upgrading to Capitan but App store closed by itself!!

There may be something else going on in your computer, so before attempting to upgrade

past the present set of circumstances that would only mask underlying causes, to help us

get some vague ideas of what may be going on in the computer now, consider creating an

Etrecheck report; see what that's about, here: http://etrecheck.com/#about

Several places you can look inside the Mac OS X without such a helpful free non-invasive app

to get the information, but this item makes a copy/paste output that can be added to any post.

I've already researched somewhat about the model build year MacBook in question. The main

issue would be to see what's going on inside the unit now, since a problem now certainly would

need to be resolved prior to any new OS X installation. Also, once you upgrade to a later OS X

there is a good chance many of the older applications will also need newer replacements.

Good luck! 🙂

The slowness of the computer now it is running a newer (larger footprint, hungry for resources) system

is due in part to a need to have more physical RAM memory; the memory chips are upgradable through

replacement of both chips to higher capacity.

Also, the larger system upgrade files (plus slow internet download speeds, esp. if using Wi-Fi and not

Ethernet cable) were likely some of the reason why the upgrade was slow to load.

Another aspect of system function may be due to a need for OS X to use hard drive capacity as virtual

memory when there is insufficient installed Chip RAM. The drive has to read+write temp files to the

hard drive, and this is much slower than on the logic board between memory chips and the processor.

So with more chip RAM installed, there should be significantly less writing to the hard drive of swap files.

MacBook )13-inch, Mid 2010)

Introduced May 2010

Discontinued July 2011

Model Identifier MacBook7,1

Model Number A1342

EMC 2395

Order Number MC516LL/A

Maximum Memory 16 GB (Actual) -- 4 GB (Apple) original spec

Memory Slots 2 - 204-pin PC3-8500 (1066MHz) DDR3 SO-DIMM

• MacBook: How to remove or install memory - Apple Support

{Given your computer should have at least 8GB RAM installed to do justice with El Capitan

and the computer can use up to 16GB (two 8GB chips) the hardware now needs upgrade.}

The OS X Help can be found in among the Apple Menu bar items, the main window named Finder, the

far right item is Help. Note there should be a few ways to use it. The features of OS X El Capitan should

be where the information was in the Snow Leopard system. It used a similar Help.

Web pages in Apple Support (under OS X) can be helpful;

Mac - Official Apple Support

OS X - Apple Support:

http://www.apple.com/support/osx/

Also, separately there are different locations for OS X and Apps online.

Mac Help: http://help.apple.com/machelp/mac/10.11/#/

The internal hard drive could likely see an upgrade to a higher capacity and/or faster data speed;

this could enhance the usefulness of the later OS X and work better when using applications too.

An upgrade to a newer OS X and later applications, usually requires more system resources; so

additional upgrade in hardware should be expected. At some point, when you get used to reading

the specifications and minimal ones required for the computer to start up (no load) then add more

for the unit to be able to do more than sit at an idle... should mean something. If you choose at

some point to get a newer computer (as an upgrade, to run later software) consider these things;

the new models are shipped the the RAM memory soldered to logic board, so aren't upgradeable.

You'd have to know in advance what kind of load your work expectation would put on the unit, and

be able to purchase more processing power (with memory and drive, CPU, GPU, etc) known so

the investment would be practical and not too slow. The end user has few or no upgrades, with a

newer Mac, with few exceptions. With new ones, you buy the build and that is the upgrade path.

To get an use a suitable external storage drive for Time Machine backups, is an important thing to

do; also a separate drive to save excess storage to, and then you could remove files from the Mac

knowing you have a copy on the external. This would free up and let the Mac run better. You would

have to purchase additional external storage options. Fair examples are at OWC macsales.com

{OWC also has the correct spec quality memory chip upgrade parts, & guarantees them.}

The Etrecheck report shows some items that were in your Snow Leopard OS X 10.6.8, some of

them including adware, may or may not have made the trip to the newer El Capitan. That's some

thing to watch out for. You can avoid troubles by being careful what you click on; and avoid the

products such as cleanmymac, mackeeper, and other troublesome hyped junkware. Also, try &

avoid the trap of buying into antivirus since most AV apps use system resources and have nothing

to discover. There are few to none virus and most of the products would be late to the party if there

were anything; Apple OS X is better at protection. (Extensions in browsers can be problematic; a

few that affect Safari or others may give you fits; I've seen nothing much personally, but I am rather

pragmatic and do not believe everything I read; so I will not click on offers too good to be true, etc.

A second Etrecheck report may be an OK thing to run. Oh, some of the slowness in your Mac now

may be due to stuff that sometimes gets brought over into a new OS X from the old OS X. And a

fair amount of that may not work, because it pre-dates the latest function and software now available.

So it's usually good to have a Time Machine backup, and migrate only practical useful item over to

a computer after an upgrade to a newer system. (There is a ton of stuff to learn about; but helpful.)

Anyway, here's some things to read though. Note the examples of external storage options and

internal upgrade storage options for Mac portables, plus memory RAM chip, etc at OWC.

A fair way to search for upgrade parts:

https://eshop.macsales.com/MyOWC/

RAM upgrades for MacBook (see your MacBook7.1 among those listed here) for parts/specs:

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Apple_MacBook_MacBook_Pro/Upgrade/DDR3_Wh ite

I've added to this post so it's a bit long now. Hopefully you don't fall asleep reading, or get too bored!

In any event...

Good luck & happy computing! 🙂

The original install DVD media that shipped with the computer, (wasn't it a Snow Leopard

version?) would be the path to get it back to were it was. Not sure if a Genius would be

able to commit the time to attempt to revert the computer for you. You can always take

along the original disk media and ask if the Genius could help reinstall the old system &

the original applications, if you have the system discs. They may be able to do that.

At this point, if you has the means to create a backup (archive, clone, etc) of the running

El Capitan 10.11.5 now that you have it, that would save you the trouble of getting it again.

And a clone would be able to run the computer.

{The adware should not have made the upgrade path, unless the junk you had on board

was considered your own custom content per user account, but an Etrecheck report and

the use of that app, can help be rid of adware. Read how to use it in the instructions.}

Several things that could have been done, or researched to understand how to perform them

ahead of an upgrade (software and hardware) could have made this an easier process.

The original bundled software on grey labelled DVD media should allow you to re-install all

of the system; it had Snow Leopard OS X 10.6 (in version for the MacBook) along with the

software included when new. Stuff you'd have to buy upgrade versions from the App Store

to use with El Capitan, since the new OS X does not include all those extra applications.

iLife '09 and iWorks probably were included in the original disc set.

What may be a problem, is that some older computers balk when asked to go back and may

not prefer to use those original disc installers after a major upgrade to an all new system.

You may consider inquiring about another brand of memory chip (from Crucial.com) and use

their web site to help see what part number they have that would fit your MacBook. They may

be less costly than the OWC macsales chips. You could get 2x 4GB chips, for less an upgrade.

Anyway, if the Genius can help re-install the original Snow Leopard and the applications that

MacBook shipped with, and see that it runs up OK, then it would also be in a good state to

consider selling. The costs to upgrade the hardware would not be too bad, if you can use a

repair guide to replace the parts yourself. If you have to pay, then consider locating a second

already upgraded computer instead; especially if its a MacBook Pro (Late 2012) non-retina

or newer. Hard to recommend anything at this time. There are plenty of sources of information

to read to understand specs of these devices. Everymac.com, powerbookmedic.com, and the

iFixit.com repair guides for Mac are good. And the Apple Store online, refurbished section.

Good luck & happy computing! 🙂

Rid the MBP of Google Chrome and ALL its parts. It is responsible for many crashes as well as putting a strain on the CPU resources. I use Firefox, Safari and Opera.

Ciao.

You uninstalled Chrome correctly, if you do a spotlight search and it isn't there, it's gone. There might be a few chrome apps you could get rid of that would be in your library folder under chrome, but those wouldn't be causing any issues. I'm running el capitan on a mid 2009 macbook which has even lower specs than yours, and it runs pretty good for me. I upgraded the RAM to 3gb, and that helped substantially. You are running on bare minimum ram, so it would be wise to upgrade. You would be better off sticking to el capitan at this point because Snow Leopard has lost all support from apple, and most apps are becoming unsupported too.

Ram comes in 1, 2, and 4gb chips. You would need to take out the original ram to upgrade it because there are only 2 ram slots, so you couldn't add 4gb to the 2gb you already have. If you want to have 6gb, you would need a 2gb and 4gb chip. But 4gb should be just fine, as I'm using 3gb.

Per database download from http://mactracker.ca for your build model version MacBook:

Maximum Memory 16 GB (Actual) -- 4 GB (Apple) original spec

Memory Slots 2 - 204-pin PC3-8500 (1066MHz) DDR3 SO-DIMM

• MacBook: How to remove or install memory - Apple Support

With El Capitan, you'd find better performance with at least 2 x 4GB (8GB Total) or more.

A minimum capacity of memory may be OK if the MacBook is at an idle. Also, because

the computer will automatically use 'free hard drive capacity' as Virtual Memory, to some

extent and that is slower (read-write to hard drive vs. speed of electricity through a chip)

the upgrade in RAM memory is worth the small expense. Prices of RAM are lower now.

The link to Apple Support page shows the two-memory slots; total capacity was upgraded.

{Based on information contained in the Etrecheck report from the MacBook, info

on memory upgrade spec provided above and in my earlier reply, is still accurate.}

Good luck in this matter! 🙂