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bbobnyc

Q: Trackpad delayed response on older macbook pro 10.11.4

Recently installed 10.11.4 on a 2008 MBP.
And now the trackpad occasionally stops responding for a few seconds,

like a freeze, before coming back.

Thinking it maybe  El Capitan with not enough ram?

Anyone else experiencing this, and any fixes?

Thank you....

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4), 15" Early 2008 ICD 2 4gb ram

Posted on May 11, 2016 9:17 AM

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Q: Trackpad delayed response on older macbook pro 10.11.4

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  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,Helpful

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder May 11, 2016 9:46 AM in response to bbobnyc
    Level 9 (60,677 points)
    Desktops
    May 11, 2016 9:46 AM in response to bbobnyc

    After a new Install, over 350,000 files from Mac OS X may have changed. It will take a few hours before Spotlight and its sub-task, mdworker, are finished re-indexing, and then your Mac should be more responsive.

     

    4GB is supposed to be adequate for ordinary work under ElCapitan. But more than 4GB often allows it to operate more responsively.

     

    For advanced work such as Photo, Video, Sound, CAD, or simulations, more than 4GB would definitely be needed for good performance.

  • by bbobnyc,

    bbobnyc bbobnyc May 11, 2016 9:56 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Notebooks
    May 11, 2016 9:56 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

    Thank you for a quick response, Grant!
    Another question or two for you~

    It's been over a month since I installed 10.4 ~ and this sluggish trackpad issue

    just started about a week ago. Still could be related to indexing?

    Do you know apx. how long it takes to index with mdworker,
    and would it be helpful to leave the
    MBP on overnight in sleep mode or just on

    to expedite the indexing?

    Finally~ I can only add another 2gb ram for max 6 on this model.
    Would that be a noticeable bump /worth it, in your opinion?
    Yes, I do video/audio/photo work on the mbp.

    Thank you again!

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,Helpful

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder May 11, 2016 10:21 AM in response to bbobnyc
    Level 9 (60,677 points)
    Desktops
    May 11, 2016 10:21 AM in response to bbobnyc

    It's been over a month since I installed 10.4 ~ and this sluggish trackpad issue

    just started about a week ago. Still could be related to indexing?

     

    Indexing after a major update should finish in a few hours. If this slowdown happened later than that, it is not likely to be caused by indexing.

     

    You can Use Activity Monitor (all Processes) display to see if you can uncover any tasks hogging the CPU.

     

    If you do advanced work of the types I listed on a Mac with only 4GB, it will be forced to simulate the additional RAM needed in a Disk File. It will complete properly, but will be much slower.