ScottSR
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: '06 MacBook is slow with 10.7.3 Lion - how to increase speed?

I've had my MacBook since 2006 [and absolutely love it].

I began to upgrade the operating system over the last year and now have Lion OS 10.7.3.

The overall speed is very slow now - even just OfficeMac programs like Excel - opening programs/apps and delays when typing emails or Word docs [even this message....].

Any basic changes I can make [more RAM, etc] without buying a new computer?

 

Processor = 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

Memory = 2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM

MacBook (13-inch Late 2006), Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Apr 28, 2012 9:42 AM

by BGreg,Solvedanswer
BGreg BGreg
Level 6 (17,522 points)
A:

See this Apple note on replacing memory: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1651 . You can also watch a video at http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/macbook_13/

Posted on Apr 29, 2012 4:31 AM

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ScottSR

Q: '06 MacBook is slow with 10.7.3 Lion - how to increase speed?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by BGreg,

    BGreg BGreg Apr 28, 2012 3:35 PM in response to ScottSR
    Level 6 (17,522 points)
    Apr 28, 2012 3:35 PM in response to ScottSR

    You should max out your memory.  A number of people have found poor performance with the 10.7 Lion minimum of 2GB, which was fixed by going to at least 4GB. Your system is limited to accessing 3GB, however, if you install 2x2GB you'll pick up some extra performance from having a matched pair of memory cards.

  • by ScottSR,

    ScottSR ScottSR Apr 29, 2012 2:51 AM in response to BGreg
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 29, 2012 2:51 AM in response to BGreg

    Thanks!

    Is it relatively easy to install the memory upgrade?

  • by BGreg,Solvedanswer

    BGreg BGreg Apr 29, 2012 4:31 AM in response to ScottSR
    Level 6 (17,522 points)
    Apr 29, 2012 4:31 AM in response to ScottSR

    See this Apple note on replacing memory: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1651 . You can also watch a video at http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/macbook_13/

  • by ScottSR,

    ScottSR ScottSR Apr 29, 2012 4:41 AM in response to BGreg
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 29, 2012 4:41 AM in response to BGreg

    Thanks so much for your help!

  • by AndrewPistachio,

    AndrewPistachio AndrewPistachio Feb 19, 2013 8:36 AM in response to ScottSR
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 19, 2013 8:36 AM in response to ScottSR

    I plan on upgrading mine to lion, do you like it

  • by DwainC,

    DwainC DwainC Feb 19, 2013 9:02 AM in response to ScottSR
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Feb 19, 2013 9:02 AM in response to ScottSR

    Scott, Sorry to jump in here and add my two cents however I thought I would share something with you that has made a world of difference for my 2.3 dual g5. I see where there were several suggestions to Max out your Ram. Well my 2.3 is maxed out at 16gb. and I really only noticed a difference when photoshop and fcp were rendering.

     

    What made the biggest difference for me atleast as far as speed goes was changing out the HDD(hard drive) and replacing it with a SSD(solid state drive). I purchased the Samsung 840 120gb for $79. on sale from microcenter. I use this drive to house my OS, Applications and basic user info. I use the 7200 rpm 2TB HDD for all of my video,music,pics etc....

     

    There are many instances where you can't guarantee noticeable performance improvements, but this is one you can!

     

    Installing the SSD has decreased my overall boot time by almost 20 seconds. All of my apps now open with 1-3 bounces max on the dock. I usually encode my music from cds as lossless and sometimes itunes would hang playing those files while I would be looking around through itunes. This no longer happens. there are more instances that I could tell you about but it would get a little wordy.

     

    By far the best bang for my buck so far in improving my computer performance tho has been the SSD. Ram is nice but when youre booting up and launching apps its the hard drive before the ram.

     

    Hope this helps! Best of luck to you.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Feb 19, 2013 10:41 AM in response to DwainC
    Level 9 (51,161 points)
    Desktops
    Feb 19, 2013 10:41 AM in response to DwainC

    Is this with Lion?