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MBP mid-2010 beachballing

K

_katie

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 2, 2017
6
0
spain
Hi! My mid-2010 MBP, running on El Capitan 10.11.3, has become very slow and beachballs very quickly after a re-boot. This beachballing has started a few times this summer, any time i visited a place where it was 35C+, but it usually behaves normal once I am back home. After this last trip, though, it didn´t get back to normal functioning.

What i´ve done so far:

-activity monitor shows nothing suspect: no processes consuming a lot of cpu/memory; memory bar green
-disk utility check comes out clean

-i´ve reset the SMC and NVRAM, but there was no change after either reset (these resets were also a day apart)
-i´ve tried to do an os update, both online and off-, but it freezes before finishing
-i tried to do a hardware diagnostics, both with "d" and "option + d" at start-up, but it didn´t recognise these

-in safeboot, it freezes significantly less . . . but it is still beachballing after more than one application is open or an application is running for more than ca. 10 minutes


in any case, below is an EtreCheck. Thanks for any help!





EtreCheck version: 3.4.5 (455)

Report generated 2017-10-02 15:54:19

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 5:28

Performance: Below Average



Click the [Lookup] links for more information from Apple Support Communities.

Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.



Problem: Beachballing



Hardware Information: ⓘ

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010)

[Technical Specifications] - [User Guide] - [Warranty & Service]

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro7,1

1 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (Duo) CPU: 2-core

8 GB RAM Upgradeable - [Instructions]

BANK 0/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1067 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1067 MHz ok

Handoff/Airdrop2: not supported

Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n

Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 455



Video Information: ⓘ

NVIDIA GeForce 320M - VRAM: 256 MB



Disk Information: ⓘ

SAMSUNG HN-M101MBB disk0: (1 TB) (Rotational)

[Show SMART report]

(disk0s1) <not mounted> [EFI]: 210 MB

system (disk0s2 - Journaled HFS+) / [Startup]: 999.35 GB (897.38 GB free)

(disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB



MATSHITADVD-R UJ-898 ()



USB Information: ⓘ

USB20Bus

Apple Inc. Built-in iSight

USB20Bus

Apple Card Reader

USBBus

USBBus

Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad



Virtual disks: ⓘ

Malwarebytes (disk2s1 - HFS+) /Volumes/Malwarebytes : 25 MB (10 MB free)

Physical disk: Disk Image 25 MB (10 MB free)



System Software: ⓘ

OS X El Capitan 10.11.3 (15D21) - Time since boot: less than an hour



Gatekeeper: ⓘ

Mac App Store and identified developers



Kernel Extensions: ⓘ

/Library/Extensions

[not loaded] com.sophos.kext.oas (9.6.53 - SDK 10.11) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.sophos.nke.swi (9.6.51 - SDK 10.11) [Lookup]



System Launch Agents: ⓘ

[not loaded] 7 Apple tasks

[loaded] 170 Apple tasks

[running] 59 Apple tasks



System Launch Daemons: ⓘ

[failed] com.apple.ucupdate.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2016-01-14)

[failed] com.apple.watchdogd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2016-01-14)

[not loaded] 46 Apple tasks

[loaded] 160 Apple tasks

[running] 79 Apple tasks



Launch Agents: ⓘ

[not loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (Google, Inc. - installed 2017-07-10) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.sophos.agent.plist (Sophos - installed 2017-09-01) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.sophos.uiserver.plist (Sophos - installed 2017-09-01) [Lookup]



Launch Daemons: ⓘ

[not loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist (? 2afb3af7 4898e928 - installed 2017-08-29) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.apple.installer.cleanupinstaller.plist (? ? ? - installed 2017-10-01)

[not loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist (Google, Inc. - installed 2017-07-27) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist (? 6d8cb30e afb3bef0 - installed 2010-08-25) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.sophos.common.servicemanager.plist (Sophos - installed 2017-09-01) [Lookup]

[not loaded] jp.co.canon.MasterInstaller.plist (Canon Inc. - installed 2017-07-23) [Lookup]



User Launch Agents: ⓘ

[not loaded] com.skype.skype.shareagent.plist (Skype Communications S.a.r.l - installed 2017-09-25) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.spotify.webhelper.plist (Spotify - installed 2017-04-13) [Lookup]



Internet Plug-ins: ⓘ

FlashPlayer-10.6: 27.0.0.130 (installed 2017-09-13) [Lookup]

QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (installed 2016-01-14)

Flash Player: 27.0.0.130 (installed 2017-09-13) [Lookup]

EPPEX Plugin: 10.0 (installed 2016-05-23) [Lookup]

Default Browser: 601 (installed 2016-01-14)

o1dbrowserplugin: 5.41.3.0 (installed 2017-03-15) [Lookup]

SharePointBrowserPlugin: 14.0.0 (installed 2010-08-25) [Lookup]

googletalkbrowserplugin: 5.41.3.0 (installed 2015-12-11) [Lookup]

Silverlight: 5.1.50901.0 (installed 2016-10-31) [Lookup]

JavaAppletPlugin: 15.0.1 (installed 2016-07-06) Check version



User internet Plug-ins: ⓘ

OctoshapeWeb: 1.0 (installed 2016-11-11) [Lookup]



Safari Extensions: ⓘ

[enabled] AdBlock - BetaFish, Inc. - https://getadblock.com (installed 2017-08-05)



3rd Party Preference Panes: ⓘ

Flash Player (installed 2017-08-29) [Lookup]

TeXDistPrefPane (installed 2016-03-08) [Lookup]



Time Machine: ⓘ

Time Machine not configured!



Top Processes by CPU: ⓘ

2% ps

2% WindowServer

1% kernel_task

0% launchd

0% fontd



Top Processes by Memory: ⓘ

511 MB kernel_task

128 MB iconservicesagent

113 MB Finder

90 MB WindowServer

82 MB QuickLookSatellite



Top Processes by Energy Use: ⓘ

2.42 WindowServer

0.76 launchd

0.04 syslogd

0.04 notifyd



Virtual Memory Information: ⓘ

4.03 GB Available RAM

2.14 GB Free RAM

3.97 GB Used RAM

1.89 GB Cached files

0 B Swap Used



Software installs: ⓘ

Adobe Flash Player: (installed 2017-09-13)



Install information may not be complete.



Diagnostics Information: ⓘ

2017-10-02 15:49:57 system_profiler Crash [Open]

Cause: arguments: (

"/usr/sbin/system_profiler",

"-nospawn",

"-xml",

SPLogsDataType,

"-detailLevel",

full

), dataType: SPLogsDataType

*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSFileHandleOperationException', reason: '*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle readDataOfLength:]: Input/output error'

terminating with uncaught exception of type NSException

abort() called

2017-10-02 15:01:53 cleanup_installer Crash [Open]

2017-10-02 11:11:50 Software Update.app Crash [Open]

Cause: *** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSGenericException', reason: 'Task created in a session that has been invalidated'

abort() called

terminating with uncaught exception of type NSException

2017-10-01 15:18:10 MacClean.app Crash [Open]

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)
 
That gives every indication of a failing hard drive. Replace it, or at least try it with a different one, and see if that fixes it.
 
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Audit13 said:
It may not be the drive, it may be a failing sata hard drive cable. Same thing happened to a 2009 15" MBP and a 2010 13" MBP.
Click to expand...

is there any way to test the difference before going in?

(would be my first time replacing hardware, which is why i am hesitant.)
 
You can test my theory by running the os off an external drive and see if it beach balls. If that isn't possible, I would change the cable using a third party replacement. It's not difficult to do, you just need to proceed slowly.
 
Audit13 said:
You can test my theory by running the os off an external drive and see if it beach balls. If that isn't possible, I would change the cable using a third party replacement. It's not difficult to do, you just need to proceed slowly.
Click to expand...
okay, thanks! i will try it.
 
It does sound like a failing drive. Would a 35C temps actually affect a cable?

Anyhow, you're long overdue for an SSD.
 
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Cables on the 2009 to 2012 are known to fail.

Up to July, 2017, apple stores were replacing the cables on the 2012 13" for free. The 2011 and older don't qualify as they are considered "vintage".
 
It still may be premature to declare it to be the problem with the cable.
 
EugW said:
It still may be premature to declare it to be the problem with the cable.
Click to expand...
so you suggest replacing the hard drive before trying the cable? i completely agree about being long overdue for a ssd. . so i am tempted to begin with this option (a crucial bx300 is my current choice).
 
It could require a cable or drive replacement. I suggested the cable because there have been other threads where the same thing occurred and a cable replacement was required.

Here's what I have done in the past to determine the likelihood that it's the drive cable:

1) remove the drive and place it into a DVD hard drive caddy in place of the optical drive;
2) remove the drive and place it into a USB enclosure and boot from there;
3) install an SSD and see if it solves the issue.

If the beachball effect goes away, it's probably the cable and, hopefully, not a logic board problem.

I also have a mid-2010 15" i5 MBP with the infamous GPU capacitor issue sitting in front of me. When I replaced the mechanical drive with an SSD, DU would format but not install Sierra. Once I changed the hard drive cable, Sierra and High Sierra installed without any issues.

After installing an SSD, ensure that trim is enabled through system report. If it is not enabled, it can be enabled through terminal by typing "sudo trimforce enable" (without quotes), pressing enter, and following the on-screen prompts.
 
Last edited:
Removal of the drive from the hot computer and having it behave normally externally doesn’t completely rule out the drive. The reason I say this is because marginal drives sometimes will behave this way when overheating.

Up to you to decide which to try first.
 
honestly, i wouldn´t mind going through the extra steps to see if it is the cable, but i also don´t have all these caddies and enclosures and whatnot lying around. (i also just moved to a new city/country, so i can´t "ask a friend".)

i think i will hedge my bets and go for the hard drive option first, since it is a good thing to upgrade anyway. if that fails, i will try to replace the cable/check out the trim, per Audit13´s instructions.

thanks for your suggestions !
 
The OP has returned home where the ambient temperature did not cause problems before.

If the drive is overheating, I agree that it could be due to a marginal drive malfunction in which case I would want it out of my Macbook and into an enclosure so I could back up my data and run tests on it from another machine.

If the drive is overheating because the Macbook is overheating, this would be a more serious problem.

Regardless of which route is taken, it will involve some troubleshooting.
 
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I would back up now regardless, if possible.

FWIW, it should be easier to replace the drive than replace the cable. However, whatever you do, you may need specialized screwdrivers.
 
EugW said:
I would back up now regardless, if possible.

FWIW, it should be easier to replace the drive than replace the cable. However, whatever you do, you may need specialized screwdrivers.
Click to expand...

^^that´s what it seems from the tutorials i´ve been reading. but i also do see a lot of fixes from replacing the cable for this era of mbp, so i wouldn´t be surprised if this ends up being the solution.

yup, spent the afternoon backing up and figuring out the spanish equivalent of "spudger" and phillips-type screwdriver

now i just have to wait for the postman...
 
One thing I always advise doing is disconnecting the battery as soon as you remove the bottom panel. If you drop a metal object onto the logic board while connected to the battery, this may cause severe damage to the logic board components.

You will need a small Philips screw driver to remove the bottom screws and internal hard drive retention bracket.
 
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