Computer suddenly extremely slow. Now grey screen.
Macbook Pro, OS X 10.6.8, purchased late 2009
Almost overnight, the computer became extremely slow when running apps. I tried multiple solutions -- verifying, repairing, etc. Yet as of now, its refusing to boot. Is there a way of restoring the system through time machine on an external HD on Mountain Lion? Does anyone strongly suspect (as I do) that this is the last gasp for the hard drive and a new one is in order? Or is the situation perhaps even more critical given the age of the machine?
It booted just now after many attempts, but is still extremely slow and unresponsive.
Once again, please: any help with the matter would be immensely appreciated. Would putting in a new hard drive solve the issue? I read somewhere that moving your computer when it's running can cause the drive to get corrupted. And in fact, that is more-or-less when my problems began.
Or should i try restoring the computer first through the OS X DVD?
Similar Messages
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I installed the latest update of iTunes and now my computer is extremely slow and it freezes. When I click on the itunes icon, nothing happens, if it opens is a long time afterwards. Most of the time it does not even open, but the computer is very slow. It is a PC desktop running windos xp.
Hey ArgentoSB!
I have an article for you that can help you troubleshoot these issues:
iTunes for Windows XP: Troubleshooting unexpected quits, freezes, or launch issues
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1421
Take care, and thanks for visiting the Apple Support Communities.
-Braden -
My computer is extremely slow, with the rainbow wheel appearing with every click. It is one year old, and has all the most recent updates. Why is it so painfully slow?
That sounds horrible. There are a number of reasons it could occur.
The first thing to do is ensure you have adequate backups, because what you describe can be a symptom of impending disk failure.
To help determine the possible causes of this behaviour read the following. None of what follows is intended to fix anything, but it will provide the additional information required to advance troubleshooting. There are four separate parts to it; read everything first.
Boot OS X Recovery by holding ⌘ and r (two fingers) while you start your Mac. At the Mac OS X Utilities screen, select Disk Utility. Select your startup volume (usually named "Macintosh HD") and click the Repair Disk button. Describe any errors it reports in red. If Disk Utility reports "The volume Macintosh HD appears to be OK" in green then you can be reasonably (though not completely) assured your hard disk is in good working order.
When it finishes restart your Mac and test again for operation. If it's still not behaving as you expect it should, please post the results of EtreCheck in accordance with the following instructions:
Apple Support Communities contributor etresoft wrote a very useful app to quickly gather certain system information that may help point to a cause of this problem. Read about it here. It contains a link to download EtreCheck. Don't download it from anywhere else (such as may be found by following the results of an Internet search).
Click Open - etresoft contributes to this forum frequently and can be considered a trustworthy developer.
It will take a moment to run as it collects its data.
Copy and paste its output in a reply.
Do not be concerned about anything that says "Problem" or “failed” or anything else that may appear in red.
EtreCheck was designed to remove any personal information (such as your computer's name and serial numbers) but if you see anything that looks like an email address or any other personal information that should not be divulged to others, please delete or obscure that information when you post the reply.
When you are finished with EtreCheck, quit the program. It occupies very little space, and you can keep it or drag it to the Trash as you wish.
After completing the above please determine if the problems also occur in "Safe Mode":
Safe Mode or "Safe Boot" is a troubleshooting mode that bypasses all third party system extensions and loads only required system components. Read about it: Starting up in Safe Mode
You must disable FileVault before you can start your Mac in Safe Mode.
Starting your Mac in Safe Mode will take longer than usual, graphics will not render smoothly, audio is disabled on some Macs, and some programs (iTunes for example) may not work at all.
Merely starting your Mac in Safe Mode is not intended to resolve the problem, it's to observe its performance without certain additional components.
To end Safe Mode restart your Mac normally. Shutdown will take longer as well.
System performance problems for reasons that cannot be isolated to any other cause justify an SMC reset. Be sure to read the procedure carefully and follow all the steps exactly as written, even if they seem inapplicable or trivial. -
My external HD of 1TB is not being recognized by the iMac and when after a long waiting period it does, the whole computer becomes extremely slow. Do I need any particular add-on to make it workable?
Before I updated to OS X Mavericks I was using another external disk that was getting disconnected ocasionally so I bought a new ADATA HD710 portable 1TB Drive and moved the files to it. This new drive which is supposed to be OS X Mavericks compatible takes minutes to show the files especially when opening second and third level folders which has made mu iMac unusable
What should I do?Your Mac should be able to recognize many different types of drives (including Windows-formatted drives) immediately for Reading, provided they are in good working condition and not damaged. There should be no need to transfer to a different type of drive.
If there is no recognition of this drive, see if it can be seen in Disk Utility.
If your aim is to transfer the data on it DO NOT use ERASE or PARTITION as these will completely erase all the information on the Drive.
If the drive is present while the Mac sleeps, it is likely to drop out and not be seen any longer, especially if it is a USB-powered drive. -
I just downloaded Yosemite operating system and my computer is extremely slow but also not opening my Adobe applications. Can anyone help? thanks!
First, tell Apple about your problems... with details... and hope for an update that fixes your slowness
Second, Yosemite sometimes has problems, often related to "default" permissions needing to be changed
-one person's solution https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1689788
-http://blogs.adobe.com/creativecloud/creative-cloud-and-yosemite/
-https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/mac-os-yosemite-compatability.html -
I purchase my Mac approx 6 years, recently purchase Mac OS X Snow Leopard disk for my daughters new IPOD to work, computer is extremely slow, others refuse to use it, why is it slow, I know very little about this computer and have hated it from day one! Please help. The most I have on this computer would be photos, never downloaded movies, and have approx 40 songs.
The best option to make it faster would be to manually go through and erase all of the junk (files you never use) from the computer. If you want a much faster way (depending on how many files you have, this can take much longer), you can copy the files you'd like to keep to an external HD and then erase and reinstall OS X.
Erase and Reinstall OS X using the OS X Install DVD
Note: This will delete all data on the disk. Back up important files before continuing.
Erasing and then reinstalling OS X can give you a fresh start, making your computer exactly as it was whenever you received it from Apple. This can solve various problems such as corrupt system files.
Insert your OS X Install DVD into the computer's built-in disc drive (if applicable) or your computer's external USB disc drive.
Shut down the computer by going to Apple () > Shut Down…
Select Shut Down or allow the computer to shut down automatically.
Plug in the MagSafe power adapter into a power source and then connect it to your Mac if you have not already done so.
Press the Power Button to turn on the computer.
Press and hold the D key on the keyboard until the Recovery partition loads. If this does not work, shut down the computer, press the Power Button to turn on the computer, and then hold in the Alt (⌥) button immediately after you press the power button. Then, select the Mac OS X Install DVD to boot from the Mac OS X Install DVD.
Select Disk Utility and then choose Continue.
Select your startup disk (Macintosh HD by default) from the left.
Select the Erase tab.
Choose the Format pop-up menu and choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled), enter a name for your disk, and then click Erase.
After the disk is erased, choose Disk Utility > Quit Disk Utility.
Select Reinstall OS X and then choose Continue.
Follow the instructions.
I hope I helped. -
I cannot use iTunes anymore. My computer becomes extremely slow or just freezes. I notice the problem started after I updated iTunes to a new version. I have tried uninstalling iTunes completely from my computer and installing it back, but problem continues. We iTunes launches, it tries to connect to iTunes store, but it doesn't seem to be able to do that either. I can't sync my iPod or play back my music, please help.
With those symptoms, I'd try the following document:
Apple software on Windows: May see performance issues and blank iTunes Store
(If there's a SpeedBit LSP showing up in Autoruns, it's usually best to just uninstall your SpeedBit Video Accelerator.) -
when i turn on my computer it stays on the grey screen and then turns off by itself. How can I fix that?
Hi , and a warm welcome to the forums!
Could be many things, we should start with this...
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu at top of the screen. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
5. Click Repair Disk, (not Repair Permissions). Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then try a Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.
(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive & clear caches.)
If perchance you can't find your install Disc, at least try it from the Safe Boot part onward.
If 10.7.0 or later...
Bootup holding CMD+r, or the Option/alt key to boot from the Restore partition & use Disk Utility from there to Repair the Disk, then Repair Permissions.
Hold alt or option key at bootup, do asny boot choices show up? -
SInce upgrading to mavericks computer is so slow now.
SInce upgrading to mavericks computer is so slow now. Freezes more than it opens applications. Should I upgrade ram form 2gb to 4gb? Would that help? Wish I had left it using snow leopard at this point.
Many thanks Pete. Would upgrading to 4GB be enough?
Below is the etrecheck report.
Thanks again
EtreCheck version: 2.1.8 (121)
Report generated 27 March 2015 11:58:36 am NZDT
Download EtreCheck from http://etresoft.com/etrecheck
Click the [Click for support] links for help with non-Apple products.
Click the [Click for details] links for more information about that line.
Click the [Adware! - Remove] links for help removing adware.
Hardware Information: ℹ️
iMac (20-inch, Early 2009) (Verified)
iMac - model: iMac9,1
1 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2-core
2 GB RAM Upgradeable
BANK 0/DIMM0
1 GB DDR3 1067 MHz ok
BANK 1/DIMM0
1 GB DDR3 1067 MHz ok
Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported
Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n
Video Information: ℹ️
NVIDIA GeForce 9400 - VRAM: 256 MB
iMac 1680 x 1050
System Software: ℹ️
OS X 10.9.5 (13F1066) - Time since boot: 2:6:13
Disk Information: ℹ️
Hitachi HDT721032SLA380 disk0 : (320.07 GB)
EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / : 319.21 GB (118.77 GB free)
Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB
HL-DT-ST DVDRW GA11N
USB Information: ℹ️
Apple Inc. Built-in iSight
Apple Inc. Keyboard Hub
Mitsumi Electric Apple Optical USB Mouse
Apple Inc. Apple Keyboard
USB2.0 External Mass Storage Device
Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
EPSON USB MFP
HID Wireless Mouse HID Wireless Mouse
Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Gatekeeper: ℹ️
Anywhere
Adware: ℹ️
Geneio [Adware! - Remove]
Downlite [Adware! - Remove]
Kernel Extensions: ℹ️
/Applications/Toast 10 Titanium/Toast Titanium.app
[not loaded] com.roxio.BluRaySupport (1.1.6) [Click for support]
/Applications/Toast 11 Titanium/Spin Doctor.app
[not loaded] com.hzsystems.terminus.driver (4) [Click for support]
/Library/Application Support/Hotspot Shield
[not loaded] com.anchorfree.tun (1.1.1 - SDK 10.8) [Click for support]
/System/Library/Extensions
[loaded] com.movavi.driver.SoundGrabber (1.6.5 - SDK 10.6) [Click for support]
/Users/[redacted]/Library/Services/ToastIt.service/Contents/MacOS
[not loaded] com.roxio.TDIXController (2.0) [Click for support]
Launch Agents: ℹ️
[running] com.3ffda93913f066b8.agent.plist [Click for support]
[loaded] com.divx.dms.agent.plist [Click for support]
[loaded] com.divx.update.agent.plist [Click for support]
[running] net.culater.SIMBL.Agent.plist [Click for support]
Launch Daemons: ℹ️
[not loaded] .plist (hidden) [Click for support]
/usr/local/libexec/TorchUpdater /usr/local/libexec/TorchUpdater --hello=torch
[not loaded] com.3ffda93913f066b8.daemon.plist [Click for support]
[running] com.3ffda93913f066b8.helper.plist [Click for support]
[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist [Click for support]
[loaded] com.anchorfree.ajaxserver.plist [Click for support]
[loaded] com.bombich.ccc.plist [Click for support]
[loaded] com.tunnelbear.mac.tbeard.plist [Click for support]
User Launch Agents: ℹ️
[failed] [email protected] [Click for details]
[running] com.codecm.uploader.plist [Click for support]
[loaded] com.genieo.completer.download.plist [Adware! - Remove]
[loaded] com.genieo.completer.ltvbit.plist [Adware! - Remove]
[running] com.genieo.completer.update.plist [Adware! - Remove]
[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist [Click for support]
User Login Items: ℹ️
iTunesHelper Application (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)
Hotspot Shield UNKNOWN Hidden (missing value)
Mac Game Store Helper Application (/Users/[redacted]/Library/Application Support/MacGameStore.com/Helper/Mac Game Store Helper.app)
Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
OVSHelper: Version: 1.1 [Click for support]
Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9
Flip4Mac WMV Plugin: Version: 2.4.2.4 [Click for support]
NP_2020Player_WEB: Version: 5.0.94.0 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]
Unity Web Player: Version: UnityPlayer version 5.0.0f4 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]
Silverlight: Version: 5.1.30514.0 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]
FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 16.0.0.305 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]
DivX Web Player: Version: 3.2.4.1250 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]
Flash Player: Version: 16.0.0.305 - SDK 10.6 Outdated! Update
iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0
QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 14.9.0 - SDK 10.7 Check version
User internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
Picasa: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]
RealPlayer Plugin: Version: Unknown [Click for support]
Safari Extensions: ℹ️
AdBlock
FastestTube
3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️
Flash Player [Click for support]
Flip4Mac WMV [Click for support]
Time Machine: ℹ️
Skip System Files: NO
Auto backup: YES
Destinations:
BackUp [Local]
Total size: 0 B
Total number of backups: 0
Oldest backup: -
Last backup: -
Size of backup disk: Excellent
Backup size 0 B > (Disk size 0 B X 3)
Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️
12% Toast Titanium
12% firefox
6% WindowServer
3% Dock
1% mds_stores
Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️
256 MB firefox
41 MB Mail
39 MB Toast Titanium
37 MB Opera
35 MB Opera Helper
Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️
20 MB Free RAM
577 MB Active RAM
576 MB Inactive RAM
377 MB Wired RAM
3.92 GB Page-ins
1.20 GB Page-outs
Diagnostics Information: ℹ️
Mar 25, 2015, 05:05:56 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Toast Titanium_2015-03-25-170556_[redacted].hang
Mar 27, 2015, 09:46:10 AM Self test - passed
Mar 26, 2015, 04:05:10 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Mail_2015-03-26-160510_[redacted].hang -
Just tried to upgrade to SnowLeopard with newly purchased software disc. iLife failed to download and when I tried to restart the computer, it will not do so--just get a grey screen with the lines going around and around. Any ideas about how to get it to start?
Mac Pro - Mid 2010
Processor 2 x 2.66 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon
Memory 8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC
Graphics ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024 MB
Software Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2 (11C74)
This is a brand new machine that I just purchased from Apple. It was delivered yesterday
The old computer is an old PowerMac G5, but my OS X install disc is a retail version of 10.5.
I also tried the OS X 10.5 install disc that came with my MacBook Pro (2.6 Ghz Intel Core 2 Dual).
Same issue - nothing but a grey screen when the system tries to boot from the DVD -
All my i photo pictures are on my desktop, now my computer is extremely slow
ll my i photo pictures are on my desktop, now my computer is extremely slow
No surprise there!
You iPhoto Library belongs in your Pictures folder.
Performance tip: Keep the Desktop clutter-free (empty, if possible)
Mac OS X's Desktop is the de facto location for downloaded files, and for many users, in-progress works that will either be organized later or deleted altogether. The desktop can also be gluttonous, however, becoming a catch-all for files that linger indefinitely.
Unfortunately - aside from the effect of disarray it creates - keeping dozens or hundreds of files on the Desktop can significantly degrade performance. Not necessarily because the system is sluggish with regard to rendering the icons on the desktop and storing them in memory persistently (which may be true in some cases), but more likely because keeping an excessive number of items on the Desktop can cause the windowserver process to generate reams of logfiles, which obviously draws resources away from other system tasks. Each of your icons on your desktop is stored as a window in the window server, not as an alias. The more you have stored, the more strain it puts on the window server. Check your desktop for unnecessary icons and clear them out.
Keeping as few items as possible on the Desktop can prove a surprisingly effective performance boon. Even creating a single folder on your Desktop and placing all current and future clutter inside, then logging out and back in can provide an immediately noticeable speed boost, particularly for the Finder.
And it is why Apple invented 'Stacks' for Leopard. -
I have since done a Mavericks upgrade and our computer is rediculously SLOW! i have made sure the Trash is empty...moved photos to another Library so they are not all accessed from the dock..just keep noticing that when im on the computer or on the interenet nothing but that silly BEACHBALL all the time...just keep think what is it doing?? and why is it everytime im on this thing does that ball follow me and hold every page up?? SO ANNOYING!
Any help or advice is much appreciated
SmithNot enough free space on the startup disk can slow your Mac down.
Click your Apple menu top left in your screen. From the drop down menu click About This Mac > More Info > Storage
Make sure there's at least 15% free disk space.
If there's enough free disk space, the startup disk may need repairing.
Launch Disk Utility located in HD > Applications > Utillities
Select the startup disk on the left then select the First Aid tab.
Click: Verify Disk (not Verify Disk Permissions)
If DU reports errors, restart your Mac while holding down the Command + R keys. From there you should be able to access the built in utilities in OS X Recovery to repair the startup disk.
Make sure to back up all important files first before using OS X Recovery.
OS X Recovery does require a broadband high speed internet connection. -
Extremely slow startup, Grey and Black screens.
Hey all,
Had my iMac 20" for a couple of weeks now, and have noticed a few recurring problems.
The first one is if I shut down the iMac and then go to turn it on again after a while, it takes a concerning amount of time to even show the apple logo, getting stuck at the grey screen beforehand. I can usually get around this by turning the machine off and starting it again, and I've noticed if I unplug all my USB devices it seems to boot normally.
Second problem is after leaving bootcamp to boot back into OSX, the iMac doesn't boot at all. I get a blank screen, and the light on the front stays lit. I left the machine for 15 mins, nothing happenned. I rebooted around 3-4 times before I got any life - and I'd also pulled out the USB devices.
Hooked to the Belkin USB hub, I have my iPod and 2 USB printers. Hooked directly to my mac, I have 2 external USB hard drives - one is a Maxtor NTFS 300GB Drive, the other a HFS+ 120GB Icybox.
Any idea why this thing boots sporadically? This is nowhere near good enough for a machine that cost me over £1,000.i'm using bootcamp and i havent had similar problems.
bootcamp is beta.
if i were you, i'd backup what i wanted off the windows partition and then use the Boot Camp Assistant to remove the windows partition, and then reinstall it.
i've found parallels more convienient for everything besides games or anything using DirectX.
hope this helps! -
Installed new battery, now computer is extremely slow
Hello,
My battery was DEAD, and I just installed the new one today. (It isn't the one from apple, but Read reviews that this was good so I got it). But I installed the new battery today, and every since, my computer gets really slow and starts to lag a ton after 5 mins of starting up. I've never had this problem before. I tried the smc reset (not sure if it is actually resetting). I did a pram reset as well. I also have a lot of space. It is even slow and laggy when I am not running any programs. Once I start a video, for example on skype, or on youtube, it lags like crazy.
Please help me fix this.
Thank you!Try having a technician install a battery made for your device.
Using things not made for your computer (or approved by the manufacturer) is a poor way to save money.
Barry -
Sudden EXTREME slowness, crashing
I was using my Macbook Pro today for just regular stuff, playing some music, when suddenly it slowed down to a really ridiculous speed. I double-clicked on a song in iTunes, it went to the pinwheel and took 15 seconds before the song played. I figured I would restart, so I did and now the computer is literally slower than I could have imagined.
At first reboot it sat at the Apple logo loading screen for a long time, to the point where I turned it off and let it sit for a moment, then turned it back on. For the next five or so off / on cycles it displayed a blank light-blue screen and nothing else, not responding to any kind of input. Holding down the button to get to the boot menu to choose between Windows and Mac didn't work.
Finally I left it for quite a long time and it managed to boot up to the login screen after about 30 minutes of loading. I managed to type in my password (which took awhile, it went to pinwheel for about 10 seconds before recognizing keyboard inputs). Another 10 - 15 minutes before it displayed the desktop and dock, then another 5 minutes before it displayed the top menu.
It continued to run extremely slow, and over the course of the next hour I managed to open up Disk Utility and Activity Monitor. Activity Monitor shows random tasks as "Not Responding", as does Force Quit. Different tasks at different times show up red, including SystemUI, iTunes, and Disk Utility itself.
I attempted to verify the disk, it worked for a moment, displayed a few errors and then stopped with the message "Underlying task failed", or something to that effect. I tried to Verify Disk permissions and it threw a long list back at me before freezing. Over the next 20 minutes I managed to force quit Disk Utility, and now my computer is apparently entirely frozen.
The Windows drive also didn't appear on the desktop, and under Disk Utility my windows partition showed up greyed out and d03 or something like that.
I'm going to try to restart with the install disk and run Disk Repair off of it and see if it will work, but I was hoping someone out there had an idea of what's gone wrong with my MBP before I just wipe the whole thing clean and start over...if I can.
It's a Macbook Pro, one of the first-iteration Macbook Pros that came out a few years ago.
Thanks a bunch.Thanks for the quick reply. I tried restarting with the install disk, but it failed to repair with the same error. I'm going to have to send it in now anyway because the install disk is now stuck in there. Hopefully (with my luck) it won't spontaneously explode before I can get it to an Apple Store to have them send it back, I guess.
Thanks.
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