IMac very slow after several hours of use, esp. when using Photoshop

Question

Hi all,
I have a fairly new iMac (mid-2008 20" model) with a 2.4ghz Intel processor. I am a web designer and use this machine every day for my work. Several months after installing Adobe Creative Suite 3, I noticed that Photoshop was causing the cursor to jump and/or become jerky, as if the video card or processor were not keeping up with what's going on. This tends to happen after the computer's been in use for several hours or days after a restart. I have been following this in Leopard's Activity Monitor, and I noticed that Photoshop (being memory- and processor- hungry) taxes the processor more heavily than many other programs, which I expected. The strange thing, though, is that over time the Activity Monitor shows the "System" as taking up more and more processor capacity. I.E. when I first start up, the system is using 0-20% of the processor, the rest being available for the user; but after awhile, the system is requiring 50-90% of processor capacity, the result being that as soon as I switch into Photoshop from another program, the system is immediately overtaxed and starts moving very slowly (especially the cursor, as I said).
Now, here's the really strange part. As I said, this began happening a few months after I first installed Adobe CS3. I re-installed the software at Adobe's recommendation, and it was fine for another few months, but it began happening a few days ago, which is exactly the same time I shared a jump drive with a friend's worm-infected Windows XP machine. I know Macs don't get Windows worms, but is it possible that this thing has lodged itself on my system somehow and is causing it to run generally more slowly?
I appreciate any help you can give,
Nathan

Answer 1

Hi Nathan,
How much free disk space is available? Right or control click the MacintoshHD icon on your Desktop, then click: Get Info. In the Get Info window, click the discovery triangle so it's facing down. You will see; Capacity and Available Make sure you have 10% available disk space, 15% is way better.
Not enough disks space could certainly slow your Mac down.
" but it began happening a few days ago, which is exactly the same time I shared a jump drive with a friend's worm-infected Windows XP machine. I know Macs don't get Windows worms, but is it possible that this thing has lodged itself on my system somehow and is causing it to run generally more slowly"
Mac can't read Windows files, so a file from the jump drive shouldn't be an issue unless you are running Windows on your Mac? via Boot Camp?
If you don't have a disk utility that can clear log and caches files, get TinkerTool available here;
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/11967
Check your boot disk for errors: Open Disk Utility, in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder.
Select your disk, and click First Aid.
Click Verify Disk.
If the disk needs repairs, do one of the following:
Insert your Mac OS X Install disc in your computer’s optical drive or an optical drive connected to your computer, and then restart your computer. When you hear the startup tone, hold down the C key until you see the progress indicator, which looks like a spinning gear.
Follow the onscreen instructions until the menu bar appears with the Utilities menu in it, choose Utilities > Disk Utility, click First Aid, and then click Repair Disk.
Restart your computer using Remote Install Mac OS X. Follow the onscreen instructions until the menu bar appears with the Utilities menu in it, choose Utilities > Disk Utility, click First Aid, and then click Repair Disk.
Carolyn