System Slow down on HD use

Ok here's something that's been driving me mad. I can't find anyone else that's posted about this but I can't believe it's only effecting me ! My problem is that when a HD in my PC (any HD) gets busy, ie transfering a 4Gb file either just from disk to disk or via the network my machine kinda stops responding. The following appears to be part of the pattern -
- CPU sits at about 20 - 25% when the drives are busy.
- The HD light on the PC is constantly on as if it's a power light.
- When transfering a 4Gb file on the same machine everything stops.
- When the HDs are busy sometime even the mouse pointer stops responding.
- When the HDs are busy it can take 45 seconds to load Firefox, no transfer running and it's 4 seconds.
- The entire GUI appears to go to 2% of normal speed. You can watch dialog windows redrawing over time taking 15 or more seconds (and that's a display properties window) !
- If I wait for the disk transfer to finish or pause it a few seconds later everything comes back to life.
Now this machine setup is to replace a P4 3.0Ghz system running on an genuine Intel chipset. On the old setup when doing this sort of thing the GUI took presidence over othe HD transfers. But the way this nForce / AMD setup is running it appears as if the HD transfer is running above everything else.
Anyone else seen or get this, or is this a known issue ? I can't believe a) I'm the only one with this issue and b) that it's the norm !!

Quote from: JayBee on 25-August-05, 20:34:49
Glad memory working with correct voltage. Tried large transfers (>8 gigs, AMD to itself, AMD to AMD, P4 to AMD etc) and no slowdowns like you have. I am using same linksys gigabyte router (actually it's a gigabyte switch feeding the network pcs connected to a siemens router) as you but different motherboard. The only thing I can think of is that your cabling from your gigabyte switch may not be cat 6. Have you tried different cable and how long are your runs?
Well Intel CPU / mobo to Intel CPU / mobo works like a dream over the same cables and switch. The boxes are only a few feet away. It's just if I drop this AMD 64bit machine into the setup it appears to slow stuff down.

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These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
Launch the Console 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.
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Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Scroll back to the time you noted above.
Select the messages entered from then until the end of the episode, or until they start to repeat, whichever comes first.
Copy the messages to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of it useless for solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
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How To Run Telia ZTE MF820D 4G Modem On Lion
Open Network Preferences
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Click “Advanced…”
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Link: http://walternaeslund.com/how-to-run-telia-zte-mf820d-4g-modem-on-lion/
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Regrad
Amare YSL

System slowed down after Mavericks update (10GB RAM)

Hi,
I have recently updated to Maverics on my mac pro, 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 10GB RAM.
When I perform regular tasks it's all normal. Unfortunately I do some much more than that. I use Aperture on a daily basis and it seems to have slowed down a bit. The issue is more apparent when I use Final Cut. I can't have any other design/photography/video software on the background anymore. My computer can't deal with. But it could before Mavericks! It will also complain about not enough memory when rendering...
I understand that kernel task is heavy on the memory and after an EtreCheck I also realised how much memory spotilight is using. I already excluded a lot of items from spotlight, and it's way better, but still, why is my computer so slow?
Please can someone look at my check and tell me if there's anything I can do to boost my system back to it's previous glory?
thank you
Hardware Information:
          Mac Pro (Early 2008)
          Mac Pro - model: MacPro3,1
          2 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon CPUs: 8 cores
          10 GB RAM
Video Information:
          NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT - VRAM: 512 MB
System Software:
          OS X 10.9.1 (13B42) - Uptime: 1 day 5:55:10
Disk Information:
          WDC WD2002FAEX-007BA0 disk0 : (2 TB)
                    EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
                    Disc 4 (disk0s2) /Volumes/Disc 4: 2 TB (493.89 GB free)
          ST3000DM001-1CH166 disk1 : (3 TB)
                    EFI (disk1s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
                    Disc 2 (disk1s2) /Volumes/Disc 2: 3 TB (49.2 GB free)
          ST31000528AS disk2 : (1 TB)
                    EFI (disk2s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
                    Disc 3 (disk2s2) /Volumes/Disc 3: 999.86 GB (3.26 GB free)
          ST31500341AS disk3 : (1.5 TB)
                    EFI (disk3s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
                    disk3s2 (disk3s2) <not mounted>: 1.5 TB
                    Recovery HD (disk3s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB
USB Information:
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          Apple, Inc. Keyboard Hub
                    Apple, Inc Apple Keyboard
          Generic Flash Card Reader
          Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
FireWire Information:
Thunderbolt Information:
Kernel Extensions:
Startup Items:
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          HPlaserjet Trap Monitor: Path: /Library/StartupItems/HPlaserjet Trap Monitor
          MySQLCOM: Path: /Library/StartupItems/MySQLCOM
Problem System Launch Daemons:
Problem System Launch Agents:
Launch Daemons:
          [System] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist 3rd-Party support link
          [System] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist 3rd-Party support link
          [System] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist 3rd-Party support link
          [invalid] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist
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          [System] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist 3rd-Party support link
          [invalid] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist
          [System] com.wacom.pentablet.plist 3rd-Party support link
User Launch Agents:
          [not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist 3rd-Party support link
          [not loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist 3rd-Party support link
          [not loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist 3rd-Party support link
          [not loaded] com.spotify.webhelper.plist 3rd-Party support link
User Login Items:
          Dropbox
          Spotify
          HPEventHandler
Internet Plug-ins:
          Flip4Mac WMV Plugin: Version: 2.2.3.7 3rd-Party support link
          FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 12.0.0.44 - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support link
          Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9
          AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: Version: 11.0.01 - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support link
          AdobePDFViewer: Version: 11.0.01 - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support link
          Flash Player: Version: 12.0.0.44 - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support link
          JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 14.9.0 - SDK 10.7 Outdated! Update
          QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
          SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support link
          Silverlight: Version: 5.0.61118.0 - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support link
          iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0
Audio Plug-ins:
          BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9
          AirPlay: Version: 1.9 - SDK 10.9
          AppleAVBAudio: Version: 2.0.0 - SDK 10.9
          iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9
3rd Party Preference Panes:
          PenTablet 3rd-Party support link
          Flash Player 3rd-Party support link
          Flip4Mac WMV 3rd-Party support link
          Growl 3rd-Party support link
          Perian 3rd-Party support link
Bad Fonts:
          None
Old Applications:
          /Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MERP2.0
                    Microsoft Error Reporting:          Version: 2.2.9 - SDK 10.4 3rd-Party support link
                    Microsoft Ship Asserts:          Version: 1.1.4 - SDK 10.4 3rd-Party support link
          Solver:          Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
                    /Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Office/Add-Ins/Solver.app
          SLLauncher:          Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
                    /Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Silverlight/OutOfBrowser/SLLauncher.app
          SuperDuper!:          Version: 2.6.4 - SDK 10.4 3rd-Party support link
          /Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Office
                    Microsoft Graph:          Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
                    Microsoft Database Utility:          Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
                    Microsoft Office Reminders:          Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
                    Microsoft Upload Center:          Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
                    My Day:          Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
                    SyncServicesAgent:          Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
                    Open XML for Excel:          Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
                    Microsoft Alerts Daemon:          Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
                    Microsoft Database Daemon:          Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
                    Microsoft Chart Converter:          Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
                    Microsoft Clip Gallery:          Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
          /Applications/Microsoft Office 2011
                    Microsoft PowerPoint:          Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
                    Microsoft Excel:          Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
                    Microsoft Outlook:          Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
                    Microsoft Word:          Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
                    Microsoft Document Connection:          Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
          Microsoft Language Register:          Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
                    /Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Additional Tools/Microsoft Language Register/Microsoft Language Register.app
          CrucialMacScanner_UK:          Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.0 3rd-Party support link
                    /Users/[redacted]/Documents/Software/CrucialMacScanner_UK.app
          Microsoft AutoUpdate:          Version: 2.3.6 - SDK 10.4 3rd-Party support link
                    /Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MAU2.0/Microsoft AutoUpdate.app
          Spin Doctor:          Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
                    /Applications/Toast 11 Titanium/Spin Doctor.app
Time Machine:
          Skip System Files: NO
          Mobile backups: OFF
          Auto backup: YES
          Volumes being backed up:
                    Disc 2: Disk size: 3 Disk used: 3
          Destinations:
                    TMMacpro2013 [Network] (Last used)
                    Total size: 21
                    Total number of backups: 63
                    Oldest backup: 2013-05-28 23:04:49 +0000
                    Last backup: 2014-02-13 15:51:39 +0000
                    Size of backup disk: Excellent
                              Backup size 21 > (Disk size 3 X 3)
          Time Machine details may not be accurate.
          All volumes being backed up may not be listed.
Top Processes by CPU:
             191%          Final Cut Pro
               5%          diskimages-helper
               4%          WindowServer
               2%          Google Chrome
               1%          backupd
Top Processes by Memory:
          1.00 GB          Final Cut Pro
          338 MB          mds
          328 MB          mds_stores
          256 MB          Finder
          205 MB          com.apple.IconServicesAgent
Virtual Memory Information:
          3.52 GB          Free RAM
          3.93 GB          Active RAM
          1.63 GB          Inactive RAM
          942 MB          Wired RAM
          12.92 GB          Page-ins
          0 B          Page-outs

Beware of perceived RAM use. 10.9 uses RAM more efficiently:
About memory management in OSX 10.9 Mavericks
Memory is managed differently, and more efficiently in 10.9. It is (mostly) unique in the industry, but may become trend.
Let’s start with the basics. Mechanical disk drives are very slow, with access speeds in the 10s of milliseconds and transfer rates in the 200-400 Mbps range real world. SSDs are much faster, on the order of a couple of ms access and typically 1200-3000 mbps transfer rates. RAM is much faster than either, in the nanosecond access and transfer speeds of ~8 Gbps effective (1 GHz x 8 bits/byte).
These are rough numbers for comparison purposes only.
So the goal is to keep as much in RAM as possible. But if you run out of RAM what do you do?
Traditionally you take the least used RAM and write it to a special part of the disk, in a way that you can access it most efficiently - minimizing the disk delays. This is called a swap file because you swap RAM in and out of it.
10.9 has a new trick: it compresses RAM using the main processors. Rather than swapping stuff to disk (disks are slow), it actually uses the processor to compress memory and make, for example, 1 GB of physical RAM hold as much as 1.5GB. Similar approaches are used to make MP3 files 10x smaller than the real thing - there is redundancy in data and you can take advantage of that. Apple is making the following calculation: the processors can compress way faster than the disk can swap. And its also predicting that the processors are often partly idle - waiting for swap files or disk access. So rather than swap files around, its compresses the files ***in RAM***.
Compression works,. Tests show that on average it is faster, and that 4GB (i have 4 GB RAM) acts like 5 1/2 - 6GB. Wow.
So, 10.9 will load up most of your RAM, knowing that it can compress some when it needs to. So don’t worry too much that it may look like all your RAM is taken - yea, it is, but its OK.
The measures to look at are:
1. amount compressed. Compression means it has run out of RAM and needs more. As long as compression is low this is fine. In fact this is how 10.9 uses RAM more efficiently than 10.6,7 or 8. Contrary to common wisdom, it requires LESS RAM than 10.8. The colored indicator tells you who this is going - green (good), yellow( iffy) and red (bad).
2. amount swapped. Once it cannot compress any further, or can’t do so efficiently, jot begins old-fashioned swapping. This is a major slow-down and means you would benefit from more RAM. Tiny amounts are OK.
here's an article by Apple - but on th pre-10.9 memory management techniques....mostly still true, but read on.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1342?viewlocale=en_US
Bottom line - compression makes 10.9 use RAM more efficiently than previous OSX versions. It also makes the “ram used” indicator less meaningful, and mans you should monitor “compression” .
That said, RAM has always been one of the most cost effective upgrades possible. People spend too much on new machines and too little on more RAM.
Hope this helps,
Grant

System slow down after installing Mountain Lion OS

I recently purchased a MacBook Pro for school, and upgraded the OS to Mountain Lion. I noticed a slight slow down in the computer. Is this normal, or is there something I can do to speed it back up?
SW

Your processor is alright however the specs on your machine are lackluster. It has a slow drive and not enough ram. Your first problem is that with that little ram the computer will use the drive for paging. Since the drive is 5400 (the slowest hard drives in the world) your going to be waiting.. a lot. Up your ram and upgrade to a 7200 rpm hard drive youll be happy. If you really want a gem system upgrade to 8gb ram and get a swift SSD drive.
Its a technology problem, not an OS problem. Newer OS's have extra features that capitalize on modern tech.. 5400rpm tech are like.. 90s tech... Cant believe they were selling those right up to 2011 or whenever.. criminal...

System slow down after upgrade to 10.10.2

Still have a slow down after updating to 10.10.2
Tried everything I can think of.
Get spinning color wheel for a long time when opening even small files. Scrolling through folders, cursor hangs for a moment. opening and saving takes much longer.
Used HD repair and repaired permissions and diagnosed HD. No problems.
Looking at Activity Monitor, I don't see anything that stand out-
-C

When you see a beachball cursor or the slowness is especially bad, note the exact time: hour, minute, second.
These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
Launch the Console 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 and start typing the name.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
          SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
          View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Scroll back to the time you noted above.
Select the messages entered from then until the end of the episode, or until they start to repeat, whichever comes first.
Copy the messages to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of it useless for solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

Large Photoshop file has caused system slow down.

I have Dual 2.0Ghz G5 which has worked very well since I got it last Spring. Just recently however I've had some slow downs. There are a number of things that I've noticed such as more frequent spinning beachball and font redraw issues.
These issued started since I was working one a massive Photoshop file. I was doing work on a Trade Show booth which eventually resulted in a 10Gb Photoshop file! I realized I probably should have taken steps to reduce the size of the file but that's neither here nor there. Despite the size of the file I was still quite impressed with the performance of my machine. That said, I've found the general performance of the machine since working on this file to be diminished.
I've done all of the typical maintenace items such as repairing disk and permissions via Disk Utility, clearing caches and running Maintenance scripts using Cache Out X, MacJanitor and Tiger Cache Cleaner, but still the performance of my machine has taken a hit.
It's only since this has happened that I've started launching Activity Monitor to try and determine if there is something obvious going on which is hogging resources or not. This for me has raised questions of what is "Normal" for some common tasks. Presently kernal_task is using under 5% of my CPU with 50 threads running which seems like a reasonable number. But it is also using almost 110Mb of RAM and 1.35Gb of Virtual Memory. Both of those numbers seem quite high to me, but I admit that I never looked at them before so I have no gage as to whether these numbers can be considered normal or not.
By all measures the machine still performs pretty good, but as I use this machine every day I know that it's not the same as it was prior to working on that large file. Is there something else related to Photoshop, temporary files, application caches or anything like that, that I should take a look at?
Any input would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Dual 2.0Ghz G5 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Hi Troy,
First I would try using a separate HD for the scratch disk.As PS tries to read and write,it has to compete with the OS as it tries to hit its swop files. If Version Cue is on, turn it off.Get rid of any virus checking apps.Check your Ram.If you haven't allowed Tiger to run its cron scripts on a regular basis,and only do periodic maintenance, I would take the time to do an Archive and Install, or even wipe the HD,zero it and install tiger again. This I realize is a drastic measure,time
consuming, and a pain.But if your whole system is slowing down?? Or if you get a new drive set it up to be your primary drive first and test your system on it before moving any of your PS files over from the old HD.Use the old HD as scratch disk
Have you included the use of other utilies to check your HD? Drive Genius, Disk Warrior, TechTool Pro.No Norton utilities allowed.Hope this helps as there are a lot of places to look for the problem.

System Slow down on HD use

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