aideenmccole

Q: My MacBook Pro is super slow

Hey there

 

I've got a 13 inch 2013 MacBook Pro, which was running on Mavericks until today. About two weeks ago it started to slow down a huge amount, with the pinwheel of death appearing after every couple of clicks. Since it started, I've:

 

- checked activity monitor, CPU has been really low every time I checked (about 5% for system, 7% for user)

- run disk utility, finding some disk permissions and repairing them, finding nothing on the disk to repair

- run Clean My Mac, it found about 5GB of stuff that could have been deleted (but I didn't delete everything it found)

- time machined back to before the problem started, no change there

- run a ClamXav virus scan, it found one dodgy file, I've deleted it

- updated to Sierra, no change there

 

No significant change since doing all of this, the machine is still slow as ****, and doing all of this has taken soooo loooong (the virus scan took three days. THREE DAYS!!)

 

Naturally I'm not in warranty anymore, I was when something similar happened last year and a part was replaced (can't tell from the documentation quite what was done...) Anything you guys can think of that I should try before I go and pay for a repair?

Posted on Sep 27, 2016 3:04 AM

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Q: My MacBook Pro is super slow

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  • by aideenmccole,

    aideenmccole aideenmccole Sep 28, 2016 2:50 AM in response to MadMacs0
    Level 1 (6 points)
    Notebooks
    Sep 28, 2016 2:50 AM in response to MadMacs0

    Sorry MadMacs! I think my brain's getting a little fried...

  • by John Galt,

    John Galt John Galt Sep 28, 2016 8:48 AM in response to aideenmccole
    Level 9 (50,065 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 28, 2016 8:48 AM in response to aideenmccole

    Performance degradation becomes noticeable when the CPU idle time approaches 50%, and that's where yours is. The most obvious reason for that is logd, a normal Sierra component, and the most likely reason for its activity is that is preoccupied with logging something wrong with Notification Center. Whatever is wrong with it cannot be determined.

     

    Provided all CleanMyMac components are gone, which they appear to be, proceed with Step 2 (reinstall Sierra). That may fix the problem with Notification Center.

     

    After reinstalling, open Activity Monitor and determine if Notification Center remains unresponsive. No need to post another screenshot.

  • by aideenmccole,

    aideenmccole aideenmccole Sep 28, 2016 10:22 AM in response to John Galt
    Level 1 (6 points)
    Notebooks
    Sep 28, 2016 10:22 AM in response to John Galt

    Cool, will do. Would you recommend reinstalling with or without erasing the disk first?

  • by John Galt,

    John Galt John Galt Sep 28, 2016 11:02 AM in response to aideenmccole
    Level 9 (50,065 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 28, 2016 11:02 AM in response to aideenmccole

    First, just reinstall. An "erase and reinstall" might eventually be required but it isn't justified quite yet.

  • by aideenmccole,

    aideenmccole aideenmccole Sep 30, 2016 6:25 AM in response to John Galt
    Level 1 (6 points)
    Notebooks
    Sep 30, 2016 6:25 AM in response to John Galt

    Hi John

     

    I tried to just reinstall, but couldn't reinstall the original OS (Mountain Lion) while Sierra was on there, so needed to erase and install. All done now and up and running again. Here's where things stand:

     

    Notification Center is responding

    CPU is in much better shape, %User is hovering around 3 and %System is hovering around 2

    System memory is: Free, 28.5MB; Wired, 1.09GB; Active, 1.33GB; Inactive, 1.55GB; Used, 3.96GB

    And lastly, operations are still very slow. Maybe not quite as bad as before overhauling the OS, but getting progressively slower as the day goes on.

     

    Thoughts?

  • by John Galt,

    John Galt John Galt Sep 30, 2016 7:54 AM in response to aideenmccole
    Level 9 (50,065 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 30, 2016 7:54 AM in response to aideenmccole

    Please post new screenshots of Activity Monitor, captured when the Mac's performance seems bad.

  • by aideenmccole,

    aideenmccole aideenmccole Sep 30, 2016 8:16 AM in response to John Galt
    Level 1 (6 points)
    Notebooks
    Sep 30, 2016 8:16 AM in response to John Galt

    Here you go, one of memory and two of CPU (I'm getting pretty significant fluctuations on that one):

     

    Screen Shot 2016-09-30 at 16.04.36.png

     

    Screen Shot 2016-09-30 at 16.05.25.png

     

    Screen Shot 2016-09-30 at 16.05.51.png

  • by aideenmccole,

    aideenmccole aideenmccole Sep 30, 2016 8:28 AM in response to aideenmccole
    Level 1 (6 points)
    Notebooks
    Sep 30, 2016 8:28 AM in response to aideenmccole

    I don't know how likely it is that this has a bearing on things, but just in case: when I reinstalled the OS I hooked up my external harddrive to let time machine do it's thing, but it didn't give me the opportunity to select which back up to use. I imagine it probably selected the most recent back up, which was done AFTER the problem began....

  • by kahjot,

    kahjot kahjot Sep 30, 2016 8:35 AM in response to MadMacs0
    Level 4 (1,387 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 30, 2016 8:35 AM in response to MadMacs0

    I agree that the RAM is skimpy for Sierra (or El Cap or Yosemite), but the problem began when the OP was still using Mavericks. It makes me wonder if the internal hard drive is beginning to have problems. One simple way to test would be to boot from an external hard drive. If the OP has a spare external drive (NOT the Time Machine drive) he or she could also try installing Sierra "clean" on that drive to see how it performs.

  • by John Galt,

    John Galt John Galt Sep 30, 2016 9:47 AM in response to aideenmccole
    Level 9 (50,065 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 30, 2016 9:47 AM in response to aideenmccole

    After the "erase and install" you also reinstalled other programs, such as the Adobe software, Google, and Firefox.

     

    At the time you posted that screenshot, Firefox was obviously burdening the CPU. Does the slow performance improve if you quit Firefox?

  • by John Galt,

    John Galt John Galt Sep 30, 2016 9:51 AM in response to aideenmccole
    Level 9 (50,065 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 30, 2016 9:51 AM in response to aideenmccole

    aideenmccole wrote:

     

    I don't know how likely it is that this has a bearing on things, but just in case: when I reinstalled the OS I hooked up my external harddrive to let time machine do it's thing, but it didn't give me the opportunity to select which back up to use. I imagine it probably selected the most recent back up, which was done AFTER the problem began....

     

    Does that mean you did not perform an "erase and install", but that you restored from a Time Machine backup? I was under the impression you wanted to erase that Mac and reinstall OS X instead.

  • by aideenmccole,

    aideenmccole aideenmccole Oct 1, 2016 3:24 AM in response to John Galt
    Level 1 (6 points)
    Notebooks
    Oct 1, 2016 3:24 AM in response to John Galt

    I definitely performed an "erase and install" and at the final stages of the process I was asked by Migration Assistant did I want to move my data from another computer, from a Time Machine back up, or not at all. I selected Time Machine, which would have reinstalled programmes such as Adobe CS and Firefox. Should I have not done that?

     

    When not using Firefox CPU still fluctuates an awful lot and performance remains sluggish. Here's a screenshot of it at its craziest:

     

    Screen Shot 2016-10-01 at 11.13.26.png

  • by John Galt,

    John Galt John Galt Oct 1, 2016 8:10 AM in response to aideenmccole
    Level 9 (50,065 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 1, 2016 8:10 AM in response to aideenmccole

    The same process that drives Notification Center is still running away.

     

    If you want to perform an "erase and reinstall" – and I agree that you should, given the above problem – do what you did before, but when asked if you would like to transfer your information from a Time Machine backup, select only your User Account and do not select "Applications", "Computer and Network Settings" or "Other files and folders". De-select those choices.

     

    By reinstalling Applications you would be reinstalling Adobe CS and Firefox among others that may have been corrupted, and that's what you need to avoid.

     

    When Setup Assistant finishes migrating your account information and you can log in normally, your Mac should be free from the effects of having used "CleanMyMac" because the programs that would have been affected by it will be gone. That means you will need to obtain unaltered copies of those programs – specifically the Adobe CS, Chrome, Dropbox, Firefox and anything else you require. I recommend you don't reinstall any of them until making a determination regarding your Mac's performance.

     

    Dropbox files for example will remain available on their server, meaning that once you download and reinstall Dropbox and sign in with your account information, all those files will become available again.

  • by aideenmccole,

    aideenmccole aideenmccole Oct 2, 2016 8:03 AM in response to John Galt
    Level 1 (6 points)
    Notebooks
    Oct 2, 2016 8:03 AM in response to John Galt

    I have done another erase and reinstall, and have not yet added any files or applications. So I'm running Mountain Lion on a machine with hardly anything stored on it. Performance is improved with the exception of when a browser (in this case old Safari) is running. Right now, typing here, I'm occasionally getting a lag or a pinwheel. And while other programmes are operating fine when I quit Safari, if Safari is running I'll get pinwheels, lags or 'not responding' in Activity Monitor for whatever programme I am using. Here's a screenshot:

     

    Screen Shot 2016-10-02 at 15.49.16.png

  • by John Galt,

    John Galt John Galt Oct 2, 2016 12:52 PM in response to aideenmccole
    Level 9 (50,065 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 2, 2016 12:52 PM in response to aideenmccole

    The symptoms are starting to confirm the presence of a hardware fault, but before arriving at that conclusion please boot "Safe Mode" again, and determine if the problems persist.

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