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Old laptop is beginning to be really slow... is this inevitable in the lifespan of a laptop, or can I do something to make it fast/like new again. (self.Frugal)

submitted ago by nameyname

Have an older macbook from around 2007. I've upgraded the ram and hard drive, so now it has about a 500gb hd w/ 130 gb left. Its battery is shot, but I can deal with that my just leaving it plugged in. Any idea how to make it run faster. Some things take forever to do... maybe it was always this way but seems to be getting really slow. I've defragged/repaired or whatever, and that didn't help much... and really don't want to buy a new laptop since I hardly use it anyway.

also bonus question: any suggestions for cheap ways to do laundry? its like $5.00 per load in my city at the laundromat and most of my friends are also in employee housing w/ the same situation.

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[–]astangl42 64 points65 points ago

I've talked to a lot of people who seem to think computers "wear out", inevitably get slower & slower. Some parts, like hard drives in particular, are prone to fail eventually, but don't generally deteriorate in a gradual pattern (except fragmentation and possibly bad sector relocation -- but once the latter starts happening, you're well-advised to replace the drive ASAP.)

What really happens in a lot of these situations is people accumulate a lot of junk on their machines, from various websites, junk they install, etc. If you are contemplating scraping the machine anyhow, try this first -- backup all your data on an external drive, and reformat your hard drive, and do a fresh install of the OS and the apps you really want/need, then restore your data files, and then see how your machine performs. It could end up feeling like a new machine, since in a sense it is.

For cheap laundry, how about a good (simple) used washer/dryer? They do make some for apartments, don't they?

[–]fomorian 4 points5 points ago

Is there a good guide out there for formatting computers? I once formatted a computer confident in the knowledge that I had backed everything up in the proper place, but after I reinstalled the OS, I didn't get any of the data back. It was ok, since none of the info on that computer was very important, but I've been dreading doing it again ever since.

[–]ImtheSlime 5 points6 points ago

The proper place is a separate drive or at least a separate partition.

[–]astangl42 6 points7 points ago

I don't know about a good guide, but it's a good practice to clearly delineate your user data files from your applications and OS. Back in the old days some users stored their important data files on a diskette. Nowdays, maybe a memory stick. Or perhaps under Windows you have them all in various directories under "My Documents". Under Unix they'd probably be under your home directory. I am not familiar enough with modern Macs to know how they organize data on the drives.

In any event, your user data is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING to backup. If you don't understand where your data is stored and are not sure of your backup, then you are living on borrowed time and just waiting for an eventual hard drive failure and data loss.

I'd suggest you try backing up your user data, then put a new hard drive in your machine. If your old drive dates from 2007, it's prone to fail soon, so this is a good exercise. New hard drive should come pre-formatted. Install OS and all your applications on your new drive, and then try to restore all your user data files. Store your old drive in a safe place as insurance. If you find you are missing anything, you can put your old drive back in and read the files off -- you haven't lost anything.

Try to evolve towards storing your user data files under single overarching directory (not /) so you can save them whenever you like, without having to backup your entire drive.

I see other commenters suggesting your apps may be more bloated and demanding of resources. That is certainly possible too. I often lament that compared to computers I used over 30 years ago, clock speeds, memory & drive capacities are thousands of times faster, yet we wait more than ever.

[–]ramp_tram 0 points1 point ago

Windows 7's built in backup tool is actually pretty good. I also use SyncBack to backup my important data every night to a backup hard drive in my computer, and that's backed up to my home server every other night.

If you've got very few important files (less than 2 gigs of important stuff) you could also use Dropbox for backup.

If your old drive dates from 2007, it's prone to fail soon

It's weird how you say so much stuff that makes sense and then you say that, which is total bullshit. I've had the same 79GB WD Raptors running in a RAID-0 since late 2004. While it is a guarantee that hard drives will eventually fail due to them having moving parts, putting a range of 4-5 years on that being a guarantee is just stupid.

[–]astangl42 -1 points0 points ago

Sorry you feel that way. I've suffered through plenty of drive failures, both at work and at home over the years, and I have read studies, including Google's disk reliability study. Google's study shows the failure rate shooting up after 3 years, however they attribute that to the particular models used during that time period. I didn't see where they make the case for that, however. My own experience and the experience of others has been that hard drive failure rates seem to go up significantly after around 3 years or so.

Obviously it's all probabilities. I never said any drive is guaranteed to fail at any given point. And some drives (like yours, probably) are higher quality than others.

Data loss hurts, sometimes a lot. Drives are cheap, in comparison. Fomorian did not sound like he has a good, reliable backup strategy. Given that, I still believe a drive swap strategy can be prudent. Would you suggest he keep running with the same drive and see how much life he can really get out of it, and maybe find out again his backups are no good when the drive does fail?

If somebody has backups they KNOW are good, then sure, I agree, milk the drives for as much life as you can get out of them. That's what I do. But I am not surprised when they do fail after several years.

[–]chronographer 0 points1 point ago

The best way to do it is to clone your drive onto another drive, that is the 'just in case' copy.

Then you reinstall the OS from a clean slate. I'll try to put it down step-by-step:

  1. Get an external USB drive and use Disk Utility to clone your Macintosh HD to that external drive. You can check it works by trying to boot off it by holding <option> when you start the computer.

  2. Start your computer from the install disk and run Disk Utility from there. Erase the main partition, then go through the install process.

  3. Once installed, plug in the backup drive and copy documents over from /Users/<youruser(s)>/Music, Documents, Movies etc. You can copy some applications over from /Applications, but this doesn't always work, so I don't recommend it.

  4. Enjoy your new, fresh operating system!

To the OP. There are some things you can do. I would get a new battery, costs about $100. Then you can get a hybrid drive, 500 GB for $200. This new drive will be much faster than your old one. Also make sure you have 4 GB of ram, if you have less, upgrade that first. It is easy and really cheap.

[–]masgrada 1 point2 points ago

I would suggest against the hybrid drive, they're not that great and more prone to failure. Just stick with SSD and external backup. If more space is needed, think of replacing the superdrive with a disk bay and a large capacity drive.

[–]chronographer 0 points1 point ago

Hmmm. I just read about the Seagate Momentus XT, which I installed for my sister in law recently... Gonna have to hope for the best. It sounds mixed, though. Many people have no problems. And it does run faster.

I bought an SSD for mine, but then read that my choice, the OCZ, has many failures... Oh well, I just hope that if it fails I have a backup that is recent.

[–]winterwhite87 0 points1 point ago

A 2007 Macbook can likely not read 4gb of RAM. Some of those models were limited to 2 and others to 3.2gb.

[–]chronographer 0 points1 point ago

3.2 is a 32 bit/64bit thing. But I haven't seen any evidence that what you say about 2 GB is true.

[–]masgrada 0 points1 point ago

You really need to be proactive about organizing your information and backing up. You really only have yourself to blame if something goes wrong.

Back everything up to one or more external devices. Formatting the computer drive and then re-installing everything from scratch is the best method to clean a system. Re-load your data from your external drive afterwords.

[–]urmomismyotherride 0 points1 point ago

IF you dont have a lot of data to backup, just put it on a DVD.

Formating a computer is really simple. Insert your Mac OS DVD, and figure out how to boot from it. Follow the on screen instructions. If you ever don't know or are in doubt, keep the default, or select the first option.

[–]ramp_tram 0 points1 point ago

Put in the install media (assuming Windows 7).

Select the hard drive.

Select "format."

Select newly formatted drive.

Tell Windows to Install.

[–]galeeb 1 point2 points ago

I can only echo backing up your hard drive...sometime yesterday. I also have a Macbook from 2007, and it was under four years old when the drive crashed, a mysterious mechanical failure, as it had lead a pampered life of never being dropped and generally being cared for. The recovery folks couldn't get anything off it, and just like that, history disappears forever.

[–]astangl42 0 points1 point ago

It doesn't sound like your recovery folks are very good. There's plenty of recovery options depending upon how much money you are willing to spend and how precious the lost data is. One simple option that even a skilled user could try is to get an identical model hard drive and swap the controller board off the good drive onto the "dead" drive. I've brought drives back to life that way, and I suspect a good percentage of the drive recovery success stories stem from little more than doing this.

Beyond that, though, there's more serious options involving platter transplants, etc. For somebody to say they could recover nothing sounds like they are novices in the data recovery business. Or did they give you other options that you weren't willing to shell out for?

[–]galeeb 0 points1 point ago

They did not give other options, other than send it to a well-reputed site (with their name on the referral, ha!) and be willing to shell out at least a grand. I have the money, though don't believe it's worth it. It's mostly artistic work from college and before I'd like for posterity, but I've found a huge collection of CDs I did a massive backup on just after school, so have a feeling I'll find that key data on those.

Thanks, though, for confirming my suspicions about this place. The local Mac Store refers people to them, so I thought they'd be good, but it doesn't seem like they know what they're doing, as communication from them was also very poor. Perhaps a negative Yelp review is in order, now knowing what you tell me. Thanks.

[–]nameyname[S] 1 point2 points ago

Wow thanks for all the info. I hope my hard drive isn't having bad sector relocation... Quick other question since you seem to know about this stuff- if a lot of times I accidentally unplug my computer and it dies (battery is dead so if the charger falls out it dies)-- is that bad for it repeatedly?

I couldn't fit a washer/dryer in my apartment cuz its really small, but thanks for the suggestion and info!

[–]urmomismyotherride -1 points0 points ago

No, this is mostly a myth.

When your computer does work, the first place it can get data from is the hard disk. It then pulls what it needs into the ram, and then does a calculation using the CPU.

Lets say that a program needed 2 chucks of data. Both are put into RAM, and we performed calculations on both. Now, to make these calculations permanent, we write it back the hard drive.

If the computer shuts off, while it was not done writing the modified data to the hard drive, (it only finished 40%), the next time the computer starts, it might not be able to recognize what that was, and discard it as garbage. (even if it may have been a critical system file).

TL;DR: turning off computer while it is running might ruin your data, but the physical components inside should be fine.

[–]ramp_tram 0 points1 point ago

No, this is mostly a myth.

What.

You understand how mechanical hard drives work, right? The little read arm is held above the platter by a cushion of air created by the platter spinning. By unplugging or shutting your computer off suddenly by removing power in any other way (including a battery dying suddenly) that head can just fall on the platter, causing damage that costs thousands to recover data from.

TL;DR: turning off computer while it is running might ruin your data, but the physical components inside should be fine.

TL;DR: Do not give advice when you have no idea what you're talking about.

[–]mredding -1 points0 points ago

Laptop disk drives have had crash guards built into them since the 90s. I hope it's standard equipment on all disk drives at this point, and if not, god damn...

Anyway, if you cut power to a laptop disk drive, the actuator (voice coil magnet) will slam itself back into the park position, taking the head off the platter.

[–]ramp_tram 0 points1 point ago

Laptop disk drives have had crash guards built into them since the 90s.

What? No. There were some laptop hard drives that had shock protection like that, but it was never made standard.

I hope it's standard equipment on all disk drives at this point,

Please don't talk about things you know nothing about.

[–]mredding -1 points0 points ago

You can start with this Wikipedia article, which gives a synopsis. Even though it's focus is on active protection, utilizing a gyroscope, which this guy's Apple laptop has built into it, the article at least points to manufacturers brand names for their implementations.

Then, make your way to the ATA/ATAPI-7 specification (2003), where it became a standard.

Then there is Myth #15. Voice coils are not stepper motors; Either a static magnet or a spring must be overpowered by the actuator. Upon power loss, the head is automatically brought back to the landing. You'll hear a ::clunk:: sound upon a power failure. That's where this sound comes from.

Laptop disk drives have had crash guards built into them since the 90s. What? No. There were some laptop hard drives that had shock protection like that, but it was never made standard.

I was off on the standardization (2003), but this technology has been around since before then.

Please don't talk about things you know nothing about.

[–]strothgar 0 points1 point ago

Please don't stop...

http://i.imgur.com/21U60.gif

[–]astangl42 -1 points0 points ago

Conventional wisdom is that leaving your computer on 24/7 is less stressful to it than turning it on & off repeatedly. Much conventional wisdom has to be revisited in the modern age though. With CPUs running at high temperatures, I'm not sure leaving them on is still that much better for them.

In any event, if you are not going to leave it on all the time, then I think it makes little difference if you power it off with the switch versus pulling the plug. Switch is probably better, though, if it sends a notification to the OS to save any unfinished work, etc. and perform an orderly shutdown. Pulling the plug is more risky in that you could lose unsaved work.

You should be able to find some SMART utility to load on your computer that can probe and report the S.M.A.R.T. data from your drive. That can tell you a lot of useful information, like how hot your drive is running, whether it has remapped any bad sectors, various error count information, etc.

I have long thought error correction shouldn't be so hidden from the users, at least not from interested users. It hurts us in the long run if the device corrects and conceals errors, as the media deteriorates, up to the point when it can no longer correct the errors and we suddenly experience data loss. I would like to see error stats from my hard drives, from my CD players, from my DVD players, etc.

[–]ramp_tram -1 points0 points ago

then I think it makes little difference if you power it off with the switch versus pulling the plug.

See this reply.

[–]astangl42 -1 points0 points ago

What I am supposed to be seeing in this reply? Somebody spouting erroneous information about head crashes?

It's difficult to cause a head crash on a Winchester drive. You'd likely have to slam it into something. Modern hard drives should have no issue with head crash susceptibility upon power loss.

[–]friendlyfire 0 points1 point ago

In a lot of cities most leases prohibit getting a washer/dryer.

[–]nowxisxforever 0 points1 point ago

Also, if you can, blow it out with some canned air.

[–][deleted] -2 points-1 points ago

I feel that this is more common with older versions of Windows (XP and below). I don't feel that this is as relevant with either Win 7, Vista, or OS X. Then I again I could be wrong when it comes to being optimistic about what MS makes.

[–]Im_100percent_human -1 points0 points ago

another big reason that computers seem to always be getting slower is that the updates take more and more resources. With windows, for instance, Windows XP from 2003 is a whole different beast than XP SP3. Each update seems to require a slightly larger memory foot print. The OS maker does not notice because they seldom do much testing on older machines.

[–]mountaindrew_ 17 points18 points ago

Format it.

[–]CHICOandtheMAN 0 points1 point ago

You might want to do other things also, but do this first. If you are still slow, move on to other diagnostic steps. But this is likely enough. And don't bother defragging, using CC Cleaner, all of that shit. Just nuke the hard drive and re-install.

[–]ChickenMuffin 1 point2 points ago

WTF, a full format is the most time-consuming step. It should be a last resort.

[–]CHICOandtheMAN 3 points4 points ago

It is much less time consuming to spend a couple of hours doing a fresh install than spend a couple of days looking for all of the malware (and you will probably not find it all), all of the bad (not broken) registry edits (Windows), all of the bloatware, all of the programs active on start-up, etc, etc, etc. Starting with a pristine software system is the only way to eliminate software as the problem. And it is just good housekeeping. Then, after you know it is not software, you can check RAM, and other potential sources of hardware problems. Clean slates are wonderful, and require little more than a data backup in nearly all circumstances.

[–]ChickenMuffin -2 points-1 points ago

You obviously are used to using a PC. lol.

[–]CHICOandtheMAN 0 points1 point ago

Why? Because I am not under the fanboy illusion that Macs don't have malware? Or because I can do this job in a couple of hours? Or because I consider most of what is preinstalled on a Mac to be bloatware?

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points ago

It depends on your OS. If it's Win XP or earlier, a full format maybe a good thing considering how nasty the registry gets as well as all the spyware that got through

[–]masgrada 0 points1 point ago*

There's no need to do a full format. Just remove the old partition volume* and make a new one in it's place. Then select to not erase the old data. It's rather quick.

[–]CHICOandtheMAN 1 point2 points ago

If you didn't make an image when the computer was new (or the OS install was new), your image will contain all the problems it had when you made the image. Reformat the drive and install the OS from an image file, if you have a clean one, or from an install disk.

[–]masgrada 0 points1 point ago*

*Realized I got terms kinda mixed up... fixed my post.

[–]CHICOandtheMAN 0 points1 point ago

You are correct, I just think it is worth reformatting everything on the drive. If you have separate partitions for OS and data, either could be the source of the problem, and the most likely scenario is that both are contributing. My opinion is to back up your data to a separate physical drive, reformat the onboard drive (I never create partitions because this isn't 1989) and install the OS. Update, do your settings, install programs, take it for a shakedown cruise, then make an image. After that, trasnfer your data back. Starting from a pristine state is the best diagnostic measure. This dude has a Mac, and if I am not mistaken, it did not have a partitioned drive from the factory. If I am wrong, I hope someone will tell me.

[–]masgrada 0 points1 point ago*

Removing and putting a new partition is super easy and removes all data from the os's view. Clean slate, we don't need to zero out everything unless you're super paranoid someone will try and undelete things with a special program. I'm not sure what method you're suggesting to erase all data, but this is probably the fastest with OSX.

And yes, you still need to partition to install an OS. It's typically automated now and you probably haven't realized that's happening. I'm suspecting you're a Win guy because of some of the phrasing, or you've not used disk utility during an OSX reinstall.

[–]CHICOandtheMAN 0 points1 point ago

I know partitioning is easy, I just don't think it is necessary. Your internal hard drive does not need partitions because it is one, your backup drive is the second, and your image of the OS is the third. I don't think the OP needs to erase or delete everything on the drive, just do a back-up, reformat the drive, and re-install the OS. If the OS installs its own hidden drive, okay. But that's not what I was talking about. My point is that other than restoring the original configuration and reformatting, I don't think it is advisable to do anything with any disk utilities. I suspect that even though you have not said so, you agree.

[–]koji150 3 points4 points ago*

It depends what the specs of it are already. You said you upgraded the RAM and hard drive, so what is the RAM at now? If it's below 4gb, RAM is cheap enough that it might be worth it to go up to that much. Also, what are you noticing specifically that is slow? In the past few years, even web browsing has become a lot more CPU and GPU intensive with HTML5 and high definition flash video becoming more common on the web.

As others and astangl said as well, formatting and reinstalling everything should speed it up considerably, depending on how long it's been since you last formatted. Files get switched around and programs get installed that, over time, will eventually slow down a computer. Unix based systems (like OSX and Linux) are better at this than Windows but it still happens. For Windows I usually like to recommend a yearly format and for OSX probably every two years would suffice.

As for the laundry, $5? That seems like A LOT unless the loads are pretty big. Lately I've been toying with hand washing clothes. For me it's not really worth it since a load at my apartment is $1.25 to wash but if it's that much for you it might be worth it. If that $5 includes drying then buy a clothes drying rack.

[–]ChickenMuffin 17 points18 points ago

What you are experiencing is the fact that the new OS and applications are more demanding than earlier ones.

Upgrade the RAM to as high as you can go, and that's about all you can do.

Cheap laundry? Use your bathtub. Plenty of tutorials online.

EDIT: Do NOT defrag your mac. It won't do anything and will actually make it run slower because macs store the most commonly used files close together near the start of the disk. De-fragging doesn't understand this and just works to get rid of all the spaces. Just don't do it. If you have defragged, reinstall the OS and you will see a marked improvement in performance.

[–]JoeBobson 2 points3 points ago

Yeah. Macs index and use journaling file systems, so defragging is pointless and counterproductive.

[–]lbruiser 0 points1 point ago

...the new OS and applications are more demanding than earlier ones. Upgrade the RAM ...

I would suggest finding out if you could go with a faster speed of RAM. Then maxing it out.

Also RAM is no CPU. Just because you have tons of room to work with, doesn't mean you can process it faster.

[–]ChickenMuffin 0 points1 point ago

No, he can't. It uses 667 and though it will accept 800 it will clock down.

[–]lbruiser -1 points0 points ago

Why would Apple make a laptop that will take 800 but clock it back down. That makes no sense to me.

[–]ChickenMuffin 0 points1 point ago

It's just the way it is, the computer can accept 800 MHz chips, but it runs them at 667.

[–]bfg_foo 4 points5 points ago

Re laundry - if you have more time than money, you can wash your clothes in your bathtub. Fill tub with water, dump in clothes and a bit of laundry detergent (1/4-1/2 of what you would use in a machine), let it soak a bit, stomp around in there in bare feet for a while, drain, rinse, refill with clean water, stomp some more, drain, rinse, refill with clean water and a splash of white vinegar (gets the last of the soap out and softens the clothes), stomp, drain, rinse, wring out and hang to dry. Obviously this doesn't work quite as well as a machine - and it takes time and effort - but if your money is worth more than your time, you could replace every other wash with handfootwashing.

[–]peppermint_dickables 1 point2 points ago

I like your style, bigfriendlygiant foo

[–]nameyname[S] 0 points1 point ago

Unfortunately I don't have a bathtub cuz my apartment is about... 8x12 haha. i'll def keep that in mind tho for future cheap laundry solutions!

[–]beeaxemurderer 3 points4 points ago

Clean out the dust. Processors clock down when they start getting hot and laptops are dust magnets/

[–]guysmiley00 1 point2 points ago

This is really a great idea for all computers, but especially laptops, since they already have problems with airflow and heat dissipation. It should be a regular part of any computer's maintenance.

The comment about "dust magnets" is quite literally true. Many computer components (boards, etc.) have a standing negative charge when they are in operation. This attracts and traps dust, which retains heat and also dissipates the electrical charges travelling through circuit boards. When you add in the sheer volume of air moving through a computer for heat management, you get an almost perfect dust-collector that steadily degrades in performance.

Blow out the vents, and if you're up to it and your laptop allows it, crack open the case and have a look inside. You can get dust bunnies that occupy all open space. Just be sure not to poke around with anything metal, and to ground yourself before getting near any components (also, power down and unplug the unit before doing anything. Remove the battery, too). You don't want static charges jumping around.

[–]taonzen 8 points9 points ago

The problem with some of the older machines - especially laptops - is that you often can't upgrade the individual components that would help it to run better. Yes, you can wipe the hard drive and install WnXP from scratch, but once Win starts doing it's automatic updates (plus Service Packs 2 and 3), you'll be back to a bogged down machine.

I've been fixing up older PCs for friends and family by installing Linux Mint and setting them up to mimic their old WinXP desktop. You might consider dropping by /r/linux4noobs for help on this. Linux distros are free, resistant to malware, and run pretty much any program that you'll need.

[–]ChickenMuffin 7 points8 points ago

Install WinXP? He's clearly using a mac.

[–]taonzen 6 points7 points ago

Whut the...

How the hell did I completely miss the first sentence?

[–]ChickenMuffin 2 points3 points ago

Tech support fail hahah.

[–]qetuo18 7 points8 points ago

CCleaner. They version for mac has just come out of beta. Give it a try.

[–]i_give_it_away 4 points5 points ago

There is no reason to NEED to replace your laptop from 2007. One fix is to just give it the old factory reset.

If you're OK with using Linux, try Linux LDXE. If you really only use the macbook for it's internet access, you won't need anything more powerful. (It will make your battery last much longer as well!)

[–]shadowman42 3 points4 points ago

I recommend Lubuntu or CrunchBang Linux for this

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points ago

If you're OK with using Linux, try Linux LDXE.

I wouldn't recommend this route if the guy happened to have a Power PC macbook.

[–]i_give_it_away 0 points1 point ago

Why not? I thought he would still be able to install something like this.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points ago

Installing niche of a distro unto a niche of a hardware platform is typically not a good thing unless you're a techie hobbyist with plenty of time. Just imho in the context of the OP. That person doesn't sound very technical.

[–]westyyy 0 points1 point ago

I reset my gf's old laptop, and it runs like new now. Google searches can tell you how to do so for your computer.

[–]rcrracer 2 points3 points ago

cheap washer

[–]proxpi 2 points3 points ago

I too have a 2007 macbook, with 2ghz c2d/2.5gb ram/10.6. I'm guessing mine can be no worse than yours, and mine runs just fine, lickety split for almost everything. I'm guessing the difference is that I reinstall OSX every year or so- the crud that builds up in the OS will slow it down over time. Back up everything you have onto an external drive, then reformat your comptuer and reinstall the latest version of OSX that you have, and you'll be in much better shape.

[–]CallMeBinkley3 2 points3 points ago

Monolingual and Onyx. Google them.

[–]JoeBobson 2 points3 points ago

I've owned macs before, so let's not sharpen the pitchforks until I'm done. I even prefer them to Windows. If I have my choice I run linux. That won't help you with a mac.

Others have pointed out that new applications will run slower, which is true of any computer. You can clean up and get some return on that. You can use a lighter web browser. You can figure out what your unnecessary processes are, and make sure they don't run (a big improvement in some cases).

Ultimately, though, you have to accept that your mac feeling old and slow is part of Apple's business model. Windows has the same business model, but in some cases worse, like application bloat was a design priority. Apple doesn't sell many upgrade OS licenses. It makes its money selling you a computer with its OS on it. If it always worked as good as the day you bought it, you might not want to ever buy another one; for this reason, the effect of your use is cumulative clutter - free space is eaten up, more processes end up running all the time. If you're not diligent in fighting it your computer will bog down quickly, and a reformat is the only way to get back the performance that you've lost.

Once you reformat, though, you're going to want everything you have grown to use your computer for back on it, which means the current versions with updaes, patches, etc. which you do actually need for security reasons. So it's not going to be like when you first got it once you reload the software you've been using.

I get a lot of life out of old PC's with linux, but even it can't run the newest eye candy on an ancient rig. It drags on macs, so its of no use to you. Apple really isn't the frugal option except under circumstances when it's a clear winner for specific reasons.

[–]entropy2421 2 points3 points ago

im pretty sure you can load linux on to a mac.

[–]JoeBobson 0 points1 point ago

Of course you can. It's also very slow. The new virtual box driver might do it better (haven't tried it) but it also might not. It's not really a performance-motivated solution.

[–]entropy2421 0 points1 point ago

i could be wrong, but i always assumed some of the earlier builds of ubuntu would run pretty well on a mac of this type, quick and stable, i thought i'd read it was pretty easy for them to make it run on a mac because they're so uniform compared to PC's. Never actually loaded it on to one of my macs though.

[–]JoeBobson 0 points1 point ago

I've done it- the results are unimpressive. It is possible to run an ultralight distro, but that is a particularly special case. It's possible, but of littlepracticalvalue.

[–]entropy2421 0 points1 point ago

i am not doubting you but am rather curios as to what the problem is. Is his mac to old, or does ubuntu just not run well on macs? It seems to run fine on my older PC machines that i would consider lower specs then the mac machine the OP mentions.

[–]JoeBobson 0 points1 point ago

Ubuntu just doesn't run that great on macs relative to PC's with the same specs. YMMV, but that has been my experience.

[–]entropy2421 1 point2 points ago

and every day i learn something new, glad i haven't tried to load it up on my mac.

[–]JoeBobson -1 points0 points ago

You can, i have. It is not very fast.

[–]xbk1 1 point2 points ago

Could it be that the applications have become heavier?

[–]ChickenMuffin 2 points3 points ago

They actually weigh less now because they don't come with CDs.

[–]nrfx 1 point2 points ago

Your macbook is probably fine. You can probably upgrade the ram, which will help quite a bit.

I would suggest posting this over at /r/machelp or just /r/mac tho.

Too many people are giving you advice for a windows environment. Most of that won't apply.

[–]shiny_moonbot 1 point2 points ago

For the laundry, Wonder Wash. It's small, and you don't ruin your clothes. I've done laundry in the tub, and it kills my back....this is a bit better. Maybe go in on the cost with your friends?

[–]Eurasian-HK 1 point2 points ago

The battery being shot is what is making it run slow.

Macbooks and Macbook Pro's do not get 100% of the required power to run at full spec from the power bricks. The power that is transmitted to the macbook through the magsafe cable is enough to charge the battery & the actually mac runs off the battery.

This is done to minimize the size of the power brick.

If you replace the battery the Mac will run faster.

Reformating will also help but ultimately you need a new battery.

[–]syuk 1 point2 points ago

Flatten it (reinstall all the software) and only put the software you currently use back onto it.

My computer is 10 years old and every so often I just wipe it and start again. All my work and important things are on an external device, the whole process takes about an hour.

[–]Wesa 1 point2 points ago

You can order a new battery for the laptop. The battery for MacBook (about the same age as yours, maybe a year younger) crapped out about 2 years ago and I just swung by a store that sells them (Mac-licensed repair shop) and picked up a new one.

You may want to completely wipe out and reinstall your system too for more speed. As I mentioned above, my MacBook is about the same age and except for 2 warranty repairs, is still running great despite the beating I give it on a daily basis.

[–]llamasniper 1 point2 points ago

I've found the biggest issue with my Mac to be that it uses up far too much ram. You can use various utilities to fix this, one of which is the "free memory" application from the app store (no cost). Another option is to download Xcode (which is also free now), and use the purge command to clear out that inactive memory space. As far as the linux suggestions go, if you can get refit installed and get a lightweight linux distribution running on it, you'll notice a speed increase. Linux is far more efficient on ram than Mac OS, and will probably run faster too. As far as hardware upgrades go, try a solid state drive and more ram like the other posts say. In addition, you can buy cd drive bay replacements that allow for a second hard drive in your laptop, and then you can have a solid state drive (which tend to be expensive for larger ones), and a regular disk drive (for storage of music and videos and such).

[–]ygaddy 1 point2 points ago

Putting an SSD can result in some very impressive speedups. Huge bang for the buck if you can deal with smaller sizes. I have a 40GB drive in my primary machine, and it's great. I just keep media on an external drive.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point ago*

Question: is it a power pc chip or an intel CPU? The reason I ask is because most OSX programs are now built to run on Intel. This will greatly reduce speed on a Power PC cpu for anything built with Rosetta, but optimized for Intel which I think was the trend in 2007. Typically macs are fine for about 8+ years, with the small exception of the Power PC to Intel switch.

Another issue is ram. If I remember correctly, the max ram for some Macbooks at the time is 2 GB. Currently imo I feel that you need a minimum of 4 GB now. Anything below will again drastically kill performance for OSX. Ideally you want 8GB of ram depending on what you're using it for.

There is probably only one thing now that you can totally do to make it a lot faster. Replace your hard drive with a SSD. SSDs give you a ton of speed in exchange for available space and they are getting cheaper all the time. I think a 120 GB SSD drive runs for about $140 right now.

[–]chronographer 2 points3 points ago

I agree about your first point. If it is a PPC then sell it, you'll get ok money for it, and then buy a second hand or refurbished intel one.

On SSDs, you can get a caddy that holds a drive in your DVD bay. That way you can have fast SSD for OS and Apps and slow HDD for data.

SSDs are really expensive and you'll probably run out of space on one, but they are by far the best way to speed up your machine.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point ago

Good point. I forgot how useless the DVD drive is now. I don't even know of any programs that you actually need a dvd for nowadays. They either are downloadable or they come on a USB drive from the publisher.

[–]flick477 0 points1 point ago

Stop downloading porn on the laptop.

[–]flick477 1 point2 points ago

Oh, and take the battery out of the laptop. An old battery was the cause of many problems with my circa 2005 laptop, including delayed text on the screen and overall crap performance. It was always trying to monitor the battery level, which was always zero. It confused the poor old thing.

[–]TomDLux 0 points1 point ago

You can use the Activity Monitor ( Applications => Utilities ) to see how much memory you have available, how many applications you have running. I'm thinking you might have lots of applications running, taking up memory, meaning you have swapping going on.

Also, if the disk is quite old, it might have flacky sectors that need several reads to fetch the data, slowing down reads.

I would suggest reformating everything, re-installing. I've had to rebuild my 2006 iMac, because the old drive failed. I'm discovering some of the software I was using is quite dated, so I've gotten newer versions. And the 2TB drive is a lot roomer than the old 250GB drive was! I'll be able to store music, etc internally, instead of on USB drives.

[–]theweathereye 0 points1 point ago

I second the Wonder Wash. I owned one when I lived in a place without a washer and I could do a weeks worth of laundry-- including squeezing out excess water and hanging them up-- in under an hour. Actual washing time for 1 smallish load is under 5 minutes. I got one from a local flea market for 17 dollars.

[–]liesbyomission 0 points1 point ago

Yes, laptops do degrade over time. Laptops have heat transfer issues and basically will slowly overheat themselves to death over time. There's not much you can do save buy some sort of cooling pad for your laptop before it gets too bad, though.

Of course, try the other suggestions first -- replacing the battery, defragging, removing crapware, etc.

[–]Im_100percent_human 0 points1 point ago

How much memory do you have? You should max out the amount of memory in it. most of the macbooks from that period can take 4 GB (2 2GB dimms I think) I believe only 3.2 GB will be addressable. Newer software is pretty demanding on memory. This is the single best thing you can do to for performance.

[–]zippydoodle 0 points1 point ago

Make sure that the vents are cleaned out. I don't have a macbook, but I do have a PC laptop, one thing that really slowed it down was a ton of lint stuck in the exhaust. Blow it out with an air can.

There is no real cheap way to do laundry, unless you have washer and dryer hookups, then you can buy a cheap washer/dryer from craigslist. Or, you can just do a shitty job of washing your laundry by sticking everything in, and just washing it all on cold.

[–]duhoh 0 points1 point ago

you could invest in a cheaper ssd and buy an external case for the existing drive?

that way you could take the ssd out if you ever get a new laptop and put it in there.

[–]Pipiru 0 points1 point ago

Laundry! Do you have a local Menards? You need one of these: http://menards.com/main/appliances/laundry-appliances/washers/haier-0-91-cu-ft-compact-portable-clothes-washer/p-180808-c-5596.htm

It is the lowest cost/efficient washing machine I could find for my tiny apartment. The hoses are long enough that it can stay in one spot (and if they werent, you can get extended hoses) - I used to pay 3$ per load, I calculated even if I have to do 2 loads for each one, if I do two old loads worth a week, I've paid for it in a year. It takes like 15 minutes tops for a wash cycle, and I do two a day! I wash everything because it's free and convenient now!

It's 199$ at Menards, we were lucky and got 10% off of it, essentially paying 180$, plus a 20$ drying rack or two (I recommend 2... if you do a lot)... and boom. Laundry on the cheap. I love it so much, it's quiet, unobtrusive, and I never thought I'd be excited to do laundry (but I am! It's so hassle free! Hanging it to dry takes a few hours forethought and a few seconds of time!)

[–]Pipiru 0 points1 point ago

We have a fairly small apartment too by the way... but if you really have such little space you can keep it tucked away, or put a sliding table on top of it for when it isn't in use as well... It has rollers on the bottom so you can move it. We have enough room in a corner of the bedroom for the drying rack but if you don't, you can also put up a shower curtain rod and use hangers to dry it on. It really is the best purchase we have made in a LONG while.

eta (again): It also has an amazing spin cycle so the clothes are fairly dry upon removal. It's significantly more convenient for me than the tiny hand-wash style machines, especially because I can toss stuff in and clean other things or do work for that 10-15 minutes it takes to wash.

[–]lbruiser 0 points1 point ago

Suggest getting new HDD. A five year old HDD has server you well. I'm sure at this point it is well worn.

Also if you don't care what OS is on it. Their is always a light way Linux distro.

[–]db2 0 points1 point ago

I have an old laptop that I upgraded from a P2-slowasshit with 64+32mb pc66 ram to a P3-600 or so with 256+32mb pc100 ram (the 32 is onboard and unchangeable, but could handle the increased speed). I can go to 512mb+32 but haven't because it's not cheap enough. I physically removed the modem which was useless and am going to hack in a small powered USB hub where it was, and hardwire a couple devices like a card reader and 10bT ethernet ( it's only USB 1.1). It has an internal unused minipci slot which will be the home of a combination wireless/bluetooth card. The hard drive is upgraded but can go much larger. It has a secondary battery instead of a cd drive too so runtime is about 4.5 hours with wireless (currently pcmcia) on. Two pcmcia slots leave room for addons like USB 2.0 (3.0 if a pcmcia card for that exists) or FireWire or eSATA, even a second hard drive is possible in both slots.

After all that it will be about maxed out. I wish the video processor could be swapped out too but that's asking a lot. Using it isn't like using a brand new laptop by far, but if you keep in mind what you're working with and don't expect it to be a gaming machine or something it's perfectly usable, even does non-fullscreen flash reasonably so it would do Hulu fine.

[–]pickle_sickle 0 points1 point ago

Get a portable washer and dryer. I got this thing 2 years ago and it has been worth every penny! It hooks up to the sink and it rolls away for storage. http://www.amazon.com/Haier-HLP21N-Pulsator-1-Cubic-Foot-Portable/dp/B002UYSHMM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328463583&sr=8-1

[–]rebeldefector 0 points1 point ago

Go to your user account in system preferences, and disable startup items.

[–]nyki 0 points1 point ago

I have a 2007 mbp on it's last legs. You could try buying a faster hard drive if your's is only 5400rpm. What did you upgrade the RAM to? 2007 mbp's support 6gb, but you lose dual channel mode by using 4+2.

If it's pausing frequently, it's possible that your logic board or new hard drive are about to die. The hard drive is obviously replaceable but once the logic board goes, you're better off buying a new computer.

[–]transformers3 0 points1 point ago

7200rpm hard drive.

[–]asksci 0 points1 point ago

I've only optimized xp, but mine is running like new.

If you're running lion, upgrade your ram. That'll drastically improve speeds.

Reformat your os, and keep minimal applications on there.

[–]mredding 0 points1 point ago

1) Backup all your data to some removable media.

Make sure you have licenses or installers to all your favorite software, or make sure you have access to it.

Boot off the OS disks that came with your laptop, format the drive, and reinstall everything. Run updates. Install your preferred programs.

2) I think the key is to keep the cruft off your machine. Don't install software you don't use, don't run software you're not using. Trim down on the visual effects - multiple passes to render a menu with transparency and shadows takes time.

3) I have a 2006 Macbook Pro. I went and dropped ~$200 (back in the day) and maxed out the RAM on the machine. If all else fails, you can do that. You can probably get some sort of worthwhile bump in memory for that much or less.

4) Hard drives are slow. They have physical moving parts. If you really wanted to, you could also tear your computer appart and install a Solid State Disk. They're small in storage size and fantastically expensive, but I mention it here because dropping $500 on a 250 GB SSD might be a cheaper option than dropping > $1k for a whole new machine. You'll have to weigh the consequences. You could store your programs and most important data on the SSD, and put your old hard drive in a $14 external USB connected enclosure and keep your music on it.

Bonus Answer: wash board in the bath tub and hang to dry? Fire up the oven for a pizza and hang your clothes in the hot kitchen at the same time. I own a house with standard appliances, and even I still wash some of my clothes by hand. I'll do a full hand washed load of delecates in about 15-20 minutes.

[–]triobot 0 points1 point ago

some people still trust in spinrite

[–]koji150 0 points1 point ago

I wouldn't suggest it for speeding up a computer, but for any weird behavior it can do a great job. He'll have to put the hard drive in a Windows/Linux box or follow these instructions and an external hard drive to get it running in the laptop: http://blog.iharder.net/2010/07/29/spinrite-run-spinrite-on-a-mac/

[–]l4rry 0 points1 point ago

SSD will go along way for you in the way of speed. My 2004 Powerbook running leopard speeds along just fine with a 7200rpm hard drive and 2gb of ram. You might be able to do some other tweaks like removing everything from the dashboard, don't run to many applications at the same time. switch to lighter applications like chrome and adium. Also turning off things like magnification of the dock can help as well.

[–]pdclkdc -1 points0 points ago

the repair option in disk utility is not a "defrag". You do not need to defragment macs nor do you modern versions of windows due to the way hfs and ntfs store data on disk. Any performance change you might see would be neglidgible.

Anyone who tells you otherwise is blowing smoke up your ass.

[–]nrfx 0 points1 point ago

Funny you say that.

One of the first things an Apple Genius will do when you're having slow seek time troubles is run Drive Genius and run defrag.

OPs drive probably isn't full enough to have that problem, but fragmentation still happens.

[–]duderMcdude -3 points-2 points ago

GET UBUNTU NOW!!!!

[–]pirateninjamonkey -2 points-1 points ago

Uninstall useless programs. Download Ccleaner. Run that. Then defrag. Install chrome browser and use that. Reboot much better.:-)

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