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Question

OS X 10.7.5 Slooooooow

Nov 30, 2014 5:49AM PST

Anyone have advice on how to speed up a MacBook Pro running OS X 10.7.5? We bought it used from a local computer shop for cheap, but it wasn't even cleaned of the prior owners information... Not sure if the best way to help it gain speed is to wipe it and start over with a fresh install of OS X or is there better way? It is just exceedingly slow at opening webpages or closing browser tabs, among other things.

Also - if anyone knows anything about Wine or WineBottler please let me know. I have an architectural drafting software package (CadStd) that isn't yet supported by Mac. I have tried to install with Wine/Wine Bottler but it continually errors. And with no tutorials available and a forum that doesn't respond to basic questions about: how do I use this program? I am left currently without a way to use the drafting software I rely on...

Thanks in advance,
Joe

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
Which model? Be exact.
Nov 30, 2014 6:03AM PST

And why not start over? One of the favorites ways to get personal information is to load up the spy software then dump the machine out there. It sounds foolish but given how big a fish you may catch, it's one way to rip folk off.

As to Wine or such, never used that. I have used VirtualBox and like this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V1WgwnwhPU

Bob

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Model info
Nov 30, 2014 9:24AM PST

Only thing I can assume from "be exact" is you need the info from "about this mac": 2.2 GHz, 2GB 667 MHz DDR SDRAM. Mac OS X 10.7.5. If that isn't the info you need, can you tell me where to look on the machine to find it?

And is starting over with a new OS as simple as downloading and installing it or do I need to wipe the system clean some other way first?

Thanks
Joe

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2GB would be a bottleneck today.
Nov 30, 2014 9:47AM PST

There are tomes on the web about starting over and since the OS dvds are missing I think you'll want to uninstall anything you can and consider trying crucial.com to see how much RAM you can bump it to.
Bob

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bottleneck?
Nov 30, 2014 10:12AM PST

Is the term bottleneck in regards to limited storage on my machine? Or is it in regards to the size of the OS I would need to download compared to the space I have, or in regards to the speed of the processor? Or is a bottleneck compared to what current operating systems I may upgrade to would need to perform their best?

Maybe this will help - this is a personal computer. I do use drafting software, but mainly for small personal and family/friends projects. And it is extremely stripped down - 2D only. This is not a professional use computer so I am not terribly worried about it being wrapped up a few days in downloading or modifications.

I took a quick look at crucial.com, but it appears to be only hardware which I could use to modify my machine. As i mentioned above, I am not terribly comfortable with computers. i'm not interested in undertaking hardware modifications, not at this point.

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This has been true for a long time.
Nov 30, 2014 10:16AM PST

A full HDD is slower than one half full. Since a good portion of waiting is for the HDD, I repeated what's been written for decades.

As to RAM, 2GB is too slim for a current version of this OS plus to run your drafting software we need something like Parallels, Windows and again, 2GB is going to make the user unhappy.

If you are not comfortable with bumping the RAM, have it done for you. Not everyone is a mechanic.
Bob