MacBook Air 2012 suddenly Super Slow/Lag

[mactreouser]

Hi, my MacBook Air 2012 suddenly fall into the situation of Super Slow like Super Lagging and it seems "Almost" would never Login after started up!

I've tried,
Reboot, Safe Mode, Recovery Mode, PRAM Reset, Disk Utility to Repair Disk, work without any connections (Bluetooth or WiFi or USB stuffs)... Same issue occured!

What's wrong? 😭

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Sunspots.

Aliens.

12-year-old hardware, something is failing.

One of those - maybe? 🤔

 

[Bigwaff]

Same issue occured!

What's wrong? 😭

Open case and blow out dust, etc.

 

[mactreouser]

Sunspots.

Aliens.

12-year-old hardware, something is failing.

One of those - maybe? 🤔

Um... Perhaps!

Open case and blow out dust, etc.

Oh? That works? 😲

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Oh? That works? 😲

Maybe. Probably won't make it any worse, unless you manage to damage something in the process. At worst, it'll be just like it was.

A 12-year-old computer doesn't owe you anything in terms of ongoing performance... might think about a replacement.

 

[mactreouser]

Maybe. Probably won't make it any worse, unless you manage to damage something in the process. At worst, it'll be just like it was.

A 12-year-old computer doesn't owe you anything in terms of ongoing performance... might think about a replacement.

You are right, it's faithful enough 😜
Just gave it a shot, unfortunately No Luck! 😩

 

[za9ra22]

You haven't actually told us what you did to troubleshoot. You mentioned 'recovery mode', but have you actually wiped it and reinstalled a fresh (original) macOS?

I did this on my 2012 iMac when it had slowed badly and a RAM upgrade made no difference. After the fresh reinstall it was back to just about as-new.

 

[bzgnyc2]

Hi, my MacBook Air 2012 suddenly fall into the situation of Super Slow like Super Lagging and it seems "Almost" would never Login after started up!

I've tried,
Reboot, Safe Mode, Recovery Mode, PRAM Reset, Disk Utility to Repair Disk, work without any connections (Bluetooth or WiFi or USB stuffs)... Same issue occured!

What's wrong? 😭

Can you show us some snapshots from Activity Monitor right after login (at least CPU, Memory, and Disk tabs and why not throw in Network)? Also knowing which OS might be helpful too -- not because the OS version is likely the culprit (since it was working well before we'll assume for now it isn't) but would help to know what tools you have to work with.

By the way does this laptop have an HDD (rotating disk hard drive)? If so and it is the original, I would replace ASAP (either the drive or just get a new laptop as others have mentioned). After 12 years, a rotating hard drive is beyond life expectency and could be holding on by a thread (leading to lots of aborted read/writes, retries, bad sector reallocations, etc which would align with the symptoms you are experiencing).

Also, even if you've already made the decision to replace the laptop, you should still ASAP make a full backup of your data if you don't have regular backups/time machine/iCloud/etc.

 

[KhunJay]

Hi, my MacBook Air 2012 suddenly fall into the situation of Super Slow like Super Lagging and it seems "Almost" would never Login after started up!

Did you, by any chance, update the OS recently?
I have a 2012 MBA i7 with 8GB RAM and I am pretty sure it would probably
behave the same if I updated it...it's running ok on El Capitan but I don't store
any critical data on it. Just surfing and playing some videos.

 

[mactreouser]

You haven't actually told us what you did to troubleshoot. You mentioned 'recovery mode', but have you actually wiped it and reinstalled a fresh (original) macOS?

I did this on my 2012 iMac when it had slowed badly and a RAM upgrade made no difference. After the fresh reinstall it was back to just about as-new.

Can you show us some snapshots from Activity Monitor right after login (at least CPU, Memory, and Disk tabs and why not throw in Network)? Also knowing which OS might be helpful too -- not because the OS version is likely the culprit (since it was working well before we'll assume for now it isn't) but would help to know what tools you have to work with.

By the way does this laptop have an HDD (rotating disk hard drive)? If so and it is the original, I would replace ASAP (either the drive or just get a new laptop as others have mentioned). After 12 years, a rotating hard drive is beyond life expectency and could be holding on by a thread (leading to lots of aborted read/writes, retries, bad sector reallocations, etc which would align with the symptoms you are experiencing).

Also, even if you've already made the decision to replace the laptop, you should still ASAP make a full backup of your data if you don't have regular backups/time machine/iCloud/etc.

Appreciate your advices and suggestions again! Surprise, my Old Mac was miraculously "recovered" with my last step of "drag all desktop files and folders into a single Folder! " I'm no so sure whether this is the solution?! And of cause, before that I keep rebooting, first aid, safe mode ...

So, it's now back to normal and I have no idea what was the solution 😅

 

[rampancy]

By the way does this laptop have an HDD (rotating disk hard drive)? If so and it is the original, I would replace ASAP (either the drive or just get a new laptop as others have mentioned).

The OP has a 2012 Air. No MacBook Air since 2010 has shipped with a hard drive.

Appreciate your advices and suggestions again! Surprise, my Old Mac was miraculously "recovered" with my last step of "drag all desktop files and folders into a single Folder! " I'm no so sure whether this is the solution?! And of cause, before that I keep rebooting, first aid, safe mode ...

So, it's now back to normal and I have no idea what was the solution 😅

It's a not-so-well-known fact that large amounts of files on the desktop can contribute to sluggish Finder performance, so it's quite possible that organizing your desktop might have cleared up your performance issues.