[SOLVED] MacBook Pro 2011 - Major problems (Charging, Lagging and general slow)

[jannikn]

Hello. I have a MacBook Pro 2011. Lately I have run into some big problems. I need to use it for school in one week, so I really need to figure something out, so here's the deal.

My MacBook was running fine, but then I got my summer off of school, so I used my desktop computer. I had my MacBook on sleep (the default 'close lid' action) and it eventually went out of power. Now, I was about to make sure that it works, but I find that it has tremendous problems and I don't have apple care, so I was hoping you could help.

Here are the problems right now:

1. When I boot the computer, it starts up as usual, but it's extremely laggy, it takes minutes to close a program, it's lagging so much that the cursor can't even follow the trackpad (This is my biggest problem)

2. Something is wrong with the battery or the charger. I cannot run the laptop without having the charger plugged in, if I unplug the charger, it shuts down immediatly. It says that it's not charging, the little LED on the magsafe charger is green, it should be yellow to indicate that it's charging. There might be a bad connection as well, if I move a tiny bit around with the charger, it doesn't connect and the laptop shuts down, meaning I will not be able to move a single bit before it just shuts down.

____

It's a 2011 MacBook Pro 15".

 

[reedo_43]

At least your battery is toast. Can you run it plugged in batt removed?

 

[jannikn]

At least your battery is toast. Can you run it plugged in batt removed?

Could the battery be a cause of the entire computer being so slow? I didn't have a problem with it before. I'll try removing the battery, will return to you in 10 minutes.

 

[jannikn]

At least your battery is toast. Can you run it plugged in batt removed?

I'm afraid I don't have the proper equipment to remove the battery, it's not regular screws. Any suggestions?

 

[kenrivers]

At least your battery is toast. Can you run it plugged in batt removed?

I'm afraid I don't have the proper equipment to remove the battery, it's not regular screws. Any suggestions?

This link gives detailed instructions on how to remove the battery and the tools (Y1 Tri-wing Screwdriver and Phillips #00 Screwdriver) you will need to remove the cover and battery.

 

[jannikn]

At least your battery is toast. Can you run it plugged in batt removed?

I'm afraid I don't have the proper equipment to remove the battery, it's not regular screws. Any suggestions?

This link gives detailed instructions on how to remove the battery and the tools (Y1 Tri-wing Screwdriver and Phillips #00 Screwdriver) you will need to remove the cover and battery.

I am aware how I need to remove the battery, but I don't have the tools for it at the moment. It's like a three-sided screw. When I have booted my Mac, it says "replace" in the battery status, so do you think that the battery is causing the computer to be slow?

 

[jannikn]

At least your battery is toast. Can you run it plugged in batt removed?

I'm afraid I don't have the proper equipment to remove the battery, it's not regular screws. Any suggestions?

This link gives detailed instructions on how to remove the battery and the tools (Y1 Tri-wing Screwdriver and Phillips #00 Screwdriver) you will need to remove the cover and battery.

Instead of removing the battery, I temporarily tried something else. I opened the MacBook and unplugged the connection between the motherboard and the battery. I can run it with just the charger plugged in and the battery plugged out, it did not help, when it booted up it just got stuck on a white screen.

 

[jannikn]

At least your battery is toast. Can you run it plugged in batt removed?

I'm afraid I don't have the proper equipment to remove the battery, it's not regular screws. Any suggestions?

This link gives detailed instructions on how to remove the battery and the tools (Y1 Tri-wing Screwdriver and Phillips #00 Screwdriver) you will need to remove the cover and battery.

I took the chance, I have ordered a new battery, I will return in a couple of days to tell you if changing the battery works for the poor performance.

 

[reedo_43]

I highly doubt that it will do anything for performance. Down onyx for your version of mac os. It is a great program to clean up a mac and will speed things up.

 

[jannikn]

I highly doubt that it will do anything for performance. Down onyx for your version of mac os. It is a great program to clean up a mac and will speed things up.

It's so slow that I cannot open any programs. It took me 5 minutes just to get the activity monitor opened. Also, nothing was wrong with the laptops performance before the battery died, so it must have something to do with the battery.

 

[reedo_43]

Regardless onyx will do nothing but help. How much free space do you have?

 

[jannikn]

Regardless onyx will do nothing but help. How much free space do you have?

My computer is too slow to give you an actual number, but I'm sure it's around 300 gigs.

 

[kenrivers]

I hope the battery replacement works. Keep in mind that it's not a good idea to let the computer "sleep" until the battery is completely drained.

 

[jannikn]

I hope the battery replacement works. Keep in mind that it's not a good idea to let the computer "sleep" until the battery is completely drained.

Yeah, I won't do that if the battery replacement fixes the problem. I haven't had it turned off for months. I might've drained it for power 2-3 times while it was sleeping.

 

[kenrivers]

I hope the battery replacement works. Keep in mind that it's not a good idea to let the computer "sleep" until the battery is completely drained.

Yeah, I won't do that if the battery replacement fixes the problem. I haven't had it turned off for months. I might've drained it for power 2-3 times while it was sleeping.

I'm glad you'll keep us posted. I'm interested to see how this works out and really hope the new battery fixes the problem. I'm naturally curious since I have a late 2011 MacBook Pro.

 

[reedo_43]

Haven't turn it off for months!!!!!!?????? Turn the poor thing off. Shut it down, put it out of it's misery. That is your problem. Have you every heard of memory leaks. Yes Macs have them also.

 

[jannikn]

Haven't turn it off for months!!!!!!?????? Turn the poor thing off. Shut it down, put it out of it's misery. That is your problem. Have you every heard of memory leaks. Yes Macs have them also.

Well, I just heard that MacBook's have no problem being on sleep, one of my friends said he never turned it off, so I started doing the same, it was much faster. But if this battery thing works, I will remember to turn it off. I got the battery in the mail today, now I just need the tool to come in the mail, that's tomorrow. So will report back tomorrow.

 

[Ijack]

Have you tried resetting the SMC? Poor performance and charging problems are both issues that this may fix.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964

 

[jannikn]

Have you tried resetting the SMC? Poor performance and charging problems are both issues that this may fix.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964

I tried it, it did not make it faster, but I realized that the laptop was actually fast the first 5-10 seconds of bootup, I could move the mouse without it lagging, but then it began to lag again after those 10 seconds.

 

[jannikn]

Have you tried resetting the SMC? Poor performance and charging problems are both issues that this may fix.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964

I'm in my activity monitor and kernel_task is taking up 700-1000% of CPU.

 

[Ijack]

Google brings up quite a few threads relating to this sort of problem (e.g. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5497235 ), but in that case a reboot stops it happening.

Have you tried starting in safe mode?

 

[jannikn]

Google brings up quite a few threads relating to this sort of problem (e.g. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5497235 ), but in that case a reboot stops it happening.

Have you tried starting in safe mode?

I tried booting in safe mode, but it's not working. It just gets stuck booting up on a white screen without an Apple logo.

 

[jannikn]

GOT BIG NEWS GUYS! The battery change worked! So, if your MacBook is lagging so much that the cursor cannot follow the trackpad, there's a good chance it's a hardware problem, in my case, changing the battery made everything work just fine! As I said in a previous reply, my MacBook had a task called kernel_task that used up to 1000% of my CPU, this was fixed the moment I turned on the computer after I changed the battery!

Thanks everyone for helping me.

 

[kenrivers]

GOT BIG NEWS GUYS! The battery change worked! So, if your MacBook is lagging so much that the cursor cannot follow the trackpad, there's a good chance it's a hardware problem, in my case, changing the battery made everything work just fine! As I said in a previous reply, my MacBook had a task called kernel_task that used up to 1000% of my CPU, this was fixed the moment I turned on the computer after I changed the battery!

Thanks everyone for helping me.

Glad you got it fixed. Thanks for letting us know.

 

[Ijack]

Just an additional point of information. If you run a MacBook without a battery (or if the battery is completely shot) then it runs the processor at half speed. I wouldn't have expected that to have such a drastic effect, but perhaps this is what was happening.