Slow 2015 MacBook Pro. Inconsistent CPU Usage.

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Level 1

8 points

Slow 2015 MacBook Pro. Inconsistent CPU Usage.

Hi all,

First time posting here so apologies for the pretty general query.

In the last month or so I've started having real issues with my MacBook. I spend most of the time making music which is pretty CPU intensive but it now seems to struggle with even the most simple tasks such as running my production software (Live) and sometimes even loading a YouTube page.

I've been keeping a pretty keen eye on CPU tasks and it seems that quite a lot of it is idle while Live is struggling to operate properly (see screenshot).

I thought it could be Kernel issues so I ran an Etre check but nothing appeared in that regard. The only things I noticed was I have a lot more partitions than I expected as I haven't manually set any up at all. The only other thing that appeared out of the ordinary was that 'Other Processes' were taking up 36 - 57% of CPU usage while I had nothing running at all. In activity monitor nothing really seemed to be unusual.

I'm pretty certain that the problem isn't with Live otherwise I wouldn't have problems just running YouTube.

Thanks so much for your help!

Etre Report

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Aug 14, 2020 4:15 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

HWTech

Level 9

60,494 points

Aug 14, 2020 8:49 PM in response to Bworlidge

I don't see anything that stands out in the EtreCheck report although I am not a Mac software expert and there are several items with which I am unfamiliar.

Run Disk Utility First Aid on the drive. Even if First Aid shows everything as "Good", make sure to click on the "Details" and scroll through looking to see if there are any unfixed errors listed. I've seen several of our organization's Macs which were running extremely slow and found that First Aid found multiple errors that were not fixed. I cloned the drive to a spare drive and erased the original drive, then cloned the system back. Performance was greatly improved, so check those "Details" on the First Aid report. Try running First Aid on the Container as well. If the Container is not shown, then within Disk Utility click on "View" and select "Show All Devices" so that the physical drive shows up in the left pane of Disk Utility. You may also want to run First Aid on the physical drive as well to check the partition map/table.

Try running the Apple Diagnostics to see if it detects any power or battery issues.

Also see if your laptop qualifies for this Battery Recall program:

https://support.apple.com/15-inch-macbook-pro-battery-recall

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Answer 2

Bworlidge Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 15, 2020 1:31 AM in response to HWTech

Thanks so much for your reply.

Unfortunately I've run First Aid on the drive, container and relevant partitions and nothing came up that was out of the ordinary. Same with Apple Diagnostics.

I'll try cloning the system now and see if anything is improved. I use Time Machine backups so I assume this will be the same as cloning?

Interesting about the Battery Recall program but I'm not eligible. Appreciate the thought though!

Thanks again.

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Slow 2015 MacBook Pro. Inconsistent CPU Usage.

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