Why is my early 2011 Macbook running so slow? I am using Mavericks, i have a total of 4Gb of installed memory. Many thanks in advance for any suggestions.
MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), 4Gb memory installed
the answer is so easy it may astonish you. Mavericks loves the ram, and 4 gigs is the bare minimum needed to run it. Upgrading your ram (or memory if you like) will give you a performance boost and may speed up your Macbook. It is easy to do, only needing a #1 or #0 Phillips (crosspoint screwdriver) and the new memory itself. Your macbook will take 2 sticks, 8 gigs each for a total of 16 gigs. The only thing you have to keep in mind, is that there are 3 screws at the back left of your bottom macbook case which are longer than the others, and of course the screws at the front of the case are "shoulder" screws. You can get a small piece of cardboard, and as you remove the screws one by one, stick 'em into the cardboard in the order you took them out, so that when you put them back in, you can remember which screw went where. Info on the type of ram (or memory) can be found under the Apple symbol at the top left of your screen, click on "About this mac" then "More info" and it should tell what kind you have and what you should look for when you buy 2 new sticks. you can try macsales.com or OWC, and I'm sure there are some good brand names out there. The hatter and IIIaass, or someone else can help you with that. The whole procedure should take about 30 minutes and, last time I checked, 2 8 gig sticks werre around $200*. You can use the old memory in an iMac or sell it offf as you like. Also try repairing permissions from Disk Utility. It may help you, or it may not....worth a try, I guess
hope that helps
John B
* of course, if you're totally uncomfortable with opening up your 2011 macbook, you can take it in to your local Apple store or Apple Authorized repair place, but this'll cost you more and you might have to wait....
When you see a beachball cursor or the slowness is especially bad, note the exact time: hour, minute, second.
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It will make it easier to help you w/ your problem to know know more information about your computer; size, exact year built, RAM installed and OS you're running. Any history prior to your incident would also be helpful.
If it's a 15" or 17" check out the recall:
https://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/
If it's not that then do everything that John B, Link and OGLETHORPE suggest.
Then:
I have an early 2011 MBP 13" that I bumped up to 8 GB RAM.
I also added a 120 GB SSD from OWC:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Mercury_6G/
Here's how it's running now and has been for the last 14 months:
Startup
Photoshop CS 6 open job:
It's running Mavericks, 10.9.5. I'm avoiding Yosemite due to problems I see reported around here.
Here's OWC's benchmarks, this is for the 13":
http://eshop.macsales.com/Reviews/Framework.cfm?page=/Benchmarks/CS6BenchmarkPag e-MacBookPro13.html
Note how the addition of RAM but especially the SSD work together to make a fast machine.
I even added a 120 GB 3 G SSD to my tech bench early 2006 20" iMac running Lion because it was driving me nuts running so slow on a conventional drive.
why is my early 2011 Macbook Pro running so slow. I am using Mavericks and total memory is 4Gb. Many thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.
