I've deleted all history and cookies and stuff like that..

Its possible, but unlikely. Its not windows that you have to worry about such things. Its probably a software issue, not an OS issue.

As others recommended, try a different browser, also create a new account to see of that has all the same issues as your current account, then failing that back up your data and reformat, but I really don't think you need go to that measure to fix the issue.

 

[SarcasticJoe]

Could do the trick, but it could also ether be a wasted effort or a massively overkill solution to a simple problem.

OSX and UNIX systems in general don't get slower with time just trough accumulated gunk in the works so to speak like Windows does. There's maintenance scripts that clean that crap out. What usually causes that kind of issues is stuff like processes being stuck running in the background (seen a case where a crashed printer driver being stuck running caused a massive slowdown), an overly full HDD (seen this way too often and it's very effective in slowing down otherwise fast machines) or just a lot more being run at the same time than when the machine was new.

If it's a crashed process or overfull HDD, the fix is pretty easy, but if it's just the user running more at the same time than when the machine was new, clearing out the machine will not do anything to fix this. The problem will just return as soon as the machine has been set up again.

In short: Before you nuke the disc, try to investigate what the actual problem is as it could very well be fixed with solutions that take a lot less effort than formatting the whole machine.

 

[GonzagaDynasty]

You most likely bought the cheapest MacBook available, the mid-2012 non-retina 13" MacBook Pro.

Of course you'd get crappy performance since it doesn't have an SSD inside.

Try restoring it first, but I wouldn't expect any change in performance. Yosemite doesn't seem to play nice with regular HDDs.

Have a look at the last line of my signature

The "cheapest" option was still over $1,000 dollars.... So if I should expect crappy performance while performing basic tasks like web browsing, then Apple is the absolute worst company on the planet..

Thanks everybody else for the advice!

 

[Apple_Robert]

The "cheapest" option was still over $1,000 dollars.... So if I should expect crappy performance while performing basic tasks like web browsing, then Apple is the absolute worst company on the planet..

Thanks everybody else for the advice!

You got a quality computer. There may be things going on that are causing it to slow down. What kind of internet connect do you have? Have you ever run Disk Utility to check for disk errors (read: disk permissions) ? Are you running Mavericks or Yosemite?

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You most likely bought the cheapest MacBook available, the mid-2012 non-retina 13" MacBook Pro.

Of course you'd get crappy performance since it doesn't have an SSD inside.

Try restoring it first, but I wouldn't expect any change in performance. Yosemite doesn't seem to play nice with regular HDDs.

Have a look at the last line of my signature

There is nothing "crappy" about his model MBP. No need to kick a new Mac user in the gut when he is looking for a little help.

Your snotty attitude wasn't needed and it certainly didn't help.