If the existing disk drive is close to its capacity being fully used then see if you can get the contents down to 80% of disk capacity.
Failing that I would replace the disk drive with a solid state drive (SSD). If the MacBook already has an SSD then it probably needs erasing and restoring its contents. Maybe if the MacBook only has 4GB of memory I’d up it to 8 GB but on the Maci’s version you mention 4GB should work. The latest OS, Catalina, works best with SSD drive storage. SSD/8GB works really well with Catalina for a 2013 MacBook. Regards, Tony Sent from my iPhone Email: [email protected] Tel: +44 7428 706227 > On 5 May 2020, at 15:15, 'Jason Davies' via Sussex Mac User Group > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > I'll throw in one more to this excellent list (and it's a very likely > contender so try it sooner rather than later) - I wonder if it's low on RAM? > The clumsy but easy way to find out is to quit everything but the Finder and > see if it's more responsive. Looking at 'About this Mac' (under the apple > menu, it will say 'Memory' then probably 4 gigs) will help work this out. If > it's 4, it's probably RAM shortage. > > The exact way is to fire up Activity Monitor and select the tab marked > 'Memory'. If the graph below is green when these things are running, it's > fine. If it's red, the machine doesn't have enough RAM and you should try > quitting everything you can do without. Please note individual tabs in Safari > can easily be chewing up 100 mb each so close all unused tabs too. > > 4 gigs is really pushing it nowadays as the OS takes so much so if it is > that, I'd consider upgrading the RAM and/or getting SSD (doesn't always cure > this slowness though, oddly). > > good luck, > Jason > > On 5 May 2020, at 12:25, John Patrick wrote: > > Hi Tilly, > > Few questions I would normally ask; > > 1. Is it HHD (Hard Disk) or SSD (Solid State Disk)? > - I've got a 2013 MBP with an SSD and 16GB Ram and it's still lightning fast > > 2. How full is the hard disk? > - Often the closer to full a hard drive gets the slower it is, due to > how it allocates new things it saves and have it prevents ssd having > the same memory over used. > - For non MacOS I run SpinRite which is a HHD health check and > recovery tool and can often spring life back into a hard disk. > > 3. Have you tried another browser like Firefox or Chrome or Safari? > - As some websites seam faster / slower in different browsers > > 4. Is it setup for Timemachine backups? > - When was the last backup? > - Is it trying to do a backup, try pausing backup and retesting > > 5. Try speedtest https://www.speedtest.net/ > - In some rooms I get dramatically different speeds and different latencies > - Lots of websites, especially video or audit don't handle high latency > - Also some websites might fail to load correctly is high latency > > 6. Have you tried updating to the latest macos version? > - 10.15.4 macOS Catalina is the latest version > - be aware some older programs might stop working after upgrade, so > maybe do full time machine backup beforehand so you can revert. > > 7. Do you have Anti Virus? > - Some are better than others > - If you do check, latest version, check it isn't doing a fully scan > but you might be shutting it down before it completes so on next > restart it will start from the beginning again. > > 8. When was the last restart? > - Sometimes my macbook won't be restart for 6 months > > 9. What is setup to automatically start at login > - System Preferences -> Users & Groups -> Select the User -> Login Items > > None of the above might help, but it might aid understand what is no > slowing it down. > > John > > > > On Tue, 5 May 2020 at 10:58, Tilly <[email protected]> wrote: > > Dear All, > Any suggestions appreciated. My son has a MacBook Pro (about 3 years old) and > is using it for Googlehangouts for college work. Today it has taken about 25 > minutes for him to get on to the class he is supposed to be in. I hadn't > realised how ridiculously slow his laptop is - I can't see any particular > reason for it. Are there some ways to speed it up? I seem to remember in the > old days we had to 'Zap the Pram' - is that still something we should try? > And how would we do it? Sorry if all this is pretty basic but I thought I'd > reach out to you guys as I know someone will know what to do. > thanks > Tilly > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Sussex Mac User Group" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/smug/8cc1cda2-e5a7-47dd-8a71-1564d1c57bf5%40googlegroups.com. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Sussex Mac User Group" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/smug/CAH9u10njmnHO9CD9wrifQWtXNWbo4FmQu_6yEkF%3Dy5LigkmyYw%40mail.gmail.com. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Sussex Mac User Group" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/smug/8397E2AF-2377-4904-A919-6AE28929ECD9%40me.com. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Sussex Mac User Group" group. 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