Why is my Macbook still slow even after upgrading

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Level 1

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Why is my Macbook still slow even after upgrading

Hi everyone, I'm not sure if this has been answered before but here goes.

So I have a Macbook 2.4GHz (13.3-inch Intel Core 2 Duo "Penryn") - Early 2008. Have been using it for the past 6 years without any issues. However during the past 1 year I've noticed that it has started to run slower and slower. Even simple task such as opening Safari might take longer than usual. I do not have much application installed as I only used that computer for surfing the net and making Words & spreadsheet documents. I have about 200GB of free hard disk space out of the 250GB standard HDD along with 2 GB of ram. After doing some research around the forum, I decided it might be a good idea to upgrade the HDD to a faster 7200rpm 750GB HDD drive as well as replacing the ram with new 2x2GB modules. I also did a fresh install of OS X Mountain Lion 10.6.8 (I did not install any other applications). But to no avail, it seems that the computer is still laggy and isn't as snappy as couple of years back. And by laggy I mean that opening pre-installed applications on the Mac such as iPhoto and Safari might still take 4-6 "icon bounces" to open.

So my question is,

1) What might still be causing the lag?

2) Are there any other components on a Macbook that might cause it to slow down?

3) Does components like the CPU degrade over time?

Any help would be highly appreciated.

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Jan 6, 2015 7:27 AM

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Answer 1

Limnos

Level 10

411,091 points

Jan 6, 2015 7:45 AM in response to teezackwhy

Your computer isn't getting slower, it's other things demanding faster. If you are installing all the possible updates to software those will be designed for newer computers. Once you start browsing you're browsing a web designed by people who because they spend all their time designing pages they themselves have powerful machines with fast connections because it is their job. It's like if all city streets were designed by racecar drivers. A 2008 computer is already considered vintage by Apple and close to no longer being supported in any manner. Vintage and obsolete products - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1752 I have an even older computer than you and it is annoying but that's the way things are.

Frankly 4-6 icon bounces doesn't sound long to me. Don't forget that for applications such as iTunes how long it takes to open will also depend upon the size of the library.

I don't think CPUs wear down. Conceivably some slow-down could be the result of excessive bad sectors on a hard drive but you say you replaced that (and I would expect it to have shown more serious symptoms were that happening).

You can use Activity monitor to check your RAM usage. Newer applications and newer OS versions will require much more RAM than posted "minimum" If a computer doesn't have enough RAM it starts using the hard drive which is slower than chips.

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Answer 2

SeaPapp

Level 7

26,486 points

Jan 6, 2015 7:58 AM in response to teezackwhy

I agree 100% with Limnos. I would add that if your're using any software to speed up, clean up, tune up, optimize or in any way protect your mac it is probably slowing you down. Software of that type has no use on macs and will degrade performance to the point that the computer becomes unusable.

IF you want to really speed things up replace that new 750gb hard drive, which is way bigger than it sounds like you need anyway, with an SSD. I put a 250gb Samsung ssd into my early 2009 macbook and to be honest it is the single best upgrade I've ever done, and I've done plenty. Time to the desktop from cold boot is less than 30 seconds and applications open instantly. It feels like a brand new machine. I know you just invested in a new hard drive but you can put that in an external enclosure and use it for storage and/or Time Machine backups.

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