Slow MacBook Pro

gubbie

I have a MacBook Pro (early 2010, 4GB, running Yosemite 10.10.1). I know it's old so I try to keep it as bare as possible - I have no additional apps on it other than Office and a Mono Developer program. I have 126GB free storage out of 320GB.

A few days ago it was running fine. Slower than any new computers but still completely operable. I could program, while having word open, while using the internet. It has in the last 2 days become unbearably slow. I mean, if I have just Word open, I will get a line written before I get the beach ball and 2 minutes later I can resume writing my next line. I had not downloaded anything in those two days.

I've checked the CPU and there's nothing unusual, or high volume going on. Only perhaps 2% being used.

I've tried deleting additional files and will be deleting more later once I can sort out formatting a hard drive.

Can anyone recommend any steps from here? Should I downgrade the software? Revert back to the original state with time machine? Try something else? I'm not in a position to be able to buy a new one so that isn't an option.

Any additional information needed, please just ask. Any help is appreciated! Thanks

[Edit]
I'm just updating to 10.10.2 in the case that it is that.

La Haine

I've an 8GB 17" MacBook Pro, early 2011, that was slowing down somewhat.
About 6 months ago I swapped out the old HD with a Crucial Solid State and it's like new.
The difference is unbelievable and cost about €160 if I recall.

You should seriously consider it.

PaddyFagan

> It has in the last 2 days become unbearably slow.

So Engineering hat on - what's changed? A few suggestions:

1. Did you install anything new? If so, remove it.
2. Is there someone else with access to the machine who could have installed something new? Again remove the new stuff.
3. Did any software get updated in the last two days? If so, revert
4. How long since the machines was rebooted? If not rebooted in a while, do it and see.
5. Have you up to date Anti Virus software running? If not, you may have a virus - worth checking, lots of free (good options).
6. Has the free space on your disk decreased dramatically? If so, can you free some up
7. Is some hardware component failing? Run health checks, etc

Someone else suggested an SSD, that will help - but if performance has gone off a cliff in the last few days, I'd be keen to understand what happened first...

Paddy

gubbie

Thanks both of ye for your replies so far.

I've tried a couple of things so far. I've ran ccleaner. Updating to 10.10.2 also helped. Its getting slightly better!

I'm now trying to run a health check but when I turn it off and back on again, I press and hold D. The screen stays grey for a while and then goes into the apple logo start up. Any ideas why it won't go into the hardware test?!

shanec1928

gubbie wrote: »

Thanks both of ye for your replies so far.

I've tried a couple of things so far. I've ran ccleaner. Updating to 10.10.2 also helped. Its getting slightly better!

I'm now trying to run a health check but when I turn it off and back on again, I press and hold D. The screen stays grey for a while and then goes into the apple logo start up. Any ideas why it won't go into the hardware test?!

its cmd + R to get to it.

geosynchronous orbit

gubbie wrote: »

I have a MacBook Pro (early 2010, 4GB, running Yosemite 10.10.1). I know it's old so I try to keep it as bare as possible - I have no additional apps on it other than Office and a Mono Developer program. I have 126GB free storage out of 320GB.

A few days ago it was running fine. Slower than any new computers but still completely operable. I could program, while having word open, while using the internet. It has in the last 2 days become unbearably slow. I mean, if I have just Word open, I will get a line written before I get the beach ball and 2 minutes later I can resume writing my next line. I had not downloaded anything in those two days.

I've checked the CPU and there's nothing unusual, or high volume going on. Only perhaps 2% being used.

I've tried deleting additional files and will be deleting more later once I can sort out formatting a hard drive.

Can anyone recommend any steps from here? Should I downgrade the software? Revert back to the original state with time machine? Try something else? I'm not in a position to be able to buy a new one so that isn't an option.

Any additional information needed, please just ask. Any help is appreciated! Thanks

[Edit]
I'm just updating to 10.10.2 in the case that it is that.

I have a 2011 Mac Book Pro and had similar symptoms. Investigate you battery.
Around the 300 cycles mark which seems to be the reliable life time of the battery,
I had some unexplained weirdness going on - beach ball, frozen pointer and even
input not being accepted from the trackpad.

Only software change in recent times was installing Python 3.4

I installed linux on a new partition and to be honest, it got worse. Mac partition
almost became unusable with no battery being found - even after an SMC reset.

Backed up my important files and did a complete installation from Cmd+R
That was 3 weeks ago with not problems since. Battery Cycle count is now at 328.

Just wondering, if you are only installing Mono and Office, how is that taking up 200GB
?

gubbie

geosynchronous orbit wrote: »

how is that taking up 200GB
?

Photos. A lifetime of photos (and a few home videos). Mono and Office are the only Applications I have on it

Thanks very much everyone for the advice! Mac will be backed up onto a external and then the command R thing done. Looks like it may be the hard drive
Oh well

flyguy

gubbie wrote: »

Photos. A lifetime of photos (and a few home videos). Mono and Office are the only Applications I have on it

Thanks very much everyone for the advice! Mac will be backed up onto a external and then the command R thing done. Looks like it may be the hard drive
Oh well

My late 2011 MacBook pro was getting slow as well (iPhoto seemingly the biggest cause, ran beter with it closed). Anyway, my 500gb drive was about 90% full, but the price for a 1TB ssd seemed a bit excessive (I'd rather just invest in a new one then) and then I saw a 1tb SSHD (part ssd mostly conventional hdd) on Amazon with good reviews so I ordered that. At £65 it was worth a try. After swapping over it is now like new. I also updated ram from 4 to 8gb (also about £65) but tried the new SSHD alone first and to me that made the biggest improvement.
1tb SSHD: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Seagate-Laptop-Solid-State-Hybrid/dp/B00BHRWHNI
Ram: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004TQH6U8 (free shipping to Ireland, I would try the SSHD alone first though if you want to keep the price down).

gubbie

Update:
I went through an unbearably slow backup. I tried fixing the drive while in recovery but it gave me a ton of errors. I wiped the whole thing and now it's perfect again. ill keep a good backup just in case.

Thanks all for your speedy responses and help! I appreciate it 😊

billunnee

Go into disk utility and repair the hdd, my macbook was running slow and that's what I did all seems good now,