Macbook Pro (mid-2012) is running very slow. EtreCheck says insufficient RAM but Activity Monitor says RAM is fine.

Question

Level 1

12 points

Macbook Pro (mid-2012) is running very slow. EtreCheck says insufficient RAM but Activity Monitor says RAM is fine.

It happens in just about any application (mostly Chrome, but also iMovie, TextEdit, Messenger, Finder, etc.). It'll work fine for 30-60 seconds and then give the spinning beach ball for 30 seconds, then work again then beach ball again.

EtreCheck version: 3.0.3 (307)

Report generated 2016-09-15 20:31:59

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime 76:03

Performance: Poor

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 2012)

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

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro9,2

1 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2-core

4 GB RAM Upgradeable - [Instructions]

BANK 0/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

Bluetooth: Good - Handoff/Airdrop2 supported

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

Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 1091

Video Information:ⓘ

Intel HD Graphics 4000

Color LCD 1280 x 800

System Software:ⓘ

OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 (15G1004) - Time since boot: about 2 days

Disk Information:ⓘ

TOSHIBA MK5065GSXF disk0 : (500.11 GB) (Rotational)

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / : 499.25 GB (421.85 GB free)

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

HL-DT-ST DVDRW GS31N disk1 : (8.42 GB) ()

USB Information:ⓘ

Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Thunderbolt Information:ⓘ

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Gatekeeper:ⓘ

Mac App Store and identified developers

Kernel Extensions:ⓘ

/Library/Extensions

[loaded] com.Apowersoft.driver.AudioDevice (1.6.7 - SDK 10.11 - 2016-09-13) [Support]

System Launch Agents:ⓘ

[not loaded] 7 Apple tasks

[loaded] 155 Apple tasks

[running] 68 Apple tasks

[killed] 8 Apple tasks

8 processes killed due to insufficient RAM

System Launch Daemons:ⓘ

[not loaded] 48 Apple tasks

[loaded] 158 Apple tasks

[running] 73 Apple tasks

[killed] 12 Apple tasks

12 processes killed due to insufficient RAM

User Launch Agents:ⓘ

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (2016-07-11) [Support]

Internet Plug-ins:ⓘ

Default Browser: 601 - SDK 10.11 (2016-07-18)

QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (2016-07-18)

3rd Party Preference Panes:ⓘ

None

Time Machine:ⓘ

Time Machine not configured!

Top Processes by CPU:ⓘ

7% top

3% iMovie

1% kernel_task

1% Google Chrome

0% Dropbox

Top Processes by Memory:ⓘ

1.30 GB Google Chrome Helper(13)

516 MB kernel_task

193 MB iMovie

172 MB Google Chrome

123 MB mdworker(9)

Virtual Memory Information:ⓘ

33 MB Free RAM

3.96 GB Used RAM (741 MB Cached)

4 MB Swap Used

Diagnostics Information:ⓘ

Sep 13, 2016, 11:12:00 PM Self test - passed

Sep 13, 2016, 09:18:53 PM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/suggestd_2016-09-13-211853_[redacted].crash

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreSuggestions.framework/Versions/A/Support/ suggestd

MacBook Pro

Posted on Sep 15, 2016 9:36 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Sep 16, 2016 5:02 PM in response to jbradle8

What do you see in Activity Monitor to suggest that RAM is fine?

The EtreCheck report reveals that you only have 33MB of free RAM at the time, which is bound to cause slowdowns. Google Chrome alone is taking 1.3GB of it. Chrome is a huge resource hog, so if possible, try quitting using a different browser.

Reply

Answer 2

etresoft

Level 9

56,996 points

Sep 15, 2016 9:57 PM in response to jbradle8

Hhello jbradle8,

Activity Monitor only reports RAM being used while you are running Activity Monitor. EtreCheck looks at some different information to find out if your machine has run out of RAM at any time since you last restarted.

However, your EtreCheck report shows a runtime of over an hour. Pretty much the only thing that can cause that is a failed hard drive. I suggest you have the hard drive replaced with an SSD and upgrade your RAM at the same time. It will be like getting a new computer.

Reply

Answer 3

jbradle8 Author

Level 1

12 points

Sep 16, 2016 5:04 PM in response to stevejobsfan0123

In Activity Monitor, Memory Pressure stays green (even when beach balling) and Swap Used is only 3.8 MB. I very well may be misunderstanding how to read Activity Monitor, but don't those things indicate RAM is fine?

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Answer 4

Sep 16, 2016 6:15 PM in response to jbradle8

Swap is only used when your memory situation is desperate. After discarding all disk caches and compressing all that can be compressed, you still needed to use swap space (memory simulated in a disk file) which is really slow. That is likely when you got the beachball.

10.11 runs better in more that 4GB of RAM.

You need more real RAM.

And if you really do not have a Trusted Backup, you need to buy a Big slow drive and get started on Backups. Time Machine is already on your Mac, free.

Reply

Answer 5

alex7375

Level 3

702 points

Sep 16, 2016 6:46 PM in response to jbradle8

You need to do a hardware refresh( Update ) of your Macbook.

I have the same Macbook Pro (MBP) Mid-2012 13-inch, Non-retina. I did an SSD and Ram( Memory ) upgrade.

Since you have the MBP open you might as well upgrade booth SSD and RAM.

I suggest a 500gb. SSD and 16gb of ram. Just max out your MBP for best performance it will costs you about $200

However if you want to do a minimal cost upgrade I suggest a 240gb. SSD and 8gb of ram, It will cost about $100

I used a 500gb. SSD beacuse I used bootcamp app and created two 250gb partitions for dual boot of OS-X and MS-Windows-10.

You will be very happy after the upgrades, I promise. My MBP just flies threw any task I have it perform. It works great.

This is how the MBP should have came NEW from Apple.

For best performance SSD is more important than Memory

El Capitan and apps requires a minimum of 8gb. ram for good performace. 16gb. is better

Reply

Answer 6

jbradle8 Author

Level 1

12 points

Oct 3, 2016 7:59 PM in response to alex7375

Just wanted to come back to let you know that this seems to have solved my problem!

I upgraded to 16 GB RAM and a 480 GB SSD. Once I installed both, it worked for a day or two and then Disk Utility stopped recognizing the SSD. Turns out, I needed to replace the SATA cable as well.

Now that I have more RAM, a new SSD, and a fresh SATA cable, my MBP is running like new. SuperDuper took 20 hours to copy my old Macintosh HD onto my new SSD before I replaced my SATA cable, and after it only took 40 minutes. An EtreCheck used to take 20 minutes, and now it takes 90 seconds.

Thanks a lot!

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