2011 mbp processor speeds

[CaptainMorgan]

I have just bought a refurbished 2011 MBP with 2nd gen i7 2.2 QC. The machine is in great condition but i am having some issues. When I boot up I get the usual apple logo and progress bar but when it get to just over 50% loading the screen goes black for a few seconds and then comes up on the login page and i can login ok and all seems normal. All my previous Macs have completed 100% on the progress bar before login. Some apps take about 5/10 seconds before opening but once open page switching is normal. A couple of years ago I had a mid 2010 MBP with a i5 2.53 dual core processor which was faster. Would the difference between 2.2 & 2.53 be that noticeable or have I got a problem? I have upgraded sierra to high sierra, made sure i don't have apps that start automatically at login, cleared caches and run antivirus but still the same. I had thought maybe HD or logic board problem, or am I just expecting too much? If it is HD then no worries, I was going to upgrade to an SSD anyway.

 

[MacInWin]

I seem to remember my 2011 did that kind of boot at one point. I just assumed the bar jumped to full so fast it didn't display before the login screen came up. The slow loading apps is a symptom of a failing hard drive, usually. Particularly if the drive is also slow on writes as well. The SSD will definitely make it seem faster.

And get rid of the antivirus software, it just slows things down and cannot detect anything because there isn't anything to detect. No known viruses for Macs at this time. All it will find is Windows stuff, none of which can run on the Mac. So get rid of it. If you are concerned about malware, use Malwarebytes from malwarebytes.com. Just use the free version every once in a while. (Malwarebytes will download the "resident" version and run for a month, after which you get nagged to pay. Don't pay and it reverts to the free version, which only runs when you want it to.)

 

[ferrarr]

It might be the dual video cards, switching from one to the other.

 

[CaptainMorgan]

I think i will try the ssd route first. The mac came with a 6 month warranty and when i contacted the company they weren't exactly busting a gut to come up with a solution but did say that if i changed the HD it would void my warranty unless it was fitted professionally. This annoys me as i have done several HD upgrades in the past without any problems but it may be the way to go. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[MacInWin]

Well, unless they put some sort of anti-tampering stuff in the machine, taking off the back cover and removing the drive to install an SSD won't be detectable, as long as you are careful and don't break anything doing it. ifixit.com has pretty good instructions on how to do that.

 

[CaptainMorgan]

Well, unless they put some sort of anti-tampering stuff in the machine, taking off the back cover and removing the drive to install an SSD won't be detectable, as long as you are careful and don't break anything doing it. ifixit.com has pretty good instructions on how to do that.

I expect they would want an invoice from a repair company but I will go ahead anyway, from their less than mind blowing support so far I expect they would wriggle out of warranty obligations in some way or another.

 

[MacInWin]

Or you could just put up with it until the warranty expires. Six months isn't that long and if it's just the launch of apps that is slow, is that something you could survive six months?

 

[CaptainMorgan]

Now upgraded the old Toshiba HD with a Crucial MX500 SSD and uninstalled the antivirus. Still the weird boot up symptoms (i can handle that) but there is no increase in speed or performance whatsoever. I have done a clean install of the OS twice in the last week so I don't think I have transferred any system problems from the old HD. Now none the wiser and have a lighter wallet and trying to make sense of it all.

 

[lclev]

I have a 2011 MBPro that I upgraded with an SSD. It has the i7 and 16GB of memory. I keep in mind it is going on 8 years old but it still has good speed. The 2011 model MBPro was known for graphics card issues. I am not sure if you are aware of that.

Mine currently has two green (or sometimes red) vertical lines on the screen. Since all I do with it is use it to capture video on Sunday I am not worried about the lines.

Lisa

 

[MacInWin]

No increase in speed? You mean it takes just as long to boot as with the old spinner drive? That's really hard to fathom. When I put an SSD in my 2011 MBP it was amazing how much faster the boot times were. The CPU was still the same speed, but the disk access was fabulously faster.

 

[CaptainMorgan]

Thanks Lisa, I had heard of graphics issues but i don't think that is anything to do with my current issues, especially with the poor speed problems.
What memory chips do you have installed? I looked on everymac.com and they say this model should have 1333MHz chips but mine has 1600MHz. I bought this mac from a reputable refurbed mac company and some components had been renewed (battery and media drive etc) and had wondered if perhaps they had fitted the wrong chips.

Ken.

 

[CaptainMorgan]

No increase in speed? You mean it takes just as long to boot as with the old spinner drive? That's really hard to fathom. When I put an SSD in my 2011 MBP it was amazing how much faster the boot times were. The CPU was still the same speed, but the disk access was fabulously faster.

Same here. My old mid 2010 MBP absolutely flew with an SSD fitted.

 

[chscag]

What memory chips do you have installed? I looked on everymac.com and they say this model should have 1333MHz chips but mine has 1600MHz. I bought this mac from a reputable refurbed mac company and some components had been renewed (battery and media drive etc) and had wondered if perhaps they had fitted the wrong chips.

The wrong memory chips could be your bottleneck. Some people have the hair brained idea that by putting in faster modules, that will increase the speed of the machine. Actually, the opposite is generally true. I would remove those modules and replace them with the correct memory that Apple says the machine uses. I looked up your MBP and you are correct in that it should have the 1333MHz modules not the faster ones.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

I think i will try the ssd route first. The mac came with a 6 month warranty and when i contacted the company they weren't exactly busting a gut to come up with a solution but did say that if i changed the HD it would void my warranty unless it was fitted professionally.

I'm an attorney, and I can tell you authoritatively that it is well settled in the law that a company cannot legally void your warranty if you work on their product yourself and/or if you use third party parts in their product.

They CAN refuse to warranty any part that fails in their product that is from a third party (of course, that part should be warrantied by the third party), and they CAN refuse to warranty your product if the reason it needs repair is because it was damaged while worked on by you or another party. Of course, if it was worked on by a third party who was a professional, the third party should warranty their work.

This was all settled many years ago when American car manufacturers would try to void warranties on cars because the owner took their car to be repaired by an independent mechanic using third party parts. The courts said "uh uh" to that.

 

[CaptainMorgan]

The wrong memory chips could be your bottleneck. Some people have the hair brained idea that by putting in faster modules, that will increase the speed of the machine. Actually, the opposite is generally true. I would remove those modules and replace them with the correct memory that Apple says the machine uses. I looked up your MBP and you are correct in that it should have the 1333MHz modules not the faster ones.

I am going to raise this issue with the company i bought this from.
Many thanks.

 

[CaptainMorgan]

Thank you so much for this information, I had thought I had read something like this somewhere a few months ago but great to get it straight from the horses mouth so to speak.
Many thanks