Macbook Pro 10.6.8 -Minor start up issues and graphical problems.

Question

Hey guys, I have a Macbook Pro 10.6.8. I have had this computer since Christmas 2010 and I am pretty sure it was made in mid 2010. In the time I have been using it, it has run smoothely and worked very well overall. However, in the past few months I have noticed a few odd things when starting up the computer.
These things include:
- My current desktop image is sometimes replaced with the one I had before.
- Sometimes the white loading screen with the apple logo will show for around 5-10 minutes before the computer fully starts up
And within the past week, I have seen a few other odd occurances:
- The graphics seem to lag at times, like when I'm typing, after I hit the keys it takes a bit more than an instant (like normally) for the letters to appear.
- A few days ago, in Safari, I got a colored pinwheel that just wouldn't go away. It also seemed like it was affecting the whole system, because when I tried to force quit, it took about 2 or 3 minutes for the menu to come up after I right clicked the Safari icon.
- Some programs taking a few seconds longer than normal to start and respond.
And just last night, this happened:
- I shut the computer and tried getting back on an hour later. When I opened it back up, there was an unresponsive black screen and the sleep light stayed lit instead of blinking.
I am becoming increasingly worried something is seriously wrong with my machine and I appreciate any help you can provide.

Answer 1

Hi,
Do you have all the updates installed? If so, I think you may need to do some maintenance on your Mac. Some caches to clean, some permissions to repair, etc... You can either use Onyx (here, just make sure to download the right version, not the Lion one: http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/11582/onyx) when your session is running, but it takes some getting used to.
Alternately, you can install a small utility called AppleJack (here: http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/15667/applejack), but it has to be run in Single User mode, by holding the Command and S keys down on startup. After that, you just type "applejack AUTO restart" (without the quotes, and that's a caps-on AUTO), then hit Enter, and let AppleJack do its job. Will take some time for your Mac to boot after that, but you should find a more usable machine in the end.