Advice On My 15" Macbook Issues

Hi guys. New poster on here, but thought I would reach out to you to see if you guys have some input on my issue.

First the specs:

I have a:
Early 2011 15" Macbook Pro
Intel Core i7 / 2 GHz
New OWC 500GB SSD
New OWC 16GB Memory

I have been having the system run really really slow since I upgraded to Yosemite and on Monday after converting some GOPRO footage over to Apple Pro Res the system just seemed to be crawling. I did a Verify Disk without issues as well as Verify Permissions and no issues on that as well.

I keep all my personal files on a 1TB external firewire HD so I figured yesterday that I would do a reformat and clean install of Yosemite on my internal SSD. The install went fine without issues, yet the problem now is just as bad. I then ran the disk utility and there where a couple of permission errors and fixed that yet still no fix. Then last night I ran the Apple Hardware test and it came back that I had a bad battery. After some Google searches it seems like Apple downclocks the speed if the system thinks there is no battery, but would it really slow it down this much?

I order a new battery today for OWC and should have it tomorrow morning, but the weird part is I have know my battery to be bad for at least that last month or two as about a month and I half ago I noticed if I took the power cable off the computer would shut off instantly, and then turn back on instantly when reconnecting the power.

Do you guys think this is all battery related or am I missing something else?

Sounds like your internal Hard Drive is too full.

Move off the files you don't need to a back up.

OSX likes 20% of the HDD to be free.

rubaiyat said:

Sounds like your internal Hard Drive is too full.

Move off the files you don't need to a back up.

OSX likes 20% of the HDD to be free.

Click to expand...

I thought about this but 'm only using 25GB of the 500 GB on the SSD, so I don't think its a hard drive issue. Also the hard drive is only a month or two old, same with the memory.

Hi Vegas_Sirk

A few questions and some ideas....

Was the MB Pro slow before the hard drive and memory upgrade? I guess I am asking if it is an OS X issue or possibly a hardware issue. I assume prior to upgrading to Yosemite it was running Mavericks? If so was it running that fast with no issues?

I have a MB Pro early 2011, 16GB, 1TB hard drive running Yosemite. No slowdown at all. I even upgraded over Mavericks which can cause issues. I just finished editing a video in Premiere Pro and she did just great. With that SSD yours should be screaming fast.

Have you tried testing the hardware?

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201257

What about a SMC reset?

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

Just throwing some ideas out that you could try. Post back any information you find and we can go from there.

Lisa

lclev said:

Hi Vegas_Sirk

A few questions and some ideas....

Was the MB Pro slow before the hard drive and memory upgrade? I guess I am asking if it is an OS X issue or possibly a hardware issue. I assume prior to upgrading to Yosemite it was running Mavericks? If so was it running that fast with no issues?

I have a MB Pro early 2011, 16GB, 1TB hard drive running Yosemite. No slowdown at all. I even upgraded over Mavericks which can cause issues. I just finished editing a video in Premiere Pro and she did just great. With that SSD yours should be screaming fast.

Have you tried testing the hardware?

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201257

What about a SMC reset?

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

Just throwing some ideas out that you could try. Post back any information you find and we can go from there.

Lisa

Click to expand...

Hi Lisa,

Thats what I was thinking too that with my current set up of SSD and 16GB of memory it should be kicking butt.

I was originally on Mountain Lion, and the computer was starting to get slow a few months ago so I thought it was time to put in the SSD and upgrade the memory from 8GB to 16GB since I was now starting with some video editing. So I ordered the parts from Macsales.com and installed them without issues. It seems quicker but not all that much faster.

Then a few weeks ago I decided to upgrade to Yosemite. Downloaded it and installed it from the App store and installed it. No issues at first and seemed to run about the same as it was on Mountain Lion.

Then this week I was doing some editing on Final Cut, and converted some GoPro files over to Apple Prores using MPEG Streamclip and it was taking forever to do the conversion. After it completed I restarted the computer and everything was still slow. At this point I figured since I have all my files already on a external hard drive why not do a clean install of the OS. I had a bunch of old unused programs from over the years so I thought starting clean would be a good idea.

I then created a bootable usb thumb drive with the latest download of Yosemite, and did a clean install (erased the SSD and reformatted it prior to installing). Once the install was done it was still lagging so I thought maybe I hardware issue. I checked to verify that I didn't need to update the Firmware and according to Apple's site my Firmware is current.

I then booted into internet recovery and did a Apple Hardware Test and did the detailed one and left it run overnight last night. I got up to check the test this am and the only issue if found was the bad battery. I didn't think a bad battery could slow down the computer since its on a power cord, but according to some posts online Apple down clocks the CPU when no battery is found, but I can't imagine it to be this bad. Here is the link to how to fix it:

osx - How to disable the SpeedStep when using MacBook Pro without a battery? - Ask Different

but I don't feel comfortable doing it. Also I ordered a new battery today from OWC that should be here tomorrow.

The weird thing is its picked up speed a bit form this am. I have let it sit all day as I have been using MS Remote Desktop connection to remote into a work computer and been working on that all day to come back and find it not lagging near as bad as this am. Its really strange. Its still not fast or quick but at least now Im not getting the pinwheel on every thing I click on.

Lastly I have not tired the SMC reset. I'll check that out now.

You are not seeing any overheating issues, fans running a lot or not running when it's working hard???? I am grasping here.

Hopefully the SMC reset will give results.

As I said I have the same model only with a regular hard drive and it is running great on Yosemite. This is a puzzle. The only other thing I can think of is to nuke and pave - that means do a clean install of Yosemite. That would guarantee no leftover stuff from the previous OS.

Lisa

lclev said:

Hopefully the SMC reset will give results.



Lisa

Click to expand...

Hi Lisa,

No fan noise at all. Just sits nice and quite.

I did the SMC reset and the computer was a TOOOOONNN faster. Like night and day. I then used it for this morning and all was great. I thought it was fixed but then about 2 hours later it was back to its same slow self (where your typing a e-mail and you can watch it spell out the words after your hands are off the keyboard).

My new battery showed up about 30 mins ago so, I installed it immediately and when I opened up the macbook and took the old battery out I realized that the old battery was completely swollen so much so it looks as if I could pop it (I know how dangerous Lipo batteries can be as I use them for R/C multi rotors/drones) so I was shocked to see what a fire hazard I had sitting on me desk this whole time.

I now have the new battery installed and the computer is back to how it was when I first did the SMC reset. Nice and quick and a joy to use, but I have only been using it now for 20 mins since I installed the battery and restarted the system. I'll try and check back in tomorrow and let you know how its going.

A bad swollen battery can reek all kinds of havoc. I have read where the battery swelling messed up the track pad big time plus a whole host of other problems. There is not much spare room in a laptop so a swelling battery puts a lot of pressure on all the other components it pushes on. You were definitely sitting on a big problem. I hope that does the trick!

Lisa