[Helmling]

I've noticed on two machines that as they get older, I find my Macs are slowing down. I've got an old '07 Macbook that's almost unusable it gives us the rainbow ball so much. Now my '10 Macbook seems a lot less peppier on intensive applications (read: games) than it used to be.

I'm wondering, short of wiping the drive and doing a clean install, what I can do to improve performance. Are there some folders I can clear out or something?

[Mike Wuerthele]

SSD. RAM. OS reinstall.

Those are my three recommendations, in order.

[P]

IME, OS X performance does not degrade that badly. Newer software uses more RAM, though, so if you've upgraded you may need to up the RAM a bit. In general I would try to figure what you're doing when it starts to beachball - if it's in Safari, upgrade Flash as far as it goes and install Click2Flash.

[Helmling]

I know that's what I've always been told, but in the case of the '07 Macbook, I just can't imagine that the automatically updated software has expanded in its system demands that even running mundane tasks like Pages and Safari, it is agonizingly slow whereas once it was my main machine and I used it no problem. So I thought there must be something that's dragging it down. Same concern with my '10, but much less pronounced. My performance in a few games seems slower than it used to and I see more rainbow balls than I'd like.

I just don't have the stomach for a full reinstall so I was hoping to find some shortcuts. Oh well...maybe I should just wipe it and see if it helps.

[andi*pandi]

how much hard drive space is left? and is it indexed?

[mindwaves]

Use older software. Do not use the latest software even if it means security concerns.

[ronaldross]

Originally Posted by mindwaves 

Use older software. Do not use the latest software even if it means security concerns.

OK I can accept your reply upto some level but what to do is the startup or login is very slow. I think andi*pandi's idea can be considered.

[andi*pandi]

That is how my computer behaved before the hard drive collapsed. S-L-O-W. If you have less than 15% free, start backing up important stuff and deleting things you don't need. Search apple forums for OSX indexing problems also.

[Mrjinglesusa]

Originally Posted by andi*pandi 

That is how my computer behaved before the hard drive collapsed. S-L-O-W.

^THIS.

Just had to replace the hard drive in my late-2009 iMac. Saw these exact same symptoms before I checked the hard drive in Disk Utility and it said it was failing.

One thing I noticed more than anything else was that when playing a TV show in iTunes it was choppy and would stutter and skip repeatedly while playing.

[Mike Wuerthele]

I guess I probably should have been more clear with my answer.

[Miniryu]

Oh wow... you just called an '07 Macbook old.

I clicked this thread hoping to find some advice for my late '03 G5 PPC tower, LOL.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Miniryu 

Oh wow... you just called an '07 Macbook old.

I clicked this thread hoping to find some advice for my late '03 G5 PPC tower, LOL.

ROTFLMAO <---- 1st time I used this in 5 years

-t

[ghporter]

I agree that the hard drive is the first thing to check out. The OS needs some elbow room to run efficiently, and no matter how well it does its housekeeping, there's going to be gunk built up on the drive that will gradually slow the machine down.

I'm running an '06 first gen MBP. It's not as speedy as my wife's much lMacBook (last unibody with a separate battery version), but it works fine. I did max out RAM and replace the 100GB hard drive with a 500GB drive, which helped a lot. At the same time I upgraded the AirPort card to a more capable a/b/g/n card, which has made this machine useful in a lot of places it couldn't in its original configuration.

It sure looks like it's been through the mill, but the screen is clear and bright and the keyboard works perfectly. On the other hand, I had to replace the SuperDrive; some time ago I had the poor machine slide off a table and land (in my book bag) on its hinge side. It seemed to work fine until I needed to run some optical media. Picture the sound of a very small garbage disposal trying to ingest a VCR... Oh, and the screen doesn't pop up when you press the latch, so you have to lift the lid while holding the latch. No biggie.

[TETENAL]

Take it apart and remove all the dust. Overheating due to dust might slow your computer down when components are shut down to protect them from heat damage.

If that doesn't help replace the hard drive and restore the content with Migration Assistant or from the Time Machine backup.

[ronaldross]

Replacing a drive be expensive. I would suggest to go for optimization. It includes cleaning Mac drive and defragmentation. It will be easier and affordable.

[P]

Unfortunately it will not do anything to help your speed. "Cleaning the Mac drive" only helps if it is full to bursting, which we mentioned above. Defragmentation happens in the background automatically.

[scottajronan]

More RAM never goes amiss it also may be worth downgrading the OS to find that sweet spot between performance and fetaures.