MacBook Pro OS X 10.7.2 Acting "Strange"

I have had my Macbook Pro for 3 years. Recently, well over the past 6 months, it has been acting "strange." Safari will get hung up loading a webpage and I will have to close it and restart it to get it to load. Also the application "Evernote" will open but immediately get the "beach ball of death." My headphone jack has just recently stopped registering if there is anything plunged into it. I have run Onyx on my Mac several times, repaired the disks, restarted it, cleared caches, everything and it is still acting weird for a Mac. Sorry for the poor choice of words, but there really isn't any other way to describe it. My mac worked great for the better part of half the time I've had it, but past then it has gone downhill. I would like it to respond quickly and work as close to brand new as possible. I am fairly tech savvy, more so with Windows(I know its a shame) but I can get my way around the Mac well enough for any technical advice. Any similar problems, suggestions, or tips would be greatly appreciated. I would like to know if I'm the only one with this problem, or if there are others out there too just like me.

I had a very similar issue with my Mac Mini, and starting to notice it on my MBP as well. It would be the result of a failing harddrive. My recommendation is to back up all your data and start looking for a deal on a new one.

My personal advice, if you want to replace/upgrade you MBP is install a solid state drive (SSD) in its place, You will get significantly less room (120 gigs for $200), but the performance is much better. I cant be happier with the SSD in my mac mini i recently put in. When i go to upgrade my MBP with the SSD in the next few weeks, im also planning on putting in a MCE OptiBay ( OptiBay™ Hard Drive and SSD Drive for MacBook Pro, MacBook, PowerBook G4, and Mac mini ) What this will allow you to do is remove the Optical Drive, and install a second harddrive. So you can have a fast (expensive) SSD for your bootable drive, and a secondary large ( 1TB ) drive for extra storage.

thats just my recommendation, but it does sound like you will have to replace the drive.

Thanks

Well that would defiantly explain why I have had to repair my HD 2 times in the past 3 months. Replacing the hard drive in my macbook Pro is something I can do myself at home right? Because I would rather not pay some monkey Apple "genius" double the price to do it.

Haha fair enough, Ya its fairly simple, there is a enough tutorials around that show you how to do it, youtube videos even. the SSD installs just like a regular HD as well. just make sure you get one thats 2.5" and no more then 19mm thick and your good to go.