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User profile for user: db3545
db3545 Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Mid-2012 MBP Severe slowing and battery drainage... Is this the end?!

Hello everyone,


First I need to give the disclaimer that I am not well versed in this area, and I am completely new to these boards, so I apologize if I'm a little slow on the pick up. Thanks for your patience!


SO! Recently my Mid-2012 Macbook Pro started slowing down significantly. I'm getting rainbow wheels with just about every task, and it seems as though the computer has to think for 30 seconds with each and every move. Also, my battery life has been terrible, even when idling. For example, I unplugged my computer at around 9am this morning when it was indicating a full charge. At approximately 11am, I picked up the computer (which had been closed and idling for the entire elapsed time) and found that it was very warm, and had a battery percentage of 55%.


I have read through several discussion boards regarding issues like this, and I have tried most of the recommendations that people have made, all with no success.


I have gone as far as doing a hard/factory reset to the computer, bringing it back to OS X, and then upgrading to High Sierra.


Activity monitor is not showing anything out of the ordinary.


I have also run a EtreCheck, which i will show below. Please let me know if you guys have ANY idea of what may be going on! Thank you so much!


EtreCheck version: 3.4.6 (460)

Report generated 2017-12-06 15:02:09

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 41:14

Performance: Poor


Click the [Lookup] links for more information from Apple Support Communities.

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


Problem: Beachballing

Description:

Computer is taking a significant amount of time to complete tasks. Battery life is also severely impacted, even during idling periods.


Hardware Information: ⓘ

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012)

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

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro9,2

1 2.9 GHz Intel Core i7 (i7-3520M) CPU: 2-core

8 GB RAM Upgradeable - [Instructions]

BANK 0/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

Handoff/Airdrop2: supported

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

Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 926


Video Information: ⓘ

Intel HD Graphics 4000 - VRAM: 1536 MB

Color LCD 1280 x 800


Disk Information: ⓘ

APPLE HDD TOSHIBA MK7559GSXF disk0: (750.16 GB) (Rotational)

[Show SMART report]

EFI (disk0s1 - MS-DOS FAT32) <not mounted> [EFI]: 210 MB

(disk0s2) <not mounted> [CoreStorage Container]: 749.30 GB

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


MATSHITADVD-R UJ-8A8 ()


USB Information: ⓘ

USB20Bus

hub_device

Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

USB20Bus

hub_device

hub_device

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

USB30Bus


Thunderbolt Information: ⓘ

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus


Virtual disks: ⓘ

Macintosh HD (disk1 - Journaled HFS+) / [Startup]: 748.93 GB (733.35 GB free)

Physical disk: disk0s2 749.30 GB Online


System Software: ⓘ

macOS High Sierra 10.13.1 (17B48) - Time since boot: about 13 hours


Gatekeeper: ⓘ

Mac App Store and identified developers


System Launch Agents: ⓘ

[not loaded] 7 Apple tasks

[loaded] 183 Apple tasks

[running] 98 Apple tasks


System Launch Daemons: ⓘ

[failed] com.apple.updateEFIDesktopPicture-apfs.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2017-10-25)

[not loaded] 39 Apple tasks

[loaded] 177 Apple tasks

[running] 113 Apple tasks


Launch Daemons: ⓘ

[not loaded] com.apple.installer.cleanupinstaller.plist (? 1963bf56 0 - installed 2017-12-05)


User Launch Agents: ⓘ

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (Google, Inc. - installed 2017-12-06) [Lookup]


Internet Plug-ins: ⓘ

QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (installed 2017-10-25)


3rd Party Preference Panes: ⓘ

None


Time Machine: ⓘ

Time Machine not configured!


Top Processes by CPU: ⓘ

7% WindowServer

4% kernel_task

2% helpd

0% UserAccountUpdater

0% Google Chrome Helper


Top Processes by Memory: ⓘ

791 MB kernel_task

281 MB Google Chrome Helper

228 MB Google Chrome

176 MB Google Chrome Helper

176 MB mds_stores


Top Processes by Network Use: ⓘ

Input Output Process name

51 KB 26 KB mDNSResponder

4 KB 2 KB apsd

3 KB 2 KB netbiosd

0 B 376 B SystemUIServer


Top Processes by Energy Use: ⓘ

10.52 WindowServer

1.16 UserAccountUpdater

0.18 SystemUIServer

0.12 Google Chrome Helper


Virtual Memory Information: ⓘ

4.20 GB Available RAM

1011 MB Free RAM

3.80 GB Used RAM

3.21 GB Cached files

0 B Swap Used



Diagnostics Events (last 3 days for minor events): ⓘ

2017-12-06 01:20:42 WindowServer Crash [Open]

Cause: StartTime:2017-12-06 01:18:34

GPU:

VirtDisplay0

Assertion failed: (0 && "Attempting to get MTLTexture with no MTLDevice"), function GetMTLTexture, file /BuildRoot/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/CoreDisplay/CoreDisplay-79.8/Co reDisplay/Display/DisplaySurface.mm, line 498.

2017-12-06 00:52:25 Last shutdown cause: 3 - Hard shutdown

MacBook Pro, iOS 11.2

Posted on Dec 8, 2017 4:27 PM

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User profile for user: Allan Jones
Allan Jones
User level: Level 9
68,690 points

Posted on Dec 8, 2017 7:36 PM

Normally a 41 minute runtime for Etrecheck can mean a failing hard drive. However, with that model another issue has arisen with 4+ years of use that can mimic a failing hard drive but is cheaper to fix.


The flat cable that carries data between the logic board and the hard drive suffers a very convoluted routing over some sharp metal case corners. With vibration from normal use and transport the cable begins to wear where it is bent to contour to the shapes it must traverse. When that happens it can act like a failing hard drive.


The cable is cheap--US$15 from Other World Computing. You can judge the installation difficulty for yourself from this video:

MacBook Pro Installation Video at MacSales.com


You can replace the cable and see if things improve. If not, changing the cable means you now know how to change the hard drive so you can easily do that. I recommend considering an SSD if you replace the drive, I recently upgraded my mid-2012 13-inch MBP to an SSD. It is less capable model than yours, with the entry-level 2.5GHZ i5 processor, but it now runs faster than I could have ever dreamed. I just did an Etrecheck test and mine ran in just over 2 minutes. Knowing the recent trend with data cables, I installed a new cable with the new drive even though I was not experiencing any symptoms.


Your short battery runtime could be due to the cable or drive issues. If the drive is slow to access contents it will spin ans seek longer using more power. Your battery is also closing in on the 1000 cycle milestone. Apple says a healthy battery will still have 80 percent health at 1000 cycles. They don't show "health" anywhere but you can view health using Coconut Battery, a free utility available here:


http://www.coconut-flavour.com/coconutbattery/

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4 replies
Question marked as Best reply
User profile for user: Allan Jones
Allan Jones
User level: Level 9
68,690 points

Dec 8, 2017 7:36 PM in response to db3545

Normally a 41 minute runtime for Etrecheck can mean a failing hard drive. However, with that model another issue has arisen with 4+ years of use that can mimic a failing hard drive but is cheaper to fix.


The flat cable that carries data between the logic board and the hard drive suffers a very convoluted routing over some sharp metal case corners. With vibration from normal use and transport the cable begins to wear where it is bent to contour to the shapes it must traverse. When that happens it can act like a failing hard drive.


The cable is cheap--US$15 from Other World Computing. You can judge the installation difficulty for yourself from this video:

MacBook Pro Installation Video at MacSales.com


You can replace the cable and see if things improve. If not, changing the cable means you now know how to change the hard drive so you can easily do that. I recommend considering an SSD if you replace the drive, I recently upgraded my mid-2012 13-inch MBP to an SSD. It is less capable model than yours, with the entry-level 2.5GHZ i5 processor, but it now runs faster than I could have ever dreamed. I just did an Etrecheck test and mine ran in just over 2 minutes. Knowing the recent trend with data cables, I installed a new cable with the new drive even though I was not experiencing any symptoms.


Your short battery runtime could be due to the cable or drive issues. If the drive is slow to access contents it will spin ans seek longer using more power. Your battery is also closing in on the 1000 cycle milestone. Apple says a healthy battery will still have 80 percent health at 1000 cycles. They don't show "health" anywhere but you can view health using Coconut Battery, a free utility available here:


http://www.coconut-flavour.com/coconutbattery/

Reply
User profile for user: leroydouglas
leroydouglas
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
183,684 points

Dec 8, 2017 8:09 PM in response to db3545

Virtual disks: ⓘ

Macintosh HD (disk1 - Journaled HFS+) / [Startup]: 748.93 GB (733.35 GB free)

Physical disk: disk0s2 749.30 GB Online

I am unclear how full is your HD?

This line in terminal, will return GB data, copy and paste:


df -H



Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 926

Your Battery (1000 max.) has reached the end of its life cycle at a count of 926— you need a new battery.



I can certainly agree with the above your HD (especially if it is OEM) full or not is likely failing.


A SSD will breath new life into your machine no matter what.

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User profile for user: alex7375
alex7375
User level: Level 3
695 points

Dec 9, 2017 3:30 AM in response to db3545

I have the same MBP upgraded with 16gb ram and 500gb SSD.

I use to have performance issues however since the hardware upgrade I have no more performance issues and my MBP works great now running dual boot boot camp Sierra / Win-10-Pro.


The ultimate solution is to replace your conventional rotational hard-drive with an SSD.

This can be done for as little as $89 ( www.OWC.com ).


Your system ram is fine , 8gb of ram is fine. 16gb is just max ram.


Until then,

Do not use Chrome browser as it is a memory hog. The more tabs you have open the more memory it uses.

Try only to use the default OSX apps like iWork suite and Safari browser.

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Mid-2012 MBP Severe slowing and battery drainage... Is this the end?!

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