5 month old macbook pro has suddenly slowed to a crawl

rhino609 · Feb 21, 2011

I have a 5 month old MB Pro 2.44gh 620GB hard drive, 4 GB ram have tried all the fixes listed does not appear to have any real draw on power monitor. Has 2.5GB free hard drive space. redone the permissions, used the repair OS disk, Have run mac keeper and onyx.app. The computer just about locks up when getting on line move the screen one line takes close to a minute to stop the pin, wheel I hear a noise while it is thinking (like high pitched wine) I thought I would check for solutions before I reformat the hard drive basically is like using 28.8 dial up I love my mac but this is almost as frustrating as my PC days. this is the reason I went with mac, It does the same thing on different networks (school, Home, Friends house) I think that covers it.
Help please!!!!!!

Ralvr · Feb 21, 2011

If you have only 2.5GB out of 620GB it is not surprising that the computer is slow. Macs need to have around 10% of free space at least to work normally. I would suggest passing some files to an external HDD. after that you can do permission repair, Onyx, or any other app you have. But really, first try to get some free space on your HDD.

Hope this helps
Rubén

McBie · Feb 21, 2011

Rhino,
Follow the good advice from Ruben and make that 15% free disk space.
Make sure you have a backup before you start deleting stuff.

Cheers ... McBie

rhino609 · Feb 21, 2011

I missed typed and did not catch the typo it has 222.62GB free space. Also the monitor says 1.2GB of ram is idle even while the problem exists. sorry for the typo.

Ralvr · Feb 21, 2011

Ok, had us worried there.
Did you also check the CPU usage, there might be process eating a lot of resources. If there's a process that is not crucial to the system, it might be safe to end it.

Ruben

McBie · Feb 21, 2011

Open Activity monitor.app from Application -> Utilities
make sure you select " All processes " in the top right hand corner.
Sort by CPU usage and send us a print screen.
There might be a process eating away all the CPU cycles

Cheers ... McBie

rhino609 · Feb 21, 2011

Yes every thing is off, the highest I have seen anything get on all the settings is 14% for a second and maybe 3 to 6% on a different one they fluctuate but not more than these and no more than three at a time.

Ralvr · Feb 21, 2011

I know it's a long shot, but were you browsing the internet while Onyx or mac Keeper were running? Since those programs are changing some files that your browser might use it could be the cause for the slowing. The first time I ran Onyx the computer ran slow while doing its work. Just a thought.

Ruben

osxx · Feb 21, 2011

The fact you hear a high pitched whine would have me concerned did this happen after you installed the bigger drive and do you still have the original drive? I would swap and see if the problem goes away.

rhino609 · Feb 21, 2011

cpu processes

here is the page. what a pain to type a letter and have to wait before you can type the next. :Angry-Tongue:

View attachment Processes.pdf

rhino609 · Feb 21, 2011

no I put this drive in it before I even booted the thing up. brought it home opened it up and up graded it because the other MB Pro I own had a 120 GB and I gave that one to my wife and got the next level up for school. I purchased the hard drive at the same time. This just started Friday, It seems to be OK for a moment then right back to the problem. I have the meter running in the corner of the screen and it doesn't go over three bars at any time. I am wondering if I have a stick of ram going bad?

rhino609 · Feb 22, 2011

it's fixed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks OSXX for the suggestion about the noise as I listened closer I could hear it was the hard drive hanging up, it didn't sound like the hard drive thou. I had already used time machine back up so I went to our local best buy to purchase a new one and they only carry up 120GB and 320GB internal H/D's so I got a 1.5TB external and took it a part and restored the computer. A seems well now (Keeping my fingers crossed). Geek squad said that you can't use a external for a internal drive. Our local BB has only one person that has any real knowledge of Mac's so being so new to Mac I will probably be on here a lot just to read & learn.

Thanks again!

rhino609 · Feb 22, 2011

I was told I could bring the bad drive back and they would replace it because it was less than a yr old but they don't carry that one any more. I can see why!

Ralvr · Feb 22, 2011

Glad that your problem is solved. And yes, you can learn a lot about the Mac in this forum.

Rubén

rabbitjetta · Feb 22, 2011

My hard drive just went out on my macbook pro. It was locking up and crashing alot i did all of the things that you did. I took it to the apple store and it wouldn't boot.

AUZambo · Feb 23, 2011

rhino609 said:
Thanks OSXX for the suggestion about the noise as I listened closer I could hear it was the hard drive hanging up, it didn't sound like the hard drive thou. I had already used time machine back up so I went to our local best buy to purchase a new one and they only carry up 120GB and 320GB internal H/D's so I got a 1.5TB external and took it a part and restored the computer. A seems well now (Keeping my fingers crossed). Geek squad said that you can't use a external for a internal drive. Our local BB has only one person that has any real knowledge of Mac's so being so new to Mac I will probably be on here a lot just to read & learn.

Thanks again!

Wait...you fit a 1.5 TB drive in your MBP? Did you have to mod it any?

Also, what kind of hard drive did you purchase that went bad? I think I may be facing the same thing with my recent upgrade.

rhino609 · Feb 23, 2011

It was a WD 640 GB, I took the bad one back yesterday and because they don't carry that one anymore they gave me a WD 1TB external USB 3.0+ USB 2.0 that is on sale this week, not a bad deal The 640 has never been back in stock science I got it. as for the 1.5 TB it is Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex USB 3.0 plug and play. It is the only one that has a adapter that plugs a internal HD into USB, as for having to modify it no I just opened the enclosure and stripped it down the the internal drive and swapped it out, it is slightly thicker than the standard one but the MBP metal back cover screws still draw in and the cover has no gap but is not recessed quite as far over the drive. I don't believe that it is a problem, might be warped very slightly. It seams that my problem is fixed and I ended up with a spare enclosure that I can use when I come across a deal on a big internal drive. Hope this helps.

rhino609 · Feb 23, 2011

P.S. you have to make sure that the external you get has an adapter to connect the USB to the drive in side. The new WD I got has the connection integrated into the drive.I took one of my back ups apart before going to buy a new one I also took a older Maxtor 320 GB apart it also has a slightly different adapter.

6string · Feb 23, 2011

rhino609 said:
It was a WD 640 GB, I took the bad one back yesterday and because they don't carry that one anymore they gave me a WD 1TB external USB 3.0+ USB 2.0 that is on sale this week, not a bad deal The 640 has never been back in stock science I got it. as for the 1.5 TB it is Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex USB 3.0 plug and play. It is the only one that has a adapter that plugs a internal HD into USB, as for having to modify it no I just opened the enclosure and stripped it down the the internal drive and swapped it out, it is slightly thicker than the standard one but the MBP metal back cover screws still draw in and the cover has no gap but is not recessed quite as far over the drive. I don't believe that it is a problem, might be warped very slightly. It seams that my problem is fixed and I ended up with a spare enclosure that I can use when I come across a deal on a big internal drive. Hope this helps.

AUZambo · Feb 24, 2011

rhino609 said:
It was a WD 640 GB, I took the bad one back yesterday and because they don't carry that one anymore they gave me a WD 1TB external USB 3.0+ USB 2.0 that is on sale this week, not a bad deal The 640 has never been back in stock science I got it. as for the 1.5 TB it is Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex USB 3.0 plug and play. It is the only one that has a adapter that plugs a internal HD into USB, as for having to modify it no I just opened the enclosure and stripped it down the the internal drive and swapped it out, it is slightly thicker than the standard one but the MBP metal back cover screws still draw in and the cover has no gap but is not recessed quite as far over the drive. I don't believe that it is a problem, might be warped very slightly. It seams that my problem is fixed and I ended up with a spare enclosure that I can use when I come across a deal on a big internal drive. Hope this helps.

Wait...that's slightly confusing. So is the 1.5 TB drive inside or outside your mac? It sounds like you're describing booting with an external through your USB...but then you say the back of the MBP screwed in without any troubles.