MacBooks are some of the best laptops on the market, but like any laptop, a MacBook can break down and get really slow over time. Here’s how to fix slow MacBook performance.
As technology advances and software requires better and better hardware, older MacBooks naturally start to slow down. Plus, performance can take a hit with additional usage and files piling up in OS X, but luckily you can revive an old MacBook and give it back some of its old fire. In fact, if you take advantage of a few software tweaks and upgrade the hardware, you can get your old MacBook working like new again.
Despite all the improvements and new features in OS X Yosemite, older MacBooks still have problems. OS X Yosemite was released to critical acclaim in October, and while many users were excited to install the new operating system and try out the new features, there were quite a few Mac users who spent less than stellar time with OS X. Yosemite.
While OS X Yosemite may run on older Macs as far back as 2007, that doesn’t necessarily mean it works well enough. We have heard that there are many issues affecting users who have installed OS X Yosemite on their Mac and are having a very bad time with it. Apps were slow, startup time sucked, and overall performance was lacking.
It doesn’t have to be that way, though, because there are a few tweaks you can make to make it perform better on OS X and your Mac overall, from reducing eye candy to disabling a handful of resource-wasting features, and even Mac’s. updating some of your hardware. Here’s how to fix slow MacBook performance.
Install a Fresh Copy of OS X
Honestly, the best and easiest way to get maximum performance from your Mac is to start fresh and install a clean copy of OS X on your MacBook. A fresh clean install means your computer’s hard drive is completely wiped and OS X is restored to factory settings. This means that no apps are installed and no files are stored – just the default apps and files that come with OS X.
Personally, I do a clean install every year because it’s good to start fresh. After a while, you’ll have tons of apps that you never use, and those apps create a series of temporary files that take up space and slow down your machine. Sure, you can use a cleaner utility like CCleaner, but nothing works better than an old-fashioned clean install.
Be careful though: Performing a clean install of OS X requires you to make a bootable installation drive using a USB flash drive. You will move some files and deal with Terminal. If this isn’t something you enjoy doing on your own, we recommend leaving it alone or hiring a friend to help you perform a clean install.
Reduce Fantasy Effects
Anything that makes OS X Yosemite look nice is probably slowing down your Mac, but you can disable most of them:
- Open.
- Click .
- put a check mark next to it.
Once there, you can put a checkmark next to folders and windows to make them easier to see.
Many users have had success by disabling the transparency feature. The overall performance is increased and the opening speed of applications and Finder windows is much faster.
Don’t Use Google Chrome
As with all OS X versions we’ve seen, Google Chrome only Doesn’t play well with OS X Yosemite. It drains the battery faster and consumes resources when they are not needed.
It’s still a great web browser and all, but if you need to get any performance out of your Mac, it’s probably a better idea to opt for Safari, as it’s much faster than Chrome on OS X and doesn’t work as hard. consumes resources and battery life.
Disable Notification Center Widgets
The new widgets in Notification Center are great, but if that’s a feature you’ll probably never use, it’s a good idea to go ahead and disable all widgets so they don’t use resources all the time, especially if they’re ‘just sitting there’.
To do this, follow these steps:
- Click all the way on the Notification Center icon in the upper right corner of the screen in the menu bar. This opens the Notification Center.
- Click the tab if it’s not there yet, and then click below.
- Click each of the red delete buttons next to each widget to remove it from Notification Center.
- Click at the bottom to save the changes.
This will speed up Notification Center as a whole and slightly improve overall performance on your Mac.
Set Minimize Window Effect
This feature goes back a few versions of OS X, but it’s still a good feature to replace if you need some extra performance out of your Mac.
- Open.
- Click .
- Find and change to .
This will get rid of that fancy swoosh minimizing the impact of the windows and turn it into something simpler. It certainly won’t give your Mac a huge speed boost, but it can help windows open and close much faster.
Upgrade Hardware
While the previous ideas cost no money, this recommendation requires some money to boost your Mac’s performance, but for as little as $100 (give or take), you can and do seriously speed up your Mac. perform like a brand new laptop.
If you have an older MacBook that lets you open it and replace the memory and hard drive, you’re in luck. Replacing the regular hard drive with a solid state drive is one of the best hardware upgrades you can make and increasing the memory to 8GB or even 16GB.
This 120GB solid state drive it’s only around $50 and a pair of 4GB memory modules for about $65. These two hardware items alone can give your old MacBook a serious boost for just $115. You can pay less if you wait for opportunities.
