Mid-2015 MBP glitchy

[TonyBen]

I recently obtained an unused mid-2015 MBP. After transferring all my files from my 2011 MBP, I've got 160GB left on my 500GB hard drive. It's running Catalina 10.15.2. Almost ever since the day I got it, it has some minor glitches.

For example:
-When using Safari and opening a new tab, it may hang for 5 seconds before the tab opens. If I click it twice, it will open up two tabs once it's done hanging.
-When typing text, everything freezes for about five seconds and what I typed during the freeze will all show up in my text area all at once.
-I regularly tether internet from my phone using a USB cable. Today, I had to use Wi-FI as the USB ports now provide a choppy connection. My iPhone will indicate charging, then not charging. I get "Trust this computer?" then it disappears and reappears a few seconds later, like the USB connection is cutting in and out. I don't get the blue chain link anymore when tethering my internet from my phone.

Any suggestions? I now see that my Catalina is out of date and I will perform the software update when I get home. I have not installed Onyx on this mac yet.

My MBP has a 2.5GHz Quad Core i7, and 16GB of RAM.

Tony.

 

[ferrarr]

When you say “you obtained an unused MBP”, what does that mean? How do you know it was unused?


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[TonyBen]

My neighbor is an IT specialist and they give him a new MacBook Pro every three years so he can support the people in his business that have Mac computers. He's a windows guy and he said he never even powered it up since they gave it to him. He gets to keep the old computers that are outdated and do with them as he wishes. He gave it to me new in the box. All I did was upgrade the OS.

He gave me the 15" MBP when they gave him a new MBP. He has a son that's a couple of years younger than mine and we give him lots of like-new clothes, including Columbia Sportswear parkas and snow boots that are in near new condition. I also help him whenever he needs car work done. We scratch each other's backs.

Tony.

 

[ferrarr]

OK, its good information.

Troubleshooting steps to try;

Safe mode, How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support.
SMC reset, How to reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support.
NVRAM reset, Reset NVRAM or PRAM on your Mac - Apple Support.
Recovery > Disk Utility > First Aid.

You may also want to look into content blocker extensions for each browser you have installed. I use AdGuard AdBlock, Ghostery, and AdBlock Plus.


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[TonyBen]

Thanks. I'll start there.

Tony.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Any suggestions?

Just about all of your flakiness point to an input/output performance problem.

Your hard drive may be too fragmented and full, or either your RAM or hard drive may be damaged.

Have a look through this page:

Macintosh Slowdown Solutions
Macintosh OS X Slowdown Solutions

 

[Slydude]

When you say that you updated the OS did you do a clean install or merely update whatever was present in that Mac. If you didn't do a clean install I'd start with that. After removing your data of course.

×

 

[TonyBen]

Just a follow-up. The flaky tethering was due to a faulty lightning cable. It still lags sometime when opening a new tab on Safari, but not all the time.

I've been messing around with DaVinci Resolve filmmaking software and the video playback in the edit portion of the software has trouble keeping the video moving as fast as the audio and the image freezes up when I run across a portion of the video that has custom animations. Don't know if this is due to my graphics processor not up to the task of heavy video processing or not.

Tony.

 

[laptoptitan]

OK, its good information.

Troubleshooting steps to try;

Safe mode, How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support.
SMC reset, How to reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support.
Reset NVRAM or PRAM on your Mac - Apple Support.
Recovery > Disk Utility > First Aid.

You may also want to look into content blocker extensions for each browser you have installed. I use AdGuard AdBlock, Ghostery, and AdBlock Plus.


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How to reset NVRAM

Shut down your Mac, then turn it on and immediately press and hold these four keys together: Option, Command, P, and R. You can release the keys after about 20 seconds, during which your Mac might appear to restart.

Here is how you can solve the problem.

 

[IWT]

New Member, Iaptoptitan has given you good advice with graphics to help.

Just one point to add: if you are using a Wireless Keyboard such as Apple's Magic Keyboard or another Bluetooth (BT) Keyboard, this will possibly not work because BT devices are only recognised late in the Boot Up sequence.

To overcome this potential difficulty, with an Apple Magic KB with rechargeable batteries, connect the KB to the Mac via USB, just as you would to recharge the batteries. This effectively makes it a Wired KB.

If you don't have that latest KB from Apple or are using a BT-operated KB from a third party, then you may have to borrow or otherwise acquire a Wired KB.

This may apply to PRAM, SMC, and Safe Mode reboots.

By all means try with your current setup, but if it fails to work, go Wired in one of the ways I mentioned above.

Ian