Battery And Overall Performance Problems

Here are some suggestions.

• You do have NordVPN installed and as stated already many VPN's are going to be problematic and slow your computer down. You should use the uninstaller provided by Nord to make sure all remnant files have been removed. The one that is running is located at /Library/LaunchDaemons. You can navigate to these folders by going to the Finder, choosing the Go menu, then Go To Folder and enter that location.
• I would remove Mac Fan Control. Even though it currently shows as not running, it is also not needed. The location of the process is at /Library/LaunchDaemons.
• The Steam Clean file is noted as Not Signed and that is because the executable cannot be found. The launch process is located at ~/Library/LaunchAgents. Don't forget the "~" character at the start when viewing the location of the file.
• Try turning off DeepLLauncher in your Login Settings, so it does not launch at startup. You can go to  > System Settings > General > Login Items to view the apps that launch on startup and turn them off. Also there is a section for Extensions there and DeepL includes a Finder Sync Extension. You can always turn them back on if you don't notice a difference.
• Autodesk Fusion is crashing like crazy (82 times). I honestly don't know the reason for that.
• With these files launching on startup and any apps open now, you only have 789MB of free RAM causing the System to use 8.38GB of Cached storage which is reading/writing to your HD in the background. That will slow your computer down.

You will need to provide the free EtreCheck report using the Additional Text option here to see what processes are running on your computer. They will increase CPU cycles causing lag and also decrease your battery faster.

How to use the Add Text Feature When Post… - Apple Community

Nagy Norbert wrote:

No, I dont use cleaners, VPNs and other stuff.

Why is this still installed?

  [Running] com.nordvpn.macos.helper.plist (Nordvpn S.A. - installed 2025-12-14)

    Executable: /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.nordvpn.macos.helper

the item above it in the report is problematic as well. You don't control the fans on a modern Mac with a third-party app. Get rid of it:

 [Not Loaded] com.crystalidea.macsfancontrol.smcwrite.plist (Ilya Parniuk - installed 2025-10-26)

    Executable: /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.crystalidea.macsfancontrol.smcwrite

you seem to have a failed install or old version of Steam. if you want it, you may need to Un-Install and re-install, or delete this and re-install:

Clean up:

  ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.valvesoftware.steamclean.plist

    ~/Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps/steamclean

    Executable not found

there is some sort of problem with taco..

 Firewall:

    Blocked apps:

      5Q6S22W72F.com.tplink.tapo

you need to look into that, as it could be causing trouble.

you have a serious problem with part of Autodesk:

2026-01-31 14:58:19 IPMClient Crash (82 times)

    First occurrence: 2026-01-26 20:49:38

    Executable: ~/Library/Application Support/Autodesk/webdeploy/production/ab611b3a8360e9372a82f8442823f7f4072ab736/Autodesk Fusion.app

Mac Jim ID posted what I was going to suggest next, just above.

Post an Etrecheck report and readers can look at a whole lot of potential issues quickly.

re battery life:

That computer is a battery-CAPABLE device, It is not optimized as a battery-operated device (it is not an iPhone.)

Your computer performs best when connected to AC power, such as the power adapter. It can use the full output of the Power Adapter AND when doing especially challenging work could also freely "borrow" power from the battery. In some cases, even with the power adapter connected, the charged state may decline during very stressful work.

When used only on battery, your computer has no extra cushion of power, and may perform more slowly. However, for ordinary non-stressful tasks this may not be objectionable (possibly not even noticeable.)

In general, you should ALWAYS connect a power source when it is possible to do so, and only run on batteries (which could be somewhat slower) when no power sources are at hand. Modern Macs maintain optimum battery charge levels under program control, and will NEVER over-charge. Connected to Power is NOT necessarily charging.

When you set it down in one place, or set it down for the night, Plug it in. Then you won’t CARE whether it would drain the battery.

If you do not have a recent local, disk-based backup, your computer is like a ticking Time bomb. You are only one disk failure, one mainboard failure, one crazy software, or one "oops" away from losing EVERYTHING! Drives do not last forever. It is not a question of IF it will fail, only WHEN it will fail. In addition, you never know when crazy software or Pilot Error throws away far more than you intended.

If you are using another direct-to-disk backup method that you prefer, and you currently have a recent disk-based backup, that is great. If not, you should consider using Built-in Time Machine. Take steps to acquire an external drive as soon as possible. If you buy one, a drive 2 to 3 times or larger than your the amount of data to be backed up is preferable for long term trouble-free operation. Do not pay extra for a drive that is fast.  (You can get by for a while with a "found" smaller drive if necessary, but it will eventually become annoying).

Attach your external drive and use

Settings > General > Time machine ...

... to turn on Time Machine and specify what drive to store your Backups on.  It may ask to initialize the new drive, and that is as expected. APFS format is default format if running MacOS 11 Big Sur or later.

Time machine works quietly and automatically in the background, without interrupting your regular work, and only saves the incremental changes (after the first full backup). Time machine backs up your machine — including every connected drive that is in a Mac compatible format. it can not back up Windows format drives.

Time Machine's "claim to fame" is that it is the backup that gets done. It does not ruin performance of the rest of the computer while doing its backup operations. You do not have to set aside a "Special Time" when you only do backups. When you need it, your Time machine Backup is much more likely to be there and be current.

How to use Time Machine to Backup or Restore your Mac:

Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support

<< Sometimes it takes a while to open apps it previously opened instantly. >>

Poisoning Internet performance:

By far the easiest way to cause poor performance, instability, overheating and crashing is to install ANY third-party speeder-uppers, Cleaners, Optimizers, Virus scanners, Bit Torrent, or a VPN that you installed yourself. 

¿Are you running any of those?

Mac Jim ID--

Those are all great points! Thanks for the additional guidance on how to fix those!

... but this last one has a problem:

• With these files launching on startup and any apps open now, you only have 789MB of free RAM causing the System to use 8.38GB of Cached storage which is reading/writing to your HD in the background. That will slow your computer down.

The 'Cached Files' item in Memory Information refers to the amount of files, often from the Internet and other sources, that remain in RAM memory and are indeed taking up space. However, they are said to be quickly Purgeable, to make room for other RAM needs.

The description you provided is for 'Swap Used', which is as you said, stuff that would Not Fit in RAM, so is instead stored on disk, slowing everything down. But that has not quite been tapped yet when this report was run, as 'Swap Used' is Zero.

as Mac Jim ID says, Best Practice is always to run its official un-Installer.

Just deleting the app leaves reside that can slow your Mac dramatically.

... and doing some quick research confirms NordVPN are SCUM and do NOT provide an adequate un-Installer.

Navigate to the ~Library folder. inside, navigate to these folders to find files related to NordVPN, and then move them to the Trash.

• Application Support
• Preferences
• Caches
• Containers

Then navigate to the /Library folder.

Iin the LaunchDaemons folder, find and drag to Trash:

com.nordvpn.macos.helper.plist

Restart your Mac, and after a Restart you should be able to Empty Trash.