Macbook Pro mid 2012 starting to lag when running more than one program.

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PaganPixie Author

Level 1

4 points

Macbook Pro mid 2012 starting to lag when running more than one program.

Firstly mah specs :

Retina, Mid 2012

2.3 GHz Intel Core i7

8gb 1600 MHz DDR3

NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M / Intel HD 4000

OS X 10.8.4 (12E55)

So, i bought this macbook about a year and a month ago and since i bought it everything has run fine, it has always been fast and smooth, until around 2 months ago when it started getting a little laggy in handling more than one program being open. Before this i was able to run Photoshop, Cinema 4D, Second Life and Chrome all at once and recieved no speed decrease what so ever. So i figured that it must just have been a little clogged up maybe, honestly wasnt sure but tried clearing cache, tried freeing up memory with some of the mac memory management tools from the App Store and non of these worked so in the end i backed up what was important and wiped the HD and re installed the OS. Annoyingly i am still having problems, if i have Photoshop open and i am surfing chrome it lags on scrolling web pages or loading links. If i have Second Life open i seem to lag with more than 3 players around me quite badly, even if i put Second Life onto its lowest Graphic Settings i still lag where as before i had this issue i could run it on its highest Graphic Settings and recieve little to no lag what so ever. This happens for most programs that used to run smoothly, if i now open Cinema 4D and try anything else.....the system slows down.

I COULD take this to the apple store and genuis bar and ask them to have a look at it HOWEVER i am back at Uni in 2 weeks and i need the macbook for my studies as i am currently working on a summer project and need it for research, can any of you Mac Wonders out there suggest anything else for me to try. I have checked the HD and it says its not failing and is verified and found no issues with the partition.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)

Posted on Sep 9, 2013 1:28 AM

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Answer 1

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,329 points

Sep 9, 2013 3:39 AM in response to PaganPixie

Look at these comprehensive trouble shooting articles:

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3521

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3353

You mention a lot of CPU/GPU intensive applications which could be contributing to your issue. In addition I suggest getting rid of Chrome. It is a browser that does not coexist well with OSX. Use Firefox, Safari or Opera instead.

Ciao.

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Answer 2

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Sep 9, 2013 1:04 PM in response to PaganPixie

First, back up all data immediately, as your boot drive might be failing.

There are a few other possible causes of generalized slow performance that you can rule out easily.

Reset the System Management Controller.
If you have many image or video files on the Desktop with preview icons, move them to another folder.
If applicable, uncheck all boxes in the iCloud preference pane.
Disconnect all non-essential wired peripherals and remove aftermarket expansion cards, if any.
Check your keychains in Keychain Access for excessively duplicated items.
Boot into Recovery mode, launch Disk Utility, and run Repair Disk.
If you're booting from an aftermarket SSD, see whether there's a firmware update for it.

Otherwise, take the steps below when you notice the problem.

Step 1

Launch the Activity Monitor application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Activity Monitor in the icon grid.

Select the CPU tab of the Activity Monitor window.

Select All Processes from the menu in the toolbar, if not already selected.

Click the heading of the % CPU column in the process table to sort the entries by CPU usage. You may have to click it twice to get the highest value at the top. What is it, and what is the process? Also post the values for % User, % System, and % Idle at the bottom of the window.

Select the System Memory tab. What values are shown in the bottom part of the window for Page outs and Swap used?

Next, select the Disk Activity tab. Post the approximate values shown for Reads in/sec and Writes out/sec (not Reads in and Writes out.)

Step 2

If you have more than one user account, you must be logged in as an administrator to carry out this step.

Launch the Console application in the same way you launched Activity Monitor. Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select

View ▹ Show Log List

from the menu bar.

Select the 50 or so most recent entries in the log. Copy them to the Clipboard (command-C). Paste into a reply to this message (command-V). You're looking for entries at the end of the log, not at the beginning.

When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.

Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.

Important: Some personal information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting. That should be easy to do if your extract is not too long.

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