Macbook Pro freezing/not running properly.

[Vyrtorion]

Alright so first off, my Mac is freezing. I thought it was because I had barely any space left on it so I got rid of a bunch of stuff and now have more than half the storage empty. But that didn't help. What happens when it freezes (and I find it does it a lot when I have more than two different apps open at the same time) is the fans suddenly start blowing really loud, even if the laptop isn't hot to touch, and then the mouse or keyboard becomes unresponsive or really slow. Apps stop responding, things stop downloading.. Then the cursor turns into the little rainbow circle and nothing works except moving the mouse around. Sometimes it'll stop, the fans will slowly shut down and everything will unfreeze but most of the time I have to hold down the power button to restart. It is really really frustrating because I can never get anything done. It does this quite a few times a day.
I've restarted my laptop multiple times.
This has been going on for weeks now..
Please help.

 

[honestone]

Welcome, Vyrtorion. Hopefully, we can help you.

First of all, what specific Mac laptop model are you using? Secondly, what OS are you using?

Third, besides OS-related files, what else is on your internal hard drive that is critical? The reason I ask is that you might need to wipe the hard drive clean, and re-install the OS. Then, re-boot the laptop, re-install any updates to the OS (Combo updaters are always the best way to go), then re-install your applications one by one, and finally any critical files that you saved before starting this process.

In any event, to begin any type of "repair" process, you should first try Disk Utility. To do any repair, you'll need to start that application externally to your machine. If you don't have a bootable backup on an external drive, then one way to do it is via the information contained in this link:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4718

The two helpful things you can do with Disk Utility are 1) Verify and Repair Permissions, and 2) Verify and Repair the Disk. If that does not solve your issue, and if you do not have a more robust Disk Repair program like Disk Warrior or Tech Tool Pro, then you might need to completely wipe your hard drive clean, using the "Most Secure" choice (assuming you are using Mavericks; it's called something like "7 pass" for other OS's) via the Erase option in Disk Utility.

Another user is having some of the same issues that you are having with his mid 2012 MacBook Pro running the latest version of Mavericks (OS 10.9.5). You might want to look at that for some more ideas and details. Here is the link to that discussion:

https://www.mac-help.com/threads/mid-2012-macbook-pro-having-big-problems.219909/