MacBook Pro (Mojave) running very slow

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Level 1

77 points

MacBook Pro (Mojave) running very slow

Hi.

My wife's 2012 MacBook Pro has been running slowly for a long time and has now got so bad she can't really use it: examples include constantly spinning beach ball, 50+ bounces of the Word icon in the dock before the app launches, several minutes to boot up, etc.

I've got the job of sorting it. :)

I've pasted the EtreCheck report below but to begin with, it's across all users and all apps which points to something in the system. The HDD is just under 50% full, the 8GB of RAM isn't huge but shouldn't be the culprit (?? unless I'm wrong there?), there are no obvious apps hogging RAM or CPU. I'm scratching my head and wondering if she's got loads of bad sectors on the HDD by moving it around while running (basically, because I can't think of anything else that would explain the problem). Disk Utility passes the HDD but I don't think it would 'see' multiple bad sectors (wrong?).

Any ideas gratefully received!

Now for the EtreCheck report:

EtreCheck report

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Aug 11, 2020 7:04 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

leroydouglas

Community+ 2024

Level 10

189,162 points

Aug 11, 2020 7:44 AM in response to Jason Woolfe

I would start uninstalling the < AVGAntivirus.app> this is known to causes issues

Look for the official uninstaller to remove all parts and pieces.

OEM HDD is long in the tooth— booting off an external boot clone— if no issues and regained speed would be insightful.

3-2-1 Backup Strategy: three copies of your data, two different methods, and one offsite.

Boot clone https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-10081

How to use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201250

Use DiskUtility Restore feature https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/restore-a-disk-dskutl14062/mac

note: >System Preferences>Security & Privacy >Privacy>Full Disk Access

unlock the padlock, press the + button and add Disk Utility

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Answer 2

BobHarris

Level 9

55,325 points

Aug 12, 2020 7:56 AM in response to Jason Woolfe

Remove the anti-virus as suggested

The system is 8 years old and it is possible the disk is starting to do read retries slowing down disk access.

Also the disk is a 5400RPM disk which is very slow when compared to today's SSD storage, and Mojave what developed with SSDs mostly being the Mac storage system.

If you want to keep this system longer, go to OWC <http://MacSales.com> and see about an SSD replacement drive.

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Answer 3

Jason Woolfe Author

Level 1

77 points

Aug 12, 2020 9:30 AM in response to leroydouglas

Thanks, Leroy (and also Bob, below).

I'm a bit embarassed to say that I think I probably messed things up a bit here - before I posted in this forum, I'd taken a look and suspected the AVG wasn't a great idea, so had tried to uninstall it manually. But I didn't find a proper uninstaller, so just dragged the obvious apps to the trash and emptied it. I now find bits of it all over the place...

So I've been through the locations named in the EtreCheck (from memory, these were ~/Library/LaunchAgents and /Library/LaunchAgents and /Library/LaunchDaemons) and trashed every AVG file I could find. I think I got all the ones named in the EtreCheck.

I'm aware this machine isn't backed up to Time Machine. I've copied her home folder to an external drive, so all her files should be safe. I back up my own machine, (using TM) and all important family files should be there, so I'm not too worried about that at this stage., plus, anything important belonging to my wife would be connected with her work and that should be backed up via another system.

I'm going to suggest she buys an SSD and I'll put that in. As far as I can see the investment is small and the gains may be significant, so it's worth a try.

Thanks to you both for your suggestions and help.

Jason

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Answer 4

Jason Woolfe Author

Level 1

77 points

Aug 12, 2020 9:34 AM in response to leroydouglas

One more question, Leroy, if I understand correctly you're suggesting booting the machine off an external drive in order to see if it runs quickly (thereby identifying the HDD as the culprit)? Makes sense if I've got that right. Thing is, how do I boot it off an external drive? I've got firewire cables etc but what would be the steps?

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Answer 5

Allan Jones

Level 9

72,692 points

Aug 12, 2020 10:29 AM in response to Jason Woolfe

I can give you some hard data on factory rotoational hard drive performance v. aftermarket SSD.

Yours, which actually posted a high score than usual for that model drive:

Performance:

System Load: 1.55 (1 min ago) 1.87 (5 min ago) 1.91 (15 min ago) Nominal I/O speed: 2.65 MB/s

File system: 54.42 seconds

Write speed: 90 MB/s

Read speed: 95 MB/s

My 2012 MBP-13, same processor and RAM as yours, but with an inexpensive SSD replacing the original mech hard drive:

Performance:

System Load: 1.61 (1 min ago) 1.60 (5 min ago) 2.94 (15 min ago)

Nominal I/O speed: 0.15 MB/s

File system: 28.20 seconds

Write speed: 487 MB/s

Read speed: 482 MB/s

Before I changed the drive (an easy do-at-home job), I was getting tired of using that MBP--too slow. Now I look forward to using it. It is as fast as many newer models.

👉🏻 BIG POINT TO CONSIDER: In that form factor (13-inch 2009-2012 MBP), the hard drive CABLE suffers a circuitous routing over some sharp metal edges on the chassis. With the vibration of 3-5+ years of normal use and transport, it can chafe and begin to suffer little electrical faults. Symptoms of a bad cable can mimic those of a failing hard drive!!

The rule with this MBP model is ALWAYS change the drive cable when you change or service the hard drive. The cables are cheap, available, and easy to install.

I used this kit that came with a simple USB3 external drive enclosure that made cloning the drive very easy:

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/Y3SSD6E500/

and got a fresh cable from the same source:

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Apple/8211480/

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Answer 6

Jason Woolfe Author

Level 1

77 points

Aug 11, 2020 7:07 AM in response to Jason Woolfe

EtreCheck report

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MacBook Pro (Mojave) running very slow

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