Slow/Beachballing Mid-2013 MBA Etrecheck Help?

[evilsheep]

Hi there. I have a MacBook Air (mid 2013) which has recently starting slowing dramatically, and beachballing constantly. I did a clean install from USB bootable drive of High Sierra just yesterday and the only apps I've downloaded onto it are Etrecheck and Black Magic Disk Speed (reports of both below). I've reset PRAM and SMC, and also run fsck -fy in Single User Mode, in addition to performing First Aid within Disk Utility. I haven't yet run a SMART test as I thought I could do it from Etrecheck, but can't seem to find the option. Any assistance with what could be wrong, and what can be done to solve it (I'm expecting a failing SSD ...) would be gratefully appreciated.

It's currently running MacOS High Sierra 10.13.3
MacBook Air (11-inch, Mid 2013)
1.3 GHz Intel Core i5
4GB 1600MHz DDR3
Intel HD Graphics 5000 1536MB
APPLE SSD TS0256F (TRIM enabled)

Disk Speed indicates a rather slow write speed of 78.8MB/s and read at 144.1MB/s.

Etrecheck report:

EtreCheck version: 4.1 (4A162)

Report generated: 2018-03-06 20:38:20

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 21:51

Performance: Poor


Problem: Beachballing


Major Issues:

Anything that appears on this list needs immediate attention.


No Time Machine backup - Time Machine backup not found.

Poor performance - EtreCheck report took over 10 minutes to run. This is very unusual.


Minor Issues:

These issues do not need immediate attention but they may indicate future problems.


32-bit Apps - This machine has 32-bits apps that may have problems in the future.


Hardware Information:

MacBook Air (11-inch, Mid 2013)

MacBook Air Model: MacBookAir6,1

1 1.3 GHz Intel Core i5 (i5-4250U) CPU: 2-core

4 RAM Not upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1600 ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1600 ok

Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 561


Video Information:

Intel HD Graphics 5000 - VRAM: 1536 MB

Color LCD 1366 x 768


Drives:

disk0 - APPLE SSD TS0256F 251.00 GB (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

Internal PCI 5.0 GT/s x2 Serial ATA

disk0s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB

disk0s2 250.14 GB

disk1s1 - Macintosh HD (APFS) 250.14 GB 20.17 GB

disk1s2 - Preboot (APFS) [APFS Preboot] 250.14 GB 40 MB

disk1s3 - Recovery (APFS) [Recovery] 250.14 GB 1.03 GB

disk1s4 - VM (APFS) [APFS VM] 250.14 GB 1.07 GB


Mounted Volumes:

disk1s1 - Macintosh HD 250.14 GB (227.73 GB free)

APFS

Mount point: /

Encrypting: 42% done


disk1s4 - VM [APFS VM] 250.14 GB (227.73 GB free)

APFS

Mount point: /private/var/vm


Network:

Interface en0: Wi-Fi

802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

One IPv4 address

Interface en2: Bluetooth PAN

Interface bridge0: Thunderbolt Bridge

iCloud Quota: 2.64 GB available


System Software:

macOS High Sierra 10.13.3 (17D47)

Time since boot: Less than an hour

System Load: 1.73 (1 min ago) 1.54 (5 min ago) 0.98 (15 min ago)


Security:

System Status
Gatekeeper Mac App Store and identified developers
System Integrity Protection Enabled

32-bit Applications:

Name Version
quicklookd32 5.0
DVD Player 5.8
InkServer 10.9

System Launch Agents:

[Not Loaded] 8 Apple tasks
[Loaded] 170 Apple tasks
[Running] 112 Apple tasks

System Launch Daemons:

[Not Loaded] 37 Apple tasks
[Loaded] 183 Apple tasks
[Running] 111 Apple tasks

Internet Plug-ins:

QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (installed 2018-01-19)


Time Machine:

Time Machine Not Configured!


Top Processes by CPU:

Process (count) Source % of CPU
system_profiler Apple 85
kernel_task Apple 8
com.apple.WebKit.WebContent (5) Apple 7
WindowServer Apple 6
Finder Apple 6

Top Processes by Memory:

Process (count) Source RAM usage
com.apple.WebKit.WebContent (6) Apple 1.26 GB
kernel_task Apple 498 MB
system_profiler Apple 355 MB
mdworker (18) Apple 197 MB
Safari Apple 125 MB

Top Processes by Network Use:

Process Source Input Output
com.apple.WebKit.Networking Apple 3 MB 167 KB
mDNSResponder Apple 65 KB 24 KB
apsd Apple 6 KB 12 KB
netbiosd Apple 3 KB 938 B
rapportd Apple 714 B 760 B

Top Processes by Energy Use:

Process (count) Source Energy usage (0-100)
com.apple.WebKit.WebContent (6) Apple 9
WindowServer Apple 5
VTDecoderXPCService Apple 2
Safari Apple 2
hidd Apple 1

Virtual Memory Information:

Available RAM 901 MB
Free RAM 20 MB
Used RAM 3.12 GB
Cached files 881 MB
Swap Used 0 B

Software Installs (past 30 days):

Name Version Install Date
Disk Speed Test 3.1 2018-03-06

Diagnostics Information (past 7 days):

2018-03-06 20:08:24 Last Shutdown Cause: 0 - Power loss

2018-03-06 01:02:34 com.apple.WebKit.WebContent CPU


End of report
[doublepost=1520371332][/doublepost]Here are a couple of screenshots from Activity Monitor, in case this is of any use.

 

[BrianBaughn]

Wait to see what it's like after it has finished encrypting the hard drive and Spotlight indexing has completed.

Having said that you might be better off running El Capitan on that 4GB of RAM.

 

[Willo34]

Agreed. Run El Capitan, get rid of High Sierra.

 

[evilsheep]

Wait to see what it's like after it has finished encrypting the hard drive and Spotlight indexing has completed.

Having said that you might be better off running El Capitan on that 4GB of RAM.

I tried to quit encryption last night via Disk Utility and couldn’t (it said it had over a day left to complete encryption?!). I’m only intending to use it to run a word processing programme and for internet use, so don’t need any high security.

Agreed. Run El Capitan, get rid of High Sierra.

I have a bootable El Capitan USB ready to go as I’ve just replaced my 2007 iMac HD with an SSD, so I think I’ll not wait for encryption now and just do a clean install of El Cap today.

Something didn’t seem quite right with the disk partitioning when I opened Disk Utility yesterday, so I’m wondering if I messed something up on the previous clean install. Could someone point me in the right direction of clear instructions on the cleanest and most efficient clean install?

Thank you!

 

[Willo34]

https://www.lifewire.com/perform-a-clean-install-of-os-x-el-capitan-on-your-mac-2259940

 

[evilsheep]

Ok. I had to do a hard reset on startup just now, as High Sierra wouldn't load beyond the login screen, ran Disk Utility from Startup Manager, then installed El Captain clean from USB. Black magic is now reporting write speeds of 514.3 and read 607.4 - much better! The Etrecheck report is now 'Excellent' too (full report below), so I'm hugely relieved. I was considering selling this Macbook Air as I now have an iMac, but I'm reconsidering if it's found a new lease of life ...

EtreCheck version: 4.1 (4A162)

Report generated: 2018-03-07 10:18:38

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 2:28

Performance: Excellent


Problem: No problem - just checking


Major Issues:

Anything that appears on this list needs immediate attention.


No Time Machine backup - Time Machine backup not found.


Minor Issues:

These issues do not need immediate attention but they may indicate future problems.


32-bit Apps - This machine has 32-bits apps that may have problems in the future.


Hardware Information:

MacBook Air (11-inch, Mid 2013)

MacBook Air Model: MacBookAir6,1

1 1.3 GHz Intel Core i5 (i5-4250U) CPU: 2-core

4 RAM Not upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1600 ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1600 ok

Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 561


Video Information:

Intel HD Graphics 5000 - VRAM: 1536 MB

Color LCD 1366 x 768


Drives:

disk0 - APPLE SSD TS0256F 251.00 GB (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

Internal PCI 5.0 GT/s x2 Serial ATA

disk0s1 - EFI [EFI] 210 MB

disk0s2 - U******d [Core Storage Container] 250.14 GB

disk1 - U******d (Journaled HFS+) 249.77 GB

disk0s3 - Recovery HD [Recovery] 650 MB


Mounted Volumes:

disk1 - U******d 249.77 GB (237.04 GB free)

Journaled HFS+

Mount point: /


Network:

Interface en0: Wi-Fi

802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

One IPv4 address

2 IPv6 addresses

Interface en2: Bluetooth PAN

Interface bridge0: Thunderbolt Bridge

iCloud Status: 2 pending files


System Software:

OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 (15G31)

Time since boot: Less than an hour

System Load: 3.75 (1 min ago) 7.30 (5 min ago) 4.54 (15 min ago)


Security:

System Status
Gatekeeper Mac App Store and identified developers
System Integrity Protection Enabled

32-bit Applications:

Name Version
SecurityFixer 10.8
DVD Player 5.8
InkServer 10.9
Wish 8.4.19
quicklookd32 5.0

System Launch Agents:

[Not Loaded] 5 Apple tasks
[Loaded] 149 Apple tasks
[Running] 84 Apple tasks

System Launch Daemons:

[Not Loaded] 48 Apple tasks
[Loaded] 154 Apple tasks
[Running] 88 Apple tasks
[Other] One Apple task

Internet Plug-ins:

Default Browser: 601 (installed 2016-07-09)

QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (installed 2016-07-09)


Time Machine:

Time Machine Not Configured!


Top Processes by CPU:

Process (count) Source % of CPU
mds_stores Apple 31
mds Apple 26
nsurlsessiond (2) Apple 21
cloudd Apple 18
kernel_task Apple 10

Top Processes by Memory:

Process (count) Source RAM usage
kernel_task Apple 535 MB
mdworker (22) Apple 359 MB
mds_stores Apple 205 MB
softwareupdated Apple 120 MB
iconservicesagent (2) Apple 107 MB

Top Processes by Energy Use:

Process (count) Source Energy usage (0-100)
nsurlsessiond (2) Apple 7
cloudd Apple 4
WindowServer Apple 3
kextcache Apple 2
mds Apple 1

Virtual Memory Information:

Available RAM 1.25 GB
Free RAM 63 MB
Used RAM 2.75 GB
Cached files 1.18 GB
Swap Used 0 B

Software Installs (past 30 days):

Name Version Install Date
Disk Speed Test 3.1 2018-03-07

Diagnostics Information (past 7 days):

2018-03-07 10:04:54 Last Shutdown Cause: 3 - Hard shutdown


End of report