Is a clean install necessary in my case?

[MPB11]

Hello there,

I have an Early 2011 15" Macbook pro 2.2 ghz quad i7, 4gb ram.

It is running ML.

For the past 2 weeks, I noticed that my computer isn't that quick to respond to pretty much everything. My apps are slow to open, beachball every now and then, slow to open web pages or just to open tabs, slow to wake up from sleep, etc.

I do turn off my computer everyday so a restart wouldn't change anything.

I do not have THAT much stuff opened at the same time except the usual stuff (mail, chrome, messages, pages).

MY HDD is a 7200rpm 500gb with 150gb of free space.

I did verify disk permissions, I did verify disk, my software is up to date, I did have a look at activity monitor, my desktop isn't loaded with icons.

I was wondering if it's just time for me to do a clean install of ML? Considering that my computer is supposed to still be a really performing one because of the specs. Furthermore, it's just 2 and half years old. Oh and...How do you do a clean install?

I was also wondering if this might have anything to do with the sandy bridge processor that was apparently faulty and that might cause some slow downs on a long term period? (Remember back in february 2011 what they were saying?)

Your advices are more than welcome!

Thank you

 

[GGJstudios]

You might try resetting the SMC. (PRAM/NVRAM has nothing to do with these issues. Resetting it will not help.)

If you're having performance issues, this may help:

Performance Tips For Mac OS X​

 

[benwiggy]

No.
OS X does a marvellous job of keeping the following separate:

* the OS (nearly all read-only files that are unlikely to change and therefore won't need re-installing);
* user data and preferences (preferences are a likely cause of trouble, either because they are corrupt, i.e. not properly formed XML, or they just have settings that are contrary to what you actually need.)
* cache files and other temp data.

While generally, cache files are a good thing, and should be cultivated like roses, they can occasionally go rogue and need emptying.
One of these easiest ways to do this is to do a Safe Boot. Or you can use a utility like Onyx.

Also, try a new user account. This is merely a test, not a solution. If everything is zippy in the new account, then the problem is in your old user account, and therefore a new system is not needed.

 

[MPB11]

I just did an SMC reset for the first time ever. There is no way to figure out if it really worked but so far my laptop is responding faster!

----------

oh well.....forget what I just said...

 

[Oldmanmac]

What, if anything, will you lose by resetting the SMC? i.e. would I have to re-apply id's, passwords or settings?

 

[GGJstudios]

What, if anything, will you lose by resetting the SMC? i.e. would I have to re-apply id's, passwords or settings?

You won't lose anything. The first link in my other post will give you information about the SMC.