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Filmboy490

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 12, 2017
3
1
I just flew from Brooklyn to Berlin and found a snafu using my laptop for a time-sensitive film project. En route in Dusseldorf, I experienced a distinct slow speed of my laptop to process simple commands like opening a folder or shutting down. It was running just fine until I opened the laptop again to continue writing a MSWord document, suddenly everything was slow and every click resulted in the cycling of the colored spindle. There was no special or extra bump on the laptop to cause problems. The colored spindle just rotates for several minutes before engaging in an assigned task. I went through three tests like resetting SMC, NVPRAM, and Apple Hardware Test, all of which show no problem to the computer from these tests. Disk utility shows no errors or repairs needed. A system report shows no errors or flags, and kernel task is under 2% of CPU and uses 834MB of Disk.

The first time I did it, I did notice the laptop was very responsive from the smc test but the problem of slow lag occurred a few moments later. There are no applications open, I performed malware tests using Avast software. The internal OWC 6G extreme pro 480GB SSD still has 90GB free. This SSD is 3.5 years old.

Specs:
MBP 9,2 13 " Mid -2012
Intel Core i7
Memory: 8GB
Processor: 2.9 GHZ
OSX: 10.11.6

Any ideas to fix the lag?
 

keysofanxiety

macrumors G3
Nov 23, 2011
9,539
25,302
The issue you're encountering is due to a failing HDD SATA cable. It's a widespread issue on your model and Apple have a silent repair program for it.

If you pop into an Apple Store or AASP, they'll replace the cable free of charge for you. :)
 
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Filmboy490

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 12, 2017
3
1
Great! Oddly enough, 2 years ago in Berlin the local AASP gave me a new cable. I will go now....again.
 

keysofanxiety

macrumors G3
Nov 23, 2011
9,539
25,302
Great! Oddly enough, 2 years ago in Berlin the local AASP gave me a new cable. I will go now....again.

Yeah they tend to fail quite frequently as they get corroded from air/dust alone. The replacement SATA cables don't have a different design either, still flawed without appropriate shielding.
 
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Filmboy490

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 12, 2017
3
1
Yeah they tend to fail quite frequently as they get corroded from air/dust alone. The replacement SATA cables don't have a different design either, still flawed without appropriate shielding.

Great and thanks! It worked. Damn cable. Its gone bad 2x in my MPB over 4 years.
 
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DeltaMac

macrumors G5
Jul 30, 2003
13,749
4,572
Delaware
You might also be experiencing symptoms of hard drive failure.
Is the hard drive original (near 5 years old)?
 
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