OSX getting very slow... help

[mymemory]

Ok, since a week ago the entire computer gets very very slow, with a lot of lag. I place the cursor over the dock and it takes minutes to show up. There is not back ground processing. I just updated the OS and took away the extra ram I had (a rev "B" Powerbook). Is like if the hard drive were very slow but is not that.

I tryed to restar the computer and even for that is slow. I checked the hard drive and fix some problems but nothing.

I just do not want to back up EVERYTHING and re install the system because I have so many software running! with updates and stuff. It would take me at list a week.

Any way, any sugestion?

 

[nuclearwinter]

Try This:

check permissions via disk utility and run cron scripts

go to the terminal and type these commands separately:

sudo periodic daily
sudo periodic weekly
sudo periodic monthly

you may also want to prebind your system

if none of that works, i don't know. i am reasonably new to macs myself, only 9 monthes or so, but i've done my research...

 

[mymemory]

How do I go to the terminal?

The system is very slow, to open photoshop can take up to a minute now.

And what is "prebind"?

 

[jsw]

Prebinding is an optimization technique to speed up the launch of your apps. I'm not sure how to do it manually (it's the "Optimizing" part of many installs).

When you say "I just updated the OS and took away the extra ram I had", which OS did you update to/from, and how much RAM did you take away?? Removing the RAM forces your system to go to disk-based virtual memory much, much sooner, and that is much, much slower. How much RAM did you have, and how much do you have now?

Edit: adding more RAM will probably fix this problem. Unless it's disk related (unlikely). In any event: have you backed up recently?

 

[jsw]

And you go to the Terminal by going to the Utilities folder inside of your Applications folder, and, within there, double-clicking on "Terminal".

Once there, just type in each of the lines recommended above, followed by a 'return' after each line, of course. Quit Terminal when they're all done.

You'll need to type your password the first time after rpressing 'return' ['sudo' means 'run what comes after this as a super-user', and it remembers that you typed the password for, I think, five minutes or so, so you won't need to type it again unless you type very, very slowly...].

Note that some of the sudo commands can take a while to finish (minutes). I find the weekly one to take the longest....

 

[jsw]

You might also want to run Applications->Utilities->Activity Monitor.

When that starts up, select Monitor->Show Activity Monitor.

Then, in that window, click on the "System Memory" tab towards the bottom.

How much memory is listed as "Free"? How much is "Used"?

 

[mymemory]

Looks like it is the hard drive, I am getting a SMART Failed error when I am running the disc utility. I had the chance of backing up all my data after doing a lot of stuff last night. It took me like 2 hours and I have been working on it the entire morning as well.

Now, the other problem is that is going to take to Apple another 10 days! to replace the hard drive! they will have to ship it some where for replacement. It suck! this is my main computer and I have to work.

Right now I am typing from one of my Pismos who have been using the same HD for the last 4 years without any problem.

 

[7on]

Oh well, things like that happen. Sometimes a disk will last 10 years, sometimes not even a year. It all depends and I doubt it's not that predictable. Sad that you have to wait 10 days though. The Apple Stores should hold up a bunch of computers in back to use for just parts and just fix them in the store.

 

[trainguy77]

I had this very problem with my emac. It slowed down with time, and then would no longer boot or see the hard drive.