Early 2013 13" MacBook Pro runs slow and uses a lot of RAM, why and what can be done?

Question

Problem description:My computer is using a lot of RAM. Wondering if there’s a hardware issue, or a software issue, or something else. I currently have no programs open in the Doc, besides EntreCheck. and the RAM is showing about 75% used. I’m looking for suggestions on what I can do to speed it up and make it more functional, and efficient for doing design work. I recently upgraded from the original 4GB RAM (2x2GB), and from the original HD to a 512 GB SSD drive, and upgraded to Yosemite. Perhaps that was too much for this machine? Please help with anything that I can do to make it better! Thanks in advance!I have a recent back-up, I&#x27;m open to saving user files and starting from scratch with the current hardware, etc... but would need some direction on how to do this. I did upgrade myself using Apple provided instructions. Here are the EntreCheck results: EtreCheck version: 2.0.11 (98)Report generated December 2, 2014 at 12:45:57 PM ESTHardware Information: ℹ️    MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011) (Verified)    MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro8,1    1 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2-core    8 GB RAM Upgradeable        BANK 0/DIMM0            4 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok        BANK 1/DIMM0            4 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok    Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported    Wireless:  en1: 802.11 a/b/g/nVideo Information: ℹ️    Intel HD Graphics 3000 - VRAM: 512 MB        Color LCD 1280 x 800System Software: ℹ️    OS X 10.10.1 (14B25) - Uptime: 2 days 0:17:23Disk Information: ℹ️    Crucial_CT512MX100SSD1 disk0 : (512.11 GB)    S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified        EFI (disk0s1) &lt;not mounted&gt; : 210 MB         Recovery HD (disk0s3) &lt;not mounted&gt;  [Recovery]: 650 MB         SuperCool (disk1) /  [Startup]: 510.88 GB (320.22 GB free)            Core Storage: disk0s2 511.25 GB Online    MATSHITADVD-R   UJ-898  USB Information: ℹ️    Microsoft Microsoft® Nano Transceiver v2.0     Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad     Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub         Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller     Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)     Western Digital My Passport 070B 319.37 GB        S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified        EFI (disk2s1) &lt;not mounted&gt; : 210 MB         NATURE2020 (disk2s2) /Volumes/NATURE2020 : 319.03 GB (169.27 GB free)    Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️    Apple Inc. thunderbolt_busGatekeeper: ℹ️    Mac App Store and identified developersProblem System Launch Agents: ℹ️    [failed]    com.apple.security.cloudkeychainproxy.plistProblem System Launch Daemons: ℹ️    [failed]    com.apple.ctkd.plist    [failed]    com.apple.icloud.findmydeviced.plist    [failed]    com.apple.nehelper.plist    [failed]    com.apple.nsurlsessiond.plist    [failed]    com.apple.wdhelper.plistLaunch Agents: ℹ️    [not loaded]    com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist Support    [running]    com.adobe.AdobeCreativeCloud.plist Support    [loaded]    com.adobe.CS5ServiceManager.plist Support    [running]    com.hp.productresearch.plist SupportLaunch Daemons: ℹ️    [loaded]    com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support    [invalid?]    com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist Support    [loaded]    com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist Support    [running]    com.surteesstudios.hddfancontroldaemon.plist SupportUser Launch Agents: ℹ️    [loaded]    com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist Support    [loaded]    com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist Support    [loaded]    com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist Support    [invalid?]    com.citrixonline.GoToMeeting.G2MUpdate.plist Support    [loaded]    com.google.keystone.agent.plist SupportUser Login Items: ℹ️    GrowlHelperApp    Application (/Library/PreferencePanes/Growl.prefPane/Contents/Resources/GrowlHelperApp.app)    iTunesHelper    UNKNOWN (missing value)    EvernoteHelper    Application (/Applications/Evernote.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/EvernoteHelper.app)    Google Drive    ApplicationHidden (/Applications/Google Drive.app)    Dropbox    ApplicationHidden (/Applications/Dropbox.app)Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️    Default Browser: Version: 600 - SDK 10.10    AdobeAAMDetect: Version: AdobeAAMDetect 2.0.0.0 - SDK 10.7 Support    FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 15.0.0.239 - SDK 10.6 Support    AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: Version: 11.0.09 - SDK 10.6 Support    Silverlight: Version: 5.1.10411.0 - SDK 10.6 Support    Flash Player: Version: 15.0.0.239 - SDK 10.6 Support    QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3    iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0 - SDK 10.8    SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.4.6 - SDK 10.6 Support    AdobePDFViewer: Version: 11.0.09 - SDK 10.6 Support    CouponPrinter-FireFox_v2: Version: Version 1.1.6    JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 15.0.0 - SDK 10.10 Check versionUser Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️    CitrixOnlineWebDeploymentPlugin: Version: 1.0.105 SupportSafari Extensions: ℹ️    AllMyTube 3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️    Flash Player  Support    Growl  Support    HDD Fan Control  SupportTime Machine: ℹ️    Skip System Files: NO    Auto backup: YES    Volumes being backed up:        SuperCool: Disk size: 510.88 GB Disk used: 190.66 GB    Destinations:        NATURE2020 [Local]         Total size: 319.03 GB         Total number of backups: 4         Oldest backup: 2014-09-10 17:52:44 +0000         Last backup: 2014-11-19 21:23:34 +0000         Size of backup disk: Too small            Backup size 319.03 GB &lt; (Disk used 190.66 GB X 3)Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️        22%    mds         6%    WindowServer         4%    Creative Cloud         3%    Dropbox         0%    Google DriveTop Processes by Memory: ℹ️    223 MB    Finder    137 MB    mds_stores    120 MB    Dropbox    86 MB    Creative Cloud    86 MB    WindowServerVirtual Memory Information: ℹ️    2.08 GB    Free RAM    2.82 GB    Active RAM    1.64 GB    Inactive RAM    1.59 GB    Wired RAM    14.83 GB    Page-ins    2.06 GB    Page-outs

Lexiepex · Answer

This does not look very disturbing at first sight.I propose to do following to start:- In SystemPreferences uninstall  "HDD fancontrol"  and  "Growl" they both don&#x27;t do anything for and use resources.- Then I would remove the Safari extension. IMHO the only good extension is Adblock or AdblockPlus.- Also I propose to remove all entries from SystemPreferences-&gt;Users&amp;Groups-&gt;LoginItems  (using the minus sign underneath). Then Restart. You can use these softwares by starting them manually and quitting when not needed.- In  StartupDisk-&gt;Library-&gt;InternetPlug-ins  delete both AdobePDFviewerplugins, the Coupon-printer plugin, the AdobeAAMDetect plugin, the JavaApplet plugin: you will never miss them and your system wil run better.- In  StartupDisk-&gt;Library-&gt;LaunchAgents  delete the Adobe plists -except the CreativeCloud plist-, and the  HP plist.- In  StartupDisk-&gt;Library-&gt;LaunchDaemons  delete the adobe.SwitchBoard  plist and  -if it still there-  the surteesstudios.HDDfanControl   plist.- In Finder select  yourname in the left panel ("HomeFolder") then click the View Menu and click Viewoptions: check "show Library folder" and check as default:now you select the Library folder in the HomeFolder in there the LaunchAgents folder, and in there delete the 3 Adobe plists.- If you do not really need Citrix, uninstall it.Now Restart.- It seems you have irregular Adobe software, do not use it for a few hours, after say 5 hours, run a new etrecheck list. Mac should run much better already.Lex

ZV137 · Answer

Old Activity Monitors on Mountain Lion and earlier OS versions reported RAM in terms of memory actually being used (Active, Wired, Used, etc). With Mavericks and Yosemite, something called "speculative RAM" is now included included in the "used" section. Speculative memory is basically free memory that the kernel may decide to allocate to an application if needed. Unfortunately, for most people most of the RAM in the system is speculative so when you add that in with what&#x27;s in use etc. all of a sudden you have a lack of RAM....or so you think. With Mavericks and Yosemite you need to pay attention to compression and page outs as that&#x27;s about the only way to tell if you&#x27;re actually using too much memory.Regarding performance, it might be worth your while to go to the App Store and read some of the reviews of Yosemite to see if you have similar problems.If you look at the tail end of your report you have:Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️    2.08 GB    Free RAM    2.82 GB    Active RAM    1.64 GB    Inactive RAM    1.59 GB    Wired RAM    14.83 GB    Page-ins    2.06 GB    Page-outsWhich is the "old way" or reporting (which I think is better). Inactive memory is not really memory in use but rather memory that was in use and freed. It still holds onto contents for a while in case you re-open an app again it will be pre-cached, so looking at that you have 3.6GB of  available memory. Your page-ins and page-outs are excessively high. I also noticed that you&#x27;re having backup problems.

Lexiepex · Answer

Here the problem is not that the ram is displayed differently. The problem is the high number of Page-Outs.

ZV137 · Answer

I probably edited my comment to add that while you wrote yours.😉

Nature2020 · Answer

Thanks for all of that! I have done everything but I cannot seem to locate the Safari extension. IMHOI only see one safari plug-in/extension there:I am ready to reboot once I can locate this.

Nature2020 · Answer

Hi. Thanks for the feedback here. You say that the page-ins and the page-outs are high, and Lex says that the page-outs are high, without mentioning the page-ins. I&#x27;ve looked up explanations on what this &#x27;technically&#x27; means, and I&#x27;m not that familiar. Is there something that can be done to reduce those, or is that just the way it&#x27;s going to be? I have done all that Lex recommended, and will run the EntreCheck again later this evening, after not using the Adobe software for minimum 5 hours and will post those results at that time.As for back-up issues I think the issue is jus tthat my back-up drive is smaller than my actual hard drive. But I&#x27;m okay with that at the moment, because I&#x27;m using less than what the back-up drive capacity. I will fix thin soon, but not right now - it&#x27;s on my radar to get in my budget.What I&#x27;m using to &#x27;judge&#x27; the usage of my RAM is an app called Memory Clean. Is this acceptable or should I take that out or use something different. I installed that after noticing some issues with the slowness.Thanks to you both!

Lexiepex · Answer

Yes you remove the Safari extension in the Safari Preferences: click the uninstall button.Lex

Lexiepex · Answer

The page-ins are te things that the apps read from the disk. The Page-outs are the ram using the disk as buffer because there is not enough free ram. But you have enough free ran when the bad boys are gone.

ZV137 · Answer

Lex is right, i just noticed they both seemed high.I would stay away from the "cleaning" apps. I know one of them "cleans" all the data IconServicesAgent generates, and then sometime later IconServicesAgent kicks on again and re-generates them. During this time the CPU is often pegged and you&#x27;ll see your disk space drop. God only knows what else cleaning apps do.With respect to the backups, the backup drive is tagged using a UUID, and if a drive is reformatted or replaced a new UUID is generated, hence it&#x27;s seen as a completely different drive. When TIme Machine kicks on it tries to create a new, full backup of the current drive. I would think that if this is problematic, the problem would go away if you just disconnect the backup drive temporarily from the system. It&#x27;s kind of a shot in the dark but if it all the other stuff fails, it&#x27;s an easy check, anyway.

Linc Davis · Answer

It&#x27;s normal since Mavericks for almost all memory to be in use, either by applications or by the file cache. That&#x27;s what you should want, since unused memory is going to waste. The relevant measure of whether memory is in short supply is what Apple calls "memory pressure."Apple&#x27;s explanation of memory pressure is here. If you want a more detailed, technical description, see here, and for the source code, see here.Please describe the problem in as much relevant detail as possible. The "etrecheck" fad hasn&#x27;t made that step any less necessary. The usual results of posting etrecheck output on this site without a full description of the problem are very poor. The better your description, the better the chance of a solution.For example, if the computer is slow, which specific actions are slow? Is it slow all the time, or only sometimes? What changes did you make, if any, just before it became slow? Have you seen any alerts or error messages? Have you done anything to try to fix it? Most importantly, do you have a current backup of all data? If the answer to the last question is "no," back up now. Ask if you need guidance. Do nothing else until you have a backup.

Nature2020 · Answer

Lex...Here&#x27;s the new EtreCheck that I just ran. At a glance, it seems I may have missed deleting some things or they are stored in an additional location? I haven&#x27;t jumped into anything yet to really test if there&#x27;s a difference in performance for me. Once I do I will post that information.EtreCheck version: 2.0.11 (98)Report generated December 3, 2014 at 8:46:56 AM ESTHardware Information: ℹ️    MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011) (Verified)    MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro8,1    1 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2-core    8 GB RAM Upgradeable        BANK 0/DIMM0            4 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok        BANK 1/DIMM0            4 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok    Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported    Wireless:  en1: 802.11 a/b/g/nVideo Information: ℹ️    Intel HD Graphics 3000 - VRAM: 512 MB        Color LCD 1280 x 800System Software: ℹ️    OS X 10.10.1 (14B25) - Uptime: 12:43:15Disk Information: ℹ️    Crucial_CT512MX100SSD1 disk0 : (512.11 GB)    S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified        EFI (disk0s1) &lt;not mounted&gt; : 210 MB         Recovery HD (disk0s3) &lt;not mounted&gt;  [Recovery]: 650 MB         SuperCool (disk1) /  [Startup]: 510.88 GB (322.45 GB free)            Core Storage: disk0s2 511.25 GB Online    MATSHITADVD-R   UJ-898  USB Information: ℹ️    Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)     Microsoft Microsoft® Nano Transceiver v2.0     Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub         Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller     Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad     Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️    Apple Inc. thunderbolt_busGatekeeper: ℹ️    Mac App Store and identified developersLaunch Agents: ℹ️    [running]    com.adobe.AdobeCreativeCloud.plist SupportLaunch Daemons: ℹ️    [loaded]    com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support    [loaded]    com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist SupportUser Launch Agents: ℹ️    [loaded]    com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist Support    [loaded]    com.google.keystone.agent.plist SupportUser Login Items: ℹ️    NoneInternet Plug-ins: ℹ️    FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 15.0.0.239 - SDK 10.6 Support    QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3    Flash Player: Version: 15.0.0.239 - SDK 10.6 Support    Default Browser: Version: 600 - SDK 10.10    SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.4.6 - SDK 10.6 Support    Silverlight: Version: 5.1.10411.0 - SDK 10.6 Support    iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0 - SDK 10.8User Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️    CitrixOnlineWebDeploymentPlugin: Version: 1.0.105 Support3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️    Flash Player  SupportTime Machine: ℹ️    Skip System Files: NO    Auto backup: YES    Volumes being backed up:        SuperCool: Disk size: 510.88 GB Disk used: 188.43 GB    Destinations:        NATURE2020 [Local]         Total size: 319.03 GB         Total number of backups: 4         Oldest backup: 2014-09-10 17:52:44 +0000         Last backup: 2014-11-19 21:23:34 +0000         Size of backup disk: Too small            Backup size 319.03 GB &lt; (Disk used 188.43 GB X 3)Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️         7%    WindowServer         1%    launchservicesd         0%    launchd         0%    fontd         0%    Core SyncTop Processes by Memory: ℹ️    103 MB    mds_stores    86 MB    Creative Cloud    86 MB    Finder    77 MB    WindowServer    60 MB    systemstatsdVirtual Memory Information: ℹ️    3.93 GB    Free RAM    2.28 GB    Active RAM    900 MB    Inactive RAM    1.48 GB    Wired RAM    2.25 GB    Page-ins    0 B    Page-outs

Lexiepex · Answer

It seems you uninstalled Citrix, good. There is an entry left, just for beauty delete it:In yourname-Library-InternetPlug-ins  you can delete the Citrix plugin.Interested to recieve your experiences.Lex

Nature2020 · Answer

Linc... thanks for the response and your help, and hopefully my elaboration below can paint a better picture of what I&#x27;m seeing/experiencing. Let me know if there are other questions I didn&#x27;t answer that can help. I don&#x27;t really have &#x27;specifics&#x27;, and cannot really pin anything down. I know a little bit about many things, but nothing too in depth for each, I call it "enough to be dangerous". Here is what I do know: I bought the machine in summer of 2011 and it worked great. Over time I didn&#x27;t really notice any speed issues. I&#x27;ve started to do more graphic design overall in the past 3 to 6 months and noticed that when I work with many layers in Photoshop, or try to render effects in Illustrator and InDesign, they take longer than they previously did. I did want to add more RAM (I only had the original 4GB) to maybe help with the process. I did not look and evaluate the system in any way to see how the 4GB was being used and if there may have been any issues. As for the HD, about 2 years ago I put in a 180GB SSD drive and upgraded my OS to Mountain Lion as well. I didn&#x27;t do much design back then and the size of the drive worked just fine. I upgraded to Mavericks one year ago. Two months ago, when I upgraded my RAM, I also upgraded to a 512GB SSD. I upgraded my OS to Yosemite about 5 weeks ago. As for software, I started using Adobe Creative Cloud about a year and a half ago, but then stopped for a little while and started again to use Adobe CC earlier this year, about 6 months ago.Simple Summary of Events:Summer 2011 - PurchasedDecember 2012 - Upgrade to 180GB SSD &amp; Updated OS to Mountain LionMay/June 2013 - Initial Use of Adobe CC for a few months (maybe 5 or 6)November 2013 - Upgrade OS to MavericksJune 2014 - Adobe CCSeptember 2014 - Upgrade from 4GB RAM to 8GB RAM, Upgrade HD to 512GB SSDOctober 2014 - Upgrade OS to YosemiteI have done a lot to my machine (so I think) and am trying to keep it alive as long as it will go for me. I don&#x27;t have speed issues with internet/web surfing and most programs that are not Adobe CC. I find that when I am trying to work with some light-to medium complexity Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop files, they take longer to render, or apply effects or save than they used to. iMovie also takes longer than what I remember, but I don&#x27;t use that too often. I want to make sure my machine is as lean as it can be and nothing is out there hindering it and making it worse. I have the need to work as fast as possible and I can feel the machine causing me to work slower. If I need to invest in a newer machine, so be it - what would you recommend for a next purchase? And, what additional things can be done to this one until I can make that purchase?I have not seen any error messages, that I recall, just taking a long time to process. In order to try and fix it, I tried to run only the minimal amount of apps at a time while working on complex files. That did not seem to make a noticeable difference, and I had no idea where else to look into, so I started here. I do have a complete back-up.Thanks again!

Nature2020 · Answer

Done. Thanks! I&#x27;ll report back as soon as I&#x27;m able!

Linc Davis · Answer

When you notice the problem, launch the Activity Monitor application and select the Memory tab. Is the memory usage graph in the yellow or red zone?