Slow Macbook after installing SSD

[caslie]

Hi there!

This is my first post on Mac Rumors, I hope to find some help here with my problems on this Macbook Pro (Mid 2012).

So my brother came to me with his Macbook Pro, it used to run smoothly with no issues until one day. Now it has very long boot times and a lot of lag with the spinning wheel running. Starting up apps takes very long, it's very annoying to work with.

I had this problem before with my own device and even with other Macbook Pro's I fixed, every time it was the hard drive that was failing so I replaced it with a new SSD. I did the same with my brother's Macbook Pro but this didn't solve the problems it had. The installation (bootable USB) took very long, I think like 4-5 hours.

After installation the boot time is even slower then before and it still has the same performance problems. If I connect the original HDD through an USB/SATA cable it still has the same symptoms. So the problem isn't the hard drive, ssd or internal sata cable.

After this I did a PRAM and SMC reset, this didn't help either.

The Apple Hardware Test didn't detect any problems.

I don't know what to do next. Can anyone here help me with this?
I hope it's not something like logic board/cpu failure.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Hi there!

This is my first post on Mac Rumors, I hope to find some help here with my problems on this Macbook Pro (Mid 2012).

So my brother came to me with his Macbook Pro, it used to run smoothly with no issues until one day. Now it has very long boot times and a lot of lag with the spinning wheel running. Starting up apps takes very long, it's very annoying to work with.

I had this problem before with my own device and even with other Macbook Pro's I fixed, every time it was the hard drive that was failing so I replaced it with a new SSD. I did the same with my brother's Macbook Pro but this didn't solve the problems it had. The installation (bootable USB) took very long, I think like 4-5 hours.

After installation the boot time is even slower then before and it still has the same performance problems. If I connect the original HDD through an USB/SATA cable it still has the same symptoms. So the problem isn't the hard drive, ssd or internal sata cable.

After this I did a PRAM and SMC reset, this didn't help either.

The Apple Hardware Test didn't detect any problems.

I don't know what to do next. Can anyone here help me with this?
I hope it's not something like logic board/cpu failure.

Thanks in advance!

The SATA cable from the logic board to the drive is notoriously flaky in the unibody, pre retina machines, they are cheap $20 from Amazon and easy to replace.
I notice you seem to think that the old one still being slow precludes it being a SATA cable, I think this is false logic, there. Is no reason it couldn't be both a dodgy hard drive and a dodgy SATA cable, or that the SATA cable has been compromised in the drive swap.

 

[caslie]

The SATA cable from the logic board to the drive is notoriously flaky in the unibody, pre retina machines, they are cheap $20 from Amazon and easy to replace.
I notice you seem to think that the old one still being slow precludes it being a SATA cable, I think this is false logic, there. Is no reason it couldn't be both a dodgy hard drive and a dodgy SATA cable, or that the SATA cable has been compromised in the drive swap.

Thanks for your reply, but like I said, I have exactly the same issues when I boot up the original HDD externally with an usb/sata cable. So I don't think the internal sata cable is the issue here.

 

[JTToft]

Thanks for your reply, but like I said, I have exactly the same issues when I boot up the original HDD externally with an usb/sata cable. So I don't think the internal sata cable is the issue here.

- Did you try connecting the new SSD externally? It's not at all impossible to have both a failed hard drive and a bad internal SATA cable, like Samuel suggested.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

And as I stated there could be an issue with both the hard drive and the cable nothing you have done has ruled it out or ruled out cable damage during the upgrade to SSD.

As its a $20 fix it's probably cheaper than getting the problem diagnosed it's got to be worth a try before you start looking at logic boards etc....

You also don't state if it's a 13 or a a 15 inch machine if it's a 15 inch machine it could be the start of graphics card problems, I hope for your sake it's the SATA cable.

 

[JTToft]

You also don't state if it's a 13 or a a 15 inch machine if it's a 15 inch machine it could be the start of graphics card problems, I hope for your sake it's the SATA cable.

- I completely agree with your overall diagnosis. But the 2012 classic models aren't among the ones affected by the GPU issues, so that's unlikely to be the case here.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

- I completely agree with your overall diagnosis. But the 2012 classic models aren't among the ones affected by the GPU issues, so that isn't the case here.

Not endemic ones no but any dGPU can fail at any time just because it's not a design issue doesn't mean it's not possible and even likely. DGPU's are the most likely part to fail after a hard drive on any computer and in a Notebook even more so.

 

[caslie]

It's the 15 inch model. I'll try if it has the same issues when the SSD is connected externally like JTToft said.

Thanks for the replies!
[doublepost=1470146972][/doublepost]So I booted the SSD externally and it works like a charm. Samuelsan2001, I think you where right about the sata cable problem. At first I didn't quite get what you where trying to say, but now it makes sense because the only proper way of booting is externally with the new SSD.

Thanks for al the help guys, I'm gonna replace the internal sata cable (and hopes this works).

 

[JTToft]

Not endemic ones no but any dGPU can fail at any time just because it's not a design issue doesn't mean it's not possible and even likely. DGPU's are the most likely part to fail after a hard drive on any computer and in a Notebook even more so.

- Yes, I edited my post to soften up my statement a bit after you quoted it.
But I think we're a far way off from that being the most likely culprit here.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

It's the 15 inch model. I'll try if it has the same issues when the SSD is connected externally like JTToft said.

Thanks for the replies!
[doublepost=1470146972][/doublepost]So I booted the SSD externally and it works like a charm. Samuelsan2001, I think you where right about the sata cable problem. At first I didn't quite get what you where trying to say, but now it makes sense because the only proper way of booting is externally with the new SSD.

Thanks for al the help guys, I'm gonna replace the internal sata cable (and hopes this works).

Awesome I hope that works for you, it's the cheapest fix around....