SOLVED MacBook Pro Mid-2012 sudden and constant slowdown, serial number related?

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My MBP suddenly began experiencing massive slowdown w/ spinning beachball every time I perform any kind of action whatsoever, seizing entirely for about a minute at a time. The computer will then run as normal until I so much as click on a folder or application, then seize for another minute or so. Some searching lead me to believe this was related to the adsp process, and a missing serial number. Upon checking System Information I found that the serial number was showing as "Unavailable", and in Terminal, the adsp process did seem to be spiking in CPU use coinciding with the freezes. However, using Terminal to disable the adsp process did nothing to alleviate the issue. I then followed the process to repair the missing serial number, using the Blank Board Serializer software. This seemingly worked, and upon rebooting my laptop, it ran smoothly, and System Information reported the correct serial number. However, after about five minutes of use, the hitching returned.

System Information still reports the correct serial number, so this was perhaps a symptom, rather than the cause of the issue. Strangely, the laptop does now seem to run smoothly for a few minutes after rebooting, whereas before the hitching was immediate, and made even entering my password to log in an issue. Another thing to note is that from my searching, the missing serial number issue is usually caused when the logic board is replaced, and the serial number is not written to the new board. I have never had the logic board in my laptop replaced. I have installed a new battery and an SSD, but both of these upgrades were made over a year ago, and the machine was running entirely smoothly until last night. I did find a handful of old forum posts from users who have had similar issue in the past, also never having had their logic board replaced, but none ever discovering what the root cause was.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated, even if it's just that the machine is as good as dead.

Edit: Forgot to mention that I am running Mojave on the laptop.
 
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Additional info: My laptop is the 13", non-retina model. I have since tried booting into Safe Mode, but this had no effect on the hitching.
 
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Thought I should add an update for posterity here. I solved the issue by replacing the HDD cable in the laptop. It's a known issue in this model of MacBook Pro that the cable rubs against the aluminium case, eventually becoming damaged, though the damage isn't visible to the eye. I was skeptical, as putting my old HDD in made the laptop run fine, but apparently the cable being damaged can manifest issues while using an SSD, while still working fine with a standard HDD, due to the higher flow of data through the cable I guess?

Anyway, the new cable has entirely resolved the issue, and I also put a strip of electrical tape down where the cable would make contact with the case, to hopefully prevent this from happening again.
 

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