My MBP (Mid-2012, 13", non-retina), running Mojave, suddenly began experiencing massive slowdown w/ spinning beachball every time I perform any kind of action whatsoever, seizing entirely for about a minute at a time. The computer will then run as normal until I so much as click on a folder or application, then seize for another minute or so. Some searching lead me to believe this was related to the adsp process, and a missing serial number. Upon checking System Information I found that the serial number was showing as "Unavailable", and in Terminal, the adsp process did seem to be spiking in CPU use coinciding with the freezes. However, using Terminal to disable the adsp process did nothing to alleviate the issue. I then followed the process to repair the missing serial number, using the Blank Board Serializer software. This seemingly worked, and upon rebooting my laptop, it ran smoothly, and System Information reported the correct serial number. However, after about five minutes of use, the hitching returned.
System Information still reports the correct serial number, so this was perhaps a symptom, rather than the cause of the issue. Strangely, the laptop does now seem to run smoothly for a few minutes after rebooting, whereas before the hitching was immediate, and made even entering my password to log in an issue. Another thing to note is that from my searching, the missing serial number issue is usually caused when the logic board is replaced, and the serial number is not written to the new board. I have never had the logic board in my laptop replaced. I have installed a new battery and an SSD, but both of these upgrades were made over a year ago, and the machine was running entirely smoothly until last night. I did find a handful of old forum posts from users who have had similar issue in the past, also never having had their logic board replaced, but none ever discovering what the root cause was.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated, even if it's just that the machine is as good as dead.
Edit: I have also tried booting into Safe Mode, which had no effect on the hitching.
System Information still reports the correct serial number, so this was perhaps a symptom, rather than the cause of the issue. Strangely, the laptop does now seem to run smoothly for a few minutes after rebooting, whereas before the hitching was immediate, and made even entering my password to log in an issue. Another thing to note is that from my searching, the missing serial number issue is usually caused when the logic board is replaced, and the serial number is not written to the new board. I have never had the logic board in my laptop replaced. I have installed a new battery and an SSD, but both of these upgrades were made over a year ago, and the machine was running entirely smoothly until last night. I did find a handful of old forum posts from users who have had similar issue in the past, also never having had their logic board replaced, but none ever discovering what the root cause was.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated, even if it's just that the machine is as good as dead.
Edit: I have also tried booting into Safe Mode, which had no effect on the hitching.
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