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So, I installed more RAM but my MacBook Pro is still going rather slowly

A

amabedesign

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 17, 2012
3
0
hi, I recently upgraded my RAM from 8GB to 16GB. The reason for doing this was because I noticed that when I was doing almost anything (sending an email, moving an item on the screen in Illustrator, minimizing a program, etc.) the spinning beach ball would show for at least a second or two. Then it started to appear longer. I have no clue why... I try to keep my machine in the best condition possible. I'm a non-smoker and I live alone, I have never spilled anything on it, I dust regularly, I make sure my computer is updated regularly and use Cocktail to try and keep things running smoothly.

It's very irritating to still be seeing the "beach ball" and the wristwatch image appear every time I open or close and application, open a file (even a small one), and even sometimes when I am typing all of the text won't show up for a second or two while that damned ball is spinning. >.<

Any idea what could be causing this?
Here's some more info about my machine:

MacBookPro 17", Late 2011
2.5 GHz Intel Core i7
16GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Running OSX 10.9
 
I have a similar vintage machine and decided to go with the SSD as I was only occasionally seeing memory issues in Activity Monitor. The SSD made a world of difference. Beach balls are a thing of the past. I have since upgraded to 16 gb because of having to run some Windows apps and Parallels was paging like crazy.

Expensive upgrade because I then had to put one in my wife's iMac when she saw how fast mine was.
 
Have you tried a repair permissions and a verify disk in disk utility? Sometimes helps.

Otherwise open activity monitor and see if there is a process lurking that is munching your ram or more likely cpu resources.

A look at the logs in console may also shed some light on what is happening.
 
amabedesign said:
hi, I recently upgraded my RAM from 8GB to 16GB. The reason for doing this was because I noticed that when I was doing almost anything (sending an email, moving an item on the screen in Illustrator, minimizing a program, etc.) the spinning beach ball would show for at least a second or two. Then it started to appear longer. I have no clue why... I try to keep my machine in the best condition possible. I'm a non-smoker and I live alone, I have never spilled anything on it, I dust regularly, I make sure my computer is updated regularly and use Cocktail to try and keep things running smoothly.

It's very irritating to still be seeing the "beach ball" and the wristwatch image appear every time I open or close and application, open a file (even a small one), and even sometimes when I am typing all of the text won't show up for a second or two while that damned ball is spinning. >.<

Any idea what could be causing this?
Here's some more info about my machine:

MacBookPro 17", Late 2011
2.5 GHz Intel Core i7
16GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Running OSX 10.9
Click to expand...

On my early 2011 15" MBP, when all I had was a 2.3GHz quad core i7 and 16GB RAM plus a 7200rpm drive, it was slow like *expletive*. And it stayed that way until I got a 512GB Samsung 840 Pro and saw my boot times go from 4 minutes (includes logging in and waiting for the MBP to get into a usable state) to 12 seconds straight (immediately after logging in it's immediately usable).
 
Symptoms like that most likely indicate a HDD failure. Can you run Apples Hardware Test?

P.S. The RAM upgrade was quite unnecessary, nothing in your usage benefits from it.
 
If you have 8GB of Ram and your getting a beach ball doing basic stuff then it clearly isn't a Ram issue you have it's something else.
 
Much of the advice above is painfully premature.

First, you should confirm there isn't another hardware defect with your machine. Depending upon what model your computer is, you either have a DVD that will let you run an Apple Hardware Test (AHT) from startup, or you can hold down the "D" key when you start up. Once the AHT boots, hit the "L" key to enable looping mode, and run the extended test. (The extended test takes longer because it tests your RAM.)

Also, do you have plenty of free space on your hard drive? A lack of space could also cause the issues you described.
 
john123 said:
Much of the advice above is painfully premature.

First, you should confirm there isn't another hardware defect with your machine. Depending upon what model your computer is, you either have a DVD that will let you run an Apple Hardware Test (AHT) from startup, or you can hold down the "D" key when you start up. Once the AHT boots, hit the "L" key to enable looping mode, and run the extended test. (The extended test takes longer because it tests your RAM.)

Also, do you have plenty of free space on your hard drive? A lack of space could also cause the issues you described.
Click to expand...

Installing the new RAM was probably premature, also. Nice to have, though!

I suggest creating a new "user account" (just for testing) and see if the delays exists for the simple tasks you mentioned.

Also, check to see if you have any unwanted applications automatically starting up when you start your computer (System Preferences>Accounts>Login Items). They could be slowing things down.
 
If a hardware error is occurring, it is very common that it's the HDD before anything else. That's why I suggested it.

RAM doesn't seem to "go bad" that often, though it doesn't cost anything to test it, so I hear that.
 
costabunny said:
Have you tried a repair permissions and a verify disk in disk utility? Sometimes helps.

Otherwise open activity monitor and see if there is a process lurking that is munching your ram or more likely cpu resources.

A look at the logs in console may also shed some light on what is happening.
Click to expand...

What bunny said. Best done from recovery partition disk utility app.

If you want more speed in PS - upgrade the spinner to an SSD and you will certainly notice the difference.
 
glenthompson said:
I have a similar vintage machine and decided to go with the SSD as I was only occasionally seeing memory issues in Activity Monitor. The SSD made a world of difference. Beach balls are a thing of the past. I have since upgraded to 16 gb because of having to run some Windows apps and Parallels was paging like crazy.

Expensive upgrade because I then had to put one in my wife's iMac when she saw how fast mine was.
Click to expand...

I don't think a machine still in warranty is "vintage".
 
Be aware that the random beach balls are a symptom of Mavericks. I also get random 1-2 second beach balls on my new rMBP. The longer beach balls may be a sign of something else. Check how much space is available on your hard drive and check how many startup items and background apps you have running.
 
KUguardgrl13 said:
Be aware that the random beach balls are a symptom of Mavericks. I also get random 1-2 second beach balls on my new rMBP. The longer beach balls may be a sign of something else. Check how much space is available on your hard drive and check how many startup items and background apps you have running.
Click to expand...

I've seen some people complain about it under Mavericks, but I (and thousands of others) have not experienced the problem. That makes me wonder if the OS is being blamed for something else that's also installed but isn't playing nice with the OS.
 
john123 said:
I've seen some people complain about it under Mavericks, but I (and thousands of others) have not experienced the problem. That makes me wonder if the OS is being blamed for something else that's also installed but isn't playing nice with the OS.
Click to expand...

Chrome maybe? I know it's not playing very nice right now. It works, but chromehelper and some of the other background tools are sucking up resources.
 
Hardware test it. Thing is though that AHT really doesn't dig deep into the hard drive, but the description of the problem is indicative of every pre-fail I've seen on a Mac HDD.
 
Ssd will def help but I believe it's mavericks after testing a clean install it's way better just have to bite the bullet and do it I almost want to send the ram back bow that I have a ssd it's amazing!!
 
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