Early 2011 MacBook Pro 15 running choppy.

[Compman55]

Have a macbook pro 15 early 2011, with i7, 4GB ram, 500GB, OS X 10.7.5 fully patched. After 5 10 minutes of it being up and running,it gets choppy, where the dock is very sluggish, programs open slow, and when you type it takes a long time to fill in. Any tips on where to look. Battery was just replaced and the heatsink was clean, it is not running hot.


Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro8,2
Processor Name: Intel Core i7
Processor Speed: 2 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Boot ROM Version: MBP81.0047.B27
SMC Version (system): 1.69f3
Serial Number (system):
Hardware UUID: 1EBB51BC-6681-5012-BFA4-5FBCED68FF5A
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled

 

[v-600]

If there's nothing obviously wrong with hardware my first guess would be something is starting that is hogging all the RAM. My 4GB rMBP can be horrible to use if I've got too much open.

 

[Ice_Dragon]

Upgrade to at least 8 GB of RAM and an SSD.

 

[slashbinslashbash]

It's eligible for the free motherboard replacement program, take it in and get it replaced. Should fix the problem, unless it's due to your RAM.

 

[Rakehellion]

Check System Profiler in the utilities folder and it'll show you which apps are using your memory and CPU time.


It also may be overheating. The thermal compound could be inspected.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

8-16GB RAM and a fast SSD will do the trick. True story!

 

[Compman55]

It's eligible for the free motherboard replacement program, take it in and get it replaced. Should fix the problem, unless it's due to your RAM.

How do you know it is eligible?

Ram still has 2GB free. The slowdown occurs when you boot, open safari and spend 5 minutes on the internet without anything else running.

Or open any one single program and within 5- 10 min it becomes very slow & choppy. Like 2-5 sec delay in everything.

 

[slashbinslashbash]

How do you know it is eligible?

Ram still has 2GB free. The slowdown occurs when you boot, open safari and spend 5 minutes on the internet without anything else running.

Or open any one single program and within 5- 10 min it becomes very slow & choppy. Like 2-5 sec delay in everything.

AFAIK all the Early 2011 MBP's are eligible. They all came with the discrete graphics option, right? I have one myself, with the upgraded GPU (1GB 6750). Technically it needs to be showing video corruption issues or sudden power-offs, but I don't think they check too stringently. I haven't taken mine in for replacement yet... it's still my main machine, so I've got to figure out a time when I can be without it for a week straight! You can check the eligibility here:

http://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/

 

[Compman55]

This one has intel graphics if that matters. I thought intel was on the cpu core?

 

[Rakehellion]

This one has intel graphics if that matters. I thought intel was on the cpu core?

It also has discrete graphics.

 

[Compman55]

Any way to diagnose the problem. Not super versed in apple os x. If these symptopms were in windows I would know how to systematically troubleshoot.

There is no cpu overheating, and no video corruption. Apple website shows it is out of warranty.

 

[Childs]

Smells like RAM. Question...you said if you leave Safari or some app running for 10 min it starts to slow down...what if you close the app and do 'sudo purge'? Also do a repair permissions on the boot volume. Issues with /tmp could cause strange things to happen.

 

[slashbinslashbash]

Any way to diagnose the problem. Not super versed in apple os x. If these symptopms were in windows I would know how to systematically troubleshoot.

There is no cpu overheating, and no video corruption. Apple website shows it is out of warranty.

It may be out of warranty, but it would still be covered under the recall if you took it in and said you were seeing video issues or intermittent shutting down without warning.

Run memtest86 on it to check the RAM.

 

[Emulex]

Watch Activity monitor for the offending app. Could be a virus scanner or other job like spotlight hogging up the disk.

You can look at the activity monitor to spot the offender!

Also upgrade to SSD. It will be well worth the $$$ to move to a 512gb SSD!

 

[Compman55]

what version of memtest works? v6.0 and 4.3 just reboot within 5 sec of running. Seems like they are not comptatible. would memtest86+ work better?

 

[slashbinslashbash]

what version of memtest works? v6.0 and 4.3 just reboot within 5 sec of running. Seems like they are not comptatible. would memtest86+ work better?

Hmm. 4.3 shouldn't work, but 6.0 should.

"reboot within 5 sec of running" - so does Memtest86 start running, then? And then it reboots? If so, faulty RAM fo' sho', try removing one stick of RAM and then the other.

 

[Compman55]

No dice to running memtest on the apple. Transplanted ram to dell and it passes with flying colors. Ran it all day without errors. What next? Completely lost.

 

[Compman55]

Will also add, I took out the 500GB hard drive and put its factory 250GB back in with a fresh untouched install of OSX 10.7.0. Still runs choppy.

Here is what has been done:
-Reset SMC and PRAM.
-Took ram out and tested in a dell. 12 passes later, not a single error.
-Replaced HDD with one that had a fresh copy of OSX, same problem. Still gets choppy.
-Used thermal program to verify no overheating, 32C tops. Fans and Heatsink is spotless / clean.

Very frustrated. How can you rule out the bad motherboard. I am not sure if the intel based motherboard are covered. To my knowledge they did not have faulty chips like the nvidia based boards.

 

[slashbinslashbash]

The faulty motherboards had both ATi and nVidia chips, spanning several generations of MBP. Your machine should have an ATi chip in it. The 15" MBP's of that time did not come in an Intel-only variant. A 256MB 6470 I think? Mine (an Early 2011 like yours) has the upgraded 1GB 6770.

 

[Compman55]

It does say "Intel HD Graphics" somewhere buried deep in the system info.

 

[slashbinslashbash]

It does say "Intel HD Graphics" somewhere buried deep in the system info.

Yes, it will say that, but it will also mention the AMD/ATi graphics somewhere. The system switches dynamically between the Intel graphics and the discrete GPU, depending on whether it determines that the discrete GPU is needed.

Unless you actually have a 13" MBP?

 

[Compman55]

That does not make much sense but I will take your word for it, and look deeper.

 

[Compman55]

One other thought, I did install an aftermarket battery, the oem one was junk. Will apple raise heck when they do the motherboard replacement?

The problem started with the old battery, so I know the issues did not occur as a result of it being aftermarket.

 

[slashbinslashbash]

That does not make much sense but I will take your word for it, and look deeper.

The Intel graphics came built into the CPU and therefore were automatically built into all MBP's. The discrete GPU was a separate chip included in the 15" and 17" MBP's. The system would default to the Intel graphics for power+heat savings (the discrete GPU could be powered down completely) but it would be turned on when needed for 3D gaming, hardware-accelerated video editing, etc.

If you download the small+free program "gfxCardStatus" it will tell you which GPU is running at the moment, or you can use it to force a switch to the discrete graphics.

Also, look at Anand's review of the 2011 MBP for a full discussion of all this stuff.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4205/the-macbook-pro-review-13-and-15-inch-2011-brings-sandy-bridge/9

 

[Compman55]

Can anyone speculate if the aftermarket battery will foul the warranty replacment of the MB.