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Mid 2010 Model A1278 / 2.4 or 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo processor

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MacBook Pro lags considerably doing simple tasks (i.e. loading apps)

my macbook pro has been lagging considerably over the past few weeks. about two weeks ago it started taking a long time to boot up. when I try to open the basic apps (Finder, Chrome, Spotify and some Adobe) it takes a good while for it to load.

also it zaps battery like I don't know what. I've had it for 33 months and its had 683 load cycles.

I don't want to shell out cash for another PC when I feel its a an easy issue to fix.

any help would be greatly appreciated

Update

sorry for the delay. yes, I added the activity monitor to my dock and check it from time to time and it shows no other excessive resources opened. upon boot the only thing that is open is finder. one time last week I booted it up and it randomly booted in safe mode. it is still taking a time to load apps and locks up and freezes often

Update

I recently purchased the Hard drive cable and replaced it. However it didn't help as it still sets at the Apple logo screen and stays there. I'm beginning to think the hard drive has failed. Is there an adapter I can use to see if my hard drive works on another computer before I buy another one?

Update

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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UPDATE: I believe my macbook pro has failed. Monday morning I turned it on at work and it didn't load. I turned it off and back on and upon loading, instead of the Apple icon on the loading screen there was a cancel icon, a circle with a slash through it. I booted in safe mode with with apple version of command prompt, and received this error message: disk0s2 i/o error. From what I can tell from Apple discussion boards this means a hard drive failure.

With the information that you guys provided me to help repair my Macbook Pro above, would it still work even though the hard drive has failed?

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Make a new user account. Log in to that account. If the hangs are absent carefully, a few files at a time transfer to the new account. You have a corrupt file, application or some conflict in your main user account.

If that doesn't change anything I'd try a new drive. Drives can become corrupt/damaged (MBD problems). A drive that is failing exhibits this behavior.

You could try just formatting & using the drive externally as the boot drive to verify that's your problem. As soon as you boot from that drive eject or unmount your internal drive.

If this Answer is helpful please remember to return and mark it Accepted.

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Replacing the hard drive cable may solve your problem. This issue is so prevalent that I keep four of them in stock. MacBook Pro 13" Unibody (Mid 2009-Mid 2010) Hard Drive Cable

MacBook Pro 13" Unibody (Mid 2009-Mid 2010) Hard Drive Cable Image

Product

MacBook Pro 13" Unibody (Mid 2009-Mid 2010) Hard Drive Cable

$34.99

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thanks for the reply. just for clarification, what makes you think the hard drive cable may be the problem?

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Apple & other 3rd parties has a bad run of cables. You also may want to check your HD out as well here.

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I recently purchased the Hard drive cable and replaced it. However it didn't help as it still sets at the Apple logo screen and stays there. I'm beginning to think the hard drive has failed. Is there an adapter I can use to see if my hard drive works on another computer before I buy another one?

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There are several things that may be contributing to a system slowdown. One major factor may be the amount of free hard drive space on your computer. When you run apps, they use ram, however, they need to use more ram that what you have, so it pages the hard drive. If your hard drive has no free space, this process is interrupted, and your computer will slow down. You can check your hard drive space by going to Disk Utility and clicking on the hard drive (stats are at the bottom of the window). If you have anything less then 60 GB - 80 GB then you may need to a.) get a bigger hard drive or b.) delete unneeded files and folders. This will free up valuable space for the virtual memory and speed your computer up. (You can also select your "Macintosh HD" disk in Disk Utility and preform a permissions repair to speed some things up.) I also suggest that you quit all your apps, then open up an app called Activity Monitor. Once open, select "All Processes" from the top of the window. This will show you all the process that you currently have running on your computer, since there may be some sort of background application that is eating up your resources. Do this and see if there are any process showing up that are running over 10% CPU when all the apps are closed, then list them here. This will help give us an accurate feel of what your computer is like, so we can give you the proper assistance in speeding it up. As for the battery, those can easily be replaced and are found here on iFixits website.

Hope this Helps

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thanks for the reply. I should have included my RAM and hard drive specs. I have 4 GB RAM and the hard drive capacity is 250 GB. I have only used 106 GB. since I posted this something's been going wrong with it. I turned it on it took awhile to boot and then it wouldn't let me load a simple app like Chrome or Spotify. even opening finder was a hassle for it. I booted it in Safe Mode yesterday and deleted some unwanted apps off of it. that also didn't seem to help. following a tip I found on the Apple help site, I reset the NVRAM and I didn't find it helped either.

so last night when I got home from work I turned it on and let it run. it locked up of course, but then it started loading like normal. I get a couple spinning wheels every now and then.

any thoughts?

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Did you check activity monitor for any processes using excessive resources?

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Stephen, all of the above poster's recommendations are the way to go. If I were you I'd make a clone of the drive before it completely fails. Once, cloned you can erase the old HD using the secure erase option that writes zeros to the drive. This option helps the HD allocate any bad blocks or sectors and prevents the HD from writing to these bad blocks/sectors. Once, you have reformatted the drive try to clone back to the old drive. If the HD still exhibits this behavior, then the HD is just bad and will eventually have to be replaced. You need to act fast if you wish to save any data on this drive. For future purposes you might want to look at Disk Warrior, This utility can bring bad HDs with corrupt directories back to life with no data loss or recovery needed.

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I have a Mid 2010 that started doing that and then it would not boot all of a sudden. It just sat at the boot screen. I put in another drive same thing. I bought the HD SATA Cable and it works great now. Do not buy it from iFix it. Prices are way too high. Go to ebay. Infact I have replaced my whole LCD Display and the plastic cover on top of the display. Works like new and I saved a bunch on ebay. Unless you have money to throw away.

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Increase RAM to 4GB

Besides that, lightly blow out the dust buildup inside. I think your fan has accumulated some dirt, needs a clean up. its really easy you can look online and do it yourself.

Just remove the back cover and very lightly blow with Can'ed air.

Works for my friends. good luck. its fairly simple

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Stephen will be eternally grateful.
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