RESOLVED: Lots of Sierra problems - poor scrolling, fans spinning, etc

[ls1dreams]

Hi all,

I recently upgraded my 2011 Macbook Pro (8gb ram/SSD) from El Cap to Sierra 10.12.5.
Previously, I had no issues, but the macbook did run a bit hot and fans ran under load all the time.

Now, I'm facing 2 major problems:

1. My touchpad scrolling is awful and inconsistent. It will do 1-2 normal scrolls, and then like a very short scroll or none at all. (Latest version of chrome, but also seems to happen with finder and others).

2. My fans are running nearly constantly under any kind of load now, way, way more than before, and this happened immediately after upgrading.

What I've tried:
- Checked activity monitor for anything running - spotlight is not indexing, and apple photos is not enabled so neither of those are hogging the background
- No update processes running in the background
- Reset SMC since I read that it sometimes can help with fans
- Ran hardware diagnostics on reboot - everything came back normal

None of these have changed anything, and I'm just about to revert back to El Cap unless someone has ideas.

Anything else I could check last minute before giving up? Should I post some kind of system logs?

UPDATE: This is a Google Chrome issue. Google apparently stopped supporting graphics acceleration for HD3000 chipsets (and possibly HD4000 chipsets) in mid-2016. That means anything Chrome related is incredibly slow and cpu bound. (Slack and other apps for example use electron to run them which = chrome). Switch to Safari or Firefox!!!

https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/#!topic/chromium-reviews/I6dL_9IAwiE

 

[andreyush]

Go back to ElCap and wait for HighSierra

I installed Sierra too and I barely have 2 or 3 programs compatible or updated with it.
ElCap is stable and is still good. Also it's not worth to update to Sierra. it's not that of a big deal

 

[keysofanxiety]

13" or 15"/17"?

 

[ls1dreams]

13" or 15"/17"?

13" early 2011 with the i5-2415

 

[upandown]

Make a USB install stick and do a clean install. Solves many problems.

 

[ls1dreams]

Make a USB install stick and do a clean install. Solves many problems.

Was going to try that next!

 

[Audit13]

Running a clean install of Sierra on two different early 2011 13" MBP and no problems. I upgraded a third one from Yosemite to Sierra using the app store.

Hopefully, a fresh install will solve the issue.

 

[ls1dreams]

Running a clean install of Sierra on two different early 2011 13" MBP and no problems. I upgraded a third one from Yosemite to Sierra using the app store.

Hopefully, a fresh install will solve the issue.

Happy to report that a fresh install seems to be working fine so far! It does feel a little bit slower overall than El Cap, but that seems to be the trend.

EDIT: The problem returned. See below for the real "fix".

 

[Tech198]

Hi all,

I recently upgraded my 2011 Macbook Pro (8gb ram/SSD) from El Cap to Sierra 10.12.5.
Previously, I had no issues, but the macbook did run a bit hot and fans ran under load all the time.

Now, I'm facing 2 major problems:

1. My touchpad scrolling is awful and inconsistent. It will do 1-2 normal scrolls, and then like a very short scroll or none at all. (Latest version of chrome, but also seems to happen with finder and others).

2. My fans are running nearly constantly under any kind of load now, way, way more than before, and this happened immediately after upgrading.

What I've tried:
- Checked activity monitor for anything running - spotlight is not indexing, and apple photos is not enabled so neither of those are hogging the background
- No update processes running in the background
- Reset SMC since I read that it sometimes can help with fans
- Ran hardware diagnostics on reboot - everything came back normal

None of these have changed anything, and I'm just about to revert back to El Cap unless someone has ideas.

Anything else I could check last minute before giving up? Should I post some kind of system logs?

You forgot something: "clean install" We never do this with troubleshooting because we don't wanna back up, or it takes to much time to install the OS clean.. But its the one thing that always solves the issue is most cases...

Any issues with an upgrade and other troubleshooting issues tried and failed at , i always clean install, no matter what.

Only then, i freak out if it still bothers me.

 

[ls1dreams]

You forgot something: "clean install" We never do this with troubleshooting because we don't wanna back up, or it takes to much time to install the OS clean.. But its the one thing that always solves the issue is most cases...

Any issues with an upgrade and other troubleshooting issues tried and failed at , i always clean install, no matter what.

Only then, i freak out if it still bothers me.

It's funny because before Macs I re-installed Windows annually to keep it fast. My macbook had gone 6 years on upgrades only.

 

[ls1dreams]

UPDATE: This is a Google Chrome issue. Google apparently stopped supporting graphics acceleration for HD3000 chipsets (and possibly HD4000 chipsets) in mid-2016. That means anything Chrome related is incredibly slow and cpu bound. (Slack and other apps for example use electron to run them which = chrome). Switch to Safari or firefox.

https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/#!topic/chromium-reviews/I6dL_9IAwiE

 

[Taz Mangus]

UPDATE: This is a Google Chrome issue. Google apparently stopped supporting graphics acceleration for HD3000 chipsets (and possibly HD4000 chipsets) in mid-2016. That means anything Chrome related is incredibly slow and cpu bound. (Slack and other apps for example use electron to run them which = chrome). Switch to Safari or firefox.

https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/#!topic/chromium-reviews/I6dL_9IAwiE

Suggest you change the title of the thread to indicate the problem is resolved.

 

[ls1dreams]

Suggest you change the title of the thread to indicate the problem is resolved.

Done.