PLEASE HELP! MBP 2010 very slow with Yosemite!

[iapple12399]

Hi, please help me out with this! So I have a MBP Mid 2010, 2.66ghz, 15inch, 500gb hd, 4gb ram. Recently Mavericks has been acting up on my computer (it would occasionally restart my computer when using the mail app or sometimes safari), so I decided to upgrade to Yosemite thinking maybe by now despite what people said that Yosemite 10.10 would have better updates then when it first came out. WORST MISTAKE EVER! It has made my computer PAINFULLY SLOW! And I have like 300gb free space on my computer too. It was working fine with mavericks, but I decided to update because of the restarting issue that was happening lately. I would rather have my computer restart then it being this slow. I am very mad at apple for this, nobody cares about pretty fonts, we want a good os! And they are being very careless not fixing this issue so many people are having, and it's definitely because the software is FREE and not something they are making money off of selling. I love apple but man this just makes them look bad and I'm very disappointed with their "most powerful software yet" and carelessness towards fixing it. Anyway the problem is I don't have any time machine back ups, which is bad I know, so what can I do to downgrade back to mavericks without losing data or any other advice to perhaps make yosemite more usable or to fix this? (Also I don't want to upgrade ram or anything). And please explain it in simple terms lol. Should I use a USB, put all my files on there, reset computer, and reinstall mavericks through the app store or something? Not really sure what to do, I want to do this without losing any data please. Thanks so much in advance!

 

[Fishrrman]

Simple solution:
Put an SSD into the MacBook.

You will be AMAZED at the speed improvement.

Doing the "drive swap" on a 2010 MBpro is as easy as it gets. Hardest part is removing all the screws on the back, and replacing them afterwards.
JUST BE SURE YOU USE THE RIGHT TOOLS (shouting intentional).
You'll need a Phillips #00 screwdriver and a TORX T-6 driver (can be found at hardware stores, Home Depot, Lowe's, or online).

Use "ifixit.com" to find the proper installation guide.
ANYONE can do this procedure.

Strong suggestion:
Do the "prepping and testing" of the new SSD BEFORE you install it.
Get a decent external enclosure like this:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003VKTJGW...UTF8&colid=R75PP4I2A0BE&coliid=I3DOKZ31SP7539

Things will just go smoother that way.
Afterwards, put the old HDD into the enclosure and use for extra storage or as a bootable backup.

 

[iapple12399]

Simple solution:
Put an SSD into the MacBook.

You will be AMAZED at the speed improvement.

Doing the "drive swap" on a 2010 MBpro is as easy as it gets. Hardest part is removing all the screws on the back, and replacing them afterwards.
JUST BE SURE YOU USE THE RIGHT TOOLS (shouting intentional).
You'll need a Phillips #00 screwdriver and a TORX T-6 driver (can be found at hardware stores, Home Depot, Lowe's, or online).

Use "ifixit.com" to find the proper installation guide.
ANYONE can do this procedure.

Strong suggestion:
Do the "prepping and testing" of the new SSD BEFORE you install it.
Get a decent external enclosure like this:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003VKTJGW...UTF8&colid=R75PP4I2A0BE&coliid=I3DOKZ31SP7539

Things will just go smoother that way.
Afterwards, put the old HDD into the enclosure and use for extra storage or as a bootable backup.

Thanks for the suggestion and reply. But I stated I do not want to upgrade ram, so I definitely wouldn't want to upgrade the ssd either being that I only run simple apps so I don't want to spend more/open up computer when mavericks was working perfectly fine before.

 

[Eithanius]

Then you best bet is to backup your data onto an external drive, then erase and install Mavericks again...

 

[iapple12399]

Then you best bet is to backup your data onto an external drive, then erase and install Mavericks again...

Thanks I was thinking of doing that. How do I do that exactly though? Can I put important files on a usb or something, then disk utility>erase, then afterwards what do I do? Set up as new computer and when signing into app store download mavericks? (Btw when I tried installing mavericks while on yosemite, it said that os is too old. That shouldn't happen after erasing everything right?) Thanks in advance.

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Also unless anyone has any suggestions how to speed it up. I tried reseting pram, reducing transparency, all of those quick tips, which have helped a bit, but boot up time takes minutes whereas before it was seconds, and also too many beachballs after simple tasks like switching safari tabs or opening up an app etc.

 

[Badrottie]

Then you best bet is to backup your data onto an external drive, then erase and install Mavericks again...

No, I think he or she can install Snow Leopard OS and be happy.

 

[TETENAL]

This could be a symptom of a dying hard drive.

The first thing you should do is buy an external hard drive and make a Time Machine backup. You absolutely should do this no matter what.

Then you should open Console.app and check the messages for some hints what might be wrong. And check the hard drive in Disk Utility.app (but do not repair it before you made a backup!)

If the hard drive is indeed dying, you might consider replacing it with an SSD, as has been suggested, for some extra speed.

 

[iapple12399]

This could be a symptom of a dying hard drive.

The first thing you should do is buy an external hard drive and make a Time Machine backup. You absolutely should do this no matter what.

Then you should open Console.app and check the messages for some hints what might be wrong. And check the hard drive in Disk Utility.app (but do not repair it before you made a backup!)

If the hard drive is indeed dying, you might consider replacing it with an SSD, as has been suggested, for some extra speed.

Thanks. I did "verify disk" in disk utility and it says it's fine. But I will purchase an external hard drive, thanks for the suggestion.

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No, I think he or she can install Snow Leopard OS and be happy.

Thanks! I actually have a snow leopard install disk as well. So how would I go about installing it (since it won't allow me to with the new software): reset everything (after backing up on an external drive) then use the install disk and that's it? Also the same method can be applied to installing mavericks right? Thanks.

 

[drwka]

A possible solution!

Hi,

I may have a slightly easier solution for you, one I stumbled on accidentally...

Do you have Microsoft Office 2011 installed? And do you still have your original CD or your original download key?

If so, try COMPLETELY uninstalling it (there are instructions to do that if you google "completely uninstall microsoft office 2011") and then do a fresh reinstall.

I had to do a reinstall of MS office for other reasons, and it had the wonderful side effect of eliminating all of the terrible slowdowns I was experiencing with Yosemite. Safari, the Finder, and all of my applications open almost instantly, and I'm not getting spinning rainbows or issues with memory pressure.

I originally had to do this on my 2012 MB Pro. But it ALSO helped, immensely, on our 2009 MacBook, which has only 4 GB of memory. It's like a new machine.

The uninstall/reinstall took about 30 minutes total.

I haven't seen this suggestion on any other forums, even though I've been googling "Yosemite is slow" for months now. So I registered to this forum today to share this tip. Hope it helps you! Good luck!!