Chosen Solution
I recently found a 2012 15in Unibody Macbook Pro from an e-waste bin, and managed to fix it back up enough to where I’m using it daily. I noticed that it would run slow sometimes, especially for compiling code compared to my friend’s 2011 15in Macbook Pro. Upon closer inspection with Cinebench, Task Manager, and Intel Power Gadget, somehow my CPU will not go over 1.4Ghz. I’m nowhere near thermal throttling (my temps are in the 50s, 60s at most), I’ve tried restarts, PRAM resets. I’ve tried doing an SMC reset, but I’m not sure if the system is responding to the keyboard inputs since the magsafe light isn’t changing. I’m just wondering if anyone else has this problem, is this a SMC issue or is it software, and is the fact that a SMC reset doesn’t seem to be working be the fact that I have a faulty SMC? Most of what I can find online tends to be Alienwares with similar CPUs that had wrong power settings in Windows (I’ve tried in bootcamp, didn’t help) Here’s what Intel Power Gadget tells about my CPU speed, I have the base i7-3615QM with the 512mb version of the GT650m.
OK, we’ll need to use a different method to test your system. If you install this app TG Pro the full version will offer some diagnostics for SMC issues. Lets see what it tells us.
Replacing it back to the original battery somehow solved this. I don’t know why Apple’s OEM batteries are device specific.
