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New MacBook...Slow?

N

ncstmpr

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 24, 2006
49
0
I just got a MacBook two days ago. I bought the one for $1299. This book is so slow and I don't know why...is it because there is only 512 RAM? Someone please help me understand before returning this macbook. My husband's laptop is a slower processor and opens web pages and programs faster then me. I am really sad at how slow this machine is. :mad:
 
Yeah, it's the memory. Especially if you're running non Intel-native software like Office or Photoshop.

1GB is, from what I hear, the minimum you should consider running on an Intel Mac, and if you can push it up to 2GB so much the better.
 
Your kidding! I am not joking this macbook is so slow that I can barely stand to use it...actually I am on my desktop now because the mac is running so slow.
 
before installing 2gigs in my macbook, I noticed a difference in speed between my 12'' 1.5Ghz 1gig PowerBook
 
So you noticied a differance to in how slow the macbook is? I am really shocked at the speed.


wako said:
before installing 2gigs in my macbook, I noticed a difference in speed between my 12'' 1.5Ghz 1gig PowerBook
Click to expand...
 
it wasnt a huge difference. It was simply some application like Word would open up slower. For webpages and what not it loaded up pretty fast. Anything that wasnt native to Intel Macs ran slower. Everything else was still zipping by.
 
I guess I will be going back to the Apple store tomorrow to return this book. I am really disappointed in the performance of speed. :(
 
I wonder it is something else with mine then because surfing the web using sarfai is super slow and I am flying on all the other computers in my house.
 
go into activity monitor and see if anything is being a resource hog. Have you tried another browser as well?
 
I have not installed anything yet...I just bought it Friday...web browsing is slow...opening up differnt applications is slow. I reinstalled Os X today thinking that may help but if anything it is really slower. It starts up quick but that is it.





miniConvert said:
Is it just web browsing you're finding slow? Or everything?

What have you installed since purchase?

It's possible OS X needs reinstalling or, simply, you've got a lemon.
Click to expand...
 
Where do I find activity monitor? I am good at getting around but very new to mac.

wako said:
go into activity monitor and see if anything is being a resource hog. Have you tried another browser as well?
Click to expand...
 
I would deffinatly not use a computer today if it had any less than 1 GB of ram.... and then i would still struggle...
 
Ok I am in acivity monitor...what should I be looking at? active processes....inactive processes?? I wish I wasn't so dumb in answering all your questions....I am great at windows but still dumb at mac.......how do I see if spotlight is running?
 
It can be slow while spotlight is still journaling the contents of the hard drive...

My MBP responded slowly for the first couple of hours, then it was lightening fast though...
 
While the macbook can get sluggish when running a couple of apps at the same time (because of the low memory) it really is quite snappy otherwise.

I would let it run for a while and see if it gets faster, and if it's still slow maybe have someone look at it at an apple store/genius bar/etc.
 
When I was in the activity monitor I did quit running a few things but never restarted last night. I finally just shut down the book last night because I gave up. This morning this book is just as snappy as can be!!!! When quitting those apps did i keep them from coming back on when restarting?? Is activity monitor kind of like msconfig on a win computer? Is there a list of safe things that I can turn off in the activity monitor? I plan to order some ram today.
 
ncstmpr said:
When I was in the activity monitor I did quit running a few things but never restarted last night. I finally just shut down the book last night because I gave up. This morning this book is just as snappy as can be!!!! When quitting those apps did i keep them from coming back on when restarting?? Is activity monitor kind of like msconfig on a win computer? Is there a list of safe things that I can turn off in the activity monitor? I plan to order some ram today.
Click to expand...
IMO, 512 mb's of RAM is sufficient for word processing/web surfing. I don't know why macrumors members are so quick to say add more ram. In this case, simply letting spotlight index the drive would have worked.

When you quit an app, the little triangle below it in the dock disappears. The program is closed, and it won't re-open until you open it. If you restart, no programs will be running when it boots up (except finder).
If you simply close the lid, it puts the laptop into a sleep mode. In this case, when you open the lid everything will be exactily how you left it.

As far as msconfig goes... no. Activity Monitor is more like the task manager in XP. There is no MSConfig style program in OS X (at least that I know of). To choose what starts up, go into the system preferences>Accounts>your name and hit the startup items "tab". There you can choose what items start up on login.
 
thanks jadedmonkey! I went to accounts and the only thing I have starting up is ical alarm.

I am not sure why the system was running so slow and now this morning it is running great in my opinion. All computers/laptops I have ever bought have had at least a gig of ram. 512 is low for me but I still thought I was darn sluggish for 512 last night.
 
Did you transfer a lot of data from your PC to your new Mac at some point? Because if you did, Spotlight would be crunching away indexing ALL that new data, which uses a lot of processor time and i would think has your disk occupied...both things which will make your new Macbook feel reaaaaaaaly slow
 
ncstmpr said:
thanks jadedmonkey! I went to accounts and the only thing I have starting up is ical alarm.

I am not sure why the system was running so slow and now this morning it is running great in my opinion. All computers/laptops I have ever bought have had at least a gig of ram. 512 is low for me but I still thought I was darn sluggish for 512 last night.
Click to expand...

512 MB is more than enough for running the machine fast enough. I
still can't believe those members asking you to upgrade just because you are
experience sluggish preformance with a vanilla OS X install.

As thejadedmonkey suggested (a more a reasonable reply), it is because
Spotlight was indexing your files. If you are in a quite room, you can easily notice it
by noticing the sound of your drive hard at work.

If I recall correctly, the name of the spotlight indexing process is mdimport. I can't
check the exact name because I am not on a Mac right now :(.
 
Something wrong...

Hi,
Yesterday we recieved a new Macbook with a 2Gb RAM, and we found that is really slow in surfing. In fact, I start an software update at 3PM, at 11PM wasn,t finished...is that normal?
Besides, did you think that 512 of RAM is not enough to run any computer in a normal speed?
Thanks!
 
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