Is this the Death Knell? (MacBook Pro 13.3/2.53/2X2GB/250/SD)

Hi all,

My first post and a sad one Is this the death knell for my lovely MacBook Pro?

Bought on 19th October 2009 (wow) with 13.3/2.53/2X2GB/250/SD and running 10.7.5.

I'm a programmer and a neat freak and keep it very neat and tidy. No unnecessary software or nonsense and always a quick eye on Activity Monitor to make sure I'm not overly tasking it.

It's been amazing and I've really never had a problem with it.

But earlier this week - for the first time - it completely froze: screen still showing my work but no mouse/keyboard movement. After a time I had to force restart it. And when it came back online the screen was all garbled with nonsense so I had to do another restart. Since then it's been working... but wow is it Slooooooowww. Especially when I'm running quite a few applications (something it used to handle fine).

So

1. What are your thoughts?
2. I'm no hardware expert - could something internal be reaching the end of its life?
3. Is there some chance that I could have picked up a virus? (I'm very careful, but you never know - I don't think I'm getting security updates anymore)
4. If so, what would you be looking for in Activity Monitor? (I really only look at "My Processes")
5. Can you think of anything to give me a bit more life?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Love this Mac (gush)

Thanks,

Ryan

If everything is taking a long time - 30 seconds for a right click menu to open - waiting minutes for an app to open - likely the hard drive is dying which can be replaced for under $100.

Need to backup "NOW" if you don't already have one.
I would also suggest you quit using it until you have it backed up.
If it is the HD, it may be too late to backup.

If you have a bootable clone backup, you can boot to the clone and see if the same symptoms are exhibited.
Another reason, I believe, everyone should have a bootable clone.

bobtomay said:

If everything is taking a long time - 30 seconds for a right click menu to open - waiting minutes for an app to open - likely the hard drive is dying which can be replaced for under $100.

Need to backup "NOW" if you don't already have one.
I would also suggest you quit using it until you have it backed up.
If it is the HD, it may be too late to backup.

If you have a bootable clone backup, you can boot to the clone and see if the same symptoms are exhibited.
Another reason, I believe, everyone should have a bootable clone.

Click to expand...

Hi bobtomay,

I do Time Machine backups all the time. It's not taking 30 seconds to load a right-click menu. More... applications are struggling where they used to be fine. I feel like it can't handle much at the same time anymore - but nothing's changed (I haven't installed anything for ages etc).

Boot up and go into Recovery (Command + R) and then to Utilities > Disk utility and run Repair Disk and see what is reported regarding the hard drive status. Another option is to download SMARTReporter.


http://www.corecode.at/smartreporter/

What size is the drive and how much free space?

ferrarr said:

I agree with bobtomay, hard drive replacement.

But what have you tried? PRAM, SMC reset?

https://support.apple.com/kb/ph4405?locale=en_US
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

Repair disc or permissions?

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201639
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201560

Click to expand...

Thank you

I haven't tried anything yet. Your links look great.

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

System performance
* The computer is running unusually slowly although it is not experiencing abnormally high CPU utilization.
* Application icons may "bounce" in the Dock for an extended amount of time when launched.
* Applications may not function correctly or may stop responding after being opened.

This happens a lot - so I will go though the steps, plus also use Disk Utility to verify or repair disks.

harryb2448 said:

Boot up and go into Recovery (Command + R) and then to Utilities > Disk utility and run Repair Disk and see what is reported regarding the hard drive status. Another option is to download SMARTReporter.


corecode->SMARTReporter

Click to expand...

Awesome - will do! And I didn't know about any of this. Fingers crossed we find something

bobtomay said:

What size is the drive and how much free space?

Click to expand...

250GB SATA Disk with 35GB free

barnettr said:

250GB SATA Disk with 35GB free

Click to expand...

That could be your entire problem right there.

With a hard drive you've been using now for 5-6 years and less than 15% free space, that free space and all of your data is spread out from one end of the drive to the other. Your free space being spread out means that you have very small chunks of "contiguous" free space. So when your machine is writing to virtual memory, writing to the sleep image, and just about every other write process, the drive (which is mechanical) is having to jump around all over the place to find enough free space.

This will affect app launch times and the functionality of your apps as preferences are modified and updates are applied - while OS X is very good at keeping individual files in contiguous space, it does not manage keeping all files required by a single app contiguous in a single location on the drive - which means it's going to take longer for apps to open and to accomplish some tasks as the drive heads are having to move all around the platters to gather that info.

If you're not experiencing severe slow downs as I suggested in my first post, then your issue is fragmentation and can be solved by a) getting your free space back up to at least 25% and b) defragging the drive.

bobtomay said:

That could be your entire problem right there.

With a hard drive you've been using now for 5-6 years and less than 15% free space, that free space and all of your data is spread out from one end of the drive to the other. Your free space being spread out means that you have very small chunks of "contiguous" free space. So when your machine is writing to virtual memory, writing to the sleep image, and just about every other write process, the drive (which is mechanical) is having to jump around all over the place to find enough free space.

This will affect app launch times and the functionality of your apps as preferences are modified and updates are applied - while OS X is very good at keeping individual files in contiguous space, it does not manage keeping all files required by a single app contiguous in a single location on the drive - which means it's going to take longer for apps to open and to accomplish some tasks as the drive heads are having to move all around the platters to gather that info.

If you're not experiencing severe slow downs as I suggested in my first post, then your issue is fragmentation and can be solved by a) getting your free space back up to at least 25% and b) defragging the drive.

Click to expand...

Brilliant, thanks.

How do you defrag on a Mac? (no idea - but used to do it all the time on Windows)

barnettr said:

How do you defrag on a Mac? (no idea - but used to do it all the time on Windows)

Click to expand...

Use the app "iDefrag".

- Nick

barnettr said:

Brilliant, thanks.

How do you defrag on a Mac? (no idea - but used to do it all the time on Windows)

Click to expand...

Have to say since lots of folks may read this - Do not defrag a SSD...

Once you've reached that point where you're filling a hard drive and prety much keeping it at less than 30% free space, I fully recommend iDefrag as a means to keep your system running smoothly and as fast as possible for all actions that require reading/writing to the drive.

Defrag on the cheap...

For those using Time Machine to backup - after your backup is current, repartition the drive, clean install OS X and restore from your TM backup.

For those using bootable cloning software - boot to your clone, repartition the internal drive and clone back to the internal drive. I've tested SuperDuper! (SD!), but, would guess that CCC likely does as good a job. SD! in all my tests provided about a 5-6% faster boot time than a clean install and restore.

iDefrag provided ~10% faster boot time than SD!. Application launch times with iDefrag also seemed to be faster than either of the other 2 methods above, but never did actually put a timer on them to provide specific data.

iDefrag provided ~10% faster boot time than SD!. Application launch times with iDefrag also seemed to be faster than either of the other 2 methods above, but never did actually put a timer on them to provide specific data.

Click to expand...

iDefrag version 5 is now available for download but not free. Upgrade price is $19.95 but it's finally compatible with Yosemite. Not sure if I'm going to upgrade.

As a reference I found this site to be pretty a comprehensive list of reasons why any Mac might run slow suddenly. https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6921
Complete with links for each subject it pretty much covers all the bases.
Having said that, disc failure is unfortunately the most probable cause because of it's age but defragging is certainly worth trying, so long as you have a bootable backup you might as well push it to it's limit.
I for one would be interested in knowing just how long that may be.
PS I love how the above linked page starts out by instructing OP's to first remove MacKeeper if present.

That's a great link and post by the author there Rod.

Not sure I'll update either. I haven't had a HD in my primary Mac for 4 years.
And my wife's iMac with a 1 TB drive that will likely never have more than 150-200GB of data on it will, in her eyes, never see the need for defragging.

It sure appears quite a bit of work was done on this version - kudos. Coriolis had to have spent a fair amount of time just in deciding whether or not to update iDefrag. There's already a drastically smaller percentage of those running OS X that would even have a use for (or be willing to pay for) a defragger (vs Windows). With all notebook Macs now having SSDs in lieu of HDs and many Mini and iMac users selecting a Fusion Drive or SSD, this had to be a hard decision for them and could be the last update we'll see if the next version of OS X totally breaks it again.

Update:

I deleted loads of files. Hard drive was:

250GB SATA Disk with 35GB free

and now

250GB SATA Disk with 72GB free

I also ran Repair Disk and Repair Permissions several times (only a few volumes needed updating - everything completed successfully).

Finally I've done a few SMC resets.

Unfortunately I don't notice any difference. The system is still struggling with multiple applications open at the same time (it didn't used to), and some applications take quite a few seconds (10 maybe) to load (the icon bounces a lot in the dock).

I bought iDefrag 5 and downloaded the older 2.2.8 (I'm on OSX 10.7.5). I was hoping I could use my v5 licence with v2.2.8 but the older version uses a different authentication method - username/password or licence key. I've emailed Coriolis but I'm still waiting

Any thoughts?

Thanks again,

Ryan

You have certainly spent a lot of time money and effort on repair. Why not just erase the HD and perform a clean instal of the OS and restore from backup?

Rod Sprague said:

You have certainly spent a lot of time money and effort on repair. Why not just erase the HD and perform a clean instal of the OS and restore from backup?

Click to expand...

Probably a great idea... just my OCD will go nuts if I have to re-check all my settings again after a restore. Can't face it!

If you restore from a Time Machine backup your settings will be preserved.