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Frustrated with Lion...

Should I assume that my MacBook Pro 17" (last model before the UniBody version) is ready for the scrap heap now that I've loaded Lion? It's was pretty powerful for the first couple of years of ownership and reasonable up until I upgraded to 10.7. Now it's just painfully slow - Aperture crashes every hour and every job now takes twice as long whilst I gaze at the spinning beach ball for every other adjustment. I've zapped the PRAM and repaired permissions but it's still slooooowww.


I was hoping my £2k MBP would serve me for a little longer but I guess I'll have to fork out another £2k+


I assumed Lion would enhance my experience however I'm now wishing it came with a Government health warning!


Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Intel iMac 20", MacBook Pro 17", Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Nov 10, 2011 12:48 PM

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27 replies

Nov 10, 2011 12:51 PM in response to MattLivey

Alternative One: Reinstall Lion.


Reinstalling Lion Without the Installer


Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alterhatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.


Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.


When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.


Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion and click on the Continue button.


Note: You can also re-download the Lion installer by opening the App Store application. Hold down the OPTION key and click on the Purchases icon in the toolbar. You should now see an active Install button to the right of your Lion purchase entry. There are situations in which this will not work. For example, if you are already booted into the Lion you originally purchased with your Apple ID or if an instance of the Lion installer is located anywhere on your computer.

Alternative Two: Reinstall Lion from scratch.


Install or Reinstall Lion from Scratch


If possible backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive.


Boot to the Recovery HD:


Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.


Erase the hard drive:


  1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
  2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
  3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
  4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.


Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion and click on the Install button.


Note: You can also re-download the Lion installer by opening the App Store application. Hold down the OPTION key and click on the Purchases icon in the toolbar. You should now see an active Install button to the right of your Lion purchase entry. There are situations in which this will not work. For example, if you are already booted into the Lion you originally purchased with your Apple ID or if an instance of the Lion installer is located anywhere on your computer.

Alternative Three: Downgrade to Snow Leopard.


Downgrade Lion to Snow Leopard


1. Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.


2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.


3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.


4. Quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.


This will erase the whole drive so be sure to backup your files if you don't have a backup already. If you have performed a TM backup using Lion be aware that you cannot restore from that backup in Snow Leopard (see below.) I suggest you make a separate backup using Carbon Copy Cloner 3.4.1.


If you have Snow Leopard Time Machine backups, do a full system restore per #14 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions. If you have subsequent backups from Lion, you can restore newer items selectively, via the "Star Wars" display, per #15 there, but be careful; some Snow Leopard apps may not work with the Lion files.

Nov 10, 2011 12:59 PM in response to MattLivey

What are the specs of your macbook? You could maybe upgrade the RAM but don't rule out downgrading to Snow Leopard.


The old PowerPC iMac's were really fast under Tiger. While they could run Leopard they were awfully slow running the newer system. I would recommend just downgrading back to Snow Leopard. Your MacBook would still run fine, and faster.

Nov 10, 2011 1:04 PM in response to MattLivey

Your machine is good enough to have Lion run fast. How much memory? If 2 GB only, that may be a problem, put at least 4 GB, your machine supports this.

Otherwise, perhaps a bad installation. For comparison, I am using two 2007 MacBooks, one white, one black, one 4 GB memory, 2nd has 3 GB. and Lion is as fast as SL, so your issue shows something unusual.

Nov 10, 2011 4:35 PM in response to MattLivey

I have 4GB of memory but I guess downgrading to SL is the answer.


No, that's not the answer. Lion works fine for most people, including me, notwithstanding what you see on this site. The answer is to troubleshoot the problem and figure out why it's not working for you. In most cases, the reason is incompatible third-party system modifications. If interested, respond.

Nov 10, 2011 6:09 PM in response to Linc Davis

Thanks Linc. Really keen to get to the bottom of the isue without too much fuss. Problem is I know my software and applications inside out but start to loose confidence when the issues are OS/hardware related.


Tony - yes I thought about the Activity Monitor but need to know what to look for!


Again any futher suggestions/investigation tips much appreciated.

Nov 10, 2011 6:21 PM in response to MattLivey

Please read this whole message before doing anything.


Third-party system modifications are a common cause of usability problems. By a “system modification,” I mean software that affects the operation of other software -- potentially for the worse. The following procedure will help identify which such modifications you've installed. Don’t be alarmed by the complexity of these instructions -- they’re easy to carry out and won’t change anything on your Mac.


These steps are to be taken while booted in “normal” mode, not in safe mode. If you’re now running in safe mode, reboot as usual before continuing.


Below are four lines of text in monospaced type, which are actually shell commands -- little programs. They’re harmless, but they must be used exactly as given in order to work.


First and most important, don’t run these commands until you have verified that they’re legitimate. Never execute shell commands from an untrusted source without knowing what they do, or at least that they don’t do anything harmful. I’ve posted these same commands, with minor variations, many times on this site. You should be able to find other discussions in which they were used without ill effects. Do that before proceeding.


Some of the commands will probably line-wrap in your browser, but each one is really just a single long line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, and you can then either copy or drag it. The headings “Step 1” and so on are not part of the commands.


To begin, launch the Terminal application; e.g., by entering the first few letters of its name in a Spotlight search.


Step 1


Copy or drag -- do not type -- the line below into the Terminal window, then press return:


kextstat -kl | awk ' !/apple/ { print $6 $7 } '


Post the lines of output (if any) that appear below what you just entered (the text, please, not a screenshot.)


Step 2


Repeat with this line:


sudo launchctl list | sed 1d | awk ' !/0x|apple|com\.vix|edu\.|org\./ { print $3 } '


This time, you'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up. You don't need to post the warning.


Step 3


launchctl list | sed 1d | awk ' !/0x|apple|edu\.|org\./ { print $3 } '


Step 4

ls -1A {,/}Library/{Ad,Compon,Ex,Fram,In,La,Mail/Bu,P*P,Priv,Qu,Scripti,Sta}* 2> /dev/null


Important: If you synchronize with a MobileMe account, your me.com email address will appear in the output of the above command. Change it to something like “user@me.com” before posting.


Remember, this is all drag-and-drop or copy-and-paste, whichever you prefer -- no typing, except your password.


You can then quit Terminal.

Nov 10, 2011 7:20 PM in response to MattLivey

...MacKeeper (which I installed a few months ago) might be a potential cause..?


Very likely. You should certainly get rid of it before you do anything else. MacKeeper is an exception to the rule that you should remove third-party system modifications by using the uninstallation tool provided by the developer. The MacKeeper developer is a scumbag, and his product is quasi-malware. When you follow his instructions to remove it, it seems to leave behind what is essentially a trojan that causes popup ads for MacKeeper to appear in your web browser.


Try the steps given here:


how to uninstall MacKeeper « Phil Stokes


That may be enough to solve your problem, but frankly, if you installed that, then I wouldn't be surprised if you installed other unsuitable software.

Frustrated with Lion...

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