Slow. Virus?

I bought an iMac (mid 2010) back in February. It's still very new and ought to be performing at peak capacity. I got an i5 (dual core) @ 3.6 GHz and 8 GB of DDR3 RAM. I have installed very little extra software and use the iMac primarily for web browsing, Skype, iTunes, iLife, and iWork. I don't run any massive gaming applications or any other software which would draw from the processor/RAM. Unfortunately, it often gets these periods of extreme slowness, almost as if it's frozen. This primarily happens w/ Safari, but other applications too. I always check to be sure I quit an application after use and my activity monitor always shows that I am barely using processor power and barely using any RAM. If I have so much free "potential," why does it randomly get slow? We all know that Macs aren't prone to the Windows viruses and malware, but is it possible I "caught" a virus from some bad site or email? I am hesitant on buying anti-virus software because I actually read somewhere it makes the Mac more prone to viruses because it "opens up" an already relatively secure platform.
Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks!

There are no Mac viruses, and a "virus" should be the last thing you suspect when you have a Mac problem, not the first. Leave that Windows thinking behind.
Intermittent problems are always hard to solve. You should try to find a way to make the slowdown happen at will. For example, is there a certain website or a certain type of web content that always, or usually, causes Safari to slow down? Does connecting an external hard drive or other device cause it?
When the slowdown does happen, launch the Console application and look for any unusual error messages. To determine what's unusual, watch the log for a while when everything is working normally.
As a proactive measure, launch Disk Utility and run "Verify Disk" (not "Verify Permissions") on your startup drive. This will definitely cause a temporary slowdown, which is normal. It's unlikely to find anything wrong, but check anyway.

Similar Messages

Some question about International Travel

Ok so i know alot of people have question about international travel weather is USA to Canada, Canada to USA or where ever.
So i just got off the phone with someone from AT&T these are my questions for them. i hope it can help, im confuse myself.
*1. I travel recently travel to canada a few weeks ago, when i cross the boarder i switch the data roaming ON and it picks up Rogers Wireless, a few days ago i try i again it said NO SERVICE is something wrong with my iPad?*
NO, consider yourself lucky u didnt get charge for that roaming, your ipad well not work out of the US unless u buy one of our International plans that AT&T has provided. The reason for this is so you wont have any unwanted charge or high charge on your bill.
*2. If i was to buy a sim card from Canada and pop it in to my US ipad well it work?*
Honestly that's something you can try at your own risk, it's design for AT&T so by switching sim cards it may affect your ipad such as running slow, virus, crash. You can try it, i dont work for Rogers so i know nothing about them, i work for AT&T so i can only tell you about our plans and i wont lie to you.(I THINK U JUST DID) This ipad is not unlock just like the iphone so it well only work with AT&T.
*3. If i pop my sim card out and put in an international sim card well it affect my plan at all or in any way?*
Yes it can, right now your on the unlimited plan if you put in a different sim card and then re-put in ur AT&T one chances are you're going to loose your unlimited plan and have to settle for the newer plan. That's why AT&T has reduce it's international plans so people are more likely to use it. It's a contract we sign with Apple, if u want to use in canada you can always buy an Ipad in canada and use their plan. (***)
At the end of this conversion i was just more angry with them. All in all she told bottom line is dont do anything stick with AT&T and pay for international plans. So i have to pay over price data plan if i want to use it intertanional? or i have to buy an ipad for each international places i go to?
Has anyone try or done any of the 3 ive mention and did it affect ur plan or ipad in anyway?
Thanks
Andy

Ok so here's a little more info
I called AT&T again today asking them the same question the guy was more helpful then the one yesterday. Even though he kinda told me the same saying that the ipad need to be unlock. , Afterward he transfer me someone from Apple. The lady told me
1. The ipad is UNLOCK so dont bother trying to get it unlock.
2. she doesnt see why sticking in another sim card from one of the apple ipad carrier is a problem. U would just have to sign up activated it like u would when u first got it.
3. Contact phone company (my case Rogers) to see if they carry the mico sim cards.
4. She doesnt see why it would affect the current plan u have now.
So at the end of all that she told me, seem like AT&T is just telling you, you cant do this or u shouldnt do that is simple THEY WANT YOU TO USE THEIR PLANS.
so with that i said i just want to let everyone know. I'm gonna go pick my Micro sim cards from Canada in a bit and sign up for thier plan we'll keep everyone updated if anything change or how it work

Using Windows 7 on Macbook Pro

I have 2 Windows based prorams that are unavailable in mac editions. I am considering installing Windows 7 under Boot Camp. Would this cause any difficulties such as running slow, viruses and other problems that Windows has?

tadman57 wrote:
Could you get an external hard drive and put the Windows stuff on? I just hate to mix them because of the problems with Windows. Thank you for answering my first question because I know that I can do it now.
Windows will not run from an external drive.

Need help with launch

I am getting a message that says" i tunes can not run because some of it's required files are missing. Please reinstall itunes"
I did reinstall itunes last night and it worked fine and I thought the problem was solved but today when I turned on the computer and tried to launch itunes i get the same message. Very frustrated!! Dell inspiron 9300 and windowsxp. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Bill

Excellent news!
Okay ... I'm first working steadily through the possibilities I can think of where that message is telling us the absolute truth (itunes program files really are continually going missing), and working on the principle that we should first try to rule out things that we *really really really don't want to be happening.*
So I think we've ruled out out a bunch of possibilities relating to "slow viruses" slowly eating their way through your files, like a [W32.Pinfi|http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2003-011 708-2030-99&tabid=2]. (I've seen a few cases of that reported here over the years.)
I reckon that the next thing that we really really don't want to have happening is a progressive disk failure taking out program files. So I think we ought to try running a chkdsk over the drive where your iTunes program files are stored. There's instructions on how to do that (and a Guided help) in the following Microsoft document:
[How to perform disk error checking in Windows XP|http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265]
Does the chkdsk find/repair any damage, Bill, or does it come up clean? (Again, I'm rooting for the "clean" possibility.)

What is the reason for a slow Firefox on a new powerful laptop? (with no other programs running and with no infection of viruses or adwares)

''dupe of https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/914529''
With about 1500 bookmarks and just 4 active Firefox extensions on my new laptop (Dell XPS L502, Core i7, 6GB of RAM, Win7 64-bit Ultimate) my Firefox boots up and works real slow. by slow I mean it boots up in 15 seconds; and with 3 tabs open when I switch tabs, it takes 5 seconds to switch to the new tab some of the times!). Internet Explorer and Chrome work much faster and I think this is not normal for Firefox. what can be the problem?
Can this be because of my VGA card? my system has 2 VGA's; the 2GB GT540M Nvidia graphic card which is not active by default for Firefox and an Intel on-board VGA which is working by default for normal usages like browsing.
I do not think this is a virus or anything, I have Updated malware and virus protection; and my RAM and CPU are not more than 25% loaded when running Firefox.

''dupe of https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/914529''
With about 1500 bookmarks and just 4 active Firefox extensions on my new laptop (Dell XPS L502, Core i7, 6GB of RAM, Win7 64-bit Ultimate) my Firefox boots up and works real slow. by slow I mean it boots up in 15 seconds; and with 3 tabs open when I switch tabs, it takes 5 seconds to switch to the new tab some of the times!). Internet Explorer and Chrome work much faster and I think this is not normal for Firefox. what can be the problem?
Can this be because of my VGA card? my system has 2 VGA's; the 2GB GT540M Nvidia graphic card which is not active by default for Firefox and an Intel on-board VGA which is working by default for normal usages like browsing.
I do not think this is a virus or anything, I have Updated malware and virus protection; and my RAM and CPU are not more than 25% loaded when running Firefox.

My MacBook Pro 2/I7 has suddenly slowed to a crawl. No viruses.

Not much else to say. Worked great up 'til yesterday. Everything is now slow. Thought it was a virus. Bought latest Norton; did scan and no viruses or other related problems.

fishdevon wrote:
I have recently bought the new
27inch iMac
8GB
Mountain Lion
I migrated all my stuff from my old iMac everything working fine so I was a happy boy. However, about 4 weeks later my internet has slowed to a crawl. Slower than dial up it seems.
I did some speed tests over the network on 3 seperate devices and got the following
iPad and iPhone
Upload: 3Mb
Download: 7Mb
iMac
Upload: 0.09Mb
Download: 0.5Mb
As I mentioned, this was 100% fine before today, I have run no updates so far, as none available. I see lots of people on here have been having problems, but they have upgraded to M Lion from previous OS's. Mine was M Lion straight from the box.
It's not just Safari that's slow, it's the app store, Opera, Firefox and Spotify. Everything is very very very slow. I am connected to the network fine. I need help with this. Please help. I'm doing this from work as home iMac couldn't get here!!
Are you running any Anti-Virus/Security software or similar?
Pete

My Mac Book Pro has slowed to less than a crawl (possibly from a worm or virus). How do I make sure it's running at peak efficiency before I complain to comcast

My Mac Book Pro has slowed to less than a crawl (possibly from a worm or virus). How do I make sure it's running at peak efficiency before I complain to comcast

Please answer as many of the following questions as you can. You may already have answered some of them; in that case, there's no need to repeat the answers.
Restart the router and the broadband device, if they're separate. Any change?
Run Software Update and install all available updates for OS X or the computer's firmware. Any change?
If possible, connect to the router with an Ethernet cable and turn off Wi-Fi. Any difference?
Are any other devices on the network, and if so, are they the same?
If you can connect to more than one network, are they all the same?
Are all network applications affected, or only some? If only some, which ones?
Is networking always the same, or is the problem intermittent?
Disconnect all other devices from the network. Any change?
If you're running a MacBook with the lid closed, open the lid. Any difference?
Start up in safe mode and test. Any difference?
Start up in Recovery mode. From the OS X Utilities screen, select Get Help Online. A clean copy of Safari will launch. No plugins, such as Flash, will be available. Any difference?
If possible, turn off Bluetooth and disconnect any USB 3 devices. Any difference?

My 3 year-old macbook pro is very slow. I have run disk utility and virus scan with no improvement. The "beach ball" will spin for minutes at a time when opening, closing or changing windows. Apple Store looked at it a few months ago with no help.

my 3 year-old macbook pro is very slow. I have run disk utility and virus scan with no improvement. The "beach ball" will spin for minutes at a time when opening, closing or changing windows. Apple Store looked at it a few months ago with no help. What can I do?

Under CPU: 3.5% user; 5% system; 91% idle; 441 threads; 90 processes.
Under System: out of 2GB - 54.7MB free; 530MB wired; 603MB active; 862MB inactive; 1.95GB used.
Is too much of the system memory tied up? If so, what can I do to free some up?

I have always heard that Macs are less likely to get infected with a virus. My computer has been running much slower since I installed Maverick. Just not sure what the problem might be. Is there a way for me to run a diagnosis?

I have always heard that Macs are less likely to get infected with a virus. My computer has been running much slower since I installed Maverick. Just not sure what the problem might be. Is there a way for me to run a diagnosis?

Some have found relief just by reinstalling, but it is more than likely incompatible third-party applications that slow it down.
You will have to investigate to see what it is.
Open Activity Monitor and see if anything is using a lot of CPU% or Memory. If they are, check to see if there is an update for them.
Another place to look is the Console. See if anything is logging repeating messages with throttling and/or respawn in the All Messages list.
Sometimes it is not that easy to root out the problems, but if you have anything that purported to clean, protect, optimize, maintain, or flush your system, then that is likely the cause.

Power PC, 10.5.8, 1.8GHz single . . . Recently running very slow, currently VERY slow. I. Must have a bug. What's the best virus scrubber out there? Thanks.

Power PC, 10.5.8, 1.8GHz single . . . Recently running very slow, currently VERY slow. I. Must have a bug. What's the best virus scrubber out there? Thanks.

Hi, likely somethiung else, but Free Sophos...
http://www.sophos.com/products/enterprise/endpoint/security-and-control/mac/
Very Important, how much Free Space is on your Hard Drive first of all? Click on the Macintosh HD on the Desktop, then do a Get Info on it.
First, Safe Boot , (holding Shift key down at bootup), use Disk Utility from there to Repair Permissions, test if things work OK in Safe Mode.
Open Activity Monitor in Applications>Utilities, select All Processes & sort on CPU%, any indications there?
How much RAM & free space do you have also, click on the Memory & Disk Usage Tabs.
In the Memory tab, are there a lot of Pageouts?

Since download of Firefox Hello desktop & laptop both on Windows 7 are very slow even after refresh, download history removed and anti virus software turned off

Since download of Firefox Hello my home desktop & laptop, both on Windows 7, are very slow to open. I have refreshed firefox, removed download history and turned off the anti virus software in extensions. All the plugins are up to date. Can we revert back to Firefox without Firefox Hello?

Firefox Hello is simply a wrapper for technology already in Firefox, it doesn't negatively impact performance if you aren't using it. Are you saying that your entire computer is slow or just Firefox?

Norton anti-virus slows down the start up time in Windows Vista

Hi,
please help, i am being driven to distraction by the slow start up time of my laptop.
I've only had it for a few weeks and don't use it for anything beyond producing word documents etc.
It has gradually been getting slower on startup and i suspect it has something to do with the Norton anti-virus software on it and the updates for norton that i have downloaded (thinking that this was the right thing to do).
Looking at the problems and solutions log on the computer the date that it really started to slow down coincides with downloading a norton update, which i have been unable to uninstall to check if this really is the problem.
Further i have tried doing a System Restore, my laptop was not able to complete.
I am stuck on the DOS screen for 10 mins with the message:
PXE-E32 FTFP open timeout
I have no idea what this means but the Problems and Solutions log says something about a system hang?
I have looked on the web for other anti-virus software and they all seem to have one problem or another and slow computers down on startup.
Does anyone know of a solution or do i just have to make a cup of tea when i switch my computer on and lace it with vodka till it has booted up completely!
I am a novice when it comes to using computers so would welcome any non-technical advice.
thanks
laura

Hi guys
I would like to add some words about my experience using the Symantec Norton Antivirus software.
I have used this software 3 year long. It was great because it supports one of the best virus filtering options BUT it really slow downs the operating system.
I didnt use it on with Vista preinstalled notebook but on Win XP and I have to say that the notebook boot process was halted for about 30sec-1min till the whole parts of Norton Antivirus software has started It was very annoying
However, I switched to AntiVir. This is software described by marina4000 and Im really happy because the boot performance increased.
So finally I would also recommend removing this Symantec Norton Antivirus software and to switch to the other free AntiVir software ;)
Bye

Format slow mac that has internet virus

Hi There,
My macbook pro is very slow and i guess it has virus too. Because whenever i open any new internet page i am always taken to some kind of survey and prize win screen. So i wanted to format my computer to just make it like as it came from factory.
I read internet blogs on how to format computer. I tried erasing the hard drive by going to disk utility. But can't do it as the erase button is disabled even though i select the hard rive at left and go to erase section . I don't remember if i was given any disk when i bought this mac few years ago. It would be great if you can help me fixing my mac .
Thanks,

It does not have a virus.
It sounds more like adware that can be downloaded from shady sites. To get rid of the adware, try http://www.adwaremedic.com/index.php

Is there a program that will check for viruses or other reasons why it runs slow?

For several months my iMac has been running slow or freezing often. Safari often quits unexpectedly as does mail on occasion.

Programs that check for viruses are a major cause of slow Macs, so let's look at doing steps that don't handicap your computer:
1) How full is your hard drive? You need a minimum of 10G free for background processes such as Virtual Memory.
2) How much RAM is installed? RAM for the Mid-2010s is rather cheap at the moment, I upgraded my 27-inch Mid-2010 recently from the original 4GB to 12 GB for about US$55. Installation took only minutes.
3) If you have an external hard drive for backups, are you using something other than Time Machine to do the backups. Many third-party backup programs can cause a performance hit.
The next step is a little longer. It checks to see if some runaway background process is eating processor cycles and slowing you down:
1) Use your computer normally for typical tasks for several hours, then quit any applications you have launched. Do not restart.
2) In Applications > Utilities, find Activity Monitor. If you've not used it before, you have to change a setting. At the top of the AM window is a "Show" option. By default it is set to show "My Processes." Change it to "All Processes" like this:
4) Now highlight the "%CPU"column as shown so the most active processes "bubble"to the top (tiny arrow points down).
Now watch things move up and down for a minute of two. What you are looking for is any single process that is using more than about 10 percent of the processor cycles while the computer is idling. If you see one doing that, post its name in a reply here.
Awaiting your report,
Allan

My macbook is slow how can I tell if I have a virus?

My MacBook is slow starting up and slow when I am on internet going to sites. I read somewhere that there is a adobe flash that is actually some sort of virus? I beleive I had the pop up and hit install. How do I fix if this is the problem?

Adobe Flash is not a virus but Flash content is very resource-hungry. Flash developers don't know or care about your hardware or bandwidth, both of which have limitations. Buying a new computer simply so that you can look at Flash-based advertisements makes little sense to me. Just avoid sites that use Flash.
There are no viruses for Mac OS X. Keep it updated with software from Apple using Software Update. Without a more specific description of your hardware, the amount of memory you have installed, what third party system modifications you may have made, and what version of Mac OS X you are using, it is difficult to provide more specific guidance than that.
Read the following to determine if something may apply to your concern:
Do not download or install any product claiming to magically "clean up" or "speed up" or "optimize" your Mac. Without exception, they will do the opposite. If you already did, you found the problem. Fix it.
If you're experiencing general slowdowns or "freezes" unrelated to Internet activity, the problem may be related to your computer or the software you installed and is something you may be able to fix, or at least improve. Aside from hardware failures and software that you install, including OS upgrades, there is no reason that your computer should not work precisely the same as it did when it was new.
General Mac maintenance: Tips to keep your Mac in top form
General purpose Mac troubleshooting guide: Isolating issues in Mac OS X
Creating a temporary account to isolate user-specific problems: Isolating an issue by using another user account
Memory limitations: Using Activity Monitor to read System Memory and determine how much RAM is being used
Identifying resource hogs and other tips: Runaway applications can shorten battery runtime
To identify potential hardware problems: Apple Hardware Test
To resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance, use Disk Utility.
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
To repair a potentially corrupt hard disk, so that you may recover its data prior to replacing it, and subsequently reinstall Mac OS X: OS X Recovery (applies only to Lion and later versions of OS X)

Maverick worked great, then suddenly SLOW after installed WebRoot virus software

When I first upgraded to Mavericks my system was super fast!
Then I downloaded a trial version of WebRoot security software & then full version. Then started to have the screen freeze (sometimes seemed to be associated with the mouse cursor and sometimes not?), had to force quit. AND, then the system started up SLOW. So I uninstalled Webroot.
But system still slow in start up phase PLUS now in the middle of the monitor there's a break in the image all the way across the screen which then disappears after about 30seconds or so.
What can I do to fix the start up speed and what is up with the screen break (never had that in any of my prior Macs). Thanks, Charlotte

Do waht leroydouglas suggested. Anti virus software is not needed on Macs. They do more harm than good at the present time.
Also avoid malware like Mackeeper, CleanMyMac and similare cleaning apps.
OT

Slow. Virus?

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