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Sluggish MBP... Clean Install Time?

poppe

poppe

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Apr 29, 2006
2,249
53
Woodland Hills
Hello,

I have a Core 2 Duo MBP (not SR) and my MBP is running a little sluggish. Applications seem to take a good while to load up especially Firefox (though I heard that is part firefox problem), and address book doesn't open; it bounces and then stops working. My address book still backs up and syncs with my iPhone, but I can not add anything to my Address Book on my computer.

Another big problem (probably the most annoying) is that it takes around 2 minutes to restart my compute; that's counting from the grey screen until my computer reaches the login in screen. Then after login in it takes 1-2 minutes before I can actually do anything (opening an application, opening finder, network starts working).

I have deleted every single Application in my computer that I don't want/need, but that wasn't much. I have a lot of Applications. I have also deleted a lot of documents in my Documents section, but that still has not helped.

I think my computer is having problems because I added a lot of add-ons to my computer, whether it be for pleasure or for business, but I am not sure how I could get them off and away. Some of the add-ons are ones that I need like a program I have that helps Mail and Outlook communicate (or something like that).

So what do you all think would be my best option? A clean install? A archive and install? Go in my Library and try to delete everything?
 
Have you repaired permissions, ran cron scripts and cleared out caches?
 
i downloaded and used mainmenu last night and it seemed to help... you can clear caches with it as well as a bunch of other stuff...
 
The short answer is no, at least not until you've eliminated a bunch of other possibilities. When you say "add ons" can you be specific? Have you checked Activity Monitor for processes that might be eating clock cycles? Have you checked your Startup Items? Have you checked your HD for errors?

Repairing permissions is not likely to help. Running cron scripts manually is no longer necessary (since Tiger).
 
When debating to format, just do it. You posted this thread at 111am yesterday, and its already 450pm today. The time spent, you could have formatted, reinstalled, and been back up already
 
iBunny said:
When debating to format, just do it. You posted this thread at 111am yesterday, and its already 450pm today. The time spent, you could have formatted, reinstalled, and been back up already
Click to expand...

Good grief. He wasn't even "down."

Reformatting just because it doesn't take all day is really irresponsible advice, especially when you have zero idea what the problem is, even assuming he actually has one.
 
IJ Reilly said:
Reformatting just because it doesn't take all day is really irresponsible advice
Click to expand...

I tend to agree, but if time is a critical consideration, it can be a lot easier and faster to reformat/reinstall than to spend hours/days troubleshooting. The downside is that you have no guarantee of fixing anything, because you have no idea at the time what the problem is/was. If previously installed software was causing issues, the problem comes back as soon as you reinstall whatever app was making trouble. On the rare occasion that I've resorted to reformatting as a cure, I've always taken a minimalist approach afterwards, installing only the minimum amount of software needed.
 
It won't take more than a few minutes to try some of the troubleshooting suggestions I've made -- a lot less time than it takes to reformat, not to mention, a hell of a lot safer and less disruptive.
 
Sometimes the best thing is to just do a nice clean install or archive/install. I had to do archive and install recently cause my Office apps would refuse to open...in fact, it seemed like anything PowerPC refused to open..seemed like Rosetta was shot. Microsoft AU wouldnt load either and the uninstall tool didnt run. Ran Disk Utility off the OSX Disc and it came up clean. Ran Onyx's maintenance scripts too...no dice.

i did an archive and install and its back to normal.
 
OMG.... I typed every single program that was up and running at that very moment; every single thing running in the activity monitor and I swear I submitted my response, but there doens't seem to be one.


I'm out of town until Sunday so I won't be able to retype everything until then. So stay tuned.
 
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