Too many interrupts on the CPU's SATA vector

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Too many interrupts on the CPU's SATA vector

I have an old MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011) that I still use quite a lot for office tasks, multimedia and web development.

From one day to the next, it became super slow (like 1 minute to open a Finder window), so I backed up my data, tested the SSD drive and the machine with AHT and reinstalled, it became super slow again and after investigating for a whole day, I've finally found something.

With the command "sudo powermetrics -s interrupts", I have something abnormal.

On core 0, I have Vector 0x73(SATA) which has an almost permanent result of 70000 interrupts per second!

Any idea where this might be coming from? I'd really like to save this ancestor.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.13

Posted on May 8, 2024 3:25 PM

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Answer 1

MrSoulPC915 Author

Level 1

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May 14, 2024 7:12 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

It was the SATA cable.

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Answer 2

May 8, 2024 3:38 PM in response to MrSoulPC915

Serial AT Attachment method (SATA) is the interface of your Internal disk drive.

you should use Disk Utility to repair your disk.

if nothing strange is uncovered, a program like DriveDx can be used to do a detailed analysis of 'failed blocks that are waiting for repair' and similar festering issues..

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Answer 3

MrSoulPC915 Author

Level 1

10 points

May 8, 2024 4:18 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

The SSD was tested on another Mac, SMART didn't indicate any problems (consulted with DriveDX), and it's fast and responsive.

I suspect a problem with the drive's power supply, is there any way of getting this kind of metric?

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Answer 4

May 8, 2024 4:33 PM in response to MrSoulPC915

An internal drive in a MacBook Pro uses the ONE power supply.

Consider removing that drive and using an external drive (ONLY).

... or perhaps there are other devices that share that interrupt, and 70,000 interrupts a second is 'no big deal'.

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Answer 5

May 8, 2024 4:36 PM in response to MrSoulPC915

<<. Maybe it's an indicator of a faulty SATA cable. >>

you may be onto something with that.

Those cables were a real weak point in that era MacBook Pro. OWC sells replacements for many models that needed them.

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Answer 6

MrSoulPC915 Author

Level 1

10 points

May 8, 2024 4:33 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

A laptop that only boots from an external drive loses all its appeal.

But I'll test it tomorrow to see how well it works. Maybe it's an indicator of a faulty SATA cable.

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