Performance Troubles

Question

Hey all, I have a plain Macbook, purchased almost 2 years ago, with just the basics no upgrades, with the exception of Leopard. Recently, starting around 2-3 months ago, my laptop began to lag alot and run programs very slowly. Anything from Firefox to online games, just a general lower performance that what I was used to from this machine. So I wiped the hard drive when I installed Leopard because I was hoping this would fix the problem, which it didn't. I then ran tech tool deluxe and everything passed except the surface scan. Which gave this message: Surface Scan
Failed - 1 errors
The Surface Scan test will scan the disk for bad blocks.
Media defects cause this test to fail. You should consider backing up the device, reformatting the media, replacing the data, and then testing again.
I have already done this when I installed Leopard so I do not believe this would fix anything.
So, my question is, does anyone have any suggestions to what the problem could be? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

First, do not use TT Deluxe to repair your drive. The proper tool is Disk Utility in your Utilities folder. Second, if there truly are "media defects" the only definitive repair to do the following. Simply erasing the drive or upgrading won't solve a thing or could make matters worse.
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder. If you need to reformat your startup volume, then you must boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger or Leopard.)
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (only required for Intel Macs) then click on the OK button. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Third, you did not provide any information about your hardware configuration such as RAM, etc. Leopard requires a minimum of 512 MBs of RAM. If you have only 1 GB installed then your observed slowdown could simply be due to not having enough RAM. Also having insufficient free space on the hard drive can also contribute to slower performance. You need at least 10 GBs or 15% of the hard drive's capacity as free space, whichever is greater.