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Macbook woes


DJ Rock Well

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Not sure if anyone here can help with this...

 

I've got a 5 year old MBP (i7 + 8GB) still running the Snow Leopard OS it came with. Until a few days back it ran amazingly well considering it's age and I've always been quite careful with how I've used it, the hard drive is only about 65% full, etc.

 

A recently my battery stopped recharging and it cut out the other night (which was when I realised the battery was done.). When I restarted it, I briefly saw the grey screen with the row of darker grey oblong tabs near the bottom of the screen, then it fired up. But ever since it's been behaving strangely. The best way I can describe it is it's like it now has about 20-25% of the processing power it should have. Simple things like internet browsing and other relatively non-taxing things run as quickly and smoothly as ever, but I soon as I try to even play a basic-ish beat in Maschine say that normally would on just make the cpu meter barely flicker, it maxes out and glitches the audio. What size sample buffer I select on the soundcard (internal or an external one) doesn't affect the cpu usage as it normally does when you wind it up and down either. But the meter does seem to be accurately reflect what's going on with the cpu - a beat of just a couple of unprocessed sounds just plays for instance, cpu meter right near the top though. Stuff like higher res youtube videos that normally are fine are making nasty pops and glitching too.

 

No problems with programs being slow to open or shutdown. Not seeing the spinning umbrella anywhere at all. In fact I've run Onyx for cleaning and disc permissions and for light stuff its working as well as it ever has, none of the usual signs of a slow or upset computer. It just like 3/4 of the processor has vanished.

 

Any ideas what I could try?

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Guest Symatic

You could fire up activity monitor (applications/utilities/application monitor) and confirm whats going on is cpu related or RAM related. Did you ever get a new battery either? Wondering if that messes with the computer.

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Guest Symatic

I dunno what the grey tabs are? Did that happen before you got to the desktop yeah?

 

Also try checking about this mac (under the little apple menu top left) and go to system information or whatever it is. You can see things like your RAM (listed as memory possibly) and it might say if the ram is all working.

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Thanks fellas, all things I'll check.

 

Chris - this sounds entirely possible - sadly I'm that much of a computer 'tard I didn't know this was possible, it does feel more like when a car gets upset and goes into 'limp home mode' than broken TBH.

 

Come to think about it, my old white MacBook my Mrs now has also lost its battery a while back and that's been running pretty poorly since around that time too, hmmmmm.

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Guest Symatic

i haven't actually bought one before, but i remember amazon reviews for a single model ranging from "this thing blew up my computer" to "this thing is amazing and is better than the original".

 

so to answer your question...... ERrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

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Yeah, it's the Amazon reviews in particular I was looking to circumnavigate! Don't get me started on them.

 

Actually I've just been trawling very dull computing sites and forums for answers and I've at least got a few names that are at least reputable brands rather than ones who were invented just last week in the Chinese province of your choice.

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All the recommended ones on tech sites don't seem to exist anymore, so I've just ordered one of the Amazon ones. I went for the one with the best reviews that seems to be a 'proper' company. Only £40 and if all goes to plan, 2017 will be the year I get a new laptop and my gf can have my old one for watching drivel on.

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Guest petesasqwax

Can you not just upgrade the RAM to 16, mate? Your 5 yr old i7 laptop shits on my new one AND my desktop (both i5) on everything aside from RAM and they run Ableton, Maschine and anything I throw at them like a (slightly moist) dream.

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Well... you can't get them very easily at the moment. When you can they're about £150 but nobody seems to have stock at the moment, except for Apple and then only if you pay them to fit it in a town miles away (for me).

 

More pertinently, I've just I've just fitted the new battery and although it came with some charge and slipped straight in, it's not charging either! I have a feeling this whole charging issue is not my battery but the bloody charger all along. And yes, I should've checked that first!!!!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

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