JonC Posted April 18, 2016 Report Share Posted April 18, 2016 My late 2011 MBP turns on very quickly - password page is almost immediate. However, it now takes about 1.30min to fire up to the desktop and about the same again to open Safari. What can I do to rapidly speed up it's operation, or is this normal given I'm storing some photos, music, documents etc? The MBP is running El Capitan, 2.4 GHz, Intel i5 with a 4BG memory. Apologies if this isn't exactly tech enough for this area, but I have no IT knowledge whatsoever! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted April 19, 2016 Report Share Posted April 19, 2016 You might be memory constrained with El Capitan. My older MacMini and 2009 MacBook Pro (13") both exhibit the same behaviour with 4GB RAM. My newer retina MBP (13" with 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD) and MacBook (12" with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD) do not exhibit the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonC Posted April 19, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 19, 2016 So increasing the memory will speed it up? If so, what do I need to buy? Any help hugely appreciated! Thanks Rachel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Posted April 19, 2016 Report Share Posted April 19, 2016 If you click the Apple sign in the top left, and select 'About this Mac' can you tell us what Mac it is? If so, we can tell you the memory it needs. Memory would be the place to start, but if you want to give it a whole new lease of life an SSD would be the way to go. Assuming it's a late 2011 13", you can see the memory & SSD upgrades here. Neither particularly expensive - but confirm which Mac you have first and I'll match up the memory/SSD for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewNiceMrMe Posted April 19, 2016 Report Share Posted April 19, 2016 Whilst memory would speed it up, 1 min 30 secs to start up makes me think it might benefit from a good old clean. A near to capacity hard disk on OSX slows performance dramatically. As a quick test, hold down the SHIFT key when the Mac is booting up. This boots it in Safe Mode and a benefit of that is that it scans the drive but also clears the cache completely. Then, once it has started, restart it immediately and see if it has made much difference. It usually does. You might also, and the description is symptomatic of it, have a lot of software starting up on login that you don't necessarily need. You could probably clean a good few of these out to make a sizeable difference but lets see what happens when you've booted in Safe Mode before going down that route. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonC Posted April 19, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 19, 2016 Excellent info - thanks chaps. Will do that tonight and let you know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daz Posted April 19, 2016 Report Share Posted April 19, 2016 I'd definitely check out what's running in the background. I've got a 2011 MacBook Air with 4GB RAM and it still flys, admittedly it does have an SSD too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted April 20, 2016 Report Share Posted April 20, 2016 There is the old standby of ONYX if you really want to clean the cruft and navel lint out of your system (assuming the SSD isn't full and causing the problem). http://www.titanium.free.fr/ IIRC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Posted April 20, 2016 Report Share Posted April 20, 2016 For what it's worth, I have a late 2008 13" Macbook Pro with El Capitan running...in 2Gb + an SSD. It's hardly speedy but it's totally usable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonC Posted April 20, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2016 If you click the Apple sign in the top left, and select 'About this Mac' can you tell us what Mac it is? If so, we can tell you the memory it needs. Ok, this is the Mac in question: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonC Posted April 20, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2016 As a quick test, hold down the SHIFT key when the Mac is booting up. This boots it in Safe Mode and a benefit of that is that it scans the drive but also clears the cache completely. Then, once it has started, restart it immediately and see if it has made much difference. It usually does. I held down both shift key on boot up. The screen didn't change to safe mode like it does with a PC? Re-started straight away and it was quicker to boot to desktop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Posted April 20, 2016 Report Share Posted April 20, 2016 These are the correct ones. 40 quid to upgrade to 8Gb is a bargain. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonC Posted April 20, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2016 Memory would be the place to start, but if you want to give it a whole new lease of life an SSD would be the way to go. What cost am I looking at for a SSD? What would fitting costs be, roughly? These are the correct ones. 40 quid to upgrade to 8Gb is a bargain. What would cost be for someone to fit it, roughly? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarMad Posted April 20, 2016 Report Share Posted April 20, 2016 You could easily fit it yourself, Apple has guides on how to do it and a hard drive change for all Mac products where they see it as being allowed buy the customer. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Posted April 20, 2016 Report Share Posted April 20, 2016 The memory is a doddle. Fitting an SSD is a bit trickier as you need to copy across the stuff from your old drive. It's not difficult really. I seem to remember you're London based...? If you don't mind doing without it for a few days I'd do it for you. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonC Posted April 21, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2016 The memory is a doddle. Fitting an SSD is a bit trickier as you need to copy across the stuff from your old drive. It's not difficult really. I seem to remember you're London based...? If you don't mind doing without it for a few days I'd do it for you. Thanks Mac, appreciate the offer I'll try the memory upgrade initially. From your link above, the 2 x 4GB @ £40.79? For that money, it's worth the pop, followed by the SSD upgrade if needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonC Posted April 21, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2016 Actually, Mac, having seen the price for 240/250 GB SSD's, it makes sense to do this upgrade. PM sent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewNiceMrMe Posted April 21, 2016 Report Share Posted April 21, 2016 I held down both shift key on boot up. The screen didn't change to safe mode like it does with a PC? Re-started straight away and it was quicker to boot to desktop. Did you then restart the machine again? (Normally, that is). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonC Posted April 22, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2016 Did you then restart the machine again? (Normally, that is). I did indeed. Seems a tad faster too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewNiceMrMe Posted April 22, 2016 Report Share Posted April 22, 2016 I would now be tempted to check the start-up items and clear a load out (if there are many running). I won't be at all surprised if you find the machine gets a new lease of life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonC Posted April 22, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2016 I would now be tempted to check the start-up items and clear a load out (if there are many running). I won't be at all surprised if you find the machine gets a new lease of life. How would I go about seeing what's opening on start up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted April 22, 2016 Report Share Posted April 22, 2016 This little free tool is all the rage on Apple's support/discussion forums - very simple to use and gives you a good breakdown of your system. That or learn to trawl all the different log files... https://etrecheck.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonC Posted April 22, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2016 Thanks Rachel. I've just worked out to do it via System Preferences Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E-bmw Posted April 30, 2016 Report Share Posted April 30, 2016 All this talk about MBPs makes me grateful that Sis Issac Newton isn't around today. Can you imagine if an Apple device fell on his head today? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arch Posted April 30, 2016 Report Share Posted April 30, 2016 I cant imagine the gravity of the situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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