Upgrade mid-2009 Macbook Pro or replace?

Thank you so much for your quick response and all the links and info. Is this the reason why this dreaded color wheel continually spins whenever I am trying to do anything ? Or would this have nothing to do with the spinning wheel and is that a separate issue ?

Thank you again !!

You're most likely having the beachball issue because 1. Your hard drive is running out of free space and 2. You only have 4Gb of ram. With the limited information that's as good an educated guess as I can take. If you want download and run EtreCheck and post it's result here so we can get a better look at what may be going on http://etrecheck.com/

Hi Mike

I ran it and its very long to post. How can I get this to you ?

Thank you 🙂

Just copy and paste it here, or better yet a in a new thread where you'll likely get more opinions.

EtreCheck version: 3.0.6 (315)

Report generated 2016-10-23 21:48:04

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime 3:00

Performance: Good

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

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

Problem: Beachballing

Hardware Information: ⓘ

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2009)

[Technical Specifications] - [User Guide] - [Warranty & Service]

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro5,5

1 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2-core

4 GB RAM Upgradeable - [Instructions]

BANK 0/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1067 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1067 MHz ok

Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported

Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n

Battery: Health = Check Battery - Cycle count = 202

Video Information: ⓘ

NVIDIA GeForce 9400M - VRAM: 256 MB

Color LCD 1280 x 800

System Software: ⓘ

OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 (15G1004) - Time since boot: about 27 days

Disk Information: ⓘ

APPLE SSD TS256A disk0 : (251 GB) (Solid State - TRIM: No)

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 250.14 GB (21.23 GB free)

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

HL-DT-ST DVDRW GS23N ()

USB Information: ⓘ

Apple Inc. Built-in iSight

Apple Card Reader

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Logitech USB Receiver

Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Gatekeeper: ⓘ

Mac App Store and identified developers

Kernel Extensions: ⓘ

/System/Library/Extensions

[not loaded] com.Belcarra.iokit.USBLAN_netpart (3.1.1 - SDK 10.6 - 2016-09-25) [Support]

[not loaded] com.Belcarra.iokit.USBLAN_usbpart (3.1.1 - SDK 10.6 - 2016-09-25) [Support]

[loaded] com.Logitech.Control Center.HID Driver (3.3.0 - 2016-09-25) [Support]

[not loaded] com.Logitech.Unifying.HID Driver (1.2.0-302 - 2016-09-25) [Support]

[not loaded] com.RemoteControl.USBLAN.usbpart (3.1.1 - SDK 10.7 - 2016-09-25) [Support]

[loaded] com.logmein.driver.LogMeInSoundDriver (1.0.3 - SDK 10.5 - 2016-09-25) [Support]

[loaded] com.rim.driver.BlackBerryUSBDriverInt (0.0.68 - 2016-09-25) [Support]

[not loaded] com.rim.driver.BlackBerryUSBDriverVSP (0.0.68 - 2016-09-25) [Support]

/System/Library/Extensions/2.2.0/Belcarra.USBLAN_netpart.kext/Contents/Plug-Ins

[not loaded] com.belcarra.iokit.netpart.panther (1.6.3 - 2012-06-19) [Support]

/System/Library/Extensions/2.2.0/Belcarra.USBLAN_usbpart.kext/Contents/Plug-Ins

[not loaded] com.belcarra.iokit.usbpart.panther (1.6.3 - 2012-06-19) [Support]

/System/Library/Extensions/2.2.0/RemoteControl.USBLAN_usbpart.kext/Contents/Plug -Ins

[not loaded] com.RemoteControl.USBLAN.panther (1.6.2 - 2012-06-19) [Support]

System Launch Agents: ⓘ

[not loaded] 7 Apple tasks

[loaded] 146 Apple tasks

[running] 53 Apple tasks

[killed] 33 Apple tasks

33 processes killed due to insufficient RAM

System Launch Daemons: ⓘ

[not loaded] 45 Apple tasks

[loaded] 145 Apple tasks

[running] 71 Apple tasks

[killed] 29 Apple tasks

29 processes killed due to insufficient RAM

Launch Daemons: ⓘ

[running] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist (2016-10-12) [Support]

[failed] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist (2016-06-13) [Support]

[running] com.sonos.SonosLibraryServer.plist (2016-10-23) [Support]

User Launch Agents: ⓘ

[loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist (2014-04-30) [Support]

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (2016-07-12) [Support]

User Login Items: ⓘ

AdobeResourceSynchronizer Application Hidden (/Applications/Adobe Reader.app/Contents/Support/AdobeResourceSynchronizer.app)

CrossOver CD Helper Application (~/Applications/CrossOver-2.app/Contents/Resources/CrossOver CD Helper.app)

HP Device Monitor SMLoginItem (/Library/Printers/hp/Frameworks/HPDeviceMonitoring.framework/Versions/1.0/Helpe rs/HP Device Monitor Manager.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/HP Device Monitor.app)

HP Product Research SMLoginItem (/Library/Printers/hp/Utilities/HPPU Plugins/ProductImprovementStudy.hptask/Contents/Helpers/HP Product Research Manager.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/HP Product Research.app)

Internet Plug-ins: ⓘ

LogitechHarmony: 1.2.0.2 - SDK 10.7 (2012-10-12) [Support]

Default Browser: 601 - SDK 10.11 (2016-08-09)

Flip4Mac WMV Plugin: 2.4.4.2 (2012-07-16) [Support]

OfficeLiveBrowserPlugin: 12.3.6 (2013-04-05) [Support]

AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: 11.0.17 - SDK 10.6 (2016-08-11) [Support]

FlashPlayer-10.6: 22.0.0.192 - SDK 10.9 (2016-06-25) [Support]

Silverlight: 5.1.40728.0 - SDK 10.6 (2015-09-10) [Support]

QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (2016-08-09)

Flash Player: 22.0.0.192 - SDK 10.9 (2016-06-25) Outdated! Update

iPhotoPhotocast: 7.0 (2010-04-03)

npViewpoint: Unknown

AdobePDFViewer: 11.0.17 - SDK 10.6 (2016-08-11) [Support]

GarminGpsControl: 4.0.4.0 Release - SDK 10.6 (2012-11-02) [Support]

EPPEX Plugin: 3.0.5.0 (2012-02-14) [Support]

JavaAppletPlugin: Java 7 Update 17 (2013-04-09) Check version

User internet Plug-ins: ⓘ

CitrixOnlineWebDeploymentPlugin: 1.0.105 (2013-04-25) [Support]

Safari Extensions: ⓘ

searchtab - Roby Strand - http://www.yahoo.com (2015-01-04)

3rd Party Preference Panes: ⓘ

Flash Player (2016-06-13) [Support]

Flip4Mac WMV (2012-05-15) [Support]

Java (2013-03-01) [Support]

Logitech Control Center (2010-05-31) [Support]

Perian (2011-07-23) [Support]

Time Machine: ⓘ

Skip System Files: NO

Mobile backups: ON

Auto backup: YES

Volumes being backed up:

Macintosh HD: Disk size: 250.14 GB Disk used: 228.91 GB

Destinations:

Data [Network]

Total size: 3.00 TB

Total number of backups: 58

Oldest backup: 8/10/16, 8:23 PM

Last backup: 10/23/16, 9:37 PM

Size of backup disk: Excellent

Backup size 3.00 TB > (Disk size 250.14 GB X 3)

Top Processes by CPU: ⓘ

90% com.hp.productresearch

27% soagent

11% backupd

10% WindowServer

5% kernel_task

Top Processes by Memory: ⓘ

734 MB kernel_task

299 MB Safari

123 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent(6)

82 MB WindowServer

61 MB firefox

Virtual Memory Information: ⓘ

43 MB Free RAM

4.21 GB Used RAM (905 MB Cached)

2.12 GB Swap Used

Diagnostics Information: ⓘ

Oct 23, 2016, 05:29:17 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Safari_2016-10-23-172917_[redacted].cpu_resource .diag [Details]

/Applications/Safari.app/Contents/MacOS/Safari

As mentioned before you need to upgrade your ram. You have two software items that are causing problems, first the Blackberry software has been incompatible with recent versions of OS X and is known to cause slowdowns, it needs to be uninstalled. In your LogIn items you have something called hp.productresearch that is using 90% of your processor! That should also be uninstalled.

Thank you so much !! How do I uninstall those two things ?:)

I would Google for uninstall instructions.

I just wanted to add to this thread..

I recently put in a SSD and a new battery in my 2009 17" Macbook Pro. - I noticed a big difference.

I also recently acquired a 2009 13" Macbook Pro, and noticed it was pretty doggy trying to run El-Capitan, so I put a SSD in it, but, it still struggles some. It was almost unusable with the spinning drive.

So, I did a https://etrecheck.com/#abouton both. My 17" has 4gb Ram, and the 13" only has 2gb Ram.

etrecheck recommended I add more Ram to the 13". I ordered 8gb Ram that I'll put in my 17", and I'll move the 4gb from my 17" to the 13".

I'll post back my results after I see how it improves.

WHAT DID YOU DECIDE ?

I would not wast time or money upgrading that laptop.

AND, depending on how hard and often you use the thing, the motherboard or and the graphics card are about shot anyway. If you like the system, and want to stay on a mac, you could think about using SNOW Leopard or formatting a faster drive with it. I promise you - with SNOW on THAT laptop - it will be a SCREAMING MOSTER.

I decided to buy a new macbook pro with the new touchpad keyboard. It is a 4-5 week back order. I am going to get a new battery for this one and add ram , which is very little $$. So, I will have this for a back up. I still love this little laptop and I don't want to toss it. I agree this ran much better on Snow but I am using El Capitan right now and have no idea how to go back to Snow?

If you can tell me that would be great !

Thanks again ! 😁

I have the 17" also. I already maxed out the RAM to 8 and it's still very doggy. I need a new battery for sure. Can you tell me what/where you purchased for the SSD and battery and RAM? So scared to get the wrong stuff. I'm wondering if I bought crappy RAM and need to change that out also. I was unaware that there was good RAM and bad quality RAM until reading this post.

Thank you! Can't wait to get my marchine zipping along again. Installing El Capitan as we speak.

I have a mid 2009 I put a 1tb drive in it and it is real fast it had a 250 in it it works good now

Sorry for my ignorance, how did you reverse the RAM?