Late 2011 Macbook Pro gets hot and runs very slow
I have a late 2011 Macbook pro that has been getting very hot and running considerably slower over the past week or so. When my hands are on the computer I can feel a vibration as if the hard drive or fan is working extra hard. This occurs whether or not it is charging. I was wondering if anyone had any troubleshooting suggestions or ideas.
Comments
You aren't using much space on it so I don't know why it would be spinning a lot. Hard drives have a rough average lifespan of 5 years. You're not 4 years in yet but with them being mechanical, they can wear out at any time.
Given that you're only using ~67GB, you'd be much better off switching the hard drive out for an SSD.
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-75E250B-AM/dp/B00OAJ412U
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-256GB-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-7KE256BW/dp/B00LMXBOP4
http://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Tool-free-Enclosure-Optimized-EC-UASP/dp/B00OJ3UJ2S
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Unibody+Late+2011+Hard+Drive+Replacement/7656
You'd just put the SSD into an enclosure, format it and clone everything on your internal over to it using software like the following:
http://sites.fastspring.com/bombich/product/ccc
When it's copied you can test it will boot up and then switch the drives over. You won't get any noise with an SSD at all as it has no moving parts and the performance will be much faster than the HDD. You can use the SSD as a spare drive in the enclosure until it eventually breaks.
At the very least, I would get those parts in anticipation of the drive failing and make sure to have a cloned backup.
This could simply be a software problem with an application or process consuming nearly 100% of the CPU. The fan would be running at max to get rid of the heat. Run the built-in Activity Monitor application, select the CPU view, click on the CPU column to sort by that, make sure you scroll to the max % processes, then post the results.
A great alternative troubleshooting method is to boot from an external drive. If the problem persists then it is more likely to be hardware. Goes away -- probably software.