Client having serious issues since upgrading to El Capitane

[Majestic]

Hi all,

I have a client with a Macbook pro 15" (mid-2012 with 4 GB and 1 TB HD). Since upgrading to El Capitane from Yosemite he's having serious speed issues on the machine. Additionally his photos aren't working from Yosemite. It just doesn't move. I've run Onyx with almost everything on it as well as using the disk utility and repaired permissions.

At this point I'm not sure what to do. The disk has passed the tests but everything is quite slow. I've scoured some of the mac forums and some people said they had to upgrade their ram. Not sure that he should have to? It was working quite well before-- Is El Capitane really that much more of a resource hog?? Granted more ram is always better than less that's for sure.

I'm thinking about bringing him back to Yosemite to resolve these issues. What would you all suggest? If I do take him to Yosemite can I just put it on a usb key? I've looked at this article: http://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac-software/delete-el-capitan-go-back-to-yosemite-3581872/ But it's not clear on whether or not I can use a usb key for this.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Majestic

 

[altrenda]

Have you tried creating a new user to check how things work?

Like with Windows, a clean installation of the OS is preferable to an in place upgrade. The process doesn't always work cleanly.

 

[Appletax]

Have you tried creating a new user to check how things work?

Like with Windows, a clean installation of the OS is preferable to an in place upgrade. The process doesn't always work cleanly.

Seconded

That machine has been through a lot of upgrades at this point

 

[Markverhyden]

The update to 10.11 is more like a service pack rather than a real OS upgrade coming from 10.10. As mentioned I'd try a new user. I'd also take a look at items that are starting up at boot time. You can also boot into safe mode - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262 to test. 4 gb is a bit on the low side depending on how much stuff they have running.

But, my bet is that there is probably an issue with the HD. Just happened to coincide with the upgrade. One thing you could suggest is upgrading to a SSD. Not only will it be new but the performance improvement will be very noticeable over a regular spindle drive.

 

[Appletax]

The update to 10.11 is more like a service pack rather than a real OS upgrade coming from 10.10. As mentioned I'd try a new user. I'd also take a look at items that are starting up at boot time. You can also boot into safe mode - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262 to test. 4 gb is a bit on the low side depending on how much stuff they have running.

But, my bet is that there is probably an issue with the HD. Just happened to coincide with the upgrade. One thing you could suggest is upgrading to a SSD. Not only will it be new but the performance improvement will be very noticeable over a regular spindle drive.

Due to the lowish RAM, he should check the memory pressure. Should also check the SMART status of the HDD if you haven't already.

 

[Majestic]

Seconded

That machine has been through a lot of upgrades at this point

You know I haven't. When the client had an issue with El Capitane (mid-upgrade) I forgot this detail.. The system had crashed mid-upgrade and then apple support fixed it and reinstalled it fresh. They then restored his files and he lost a ton of pictures (i.e. photos didn't show up at all).

Perhaps I'll try a new user and see. I'll let you know.

 

[Majestic]

Due to the lowish RAM, he should check the memory pressure. Should also check the SMART status of the HDD if you haven't already.

I had run ONYX which tests the Smart status and it passed.

 

[Appletax]

I had run ONYX which tests the Smart status and it passed.

Does it benchmark the drive and tell you its performance?

 

[Majestic]

Does it benchmark the drive and tell you its performance?

No it doesn't. It just checks the Smart status.

I will perform a proper disk check tomorrow however I'm unfamiliar with the disk tools used on the Mac to tests the hard drives. I'm assuming I can get it off the manufacturing website (i.e. Western Digital Data Tools). If there are any suggestions I'd like to hear them

Majestic

 

[Markverhyden]

Some bootable linux distros have gsmartcontrol already included. I know that partedmagic does have it and has worked fine for me on Apple equipment. That's all that I use for benchmarking/testing.

 

[altrenda]

I never have been a fan of Onyx, it doesn't seem that useful for me.

El Capitan does have some changes under the hood that have caused problems. The new security settings like rootless, or System Integrity protection, the new Photos app, even the change of system font, have been blamed at one point or another for some crashes or incompatibility.