Q: Macbook is running slow and getting hot at times

Consider installing 8 GB RAM, Yosemite should run better with more.  The best sources of Mac compatible RAM are OWC and Crucial.

In regards to the heat problem, install iStat menus:

http://bjango.com/mac/istatmenus/

Open Activity Monitor to ALL PROCESSES and set CPU to display values from high to low.

When the MBP gets hot, post images of both for review.

Ciao.

When you see a beachball cursor or the slowness is especially bad, note the exact time: hour, minute, second.  

These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.

Launch the Console 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 and start typing the name.

The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select

          SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages

from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select

          View ▹ Show Log List

from the menu bar at the top of the screen.

Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Scroll back to the time you noted above.

Select the messages entered from then until the end of the episode, or until they start to repeat, whichever comes first.

Copy the messages to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.

The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of it useless for solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.

Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.

Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.

Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

It looks fine here.

My macbook recently started running slow and has also been getting hot/warm at times. I have performed the etrecheck download and posted the reults. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Problem description:

running a scan to see how my computer is

EtreCheck version: 2.1.8 (121)

Report generated April 14, 2015 at 9:47:48 PM EDT

Download EtreCheck from http://etresoft.com/etrecheck

Click the [Click for support] links for help with non-Apple products.

Click the [Click for details] links for more information about that line.

Hardware Information: ℹ️

    MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011) (Technical Specifications)

    MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro8,1

    1 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2-core

    4 GB RAM Upgradeable

        BANK 0/DIMM0

            2 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok

        BANK 1/DIMM0

            2 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok

    Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported

    Wireless:  en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n

    Battery Health: Normal - Cycle count 133

Video Information: ℹ️

    Intel HD Graphics 3000 - VRAM: 384 MB

        Color LCD 1280 x 800

System Software: ℹ️

    OS X 10.10.2 (14C109) - Time since boot: 12 days 6:3:9

Disk Information: ℹ️

    Hitachi HTS545032B9A302 disk0 : (320.07 GB)

        EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

        Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>  [Recovery]: 650 MB

        Macintosh HD (disk1) / : 318.84 GB (304.99 GB free)

            Core Storage: disk0s2 319.21 GB Online

    MATSHITADVD-R   UJ-898 

USB Information: ℹ️

    Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

    Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub

        Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

    Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

    Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️

    Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Gatekeeper: ℹ️

    Mac App Store and identified developers

Problem System Launch Daemons: ℹ️

    [failed]    com.apple.loginwindow.LFVTracer.plist [Click for details]

Launch Daemons: ℹ️

    [loaded]    com.adobe.fpsaud.plist [Click for support]

User Login Items: ℹ️

    iTunesHelper    Application  (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)

Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️

    FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 17.0.0.169 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

    Flash Player: Version: 17.0.0.169 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

    QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

    Default Browser: Version: 600 - SDK 10.10

3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️

    Flash Player  [Click for support]

Time Machine: ℹ️

    Time Machine not configured!

Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️

        24%    WindowServer

        10%    Safari

         3%    hidd

         1%    com.apple.WebKit.Networking

         0%    com.apple.WebKit.Plugin.64

Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️

    112 MB    Safari

    77 MB    com.apple.WebKit.WebContent

    47 MB    WindowServer

    39 MB    com.apple.WebKit.Plugin.64

    34 MB    com.apple.WebKit.Networking

Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️

    159 MB    Free RAM

    1.11 GB    Active RAM

    1.10 GB    Inactive RAM

    1.11 GB    Wired RAM

    7.61 GB    Page-ins

    495 MB    Page-outs

Please stop thread jacking, and start your own thread with details of issues you are having.