Slow Macbook Pro

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I have a mid-2010 15” Macbook Pro that is running very slow. I always get the spinning beachball when I open applications.

Here is what I’ve got:
500GB hard drive 255GB free
2.66 GHz i7 processor
4GB 1067 GHz RAM
OS X Mavericks

Here’s what I’ve done:
Rebooted...lots.
Run the disk utility – verified disk permissions, repaired disk permissions, verify disk, repair disk. Results said the volume recovery HD appears to be Ok and the partition map appears to be ok.

When I open the activity monitor for CPU I get numbers in the 85-95% range for idle. What I’m concerned about is the memory numbers – memory used is in the 3.75GB - 3.98GB range. Physical memory says 4.00GB. Among other things there is a “kernel task” with 379.5MB whatever that means.

Does this mean the computer is running slow because the RAM is ‘used up’?

How do I fix this?

Thank you!
 

chscag

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2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
Can you post a screen shot of your Activity Monitor? Click on the memory tab before taking the screen shot. We'd like to see exactly what's going on and how much virtual memory is being used at the same time.

Also, you mentioned that you repaired your hard drive with Disk Utility. Disk Utility will only repair file and folder problems. If there are any underlying problems with the drive such as its hardware, Disk Utility can not see those. You will need to use a SMART utility in order to dive in deeper. SMARTReporter can be downloaded from the Mac App store and does a good job of ferreting out problems.

Don't forget to make a backup as soon as you can. Use Time Machine or a cloning program such as Carbon Copy Cloner.
 

chscag

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Your memory usage looks OK, nothing out of the norm. It would probably help to up the memory to at least 8 GB which would mean removing the 2 x 2 GB modules and replacing them with 2 x 4 GB modules. Also you might wish to download and run the free OnyX which is an optimizing utility. OnyX for Mavericks can be downloaded from here. Run it in automatic mode.

Also - keep an eye on your hard drive. Like I advised you before, you should use a SMART utility to check the hard drive. OnyX will check the SMART status of your hard drive but only at a high level.
 

pigoo3

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Here’s what I’ve done:
Rebooted...lots.

When I open the activity monitor for CPU I get numbers in the 85-95% range for idle.

This is not good. If you have cpu activity in the 85-95% range right after rebooting the computer (AND you have not launched any applications) then:

- there may be applications that are "auto-launching" on startup/reboot...that are eating up all the cpu resources.
- it is possible to have a hardware problem (something has failed or not working correctly)

One thing to do (right after rebooting):

- open Activity Monitor
- check cpu usage
- if it is high (higher than say 5-10%)
- select "All Process's" (upper right of Activity Monitor window)
- look over the list of process's...and try to see what is using all the cpu resources

If Activity Monitor (All Process's)...doesn't show anything...then you might have a hardware problem.

- Nick

p.s FYI...Activity Monitor on my computer (as I'm typing this message) with 4 apps. open...is using about 9% cpu.
 
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Thanks all. I downloaded OnyX and ran through the maintenance and cleaning routines. There were no problems reported with the disk volume or SMART utility. The Macbook seems to work a little better.

When I check the activity monitor right after booting it says 1-2% in system and 2-3% in user and 96% idle.

I'll look at the SMARTreporter in the app store.
Also, I take it that its not too difficult to add RAM?

Thanks again
 
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I had a very very slow late 2009 MacBook Pro and it was driving me crazy and I could not find a reason for it. I discovered this and I am so happy, I did the process 3 times with no change, I didn't know how long to hold the various keys and power button. Then the 4th time, a long thin horizontal bar appeared and slowly filled from the left to the right. Now it works so nicely, I am so happy. I am not computer savvy but this worked for me.

Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
 

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