Very slow macbook pro

Soldato
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My 2012 Mac mini went like this. That had 4Gb ram and a mech HDD in it. The best thing I did was to put a 500Gb SSD in it and upgrade the ram to 16GB. It was and still is like a new computer.

This.

My late 2011 15” MBP had a 5400 RPM HDD and 8GB of RAM. Fitting 16GB of fast RAM and an SSD transformed that machine utterly.

Clean My Mac is very handy for keeping things tidy.
 
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Or
I was hoping I'd be able to erase the disk, and then install mojave, and then select what I want to put back on from the time machine back up? Would I need a bootable USB drive though to install mojave after the disk has been erased?

I think you might be able to do it from online through the machine (connecting to Apple's servers)

Have a look online :)
 
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My previous MBP was a late 2011. The difference that adding a SSD as a replacement for the DVD drive and installing OS on it (if it doesn't have a DVD just replace HDD) and doubling the ram from 4gb to 8gb was HUGE! Also popping the back over off and blowing all the dust out of the fan and heatsink made a difference in fan speed and thermal throttling.
 

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yep making a bootable usb at the moment.

I know how much SSDs improve speed as I have one and used to use normal sata drives on my windows computer, but the speed i am talking about on this mac is like 30 seconds after entering login password of blank screen before any icons load. constant spinning ball, just incredibly slow. it must be the crap that has been installed overtime, if it isn't then the hard drive is dying mechanically, which I'll be able to conclude once I do a clean install.
 

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OS back on, everything a million times quicker, programs open in one or two seconds instead of 20-30. So the hard drive was just full of crap software wise.

I guess there's no point in me transferring everything from the time machine back up though, as that may introduce back on what caused the machine to grind in the first place. So I'll put the documents and photos etc. on and then probably just add the apps manually as she needs them.
 

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Ok well I had the macbook working well for a couple of days, everything was quick enough, not SSD quick obviously but still nice and quick.

Installed Microsoft Office 2016 today, and everything is slow now. Word just took 30 bounces to open, and Safari and Photos take about 10 bounces whereas before Safari and Photos were taking 2 or 3 bounces before opening.

....!?
 
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You're blaming macOS for being bad on what sounds like a failing HDD. Throw an SSD in there and it'll fly or even replace the HDD with something newer if budget is a constraint.

Have you ran any kind of tests on it or a Apple hardware test?
 

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You're blaming macOS for being bad on what sounds like a failing HDD. Throw an SSD in there and it'll fly or even replace the HDD with something newer if budget is a constraint.

Have you ran any kind of tests on it or a Apple hardware test?

The HDD isn't going to be at it's peak performance levels given the age of it, but as I said, for a couple of days after doing a clean install the mac was working fine. Today I made one change since then, installing msoffice 2016. Immediately after installing it, and an update for the program which it insisted upon, and then a reboot, the system went back to pretty much behaving how it was before. Not as bad, but generally slow again, the entire system really.

After the clean install Safari and Photos would open with 2-3 bounces and the entire system was generally quick and not frustrating.

Since the msoffice installation Safari and Photos take about 10 bounces to open.

Word takes about 30-40.

Outlook just took about 60 bounces.
 
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It might be that data is now being written to bad sectors on the drive or the head can't move fast enough anymore to read them.

What are the CPU activity levels during the 'opening' of apps?
 

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It might be that data is now being written to bad sectors on the drive or the head can't move fast enough anymore to read them.

What are the CPU activity levels during the 'opening' of apps?

When it's open it's ok, it's just the loading times and opening the apps which takes half a minute initially. I guess some data etc. is cached in the memory as exiting and then re-opening is a bit faster, up to 10 seconds. Once programs are open you can open 3/4 and switch between them with no real frustrating slow downs. It's mainly the opening speed of them all, but Outlook seems to suffer the most, she has loads of inbox folders and thousands of emails stored in them which probably isn't helping.

Think I will just phone her and persuade her an SSD is the way to go, presumably any SSD would be compatible?

Having had a look it's going to be around £60-70 for an SSD and then I've got to factor my time in as well which I would easily have to ask for a good three hours work, so £120, so it's whether she's willing to spend £200. From our initial consultation when I went to pick the computer up she didn't seem to be wanting to spend that much on it, but there's not really much else I can do.

Then again, substantially cheaper than a new macbook pro!
 
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Im also having the same issues with my own MBP 2011 but mine has an SSD and also 8gb of RAM so its hard to say if it is the HDD or not. I'll go dowm the option of a clean install very shortly once I get the time to do so.

I have to say these problems seemed to have started when Mojave was installed. Its nearly very tempting to say the update is causing these issues but I could be totally wrong.

I think my battery also needs replaced so I'll need to do that at some stage as it wont work without the power cable but I'll need to warrant it by testing the system out first once a clean install has been completed.

@smr let me know how you get on with this.
 
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Macs is no different really too Windows, same principle. I would be tempted to reinstall the whole OS and just start from scratch.
Apart from the kernel, file-system, registry (or lack of) etc all completely different? I run Windows daily for gaming and find I have to rebuild it every 6 months or so.

I've had the same install of macOS since 2011/2012 and I don't think it's ever been rebuilt. Always upgraded and backed up/restored when I buy new hardware.
 
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Apart from the kernel, file-system, registry (or lack of) etc all completely different? I run Windows daily for gaming and find I have to rebuild it every 6 months or so.

I've had the same install of macOS since 2011/2012 and I don't think it's ever been rebuilt. Always upgraded and backed up/restored when I buy new hardware.

I’m on about useabiity. Same outcome. Mac is a far better OS by miles IMO.
 

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I don't know why you'd need to rebuild your computer every 6 months?

as for the mac, it was noticeably quicker than before, and i explained to my customer that an ssd would be the way to go, but she didn't really want to spent circa 200 quid or more on it, and I have to be asking for that much for the drive and my labour etc.

but as it is, and like i say, it's a good margin quicker than before. Before I clean installed the OS safari et al were excruciatingly slow, I'm talking 20-30 bounces just for safari, but now that's about 3-5 bounces, then if you close the app and reopen, 1 or 2 bounces.

but mac office 2016 doesn't sit very well on it for some reason, excel, word and outlook take about 10-20 bounces even sometimes, but when they are open, the system experiences no slow downs, or crunching, as it was before.

So the clean install helped, but if it were my mac I'd have stuck and SSD in. Easily the best computer upgrade I ever made was buying an SSD, the difference they make is just phenomenal.
 
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