I have an early 2009 13" MacBook Pro. I have used it a lot and at the moment and for a while now it is quite slow. I need to use various applications like Mathematica (for which it is quite slow if I use it now), Latex, web browsers, and a few other programs. Right now compiling Latex documents or running easy Mathematica code takes a long time and sometimes even will crash the computer for a couple of minutes.
I don't want to buy a new one since my University will buy me one when I begin my PhD next Fall but I still need to do work. Would adding RAM (I have 4GB DDR2 now) help any? What other steps could I take to improve its performance (except for standards like clean up).
UPDATE: Some other symptoms:
- Mac struggles to open and quit apps
- Mac struggles to scroll up/down on various "heavy" websties.
- Mac shows up very often the little colored disc (instead of the pointer of the mouse) signifying it is loading stuff.
- Mac struggles to open the Finder and when it is open it needs some time to load the applications folder.