Mac very slow

farleyflask · 31 Jul 2013 at 16:55

Hello. I'm wondering if any of you guys know why my MacBook Pro, late 2011, 13" is running very slow as of late? It was fine a few months ago, then suddenly changed. Turning on and off is long, and sometimes, when I select 'shut down', it just logs off. It also constantly loses connection to the wifi, my only fix is to turn off wifi connections then turn them back on again.

Any ideas?

pingwing · 31 Jul 2013 at 17:19

Does it have the stock mechanical hard drive in there? Have you changed the ram in it?

Sounds a bit like one of those two is failing, ram failures usually make the mac get a bit slow and cumbersome as it could only have one stick working, hard drive failure (much more likely) is characterised by normal system functions becoming more unresponsive as the failure is heading towards where the os is stored.

Did you get 3 years apple care as if you did nip to the store and explain, if not might be worth popping down and asking anyway but then fixing it your self.

Skyboat · 31 Jul 2013 at 17:26

Could be the SMC chip on its way out. Definitely displaying symptoms for it, at least.

Deleted member 77746 · 31 Jul 2013 at 18:27

Try a format?

KPeh · 31 Jul 2013 at 19:49

Check Activity Monitor to see if there's a particular app hogging the CPU. I had this recently... Dropbox was taking up 100% for some reason.

farleyflask · 31 Jul 2013 at 20:36

mrbell1984 said:
Try a format?

Yeah, am thinking that. Will back up everything and reformat, see if that resolves anything.

KPeh said:
Check Activity Monitor to see if there's a particular app hogging the CPU. I had this recently... Dropbox was taking up 100% for some reason.

Hmm, there's nothing out of the ordinary showing up on Activity Monitor...

pingwing said:
Does it have the stock mechanical hard drive in there? Have you changed the ram in it?

Sounds a bit like one of those two is failing, ram failures usually make the mac get a bit slow and cumbersome as it could only have one stick working, hard drive failure (much more likely) is characterised by normal system functions becoming more unresponsive as the failure is heading towards where the os is stored.

Did you get 3 years apple care as if you did nip to the store and explain, if not might be worth popping down and asking anyway but then fixing it your self.

I'll try upgrading the RAM, see if that helps. Been meaning to do it ever since I got it but never got round to it because it was 'okay'. This problem got worse because I started working with A0 PSD's. I hope it's not the HDD, got everything on here. Suppose I should invest in another external HD then.

Nope, no Apple Care. Can I still get it on a nearly 2 year old machine?

asi17 · 1 Aug 2013 at 01:56

Can get applecare within the first year of purchase only i'm afraid.

bloodiedathame · 1 Aug 2013 at 09:52

If you bought it as a student you'll have 3 years Applecare.

MacRS4 · 1 Aug 2013 at 10:59

Try repairing the permissions in disk utility too - damaged permissions can give you all kinds of weird effects.