MacBook upgrade issues

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I bought a 2010 MacBook recently, and I put in 16g ram and a 250g ssd. I was hoping to get a fast machine, but in fact it seems to be running slower than before the up grade. Is this normal, or am I expecting too much?
 

pigoo3

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I bought a 2010 MacBook recently, and I put in 16g ram and a 250g ssd. I was hoping to get a fast machine, but in fact it seems to be running slower than before the up grade. Is this normal, or am I expecting too much?

Probably expecting too much.;) It's still a 5 year-old computer. Yes a 16gig ram & SSD upgrade can help the computer feel faster. But if you don't need more than say 4gig of ram for what you do…having 16gig will not make things faster. And regarding the SSD. An SSD makes retrieving info to & from the computers storage faster. But doesn't make the actual processing of tasks faster (the computers CPU and GPU remain the same)...before & after the upgrades.

As far as running slower than before the upgrade. There's really no way for us to properly discuss this without some numbers. Run some sort of benchmark tests so we have some before & after numbers to compare.

- Nick
 
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I bought a 2010 MacBook recently, and I put in 16g ram and a 250g ssd. I was hoping to get a fast machine, but in fact it seems to be running slower than before the up grade. Is this normal, or am I expecting too much?
If you replaced 4GB of RAM with 16GB, and a 250GB 4200rpm hard drive with an SSD, it's normal for everything to slow down.

....

? Why is that even a possible answer?

Did you do any kind of benchmarking to come to this conclusion? How are you basing the "seems to be running slower"? It should boot in seconds and it should rarely if ever beach ball while doing things. What OS version are you on? SSDs are a bit of a newer tech and Apple leans heavy on them in later OS X releases. I'd recommend at least 10.10 or 10.11.
 
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Thanks to both of you who took the time to reply to my uninformed question above. You both have given me peace of mind that what I did was all in all, successful in itself, and I shouldn't expect more from an old computer. That makes sense to me, so thanks again, I'll just appreciate what I have.

On a second issue:

I received an update notice that there was an update available; then when I clicked to download—it told me that this machine was not eligible for the download because it was bought used. Will this be an ongoing problem, or can I get my machine properly registered to me and get all future upgrades?

Thanks, Len
 

pigoo3

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On a second issue:

I received an update notice that there was an update available; then when I clicked to download—it told me that this machine was not eligible for the download because it was bought used. Will this be an ongoing problem, or can I get my machine properly registered to me and get all future upgrades?

Can't really answer this until we know what sort of update this is (could be almost anything).;)

- Nick
 
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Thanks, next time it pops up, I'll make note of it.
Thanks again . . . .

~Len
 

pigoo3

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On a second issue:

I received an update notice that there was an update available; then when I clicked to download—it told me that this machine was not eligible for the download because it was bought used. Will this be an ongoing problem, or can I get my machine properly registered to me and get all future upgrades?

Thanks, next time it pops up, I'll make note of it.

I'm going to hazard a guess that this has something to do with software. Since you mentioned purchasing this computer used recently…I'm going to guess that the previous owner sold the computer with some expensive applications included (a very common thing)…such as applications from Adobe or Microsoft.

If this is true…the problem here is these apps cost a lot of money…and have serial numbers or registration keys, and sometimes original install DVD's. These software titles are registered to the original owner…and unless this info is transferred or given to the new owner of the computer…these apps many times cannot be used or at least cannot be updated (the problem you're running into). In fact…many times when this update process takes place…the developer's website is contacted (to do the update)…and when the developer's website "see's" that someone has an unregistered copy of their software…they shut the program down…so it can no longer be used until properly registered.

So long story short. If this used 2010 MacBook Pro came with some expensive software titles already installed. More than likely…you will run into this trouble again.

- Nick
 
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Quite probably it will be a forerunner of things to come. I take it you did not do an erase and format of the hard drive and install your own copy of the operating system? Everything will be tied to the former owner and if it is a later operating system, say OS X.9 or onwards, to get downloads you will need an Apple ID to access the App Store. Also Len it helps if you tell us what operating system the machine is running and how much free space is on the hard drive.

And if Nick's scenario is correct about buying the machine used with that software, the seller has pirated it pure and simple. You will find it worthless as it will not update and if you upgrade the operating system you will need the activation key/s.
 
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Thanks so much for every reply I receive. This is the first time I have tried using this forum and I think it rocks. The fact is that I bought the computer refurbished on ebay and it seemed to come completely clean of any add-on apps. I'm running El Capitan 10.11.2 which I added after I purchased this MacBook.
Thanks again,
~Len
 
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Adding an SSD from a traditional spinning HD and upping the RAM should have made that machine **DRAMATICALLY FASTER** in nearly every sense. Something is definitely wrong if that didn't happen.

I would strongly suggest you erase the machine completely (after saving anything you want preserved), do a clean install of the latest OS and then put your stuff back on it. Yes, it is a now 6-year-old machine, but short of hardcore gaming I can't think of anything that wouldn't be substantially faster with those improvements to it.
 
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Thanks again for the suggestion. I will make a new start of it and see what happens. I definitely expected a big improvement in speed, but it didn't happen right from the start—as I made the upgrades within the first couple of weeks of buying this old Mac. I'll kept trying to find the problem, as I'm sure it's something easy. Thanks again,
~Len
 
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Adding an SSD from a traditional spinning HD and upping the RAM should have made that machine **DRAMATICALLY FASTER** in nearly every sense. Something is definitely wrong if that didn't happen.

I would strongly suggest you erase the machine completely (after saving anything you want preserved), do a clean install of the latest OS and then put your stuff back on it. Yes, it is a now 6-year-old machine, but short of hardcore gaming I can't think of anything that wouldn't be substantially faster with those improvements to it.

That's what I was going to say! I have an Early 2009 whitey that got a heck of a lot faster just upgrading the RAM from 2GB to 4GB, as well as putting in a 750GB HDD - not an SSD - to replace the 120GB HDD that came with it (the 120GB was getting rather full, which I find can make things slower). By the way, I bought mine refurbished on eBay too, around two years ago.
 
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Thanks so much for all the suggestions. In fact, I downloaded and installed OnyX, and my machine speed has drastically improved! I will continue to monitor the upgrade failure and report as soon as get it again. Thank you all for your time and effort.
 
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Thanks so much for all the suggestions. In fact, I downloaded and installed OnyX, and my machine speed has drastically improved! I will continue to monitor the upgrade failure and report as soon as get it again. Thank you all for your time and effort.

Glad to hear that! Let's hope it stays drastically improved.
 

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