MacBook Pro late-2011 slow and unusable after Yosemite OS X clean install

OK, I have a late 2008 MacBook Pro that is running Yosemite like a train, so there has to be something else lurking.

Is the RAM from Apple or a third party? If you have the original, then try it with this. If that is not the culprit, then do a PRAM reset (alt - cmd - p - r during startup) to sort out the settings in NVRAM. If you can remove the battery, then reset the SMC (do this before the PRAM reset), to check you do not have something messing with the SMC.

Try these and come back to see if this fixes it.

If you have Microsoft Office 2011 installed, run Font Book and check for duplicates. This was a problem I had and it fixed the slowness.

Let's do this first, to be sure:

Restart holding CMD+R, it will start the"Recovery Partition".

Choose DiskUtility, from the menubar.

In the startup page ("FirstAid") choose you startup disk and choose "Verify Disk": the test should end with '...OK'.

If it does not end with 'OK', do "Repair Disk" from the same page, it should end with '..OK', if not do the repair again.

Tell us the result.

Lex

And if you do run Repair Disk and repairs are made, repeat until no additional repairs are made.

Sometimes repairing one thing enables Disk Utility to identify an additional needed repair which was undetectable the first time through.

As I said ".....should end with '..OK', if not do the repair again".

You should not go on with that too long, but stop when it is not OK after the (max) third time, then you should prepare for backups and a new disk.

Does Repair Disk always end with "OK" in all circumstances?

Some (including me) have seen completed checks where OK does not appear even though Verify or Repair has in fact been completed.

It does not end with OK, when it is not OK, meaning not (completely) repaired (repairable), in that case you do it again, as I said.

I've had the same problem: mid 2012 MacBookPro so slow as unusable after Yosemite install. I followed these recommendations:

http://www.hightechdad.com/2014/10/23/13-tips-optimize-mac-yosemite-installation /

Ran Onyx which checks the hard drive and repairs permissions, which improved the speed somewhat. Reset the SMC - greater improvement I think and then the PRAM and Reduced transparency in Apple menu > System preferences > Accessibility.

Earlier, I upgraded my MacBook Air, 2 years older (2010) and much lower spec, it is fine.

Is this a specific MacBook Pro problem with Yosemite? We shouldn't have to do all this just to get a usable computer back, surely?

Another observation - the MacBookPro is particularly slow opening website pages - via WiFi - this seems to be a particular issue with Yosemite, noted for instance by PC World as recently as 21 November: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2851212/apple-delivers-another-yosemite-beta-as-w ifi-issues-persist.html

Duh. Hope fixed soon.

Activity Monitor - Mavericks also Yosemite

Activity Monitor in Mavericks has significant changes

Performance Guide

Why is my computer slow

Why your Mac runs slower than it should

Slow Mac After Mavericks

Things you can do to resolve slowdowns see post by Kappy

In my post I asked this:

Let's do this first, to be sure:

Restart holding CMD+R, it will start the"Recovery Partition".

Choose DiskUtility, from the menubar.

In the startup page ("FirstAid") choose you startup disk and choose "Verify Disk": the test should end with '...OK'.

If it does not end with 'OK', do "Repair Disk" from the same page, it should end with '..OK', if not do the repair again.

Tell us the result.

Lex