Hi everyone. I am having hard times with my MBP, which is running pretty slow. Some details below:
– Macbook pro 15”, mid 2012
– 2,3 GHz intel core i7
– 4 gb 1600 MHz DDR3
– Currently running OS X 10.11.1
– 254 GB free out of 500 GB
– No itens on startup (already removed all)
I had always used my MBP without any problems (bought it January 2013). In December 2014 I upgrade to Yosemite (the last version I remember using with no speed issues) and had been using it without problems until some months ago, when everything started running slow. Running multiple applications was complicated, entering a formula in excel was slow (tap “Enter” and takes several seconds to accept), even browsing was not as fast as it used to be. Even opening activity monitor and disk utility is also very slow. At a few occasions, the computer just rebooted.
After trying a lot of things (almost everything I found in internet, including reinstalling the OS and erasing the HD), I sent the MBP to maintenance and the guys changed the HD, saying the previous one was damaged. With a new HD, I used Time Machine to restore the last backup I had (which was on Yosemite). I then upgraded (maybe I shouldn’t have…) to El Capitan (10.11.1). The installation was complicated, I had to force reboot at the first attempt because it just stuck on the same screen for hours. Is it possible that the installation is corrupted?
Finally, I was able to install OS X 10.11.1, and I am experiencing the same problems I used to have: slow browsing, slow office, hard to multi task. Not at the same extent as before the HD change, but still not as good as it used to be some months ago. I am not talking about several memory consuming programs, like video editing, CAD, etc, just “regular” things I used to do normally some months ago like Office + Internet + Photo software.
I noticed, at Activity Monitor, that the memory pressure is relatively high, reaching yellow very often, sometimes red. Kernel_task currently is the highest, with ~700MB. I have only Chrome, Activity Monitor and AppStore opened and have 3,45 GB of memory used. Could that be a problem (damaged RAM)? If yes, why would it manifest only now (meaning, RAM used to be enough, now is insufficient??)? Is it related to OS X 10.11.1 (it was working fine with Yosemite for months)? Could be any software that I installed at some time (or the accumulation of several ones) that corrupted or included some bad scripts in the OS?
I would really appreciate some help from the specialists on the forum. I will do any diagnosis you recommend, just let me know the steps.
Thanks in advance!