Etrecheck report

The report does not indicate anything fundamentally wrong or problematic. The report is basically normal for the machine you have.

The issue you have is it's an 8-year old MBAir with a slow processor and only 8GB RAM. It was the low-end model when it was new.

com.apple.MobileSoftwareUpdate.UpdateBrainService

... is the built-in process that downloads Apple updates. It is completely normal. You probably had a background download going on when you ran Etrecheck. Your system will appear especially slow until the download is complete.

Also, you already have Monterey 12.7.1 installed - that's what you are currently running. You installed it on Nov. 20.

Also, Monterey is much more demanding of system resources than what originally came with your MBAir (Yosemite OS X 10.10). Your 1.6GHz i5 processor & 8GB RAM are being put to the test by Monterey.

I can't say for sure, but that could well be a transitory thing. The software involved is definitely from Apple. I would not expect it to use such a big amount of resources usually, but it may do so for a short period of time.

As for not letting you update: this is relevant information, but please tell us exactly what happens when you try, and is the exact wording of any error message that you get.

This is purely guess work here.

As other have alluded to - 8 year old machine with a 128 GB SSD Drive

The Runtime should be a Tip Off.

For this light weight application Etrecheck to run 6:51

Maybe 2 minute to maybe 3 1/2 minutes at Tops

All systems of a computer that has had its' day of glory

Not amount of effort is going to make the machine run any better.

Short of replacing the Internal Drive ( if possible ) and or Adding RAM ( also if possible )

Excerpt from the Report below

Runtime: 6:51

Performance: Below Average

SSD too slow - SSD is showing poor performance.

No Time Machine backup - Time Machine backup not found.

Vintage hardware - This computer may be considered vintage.

MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2015)

disk0 - APPLE SSD SM0128G 121.33 GB (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

PRP_53 wrote:

This is purely guess work here.

As other have alluded to - 8 year old machine with a 128 GB SSD Drive

The Runtime should be a Tip Off.

For this light weight application Etrecheck to run 6:51

Maybe 2 minute to maybe 3 1/2 minutes at Tops

All systems of a computer that has had its' day of glory

Not amount of effort is going to make the machine run any better.

Short of replacing the Internal Drive ( if possible ) and or Adding RAM ( also if possible )

Neither of these are possible in that MacBook Air, or any mac laptop since the first retina models around 2012.

I am not suggesting that you downgrade; and it would not be simple to do so.

Your MBAir was an entry-level machine when it was new; and now, 8 years & 7 generations of macOS later, it's time to start considering a replacement.

You should start by telling us what problem you faced that led you to run Etrecheck.

The report mentions a few crashes, but nothing much out of order for a 2015 mac.

Luis Sequeira1 wrote:

PRP_53 wrote:

This is purely guess work here.

As other have alluded to - 8 year old machine with a 128 GB SSD Drive

The Runtime should be a Tip Off.

For this light weight application Etrecheck to run 6:51

Maybe 2 minute to maybe 3 1/2 minutes at Tops

All systems of a computer that has had its' day of glory

Not amount of effort is going to make the machine run any better.

Short of replacing the Internal Drive ( if possible ) and or Adding RAM ( also if possible )

Neither of these are possible in that MacBook Air, or any mac laptop since the first retina models around 2012.

Thank you from the reminder

Thusly the inclusion of ( if possible ) in quoted above

😎