Mini is running sluggish

[macnoob81]

Hey! I am new to the Mac World. I finally decided to buy a reasonably priced mac in November to see if it was worth it. I was told to buy a mini. After a couple months it started to run really slow. I upgraded the ram a few weeks ago and it's better but still running slow. My dream would be to run parallels on this so that I can still use all my PC software but I don't even want to try because how slow it has been. I had a friend install Perian on here and said it would help. It is actually running decent now but after it has been on for a while it because to slow down. The biggest problem I have is actually uploading pictures to facebook they come out all distorted. the pictures are all merged together like something is wrong witht he jpegs... Sad because we want to share pictures of the new baby...

What do you guys do to keep it running fast? Is there anything that could be hindering it?

Is it too big of a dream to run parallels on a mini?

Would upgrading the hard drive help???

Thanks!

 

[alust2013]

There certainly could be something slowing it down a bit as it is not at all normal for it to just slow down like that. I would recommend checking out Activity monitor, and see if there is something that is sucking up the CPU or RAM. It is also perfectly reasonable to expect to run Parallels on a mini, although upgrading the hard drive wouldn't make a huge difference, especially if your computer is running slow like that.

 

[waynema]

My 2010 Mini server gets random lags when streaming World Cup from espn3.com, does anyone else experience it?

 

[linuxcooldude]

In a virtual machine your sharing resources of two operating systems on one mac mini. A better alternative is to install the other operating system on a separate partition with bootcamp. Then you could boot in either OS of choice using all the computers resources instead of sharing it.

 

[lowonthe456]

OP: you repair permissions or clear caches lately?

get ONYX for OSX from versiontracker.com


its a necessity!

 

[Sun Baked]

It is actually running decent now but after it has been on for a while it because to slow down. The biggest problem I have is actually uploading pictures to facebook they come out all distorted. the pictures are all merged together like something is wrong with the jpegs...

I'd look for a repeating error in the one of the logs, or checking the apps for a memory leak.

When something keeps sending out repeated errors the error log grows big and slows the machine down.

When an app has a memory leak, it'll keep asking for more memory and the virtual memory file will grow huge and slow the machine down.

Of course installing any Norton app would likely cause the same issue.

 

[bluedevils]

what does the activity monitor say is using memory and cpu? If you're comfortable with commandline, try top.