MacBook Pro programs won't launch - hardware or software?

[dmw16]

I've noticed recently that my mid-2010 MacBook Pro has been acting oddly. It started with Firefox taking a long time to load finder when I do a "Save As..." then last week when I went to launch into Windows via bootcamp Windows has to repair itself. This week Firefox and VLC won't launch. The icon shows in the task bar but doesn't launch a window.

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling Firefox (and will try the same w/ VLC) but Firefox still doesn't work.

I guess I'll try a reformat. Has anyone had similar experiences? Should I replace the drive or take it into the Genius bar rather than bothering with the reinstall of OSX?

 

[TheStu]

Well, things can get bogged down after a while, but usually it takes longer than the 6-9 months that you have had the system. Create a new user account and try that out for a while, see if the slow launches persist. If they do, then it could be either hardware or an underlying OS issue. If they do not, then the answer is that your user folder is getting oddly crufted up.

Do you install/uninstall a lot of stuff, trying out new software all the time?
How much RAM do you have?
Can you afford (both financially and storage-wise) an SSD?

 

[Theb]

Windows is goofed up too? I'm leaning towards the hard drive. Will Disk Utility launch? Have you tried verifying the disk?

 

[dmw16]

Well, things can get bogged down after a while, but usually it takes longer than the 6-9 months that you have had the system. Create a new user account and try that out for a while, see if the slow launches persist. If they do, then it could be either hardware or an underlying OS issue. If they do not, then the answer is that your user folder is getting oddly crufted up.

Do you install/uninstall a lot of stuff, trying out new software all the time?
How much RAM do you have?
Can you afford (both financially and storage-wise) an SSD?

I don't install and uninstall regularly. My system stays pretty stable in terms of the software I use (MS Office, FireFox, VLC, iTunes).

I have 8GB of RAM, so I doubt that's the issue.

I am thinking about an SSD but space-wise it just doesn't work for me. However if this drive is shot I may take the plunge anyway and spring for a bigger external drive.

I will also try disk utility. It launches fine but I haven't tried a verify disk yet. I did download and run XBench and try to compare my HD scores to others. The site doesn't list which model MBP each system is, but I found one with similar CPU scores and figured it's probably the same model; my random read and write scores were a good bit lower.