Sudden System Slowdown

Today, inexplicably, my system has slowed down dramatically. I'll double-click on a folder, it'll wait a second, then open. I'll scroll my mouse wheel, it'll wait a second, then scroll. I'll hover over the dock, it'll wait a second, then jerkily appear. What could be the problem? I've restarted a few times, I've repaired permissions, still, slow performance. How can I bring my Mac back to its springy self?
I did install Adobe's Creative Suite 4 recently. Could that have anything to do with it? (I still have over 200 GB left of hard disk space.)

Raymond Fox wrote:
1) WindowServer: ~17 CPU with 11 threads using 158.64 MB of Real Memory and 1.06 GB Virtual Memory
2) Firefox: 11.2 CPU with 33 threads using 186.08 MB Real and 1.16 GB Virtual Memory
3) pmTool: 1.1 CPU with 1 thread using 1.51 MB Real and 595.74 MB Virtual Memory
4) Activity Monitor: 1.0 CPU with 11 threads using 18.69 MB Real and 980.38 MB Virtual Memory
5) kernel_task: .09 CPU with 65 threads using 271.67 MB Real and 2.42 GB Virtual Memory
Percentages read 1.88% for User, 5.55% for System, 0.00% for Nice, and 95% Idle.
Does any of the above point to a slowdown culprit?
If those are the type of readings you get while it's slow, it rules out contention for you CPU . . . No one task is taking much, and only 5%-30% is in use, total!
It looks like you have a number of windows/tabs open in Firefox, which would also explain WindowServer having a lot of threads and a fair amount of CPU to manage them. If you don't, that may be worth investigating.
It also pretty much rules out insufficient memory, but take a look at it if you want. Click the +System Memory+ tab towards the bottom, and watch the total of Free and Inactive memory. That's the amount of memory not being used, and available when/if needed. As long as there's even 50 mb, you have enough, and OSX isn't having to swap it out to disk. Another indication of that is the +Page Out+ count; it's no doubt zero or low in your case.
FYI, I'm listening to Pandora (streaming radio) on Firefox if that gives you any necessary info.
Can you do that via Safari (or any other browser) rather than Firefox? If so, see if you get the same results with another browser. There may be something in the way Firefox is handling it that's causing a problem.
The hardest part of this sort of thing is narrowing-down just what's running, and what it's doing, when things slow down.
If the slowdown lasts for a while, try quitting open apps one at a time, to see if stopping one suddenly speeds things up again. If that's consistent, at least you know where to look.

Similar Messages

New Mac User Facing Sudden System Slowdowns - Advice Appreciated

I recently purchased a MacPro for video editing, switching from Premiere on my PC.
Everything was working great for the past month, and now suddenly I've been having terrible slowdowns in Final Cut Pro. Shortly after these slowdowns occured (constant dropped frames), I tried to restart the system and received a black screen with messages:
exited abnormally, bad system call;
respawning too quickly; throttling
I restarted, and this time the computer seemed to start up normally, but I'm still experiencing the slow performance and the dropped frames in Final Cut.
I'm fairly adept at solving performance issues in a WinXP environment, but am very new to this.
If someone could give me some troubleshooting info, I'd greatly appreciate it. Could this be a RAM issue? I did purchase extra RAM from a third party to up my total from 1 GB to 3 GB shortly after I purchased the Mac Pro. I'm also using an ATI X1900 graphics card purchased through Apple.
The only thing I have done to the system over the last couple days before this happened was download a couple free plug-ins for Final Cut and connect the Mac to the internet through an ethernet cable coming from the same router that is attached to my PC.
Again, any help, general or specific, would be greatly appreciated.

I use Final Cut Express and I wouldn't have installed the "free" plugins at all. Best advice: remove them and reinstall Final Cut Pro over your current installation of Final Cut Pro. I'm assuming here you are using the latest universal release of FCP.
As far as I know there are no or few universal plugins. And more importantly I know of no "free" universal plugins.
Tim...
3Ghz Mac Pro w/4GRam, 1500GHD/ 13" BlackBook, Black iPod - ALL fullly loaded Mac OS X (10.4.8) 30" Cinema, HPColorLJ Printer, LaCie 600Gig External & LaCie DVDRW/CDRW Drives

Sudden system slowdown, start up and software functional issues

The following happened when I started up my iMac in the morning. The only thing I did the night before that was outside my normal email/browsing/dreamweaver routine was to plug in my iPad to update apps and download an instagram phone app. iTunes did take me to my billing login and asked me to confirm CVV code which I hadn't expected. It told me I was using a different computer than the one I usually use - I wasn't. Other than that, nothing seemed out of the ordinary all evening
Following morning symptoms as follows
Start up
Slow start up grey screen with progress bar and wheel which leads to a log on screen. Normally no progress bar and no need to login.
Desktop appears but the 20 or so files and folders take a while to appear. The Finder bar top of screen does not appear until I click on the Finder icon in the dock. Wacom tablet doesn't function and preferences for the wacom when clicked throws up a warning " Wacom tablet driver has a problem - reboot system or reinstall or update the driver. Items that usually start up such as Skype and stickies do not open automatically. Icons that would normally appear on the finder bar top screen such as dropbox and sophos do not appear.
Other behaviours
Clicking a link to a web article from an email throws up the prompt "You are opening the application 'Firefox' for the first time. Are you sure you want to open this application?"
Documents in Pages appear blank
All operations are slow/delayed
Disk Utility: Verifying disk permissions shows about 1200 permission errors. Repaired them, verifyed again and it looks like they are all still wrong.
Tried running sophos but it seems to sit in 'Calculating...' mode and doesn't indicate it has scanned any files.
Does anyone have any idea what is going on here, what might have caused it and what the best course of action might be? Please note, I will be going away on holiday for a week on Sunday, so I will not be able to respond to anyone between the 14th and 20th April.
Thanks
Also just removed sophos and downloaded it anew. The install is taking an age - it's been 15 minutes now. Could be part of the general malaise or maybe it just isn't going to install.

If this started happening without your having made any changes and without a warning of low disk space, then it's likely that the startup drive, or some other hardware component, is failing. Back up all data immediately, then run Apple Diagnostics or the Apple Hardware Test.
Even if the test is negative, you should make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store to have the machine tested more thoroughly.

Mac Mini Mid 2011 General system slowdown when transferring files?

Hi i have a stock mac mini mid 2011, 2.5ghz i5, 4gb ram, 500gb HDD os 10.7.1 and i've noticed a general system slowdown when transferring files on 10.7 and the last 10.7.1 update ( from usb to hdd, another computer on my local network to the mini, external dvd to the mini, etc).
I could describe the slowdown as mouse pointer movement suffers, its "laggy", application take longer to start, even menus in them from appearing, writting something on the keyboard i have to wait like 5 - 10 seconds so the words start appearing in the app (i.e. textedit).
I wanted to know if any other new mac mini owner has had this issue and if there is any solution to this(that would not involve buying a SSD for example)?
Im not really sure if this is a hardware or system issue but it really is getting on my nerves(i know i could just wait for the files to transfer which is what i do now but i dont think that should be), since i also have a old macbook from 2007 2.0ghz c2d, 2gb ram, 250gb HDD os 10.6.8 and have never had this problem before.
Thanks in advanced.
Let me know if i need to give more info on this subject.
Edit: I forgot to mention, the funny thing is doing a time machine backup to my external HDD or transferring files from my HDD to a usb doesnt give me any kind of slowdown.

Hi Rick, I'd see if it's reated to this, which has many symptoms...
Try this: "sudo pmset autopoweroff 0" and "sudo pmset standby 0"
http://xlr8yourmac.com/archives/sep13/091313.html#10.8.5SleepEjectTip

Sudden system crashes for Mac mini 2011

I just came home from a 2-week vacation and my computer has begun to crash and reboot, seemingly when I need the computer to do some task more intensive than Internet browsing.
It started when I tried uploading pictures into iPhoto via my camera's SD card--and it invariably happens whenever I try this--but it has also crashed and rebooted during simple multitasking procedures, like clicking to check my download progress in Safari as my iPhone is syncing in iTunes. Yesterday I had to contend with the white (grey?) screen of death for a few hours as I tried different methods. Fiddling around in Safe Mode let me fix that problem, at least, but the sudden system crashes still persist.
Could my computer have been affected by a lack of use over the last two weeks in the summer heat? It's been hot in the house, but not exceptionally so for August. And before I left I shut it down and unplugged the power cord.
Here are the first several dozen lines of the error report from the most recent crash. If anyone could offer me some help, I'd be very grateful.
Interval Since Last Panic Report: 72 sec
Panics Since Last Report:          2
Anonymous UUID:                    5966B3C8-D237-441F-B085-67433211CA95
Thu Aug 30 22:31:31 2012
panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff800d7733f2): assertion failed: MBUF_IS_COMPOSITE(m), file: /SourceCache/xnu/xnu-2050.9.2/bsd/kern/uipc_mbuf.c, line: 4003
Backtrace (CPU 0), Frame : Return Address
0xffffff80f52f3c20 : 0xffffff800d41d5f6
0xffffff80f52f3c90 : 0xffffff800d7733f2
0xffffff80f52f3ca0 : 0xffffff800d78d2f8
0xffffff80f52f3d60 : 0xffffff800d77075f
0xffffff80f52f3d90 : 0xffffff7f8e264d2e
0xffffff80f52f3dd0 : 0xffffff7f8e280d7b
0xffffff80f52f3e30 : 0xffffff7f8e2f79d4
0xffffff80f52f3ec0 : 0xffffff7f8e26b62f
0xffffff80f52f3ef0 : 0xffffff800d847078
0xffffff80f52f3f30 : 0xffffff800d845b8a
0xffffff80f52f3f80 : 0xffffff800d845cb9
0xffffff80f52f3fb0 : 0xffffff800d4b2677
      Kernel Extensions in backtrace:
         com.apple.driver.AirPort.Brcm4331(601.15.21)[2D12C2AA-EED3-3C72-8A75-FFF39E64DA AC]@0xffffff7f8e25e000->0xffffff7f8e44ffff
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.7)[8C9E06A4-13D0-33F5-A377-9E36F0ECC229]@0xffffff 7f8da4d000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IO80211Family(500.15)[3CA3EBF7-D5C1-3819-9346-BE648FC7644E]@0xf fffff7f8e1f2000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONetworkingFamily(3.0)[4DB5B398-8957-33F6-9EC1-0D45D80769DD]@0 xffffff7f8db8f000
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task
Mac OS version:
12B19
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 12.1.0: Tue Aug 14 13:29:55 PDT 2012; root:xnu-2050.9.2~1/RELEASE_X86_64
Kernel UUID: 3005059E-270B-3B9F-940D-7A66C05DDC9D
Kernel slide:     0x000000000d200000
Kernel text base: 0xffffff800d400000
System model name: Macmini5,1 (Mac-8ED6AF5B48C039E1)
System uptime in nanoseconds: 2262319547463
last loaded kext at 432629451752: com.apple.driver.AppleUSBCDC          4.1.22 (addr 0xffffff7f8efac000, size 16384)
last unloaded kext at 543566806951: com.apple.driver.AppleUSBCDC          4.1.22 (addr 0xffffff7f8efac000, size 12288)
loaded kexts:
com.zeobit.kext.Firewall          2.3
com.apple.filesystems.msdosfs          1.8
com.apple.driver.AppleHWSensor          1.9.5d0
com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch          75.15
com.apple.driver.AudioAUUC          1.60
com.apple.driver.AGPM          100.12.69
com.apple.driver.ApplePlatformEnabler          2.0.5d4
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothSerialManager          4.0.9f8
com.apple.driver.AppleMikeyHIDDriver          122
com.apple.filesystems.autofs          3.0
com.apple.driver.AppleHDA          2.3.0f2
com.apple.driver.AppleMikeyDriver          2.3.0f2
com.apple.iokit.BroadcomBluetoothHCIControllerUSBTransport          4.0.9f8
com.apple.driver.AppleSMCPDRC          1.0.0
com.apple.iokit.IOUserEthernet          1.0.0d1
com.apple.Dont_Steal_Mac_OS_X          7.0.0
com.apple.driver.ApplePolicyControl          3.2.6
com.apple.driver.ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin          1.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleUpstreamUserClient          3.5.10
com.apple.driver.AppleMCCSControl          1.0.33
com.apple.driver.AppleLPC          1.6.0
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelHD3000Graphics          8.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB          8.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleIRController          320.15
com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeDataless          1.0.0d1
com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib          1.0.0d1

Remove the "MacKeeper" crapware as follows, then reboot and test. If there's no improvement, post again.
Note: These instructions apply to the version of the product that I downloaded and tested in early 2012. I can't be sure that they apply to other versions, nor do I intend to repeat the test.
IMPORTANT: "MacKeeper" has what the developer calls an “encryption” feature. In my tests, I didn't try to verify what this feature really does. If you used it to “encrypt” any of your files, “decrypt” them before you uninstall, or (preferably) restore the files from backups made before they were “encrypted.” As the developer is not trustworthy, you should assume that the "decrypted" files are corrupt unless proven otherwise.
In the Finder, select Go ▹ Applications from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-A. The "MacKeeper" application is in the folder that opens. Quit it if it's running, then drag it to the Trash. A dialog will pop up asking why you want to uninstall it. You don't have to provide that information. Enter anything you like in the text box, then click the Uninstall button. All the functional components of the software will be deleted. That's the only useful feature of "MacKeeper:" it deletes itself. Reboot.
Do not try to uninstall by dragging the MacKeeper icon in the Dock or the LaunchPad to the Trash.
Here are some general suggestions. If you want your computer to be usable, don't install crapware, such as “themes,” "haxies," “add-ons,” “toolbars,” “enhancers," “optimizers,” “accelerators,” “extenders,” “cleaners,” “defragmenters,” “firewalls,” "barriers," “guardians,” “defenders,” “protectors,” most “plugins,” commercial "virus scanners,” "disk tools," or "utilities." With very few exceptions, this kind of material is useless, or worse than useless.
The more actively promoted the product, the more likely it is to be garbage. The most extreme example is the “MacKeeper” scam.
The only software you should install is that which directly enables you to do the things you use a computer for — such as creating, communicating, and playing — and does not modify the way other software works. Never install any third-party software unless you know how to uninstall it.

Extreme system slowdown with G5 single and Time Machine.

I am experiencing extreme system slowdown with Time Machine on my G5 1.8 single (PPC). Most of the time it works fine with my system, but there seem to be peak loads where it can take five minutes to command-tab switch between apps. Other times during the same backup, TM functions within acceptable parameters. Is there anything that can be done about this?

I am experiencing extreme system slowdown with Time Machine on my G5 1.8 single (PPC). Most of the time it works fine with my system, but there seem to be peak loads where it can take five minutes to command-tab switch between apps. Other times during the same backup, TM functions within acceptable parameters. Is there anything that can be done about this?

Complete System Slowdown

I have an iMac G4 1GHz. I've owned it for a little over a year. The computer is running INCREDIBLY SLOW. It's been doing this for months. Starting up takes about five minutes, opening Word takes a few minutes, Safari takes a while to load pages, etc. It was running 10.2, so I wiped the drive and upgraded to tiger 10.4. I pulled out the upgrade of 512 MB RAM, and that slowed the system down even more. Have you ever run across a problem like this? I've been using Macs for over ten years and I've never run into an overall system slowdown like this.

I had to put MenuMeters on my wife's iMac. She finds herself with gobs of Mozilla windows open. Unfortunately, things like animated graphics suck CPU horribly.
http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/menumeters/
Anyway MenuMeters let me but a CPU graph on the menu bar. it helps her determine exactly when she opens a CPU-hogging web page. It can also display network usage, disk space, memory usage, etc.
The system information dashboard widget might also help.
You want to find out if you're CPU-bound, I/O-bound, or memory-bound. Then find the offending app and kill/remedy it.
top -ocpu
in a terminal window will also show you what processes are chewing CPU.
It might also be an application. I was once caught by the RSS Aggregator NetNewsWire because I didn't realize that every time I opened an article, I was creating a Tab in the reader. Eventually, every time I started the reader, it was loading hundreds of tabs but only showing me about 4 of them. I now open articles using a web browser.
800MHz 15" Flat 768MB 40GB Mac OS X (10.4.5)
800MHz 15" Flat 768MB 40GB Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Suddenly system overload messages

ahoy all.
have been using logic express 7.2 for over a year now, love it, never had to freeze a track. the other night i completed a project and did a bounce, closed it and went to bed. nota huge project, around 8 audio, 5 audio instrument tracks. ran the whole sessions with no overloads (in fact, i have had about 3 overloads in all my experience with logic). a few days later, i open the project again and now system overloads constantly. it also occurs now on other similiar sized projects that before had no overloads ever.only thing that helped was freezing tracks. i searched the forum and tried all the various suggestions, no luck.
i am wondering what could have happened (to logic, macos, macbook, etc) that would cause the sudden system overload messages? the only thing that happened in those few days was that i drained my macbook battery and now i have the infamous macbook x on battery problem. but i am not sure how that could effect logic.
thanks.

I know you said you drained your macbook battery - but here's a thought that came to me - When is the last time you shut down your computer/restarted it? The RAM could be clogged. As ridiculous as that sounds, it does happen. Little artifacts of garbage and leftovers of tasks your computer has been performing over the last few days between your session and now could have somehow not cleared itself from the RAM. Restart it. Or shut it down for a while or something. Unless you've already done that. Then, we'll work from there . . .

Significant system slowdown after installation of 10.5.4

I downloaded update 10.5.4 this afternoon (about 3:30PM MDT Jun 30). Thereafter I noted a significant system slowdown. Symptoms: much slower system boot.
Safari, instead of the usual 2 "bounces" to start, took 8. I rebooted twice to confirm. (Now, even Firefox3 is faster!)
I am a relative newbie to the MacOSX world (10-year Windows veteran) so I haven't the slightest hint how to investigate... A simple-minded hint, for the likes of me, would be much appreciated! I'll check back in tomorrow morning.

Hi fjpoblam-
I have some possible causes for you, and a couple solutions to suggest...
CAUSES?
(Keeping in mind that some of these may be unlikely, they are all possible and shouldn't be automatically discounted because of their odds.)
1. The 10.5.4 update may have been corrupted or done something wrong.
2. A previous OS X update may have somehow been corrupted or done something wrong that was then made worse by the 10.5.4 update.
3. You may have some third-party software that isn't playing nice with 10.5.4.
4. Your unit could have a hardware issue which may have been triggered by the 10.5.4 update, or that just happened to appear at the same time by coincidence.
TROUBLESHOOT:
(letting me know the results of these tests might help narrow down the problem)
I. Unplug all external devices (USB, Firewire, ExpressCard, Ethernet, Monitor) and turn off Airport. Restart and see if the problem is gone.
II. From the Login screen, hold down shift immediately after pressing Login, which will prevent any Login Items from starting. Play around a bit and see if the problem is gone.
III. Startup holding down the Shift key, which will boot into "Safe Mode", temporarily disabling third-party and unnecessary extensions. Check to see if the problem is gone.
IV. Does it occur just on AC power, just on battery power, or both? Is there anything about the hardware that did not originally come with it from Apple? Do you have any third-party RAM installed?
_(Possible) SOLUTIONS_:
a) Download and run the 10.5.4 "Combo Updater" from http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx1054comboupdate.html. It should still run even though you are already at 10.5.4. This will often have the ability to fix problems that were created by previous OS X updates and/or conflicts between updates as a result of corruption or errors. *(Likelihood to fix: 30%)* +Note: I always prefer to do OS X updates via combo updaters rather than the automatic Software Updates just to be safe, even though it works fine for most people.+
b) Do an "Archive and Install" via your original Leopard disc _(Backup everything first!!)_. This is one of the most time consuming and least enjoyable options, but almost always works. Startup from the Leopard disc and run the installer; when you see an "Options" button, click it and select "Archive and Install" and check the boxes to Preserve Users and Applications. Make sure you do not skip that option because if you continue with the install without making that selection you will loose your data. *(Likelihood to fix: 90%)*
c) Take the unit to an Apple retail store or call Technical support. My guess is that their recommendation will be to do an Archive and Install, but if that doesn't work and it turns out to be a hardware issue they will be your only options for repair or replacement. If you go to a retail store, you can make an appointment ahead of time through this site: http://www.apple.com/retail/storelist/ by selecting a store and clicking "Reserve" under Genius Bar so that you don't have to wait in line. *(Likelihood to fix: 100%)*
+REMINDER TO EVERYONE: Although hardware and software perform without problems most of the time for most people, things can go wrong for no good reason to anyone at anytime with any OS (sadly, some people get hit more often than others). ALWAYS make a backup of your data before doing major updates (especially OS updates). I know it doesn't help to hear after the fact, and backing up isn't convenient for many people, but it's guaranteed to prevent this problem every time. I at least suggest holding off from immediately doing updates and letting others be the guinea pigs instead.+

System Slowdown

I've been running Arch Linux for the past month or so and thur far it's the best distro I've tried. I love the package management system and the simple way configuration is handled... however, in the past week I've noticed that my system no longer has that pep that it once had. The only program added to the system has been Enemy Territory (great game btw) using the standard installer. Now everything seems much slower. Also, the translucent selection rectangle in GNOME crawls across the screen while dragging and I've taken ~300fps hit in glxgears for no reason. I'm using the ATI 3.14.6 drivers with Xorg 6.7. I haven't updated Xorg because the offical ATI drivers don't yet support 6.8. Does anyone know what could be causing this slowdown?
.: Current Setup :.
Arch Linux (current) w/ custom 2.6.9 kernel
Athlon XP 1800+
Epox 8RDA+ nForce2 Mobo
768MB DDR Dual Channel
80GB Seagate IDE w/ 8MB cache
Radeon 8500 128MB
Just a note: I've been using this kernel for some time and haven't had any problems until I installed ET. And according to my CPU monitor the usage is 1-2% idle and almost maxed out while playing ET.

I'll try that out later. ATI is supposed to have a new driver release this month that supports Xorg 6.8 so I could use the open source drivers until they release the new offical ones.
I feel like my entire system and not just video has taken a performance hit. Thanks!

Huge System Slowdown/No networking?

Hi,
This is a very strange problem, that has been bothering me for a few weeks now.
Sometimes, my networking will suddenly cut out - the AirPort menu sees no network, when there should be at least 3. When this happens, there is also a huge system slow down - Activity Monitor shows "kernel_task" as using about 60-70% of the CPU - for the duration that the AirPort is turned on.
This problem can only be rectified by restarting.
Any ideas?

This has happened again...
Also a new issue: the trackpad will stop working on a wake from sleep. Rectified only be restarting...

Extreme System Slowdown!

Ugh! I hope this issn't how this machine usually functions...I am experienceing massive slowdowns, so extreme that I must wait 5 minutes for a web page (BroadBand) Or simply reboot. Pentium 4 2.66 Ghz. Standard heatsink/paste. What the heck is causing this!?!? Overheating of CPU? For those of you that read my video card problem, I fixed that so that isn't the problem, But this is beginning to worry me. On a quite lighter note, I got a 2019 on 3dMark '03.

Quote
Originally posted by Stu Online
Quote
and I have this system very optimized in terms of processes.
maybe you should try UNoptimising some of your processes to see if you can sort the problem out.
i'm not having a dig here, i'm speaking from experience, but you can think you're tweaking settings for the better, when in fact you're making things worse...
I think he was referring to the Services, which = processes in Task Manager. You can configure the Services that startup as automatic, manual, or never.

Sudden, drastic slowdown - SWOD - ideas?

Hi all,
A few days ago I woke up to a nightmare - macbook pro running extremely slowly, SWODs all over, every program slow to open and run, approaching unusability.
I looked at activity mOnitor - plenty of ram. Looked at HD - plenty of space. No process was eating up power. This problem persists when I restart - slow bootup and slow to draw the windows on the desktop.
I cleaned up the desktop, cleared out my pRam, which helped for a day (kind of) but now back to slowdown.
Any ideas? Is this just the death rattle of my hD? It was a very sudden and drastic slowdown. Before this the comp had run very well for 2 years with few minor problems.
Thanks
John

ds store has two excellent user tips that you should look at - check them out in order:
Why is my computer slow?
...and...
Step by Step to fix your Mac
...hope one or both will help.
Clinton

Sudden massive slowdown with macbook pro

my macbook all of a sudden is running super slow as in won't even properly load youtube videos. i upgraded to mavericks awhile back but never had problems. i ran a etrecheck, results below. if any suggestions please let me know thanks!
Hardware Information:
          MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011)
          MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro8,1
          1 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2 cores
          4 GB RAM
Video Information:
          Intel HD Graphics 3000 - VRAM: 384 MB
System Software:
          OS X 10.9.2 (13C64) - Uptime: 0 days 3:6:49
Disk Information:
          TOSHIBA MK5065GSXF disk0 : (500.11 GB)
                    EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
                    Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 499.25 GB (365.99 GB free)
                    Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB
          MATSHITADVD-R   UJ-8A8
USB Information:
          Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
          Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
          Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub
                    Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
          Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
FireWire Information:
Thunderbolt Information:
          Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus
Launch Daemons:
          [System] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist 3rd-Party support link
          [System] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist 3rd-Party support link
          [System] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist 3rd-Party support link
Launch Agents:
          [System] com.google.keystone.agent.plist 3rd-Party support link
User Launch Agents:
          [not loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist 3rd-Party support link
          [not loaded] com.apple.CSConfigDotMacCert-[...]@me.com-SharedServices.Agent.plist
          [not loaded] com.divx.agent.postinstall.plist 3rd-Party support link
User Login Items:
          iTunesHelper
          Google Drive
          Popup
          Notify
Internet Plug-ins:
          o1dbrowserplugin: Version: 5.2.4.18058 3rd-Party support link
          OVSHelper: Version: 1.1 3rd-Party support link
          Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9
          AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: Version: 10.1.7 3rd-Party support link
          FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 11.9.900.117 - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support link
          DivXBrowserPlugin: Version: 2.2 3rd-Party support link
          Silverlight: Version: 5.1.20125.0 - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support link
          Flash Player: Version: 11.9.900.117 - SDK 10.6 Outdated! Update
          QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
          googletalkbrowserplugin: Version: 5.2.4.18058 3rd-Party support link
          SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.1.0 3rd-Party support link
          AdobePDFViewer: Version: 10.1.7 3rd-Party support link
          CouponPrinter-FireFox_v2: Version: Version 1.1.6 3rd-Party support link
          DirectorShockwave: Version: 11.6.3r633 3rd-Party support link
Safari Extensions:
          DivX Plus Web Player HTML5 <video>: Version: 2.1.2.145
Audio Plug-ins:
          BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9
          AirPlay: Version: 2.0 - SDK 10.9
          AppleAVBAudio: Version: 203.2 - SDK 10.9
          iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9
iTunes Plug-ins:
          Quartz Composer Visualizer: Version: 1.4 - SDK 10.9
User Internet Plug-ins:
          Google Earth Web Plug-in: Version: 6.1 3rd-Party support link
3rd Party Preference Panes:
          DivX 3rd-Party support link
          Flash Player 3rd-Party support link
Old Applications:
          SLLauncher:          Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
                    /Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Silverlight/OutOfBrowser/SLLauncher.app
          Epson Printer Utility 4:          Version: 9.19 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
                    /Library/Printers/EPSON/InkjetPrinter2/Utility/UT4/Epson Printer Utility 4.app
          Quick Note:          Version: 1.3.2 - SDK 10.0 3rd-Party support link
Time Machine:
          Time Machine not configured!
Top Processes by CPU:
               3%          WindowServer
               2%          EtreCheck
               0%          CPULed
               0%          Google Drive
               0%          natpmpd
Top Processes by Memory:
          127 MB          com.apple.IconServicesAgent
          119 MB          Google Chrome
          94 MB          Google Chrome Helper EH
          70 MB          Google Drive
          66 MB          Google Chrome Helper
Virtual Memory Information:
          859 MB          Free RAM
          1.50 GB          Active RAM
          688 MB          Inactive RAM
          1012 MB          Wired RAM
          925 MB          Page-ins
          0 B          Page-outs

1. This procedure is a diagnostic test. It changes nothing, for better or worse, and therefore will not, in itself, solve the problem.
2. If you don't already have a current backup, back up all data before doing anything else. The backup is necessary on general principle, not because of anything in the test procedure. Backup is always a must, and when you're having any kind of trouble with the computer, you may be at higher than usual risk of losing data, whether you follow these instructions or not.
There are ways to back up a computer that isn't fully functional. Ask if you need guidance.
3. Below are instructions to run a UNIX shell script, a type of program. All it does is to collect information about the state of the computer. That information goes nowhere unless you choose to share it. However, you should be cautious about running any kind of program (not just a shell script) on the advice of a stranger. If you have doubts, search this site for other discussions in which this procedure has been followed without any report of ill effects. If you can't satisfy yourself that the instructions are safe, don't follow them. Ask for other options.
Here's a summary of what you need to do, if you choose to proceed:
☞ Copy a line of text in this window to the Clipboard.
☞ Paste into the window of another application.
☞ Wait for the test to run. It usually takes a few minutes.
☞ Paste the results, which will have been copied automatically, back into a reply on this page.
The sequence is: copy, paste, wait, paste again. You don't need to copy a second time. Details follow.
4. You may have started the computer in "safe" mode. Preferably, these steps should be taken in “normal” mode. If the system is now in safe mode and works well enough in normal mode to run the test, restart as usual. If you can only test in safe mode, do that.
5. If you have more than one user, and the one affected by the problem is not an administrator, then please run the test twice: once while logged in as the affected user, and once as an administrator. The results may be different. The user that is created automatically on a new computer when you start it for the first time is an administrator. If you can't log in as an administrator, test as the affected user. Most personal Macs have only one user, and in that case this section doesn’t apply. Don't log in as root.
6. The script is a single long line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, though you may not see all of it in the browser window, and you can then copy it. If you try to select the line by dragging across the part you can see, you won't get all of it.
Triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it:
PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin; clear; Fb='%s\n\t(%s)\n'; Fm='\n%s\n\n%s\n'; Fr='\nRAM details\n%s\n'; Fs='\n%s: %s\n'; Fu='user %s%%, system %s%%'; AC="com.autodesk.AutoCAD com.evenflow.dropbox com.google.GoogleDrive"; H='^[[:space:]]*((127\.0\.0\.1|::1|fe80::1%lo0)[[:space:]]+local|(255\.){3}255[[:space:]]*broadcast)host[[:space:]]*$'; NS=networksetup; PB="/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c Print"; A () { [[ a -eq 0 ]]; }; M () { find -L "$d" -type f | while read f; do file -b "$f" | egrep -lq XML\|exec && echo $f; done; }; AT () { o=`file -b "$1" | egrep -v '^(A.{16}t$|cann)'`; Ps "${1##*/} format"; }; Pc () { o=`grep -v '^ *#' "$2"`; l=`wc -l <<< "$o"`; [[ l -gt 25 ]] && o=`head -n25 <<< "$o"`$'\n'"[$((l-25)) more line(s)]"; Pm "$1"; AT "$1"; }; Pm () { [[ "$o" ]] && o=`sed -E '/^ *$/d;s/^ */   /;s/[-0-9A-Fa-f]{22,}/UUID/g;s/(ochat)\.[^.]+(\..+)/\1\2/;/Shared/!s/(\/Users\/)[^/]+/\1-/g' <<< "$o"` && printf "$Fm" "$1" "$o"; }; Pp () { o=`$PB "$2" | awk -F'= ' \/$3'/{print $2}'`; Pm "$1"; }; Ps () { o=`echo $o`; [[ ! "$o" =~ ^0?$ ]] && printf "$Fs" "$1" "$o"; }; R () { o=; [[ r -eq 0 ]]; }; SP () { system_profiler SP${1}DataType; }; id -G | grep -qw 80; a=$?; A && sudo true; r=$?; t=`date +%s`; clear; { A || echo $'No admin access\n'; A && ! R && echo $'No root access\n'; SP Software | sed -n 's/^ *//;5p;6p;8p'; h=(`SP Hardware | awk '/ Id/{print $3}; /Mem/{print $2}'`); o=$h; Ps Model; o=$((h[1]<4?h[1]:0)); Ps "Total RAM (GB)"; o=`SP Memory | sed '1,5d;/[my].*:/d'`; [[ "$o" =~ s:\ [^O]|x([^08]|0[^2]|8[^0]) ]] && printf "$Fr" "$o"; o=`SP Diagnostics | sed '5,6!d'`; [[ "$o" =~ Pass ]] || Pm POST; p=`SP Power`; o=`awk '/Cy/{print $NF}' <<< "$p"`; o=$((o>=300?o:0)); Ps "Battery cycles"; o=`sed -n '/Cond.*: [^N]/{s/^.*://p;}' <<< "$p"`; Ps "Battery condition"; for b in FireWire Thunderbolt USB; do o=`SP $b | sed -En '/:$/{s/ *:$//;x;s/\n//;/Apple|Intel|SMSC/d;s/\n.*//;/\)/p;};/^ *(V.+ [0N]|Man).+ /{s/ 0x.... //;s/[()]//g;s/(.+: )(.+)/ (\2)/;H;}'`; Pm $b; done; o=`pmset -g therm | sed 's/^.*C/C/'`; [[ "$o" =~ No\ th|pms ]] && o=; Pm Heat; o=`pmset -g sysload | grep -v :`; [[ "$o" =~ =\ [^GO] ]] || o=; Pm "System load"; o=`nvram boot-args | awk '{$1=""; print}'`; Ps "boot-args"; o=; fdesetup status | grep -q On && o=on; Ps FileVault; a=(/ ""); A=(System User); for i in 0 1; do o=`cd ${a[$i]}L*/Lo*/Diag* || continue; for f in *.{cr,h,pa,s}*; do [[ -f "$f" ]] || continue; d=$(stat -f%Sc -t%F "$f"); [[ "$f" =~ h$ ]] && grep -lq "^Thread c" "$f" && f="$f *"; echo "$d ${f%%_2*} ${f##*.}"; done | sort | tail`; Pm "${A[$i]} diagnostics"; done; grep -lq '*$' <<< "$o" && printf $'\n\t* Code injection\n'; o=`syslog -F bsd -k Sender kernel -k Message CReq 'caug|GPU |hfs: Ru|last value [1-9]|n Cause: -|NVDA\(|pagin|proc: t|Roamed|rror|ssert|Thrott|timed? ?o|WARN' -k Message Ane 'SMC:' | tail -n25 | awk '/:/{$4=""; $5=""};1'`; Pm "Kernel log"; o=`df -m / | awk 'NR==2 {print $4}'`; o=$((o<5120?o:0)); Ps "Free space (MiB)"; o=$(($(vm_stat | awk '/eo/{sub("\\.",""); print $2}')/256)); o=$((o>=1024?o:0)); Ps "Pageouts (MiB)"; s=( `sar -u 1 10 | sed '$!d'` ); [[ s[4] -lt 85 ]] && o=`printf "$Fu" ${s[1]} ${s[3]}` || o=; Ps "Total CPU usage" && { s=(`ps acrx -o comm,ruid,%cpu | sed '2!d'`); n=$((${#s[*]}-1)); c="${s[*]}"; o=${s[$n]}%; Ps "CPU usage by process \"${c% ${s[$((n-1))]}*}\" with UID ${s[$((n-1))]}"; }; s=(`top -R -l1 -n1 -o prt -stats command,uid,prt | sed '$!d'`); n=$((${#s[*]}-1)); s[$n]=${s[$n]%[+-]}; c="${s[*]}"; o=$((s[$n]>=25000?s[$n]:0)); Ps "Mach ports used by process \"${c% ${s[$((n-1))]}*}\" with UID ${s[$((n-1))]}"; o=`kextstat -kl | grep -v com\\.apple | cut -c53- | cut -d\< -f1`; Pm "Loaded kernel extensions"; R && o=`sudo launchctl list | awk 'NR>1 && !/0x|com\.(apple|openssh|vix\.cron)|org\.(amav|apac|calendarse|cups|dove|isc|ntp|openld|post[fg]|x)/{print $3}'`; Pm "Daemons"; o=`launchctl list | awk 'NR>1 && !/0x|com\.apple|org\.(x|openbsd)|\.[0-9]+$/{print $3}'`; Pm "Agents"; o=`for d in {/,}L*/Lau*; do M; done | egrep -v 'com\.apple\.(CSConfig|server)' | while read f; do ID=$($PB\ :Label "$f") || ID="No job label"; printf "$Fb" "$f" "$ID"; done`; Pm "launchd items"; o=`for d in /{S*/,}L*/StartupItems; do M; done`; Pm "Startup items"; sys=`pkgutil --regexp --only-files --files com.apple.pkg.* | sort | uniq | sed 's:^:/:'`; b=`sed -E '/^.+Lib.+\/Contents\/Info.plist$/!d;s/\/Info.plist$//;/Contents\/./d' <<< "$sys"`; l=`egrep '^/usr/lib/.+dylib$' <<< "$sys"`; [[ "$b" && "$l" ]] && { o=`find -L /S*/L*/{C*/Sec*A,E}* {/,}L*/{A*d,Compon,Ex,In,iTu,Keyb,Mail/B,P*P,Qu*T,Scripti,Sec,Servi,Spo}* -type d -name Contents -prune | grep -Fv "$b" | while read d; do test -f "$d/Info.plist" || continue; ID=$($PB\ :CFBundleIdentifier "$_") || ID="No bundle ID"; printf "$Fb" "${d%/Contents}" "$ID"; done`; Pm "Loadable bundles"; o=`find /usr/lib -type f -name *.dylib | grep -Fv "$l"`; Pm "Shared libraries"; :; } || echo $'\nReceipts missing'; o=`for e in INSERT_LIBRARIES LIBRARY_PATH; do launchctl getenv DYLD_$e; done`; Pm "Inserted dylibs"; o=`find -L {,/u*/lo*}/e*/periodic -type f -mtime -10d`; Pm "Modified periodic scripts"; o=; defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.alf globalstate | grep -q 0 || o=on; Ps Firewall; o=`scutil --proxy | grep Prox`; Pm Proxies; o=`scutil --dns | awk '/r\[0\] /{if ($NF !~ /^1(0|72\.(1[6-9]|2[0-9]|3[0-1])|92\.168)\./) print $NF; exit}'`; i=`route -n get default | awk '/e:/{print $2}'`; I=`$NS -listnetworkserviceorder | sed -En '/ '$i'\)$/{x;s/^$.+$ //p;q;};x'`; n=`$NS -getdnsservers "$I" | awk '!/^T/{printf "not "; exit}'`; Ps "DNS (${n}from DHCP)"; o=`$NS -getinfo "$I" | awk '/k:/{if ($3 !~ "(255\.){3}0") print}; /v6:/{if ($2 !~ "A") print}'`; Pm TCP/IP; R && o=`sudo profiles -P | grep : | wc -l`; Ps Profiles; f=auto_master; [[ `md5 -q /etc/$f` =~ ^b166 ]] || Pc $f /etc/$f; for f in fstab sysctl.conf crontab launchd.conf; do Pc $f /etc/$f; done; f=/etc/hosts; Pc hosts <(egrep -v "$H" $f ); AT $f; Pc "User launchd" ~/.launchd*; R && Pc "Root crontab" <(sudo crontab -l); Pc "User crontab" <(crontab -l); R && o=`sudo defaults read com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook`; Pm "Login hook"; LD="$(`find /S*/*/F* -type f -name lsregister | head -n1` -dump)"; o=`for ID in $AC; do [[ "$LD" =~ $ID ]] && echo $ID; done`; Pm "App check"; Pp "Global login items" /L*/P*/loginw* Path; Pp "User login items" L*/P*/*loginit* Name; Pp "Safari extensions" L*/Saf*/*/E*.plist Bundle | sed -E 's/(\..*$|-[1-9])//g'; o=`find ~ $TMPDIR.. $ -flags +sappnd,schg,uappnd,uchg -o ! -user $UID -o ! -perm -600 $ | wc -l`; Ps "Restricted user files"; cd; o=`find .??* -path .Trash -prune -o -type d -name *.app -print -prune`; Pm "Hidden apps"; o=`SP Fonts | egrep 'id: N|te: Y' | wc -l`; Ps "Font issues"; o=`find L*/{Con,Pref}* -type f ! -size 0 -name *.plist | while read f; do plutil -s "$f" >&- || echo $f; done`; Pm "Bad plists"; d=(Desktop L*/Keyc*); n=(20 7); for i in 0 1; do o=`find "${d[$i]}" -type f -maxdepth 1 | wc -l`; o=$((o<=n[$i]?0:o)); Ps "${d[$i]##*/} file count"; done; o=; [[ UID -eq 0 ]] && o=root; Ps UID; o=$((`date +%s`-t)); Ps "Elapsed time (s)"; } 2>/dev/null | pbcopy; exit 2>&-
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
7. Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Click anywhere in the Terminal window and paste (command-V). The text you pasted should vanish immediately. If it doesn't, press the return key.
8. If you see an error message in the Terminal window such as "syntax error," enter
exec bash
and press return. Then paste the script again.
9. If you're logged in as an administrator, you'll be prompted for your login password. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. You will not see the usual dots in place of typed characters. Make sure caps lock is off. Type carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you make three failed attempts to enter the password, the test will run anyway, but it will produce less information. In most cases, the difference is not important. If you don't know the password, or if you prefer not to enter it, press the key combination control-C or just press return three times at the password prompt. Again, the script will still run.
If you're not logged in as an administrator, you won't be prompted for a password. The test will still run. It just won't do anything that requires administrator privileges.
10. The test may take a few minutes to run, depending on how many files you have and the speed of the computer. A computer that's abnormally slow may take longer to run the test. While it's running, there will be nothing in the Terminal window and no indication of progress. Wait for the line
[Process completed]
to appear. If you don't see it within half an hour or so, the test probably won't complete in a reasonable time. In that case, close the Terminal window and report the results. No harm will be done.
11. When the test is complete, quit Terminal. The results will have been copied to the Clipboard automatically. They are not shown in the Terminal window. Please don't copy anything from there. All you have to do is start a reply to this comment and then paste by pressing command-V again.
If any private information, such as your name or email address, appears in the results, anonymize it before posting. Usually that won't be necessary.
12. When you post the results, you might see the message, "You have included content in your post that is not permitted." It means that the forum software has misidentified something in the post as a violation of the rules. If that happens, please post the test results on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.
Note: This is a public forum, and others may give you advice based on the results of the test. They speak only for themselves, and I don't necessarily agree with them.
Copyright © 2014 by Linc Davis. As the sole author of this work, I reserve all rights to it except as provided in the Terms of Use of the Apple Support Communities website ("ASC"). Readers of ASC may copy it for their own personal use. Neither the whole nor any part may be redistributed.

System slowdown after downgrade to 10.5.8

Hi, had to downgrade my system from 10.6.0 to 10.5.8 due to compatibility issues. Now am experiencing slowdown of overall performance.
My question is: does Snowleopard automatically install any firmware/HD driver or other updates that are NOT getting erased during a new, clean install of Leopard ?
Defintely not using any Snowleopard Backups, did a complete new Leopard install.
Can compare performance to other machines with similar setup. and it´s clearly less responsive.
Did all the system routines. Spotlight´s not running scans.
Thanks for your answers !

habschi2 wrote:
Hi, had to downgrade my system from 10.6.0 to 10.5.8 due to compatibility issues. Now am experiencing slowdown of overall performance.
My question is: does Snowleopard automatically install any firmware/HD driver or other updates that are NOT getting erased during a new, clean install of Leopard ?
NO. an erase and install of leopard will wipe absolutely all traces of snow leopard. whatever problems you are having now are not snow leopard related.
Defintely not using any Snowleopard Backups, did a complete new Leopard install.
Can compare performance to other machines with similar setup. and it´s clearly less responsive.
Did all the system routines. Spotlight´s not running scans.
Thanks for your answers !

Sudden System Slowdown

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