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Released October 24, 2011 / 2.2, 2.4, or 2.5 GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7 Processor

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MacBook hangs or freezes frequently

My Macbook frequently hangs or freezes. Generally, have the spinning color wheel and sometimes just the mouse pointer. Control tab doesn't work or does after a long delay. It's acting like it's really busy doing something. Activity monitor shows some apps are not responding, which app varies from time to time. If I wait long enough...hours...it will sometimes recover. The sure fire fix is to hard reboot. It has 4gb of RAM and I replaced the hard drive with a 1TB hard disk after I bought it about a year ago. I have little history on the computer as I bought it used from a college professor with a dead disk off Craigslist. I don't use Safari, and generally am using Chrome.

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The hard drive/IR cable frequently fails on this model. I prefer the 2012 cable a better replacement option. To test, boot from an external USB source and see if the problem disappears. if so, the cable is the logical suspect.

MacBook Pro 15" Unibody (Mid 2012) Hard Drive Cable

MacBook Pro 15" Unibody (Mid 2012) Hard Drive Cable Image

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MacBook Pro 15" Unibody (Mid 2012) Hard Drive Cable

$19.99

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Hi, Mayer, I read about the cable failures in the 13" model and in fact replaced one in my 13 that was given to me dead. I just googled installing macOS on a USB drive. I'll give that a try and replace the cable if that resolves it.

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First thing I would try in such instance is to create a brand new user, logout from the user you are currently using and log into the new one and see if that changes the behaviour.

That helps isolating the source of your problems with the easier and less time consuming step.

Let us know how it goes.

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You could try upgrading the ram to 8Gb and if you want the HDD to a SSD. If you dont want to do that, you could try doing a factory restore. Im not sure how cluttered the mac is but the restore will remove everything and make it run faster. If you are going to do the restore, make sure you save everything you want to before doing it. You probably should still upgrade the ram to 8GB anyways but if it runs fine after the restore you should be ok for atleast a year or 2.

http://www.tomsguide.com/faq/id-2330399/...

That guide should help you complete the factory reset if you choose to do so.

Hope this helps, if it did please hit the accept answer button!

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I do think my issue could be software related. As I just mentioned in my reply to Mayer, I think I'll install to an external USB drive to see if that resolves this issue. I can add some of the apps I use a few at a time to see if my issue returns.

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Paul Tiemann will be eternally grateful.
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