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pachazam Author

Level 1

9 points

Super Duper Slow MacBook Pro: BootUp, LogIn, SpotLight, Safari, Chrome

OS X El Capitan

Version 10.11.2

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2010)

Processor: 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5

Memory: 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3

Your Mac contains 2 memory slots, each of which accepts a 1067 MHz DDR3 memory module.

Startup Disk: Macintosh HD

Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 288 MB

Storage: 320 GB; SATA Disk

Right now in my Macintosh HD, I have about 16 GB free of about 257 GB. I have 62 GB reserved for BOOTCAMP and that has about 6 GB free.

Safari Version 9.0.2

iPhoto 9.6.1

Skype 7.18 (341)

Adobe Reader XI Version 11.0.13

TextEdit 1.11 (325)

My MacBook Pro is super duper slow! The boot up is super slow. I barely restart the computer so that I don't have to go through the boot up time which takes like a minute or two. Also, logging into my one and only account that is in the Macintosh HD takes a long time. The BOOTCAMP is so fast though and runs fine, but I only use that for my programming class or Windows games. I always keep everything updated as soon as I know they are available. I think the most likely issue is that 4 GB of RAM is nearly not enough for me. I used to operate so many applications at once when I first got the MacBook in 2010 and 2011. But really quickly did the speed fall. I had no time to think up to change how I used the computer or to even ask questions here. What I did was use only one or two applications at a time and that still did not help. I'm a huge internet user and so I use multiple tabs to do multiple things but the speed is slow with even using a few tabs open.

If I am supposed to get more RAM to fix this slow computer, then please direct me to where I may buy the EXACT RAM needed. I found this website, crucial.com, but they are out of stock for my RAM. I also don't understand why I need 1066 MHz RAM when my computer specifies 1067 MHz unless that is just a round off error?

Could the Graphics card be out of date and slowing me down? I really want to start playing the new StarCraft games on my MacBook. Can someone direct me to the EXACT Graphics card(s) needed? Also, it would be very helpful if I can choose which graphics cards to install based on price so I don't have to do too much.

Should I remove the BOOTCAMP partition and install it on an external hard drive? I use a Western Digital 2TB external hard drive to back up my MacBook with Time Machine. Should I install BOOTCAMP on that so that I can save space and have more than 20% free?

I found in reading some articles that as a Mac user I should have more than 20% free of storage. I would like to be 60% free of storage but i have around 120 GB of photos and 90 GB of videos in my computer. I'm a photographer and I take videos a lot with my phone and compact camera. I would like my photos and videos to be readily available in my computer.

That Crucial.com website also sells solid state drives specifically for my MacBook that are supposed to make it runner swifter. Should I get one of them with about 500 GB of space? Is it trustworthy?

Does Apple sell any of these RAM or SSDs for my computer or should I buy them from another place like crucial.com?

At first it was Google Chrome that was bugging me and starting up in MINUTES not seconds. It didn't even matter if it was the only application I had open with an empty tab. No updates fixed the problem. Not by Google nor by Apple. I even took down the extensions and plug-ins to see if it would work faster and it did not.

So, I switched to Safari and I had not used Safari because there was a problem with that ever since I started using the MacBook. It just wouldn't work. I fixed the problem somehow and it worked fine for the few months and then it became pretty slow but not as slow as Google Chrome. It also takes a REALLY LONG TIME to open new tabs and webpages. By REALLY LONG TIME, I mean longer than necessary. We live near the end of 2015, browsers and webpages should be opening up and loading swiftly. It should not take even a minute to do so. The Smart Search where you put the URL in Safari is very annoying. It doesn't let me choose what I want the first few letters to be. It also does not remember which website URL I use most. If I type in "goo" for google.com, it will continue with "google.com/mail..." and I want to be able to manipulate that or remove certain smart searches because Safari doesn't seem smart at all with that kind of behavior.

iPhoto takes a really long time to open. It takes a long time to scroll. It takes a long time to refresh the picture that I'm looking at. It takes a long time to "retouch" a photo as well as undoing changes. There are so many GB of Thumbnails isn't there a way to keep it small or remove the thumbnails? I understand that it will just have to update thumbnails all over again the next time I start iPhoto, but isn't there a way to permanently not use it?

Skype takes a really long time to open up and log in.

TextEdit and Adobe Reader and Preview each take an equally long amount of time to open up and even open up documents.

By a long time I mean longer than necessary. Apps should be opening up within seconds especially if its the only thing open. It should not take more than 30 seconds and it should definitely not take more than 2 or 3 minutes!

The booting of the MacBook takes about a minute or more. There was a time when it took the MacBook to boot up in less than 10 seconds. I didn't even have to see the white screen and gray bar to load the boot up. Now I have to actually sit there and wait. It takes more than a minute!

If the boot up time wasn't enough, the log in also takes a while to log in.

Ever since Yosemite, SpotLight has been the most annoying thing in the world. Before Yosemite, SpotLight was probably my favorite thing about the MacBook. It worked incredibly fast. I'm talking about when its not even indexing because I totally get it if it doesn't work or is slow when it indexes, but its not even indexing! It takes a while to show up and then when it actually shows up and I start typing nothing happens. No suggested results show up or if they do then they disappear and then I just have to wait pushing the up and down arrow keys to make it work and make appear a list.

Over the years and months I followed small recommendations to try and fix these things which only worked for a super short time. I followed the troubleshooting steps that appeared in these community discussions such as removing certain login items from starting up as soon as I login, but that doesn't fix any of the problems. Perhaps I have a virus in my computer? Perhaps I should backup everything or move all the things I want to keep in a folder to back up and write down all the application names to install after I reinstall my MacBook Pro with the CD that came with it back to SnowLeopard? That way, I can start from scratch and update the computer straight to Yosemite and any viruses or malfunctioning components will be gone? That is my next step in fixing this MacBook Pro. Please let me know what I can do...where I can buy necessary hardware... I probably need a new computer and if so then I'm getting an iMac but I don't have that kind of money right now...

Thank you for reading. Please help.

MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2010), OS X El Capitan (10.11.2)

Posted on Dec 15, 2015 7:20 PM

23 replies

pachazam Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 24, 2016 10:01 PM in response to etresoft

Hi etresoft,

Oh, I see. No problem. So, my MacBook Pro is just old? It was old after like a year I bought it though? It was slow then as well, but it's gotten a whole lot slower even before El Capitan.

Do you really think it will get better with upgraded RAM and SSD installations? The reason I ask is because if this solution won't last for another one or two then I might as well get a new computer. One that is not a laptop because I'm thinking they're just going to get old quicker. I've been looking at the iMacs recently and I've always wanted one, but as a student thought a laptop would be better. It's just frustrating now actually, though I love laptops.

I hope these upgrades will work because the other people said crucial.com is the best. What do you say about that versus this OWC place?

This is the RAM I'm thinking I should get:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/8566DDR3S8GP/?customer- reviews#owctabs

This is the SSD I'm thinking I should get:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/SSD7E6G480/

What's the difference between a 1.0 Tb Mercury Elektra (ME) and an 1.0 Tb ME Pro?

Maybe I should get a 1TB SSD? But it's the same as the 480GB one in terms of speed with 6G. I do want the fastest best one which is above. But I also want it to be cheap. I want to create just like 100GB-150GB for BOOTCAMP. That should be enough room for the MacBook partition so that it won't get slower in the future because I'll just put extra stuff in external hard drives.

pachazam Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 25, 2016 12:35 AM in response to etresoft

(Update and edit to the last reply I wrote.)

Hi etresoft,

Oh, I see. No problem. So, my MacBook Pro is just old? It was old like a year after I bought it though? It was slow then as well, but it's gotten a whole lot slower even before El Capitan.

Do you really think it will get better with upgraded RAM and SSD installations? The reason I ask is because if this solution won't last for another one or two years then I might as well get a new computer. One that is not a laptop because I'm thinking they're just going to get old quicker. I've been looking at the iMacs recently and I've always wanted one, but as a student thought a laptop would be better. It's just frustrating now actually, though I love laptops.

I hope these upgrades will work because the other people said crucial.com is the best. What do you say about that (crucial) versus this OWC place? Crucial.com didn't have enough stock for one of the things I needed.

This is the RAM I'm thinking I should get:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/8566DDR3S8GP/?customer- reviews#owctabs

This is the SSD I'm thinking I should get:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/SSD7E6G480/

What's the difference between a 1.0 Tb Mercury Elektra (ME) and an 1.0 Tb ME Pro?

Perhaps, using WIFI constantly makes my computer slower as well? Maybe I should use an ethernet cable and turn off the WIFI? That might make the computer faster as well.

Your website does not include graphics cards. I think I should upgrade my graphics card as well to be able to handle gaming if I choose to get back into that. Would I really need to? Or can I just buy a really nice TV and use its graphics card (if it works that way)?

pachazam Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 25, 2016 1:46 AM in response to etresoft

RAM for my macbook from crucial.com:

8GB RAM from two different sides:

http://www.crucial.com/ProductDisplay?displayCompatibleLogo=1&urlRequestType=Bas e&catalogId=10151&productId=11699&externalPartNumber=CT3309361&urlLangId=-1&scan Id=4537126331D926C3&langId=-1&storeId=10151

SSD from the same:

500GB http://www.crucial.com/ProductDisplay?displayCompatibleLogo=1&urlRequestType=Bas e&catalogId=10151&productId=479502&exter…

1TB is out of stock:

http://www.crucial.com/ProductDisplay?displayCompatibleLogo=1&urlRequestType=Bas e&catalogId=10151&productId=479501&exter…

Those were MX and these are BX, I don't know which ones are better:

http://www.crucial.com/ProductDisplay?displayCompatibleLogo=1&urlRequestType=Bas e&catalogId=10151&productId=837002&exter…

BX200 with almost 1TB of power:

http://www.crucial.com/ProductDisplay?displayCompatibleLogo=1&urlRequestType=Bas e&catalogId=10151&productId=837003&exter…

Crucial seems cheaper and the quality of the product seems better as described.

etresoft

Level 8

46,530 points

Jan 25, 2016 7:53 AM in response to pachazam

Hello pachazam,

More RAM and an SSD will definitely improve the performance of your machine. The only risk is that there are other parts that could fail on an older machine like that.

There is no difference in RAM. It is a commodity and all manufacturers are the same. The only risk is RAM chips have low-level specifications that are rarely printed anywhere. These specifications might make them incompatible with some Macs. Most RAM chips are never testing in Macs. That is why buying from OWC is a smart because their stuff is always guaranteed to work in your Mac.

For hard drives, see above. Same story.

WiFi does not contribute to slowness. Your WiFi is usually going to be much faster than your external internet connection anyway.

You cannot upgrade your graphics card.

Speaking of upgrades, if you do want to consider a new Mac, remember that virtually all Macs are now non-upgradeable. If you find your 2015 Mac is running a little slowly with the latest OS version in 2018, your only choice will be purchasing a new Mac.

pachazam Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 30, 2016 12:18 PM in response to etresoft

Other parts to fail? Like?

Fail due to the change in RAM and SSD or fail due to being obsolete?

Omg...so, you mean you can't change the RAM or hard drives anymore in the newer systems? Basically, Apple wants us to waste money and buy a new Mac every two or three years? Or are you saying that because technology is something that is always upgrading and becoming better and better so much so that consumers have no choice but to buy a new system?

Jan 30, 2016 1:20 PM in response to pachazam

pachazam wrote:

I'm also thinking that maybe the WIFI really does make my computer go slow or perhaps the speed of my internet in the first place? Perhaps, I should use a cable instead of WIFI all the time? Idk...I can't change the speed since it's the only one we can afford.

It is easy enough to run a speed test and compare your WiFi vs ethernet: http://testmy.net/results

etresoft

Level 8

46,530 points

Jan 30, 2016 1:37 PM in response to pachazam

pachazam wrote:

Other parts to fail? Like?

Fail due to the change in RAM and SSD or fail due to being obsolete?

Fans, logic boards, power supplies. Changing RAM or SSD wouldn't have any impact. It is more the heating up and cooling down over time. The electrical connections flex a little bit each time and eventually they wear out.

Omg...so, you mean you can't change the RAM or hard drives anymore in the newer systems? Basically, Apple wants us to waste money and buy a new Mac every two or three years? Or are you saying that because technology is something that is always upgrading and becoming better and better so much so that consumers have no choice but to buy a new system?

Generally, no. I think there is one oddball MacBook Pro that is still upgradeable. OWC (http://macsales.com) has some aftermarket upgrades for things like MacBook Airs and iMacs.

I certainly never said anything about technology always becoming better and better 🙂. Generally, most institutional purchasers like big companies and governments keep machines for only 3 years. The AppleCare warranty (which I highly recommend) provides a total of 3 years of warranty coverage. You can keep using your Mac after that, but it will start to fall behind as Apple develops new features for new machines.

pachazam Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 6, 2016 3:37 PM in response to etresoft

Thanks for all the information. *Sigh* More information which makes decisions so hard that I know not what to do now. lol

Super Duper Slow MacBook Pro: BootUp, LogIn, SpotLight, Safari, Chrome