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Mac Pro bogging down

D

dubina

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 17, 2012
74
0
My bro has a Mac Pro with 2 TB and lots of programs. I am trying to mine it for stuff we need to know. He has 100 icons in his dock and rarely uses any of them now. Are they bogging the Mac down because they're "open" or are they just sitting there adding nothing to the processing load?

By "bogging down" I mean I see the little spinning rainbow pinwheel a lot.

Thanks,
 
Last edited:
dubina said:
My bro has a Mac Pro with 2 TB and lots of programs. I am trying to mine it for stuff we need to know. He has 100 icons in his docks and rarely uses any of them now. Are they bogging the Mac down because they're "open" or are they just sitting there adding noting to the processing loss.

By "bogging down" I meaning I see the little rainbow pinwheel a lot.

Thanks,
Click to expand...
Simply having apps installed or data stored will not affect performance, unless those apps are running or unless you're running out of disk space.

If you're having performance issues, this may help:
 
@ simsa

0 Page Outs and 0 Swap used

Also, fwiw, "Safari is not responding"
 
GGJstud

I see lots of advice about eliminating unnecessary stuff (always good advice). It's not my Mac so I don't know what's needed or not, but m'bro is in a hospice situation, and none of the stuff is needed in that sense.

Plenty of free disk space, using less than 50%. He has 2 TB.

See my report to simsa this thread regarding 0 page outs and 0 swaps.
 
There's a difference between how much hard drive storage you have and how much RAM you have. Go to About This Mac (under the Apple icon in the menu bar) and that will tell you how much memory the system has installed.
 
@ Mackilroy

"...how much memory the system has installed"

64 GB 1066 MHZ DDRE
 
TheEasterBunny said:
What model Pro is this?
What processors does it have?
What speed are they?
What did he use it for?
Click to expand...

Not sure about the model. Could "MacPro 2TB.1" be the model? I see two hulking towers and no model on them anywhere.

2x2.93 GHZ Quad core Intel Xeon

He used it for professional photography ... processing digital images, portraits, action shots, landscapes, etc. Like Ansel Adams in enhanced digital color.
 
dubina said:
Not sure about the model. Could "MacPro 2TB.1" be the model? I see two hulking towers and no model on them anywhere.

2x2.93 GHZ Quad core Intel Xeon

He used it for professional photography ... processing digital images, portraits, action shots, landscapes, etc. Like Ansel Adams in enhanced digital color.
Click to expand...

No.

Based on the description of the CPUs, it's probably a 4,1 (2009). You can check by clicking the Apple menu and then clicking "About This Mac". Then, click the "More Info..." button and it should tell you which one it is.

And for future reference, the serial number would be on the back of the machine on a grey label affixed in the indentation below where the graphics card is normally installed. See here.
 
Sounds like the system has numerous software issues and could use a good clean install. That should eliminate all of the problems assuming they aren't physical hardware issues.

1. Backup all data to a Time Machine drive
2. Use Lion Diskmaker to make a Mountain Lion installer on a 8GB+ USB drive
3. Wipe the boot drive and do a clean install of OS X
4. Manually copy all data back to where you want it

Adobe applications will need to be reinstalled and reactivated; not sure about the others.

More detailed instructions here:
http://osxdaily.com/2012/07/25/how-to-clean-install-os-x-mountain-lion/
 
CaptainChunk said:
No.

Based on the description of the CPUs, it's probably a 4,1 (2009). You can check by clicking the Apple menu and then clicking "About This Mac". Then, click the "More Info..." button and it should tell you which one it is.

And for future reference, the serial number would be on the back of the machine on a grey label affixed in the indentation below where the graphics card is normally installed. See here.
Click to expand...

I found a characteristic that said "early 2009". Also found the serial number.

My brother called in one of his friends to fix the iMac. It seems to be working now. I was not present when the friend did what he did, but I; pretty sure he did not wipe and reinstall OSX.
 
dubina said:
I found a characteristic that said "early 2009". Also found the serial number.

My brother called in one of his friends to fix the iMac. It seems to be working now. I was not present when the friend did what he did, but I; pretty sure he did not wipe and reinstall OSX.
Click to expand...

Why so sure?
 
TheEasterBunny said:
Why so sure?
Click to expand...

I was there part of the time. I think the problem was mainly due to a keychain login password that the second Mac jockey had to crack or hack. Before that, a first Mac jockey hacked the master password and left the keychain login problem. I think the second Mac jockey did some "cleanup", but I would be surprised if he had enough time to do the things suggested by Demigod Mac.

My brother is ill and cannot shed much light on the problem. I told him I saw a lot of rainbow pizza and he was not surprised. Now, no pizza wheel.

Call it "solved".
 
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