Macbook suddenly running incredibly slow-- I've tried a lot..

Question

About a month ago my white Macbook Unibody (late 2009) started running slow. Programs that would once open in ~5 bounces (on the dock) are now taking over 20. When I type, the words wont appear on the screen until a couple seconds later when it will shoot out 8-10 words all at once. Applications like powerpoint are hardly usable because it&#x27;s so slow, I start to get the beach ball whenever i click anything. Itunes movies skip.. The picture will stop moving and the dialog will continue (this happens every few seconds and last 3-4 seconds, so movies are unwatchable). Here are My Stats:OS X 10.8.2 2.26 GHx Intel Core 2 Duo4 GB 1067MHz DDR3337 GB Free out of 500 GB HDDI have repaired Permissions, Verified Disk, restarted in safe mode, reinstalled the operating system, cleared junk files.. Theres nothing on my desktop. Nothing eating up CPU or Memory in activity monitor. S.M.A.R.T. status is Verified. I appreciate any help very much!

John Galt · Accepted Answer

You appear to have conducted a lot of research already, but have you tried the following?Creating a temporary account to isolate user-specific problems: Isolating an issue by using another user accountTo identify potential hardware problems: Apple Hardware TestConfirm that the same problems exist when starting your Mac in Safe Mode. Read about it: Starting up in Safe Mode. Remember Safe Mode is for troubleshooting only. Startup will take a long time and some features will not work at all. To exit Safe Mode, restart your Mac.Despite what Apple Hardware Test may conclude, if the problems still exist in Safe Mode or when using a different User Account, you may still have a hardware problem that AHT did not detect. Schedule a Genius Bar visit to have your Mac evaluated:Genius Bar Reservations: http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/The following may help, but if the same behaviour exists after exhausting the above suggestions it is unlikely to reveal the problem. Try it if you wish - it&#x27;s easy enough.Apple Support Communities contributor etresoft wrote a very useful app to quickly gather certain system information that may help point to a cause of this problem. Go to his website, download and run EtreCheck:http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheckThe rainbow "wait cursor" will appear for a brief moment as it collects its data. Do not be concerned about anything that says "Problem" or "failed".Copy and paste its output in a reply.EtreCheck was designed to remove any personal information (such as your computer&#x27;s name and serial numbers) but if you see anything that looks like an email address or any other personal information that should not be divulged to others, please delete or obscure that information when you post the reply.When you are finished with EtreCheck, quit the program. It occupies very little space, and you can keep it or drag it to the Trash as you wish.

Simonster2 · Answer

Thank you for your help. I have confirmed that the problem is persistent when using another account, as well as when I boot using safemode. AHT (extensive test) found nothing wrong. I assumed that one of the RAM chips was bad, so I upgrades my 2x2gb that came on the device to 2x4gb. Problems that i stated in the first "post" continue to occur even though I upgraded that RAM. Here are my stats from etresoft:Hardware Information:          MacBook - model: MacBook6,1          1 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2 cores          8 GB RAMVideo Information:          NVIDIA GeForce 9400M - VRAM: 256 MBStartup Items:          CoreDuoTemp - Path: /Library/StartupItems/CoreDuoTemp          FanControlDaemon - Path: /Library/StartupItems/FanControlDaemonSystem Software:          OS X 10.8.2 (12C60) - Uptime: 0 days 4:9Disk Information:          TOSHIBA MK5065GSXF disk0 : (500.11 GB)                    disk0s1 (disk0s1) &lt;not mounted&gt;: 209.7 MB                     Macintosh HD (disk0s2) /: 499.25 GB (333.58 GB free)                    Recovery HD (disk0s3) &lt;not mounted&gt;: 650 MB           MATSHITADVD-R   UJ-898  USB Information:          Apple Inc. Built-in iSight           Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub                     Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller           Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad FireWire Information:Kernel Extensions:Problem System Launch Daemons:Problem System Launch Agents:                 [failed] com.apple.mrt.uiagent.plistLaunch Daemons:                 [loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist                 [loaded] com.tegrity.daemon.plist                 [loaded] com.wdc.WDDMservice.plist                 [loaded] com.WesternDigital.WDSmartWareD.plistLaunch Agents:                 [loaded] com.lexmark.bmspecificlaunchd.plist                 [loaded] com.lexmark.lxknetlaunchd.plistUser Launch Agents:                 [loaded] com.adobe.ARM.925793fb327152fd34795896fa1fb9ffa268b2a852256fe56609efa3.plist                 [loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist                 [loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac.helperTool.plist                 [loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac.trashSizeWatcher.plistUser Login Items:          SpeechSynthesisServer          StatusMenu          Popup3rd Party Preference Panes:          DivX          Fan Control          Flash Player          Flip4Mac WMV          PerianInternet Plug-ins:          AdobePDFViewer.plugin          CouponPrinter-FireFox.plugin          DirectorShockwave.plugin          DivXBrowserPlugin.plugin          Flash Player.plugin          FlashPlayer-10.6.plugin          Flip4Mac WMV Plugin.plugin          Google Earth Web Plug-in.plugin          iPhotoPhotocast.plugin          JavaAppletPlugin.plugin          OfficeLiveBrowserPlugin.plugin          OVSHelper.plugin          QuickTime Plugin.plugin          Silverlight.plugin          Unity Web Player.pluginUser Internet Plug-ins:          Move-Media-Player.pluginBad Fonts:          NoneTop Processes by CPU:               4%          iTunes               3%          WindowServer               2%          usbmuxd               2%          EtreCheck               1%          fontd               0%          mds               0%          loginwindow               0%          imagentTop Processes by Memory:          126 MB          iTunes          123 MB          Mail          123 MB          firefox          98 MB          mds          77 MB          Google          74 MB          WindowServer          49 MB          Finder          33 MB          Dock          25 MB          CalendarAgent          25 MB          loginwindow

John Galt · Answer

If the problem exists in Safe Mode, as well as when using a new User Account, the system modifications that I would usually suspect should be inactive. Most notably WD SmartWare, which is not required to use their drives, and has been found to cause problems. CleanMyMac has been known to remove essential system files that cannot be restored without completely reinstalling OS X. I suggest you use OS X Recovery and use Disk Utility to repair the disk. Make note of any errors it finds. After that, reinstall OS X due to the uncertainty associated with CleanMyMac. Reinstalling OS X will not erase any of your user accounts or data. Remove CleanMyMac according to the developer&#x27;s instructions. Run Etrecheck again to ensure it is completely gone.

Simonster2 · Answer

John,First of all I wanted to thank you for your help. I did find out that the hard drive was bad, luckily I had the extended applecare so they covered it. It was very interesting though because I had my machine backed up with time machine, right when the new hard drive download the operating system and the machine uploading my time machine back up, it found TONS of new updates for the computer which were not showing up before I upgraded the hard drive.. Very Strange as I check probably 2-3 times per week for updates and it was telling me there weren&#x27;t any for a few months. Finally, disk utility verified the SMART status of my hard drive, but the first thing that apples software picked up when I took it in was that the SMART status was not verified. Luckily, the computer is running great now! These late 2009 polycarbonate unibody macbooks are amazing machines! When I get the cash I&#x27;ll put an SSD in so I don&#x27;t have to deal with this again (hopefully)! Once again I appreciate the help that you gave me, and if anyone else is out there struggling with similar problems (After you done the necessary troubleshooting) swap out that hard drive!Thanks again!Cheers