When an account becomes sluggish...

Question

This fairly new Dualcore 2.3 is running very sluggish in performing simple tasks; previewing files in Adobe Bridge and opening small files in PS CS2.
I logged in as the root user and found it worked very well as everything was much snappier, including the contextual menus when right clicking.
My question is, what can be causing the slow dow and is there anything I can do to avoid it? Creating a new user every couple of months would really rot.
I leave the machine running 24/7 with all sleep options turned off so the system can perform its maintenance tasks, I repair permissions occasionally, especially when installing updates and software.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks.
-Vincent

Answer 1

Hello Bee,
Thanks for the reply.
This is what is showing up, displayed from using the most real memory at the top...
742 Photoshop valessi 1.80 5 1.21 GB 1.72 GB
0 kernel_task root 1.20 40 151.43 MB 1.43 GB
736 Adobe Illustrator CS2 valessi 1.00 4 77.44 MB 623.83 MB
673 WindowServer windowserver 3.20 3 57.80 MB 404.35 MB
697 Mail valessi 0.00 6 40.63 MB 399.23 MB
702 Safari valessi 0.00 6 37.93 MB 400.27 MB
690 Finder valessi 0.00 4 31.57 MB 402.00 MB
63 coreservicesd root 0.00 3 20.48 MB 66.48 MB
755 Activity Monitor valessi 3.50 2 11.65 MB 361.46 MB
135 mds root 0.00 9 6.71 MB 45.39 MB
687 SystemUIServer valessi 0.00 2 4.89 MB 356.47 MB
64 ATSServer valessi 0.00 2 4.70 MB 76.90 MB
735 mdimport valessi 0.00 4 4.25 MB 72.76 MB
671 loginwindow valessi 0.00 4 4.00 MB 331.28 MB
685 Dock valessi 0.00 2 3.30 MB 350.68 MB
45 DirectoryService root 0.00 4 3.00 MB 30.90 MB
30 coreaudiod root 0.00 1 2.97 MB 28.70 MB
699 UniversalAccessApp valessi 0.90 1 2.86 MB 347.70 MB
681 TabletDriver valessi 0.90 3 2.79 MB 292.58 MB
186 automount root 0.00 5 2.63 MB 29.75 MB
738 Adobe LM Service root 0.00 2 2.38 MB 29.57 MB
33 securityd root 0.00 1 2.36 MB 28.55 MB
740 mdimport nobody 0.00 3 2.09 MB 38.58 MB
29 configd root 0.00 3 1.95 MB 29.23 MB
31 diskarbitrationd root 0.00 1 1.94 MB 27.14 MB
682 pbs valessi 0.00 2 1.65 MB 54.02 MB
698 iTunes Helper valessi 0.00 1 1.64 MB 298.45 MB
37 mDNSResponder root 0.00 3 1.43 MB 27.92 MB
25 kextd root 0.00 2 1.34 MB 27.56 MB
756 pmTool root 0.80 1 1.13 MB 36.46 MB
58 distnoted root 0.00 1 1.11 MB 27.03 MB
146 lookupd root 0.00 2 1.03 MB 28.52 MB
36 KernelEventAgent root 0.00 2 928.00 KB 27.59 MB
32 memberd root 0.00 3 912.00 KB 27.66 MB
38 netinfod root 0.00 1 716.00 KB 26.95 MB
715 check_afp root 0.00 2 688.00 KB 27.14 MB
39 syslogd root 0.00 1 628.00 KB 26.65 MB
160 ntpd root 0.00 1 604.00 KB 26.87 MB
95 crashreporterd root 0.00 1 568.00 KB 27.13 MB
47 update root 0.00 1 544.00 KB 26.62 MB
35 notifyd root 0.00 2 452.00 KB 27.22 MB
190 automount root 0.00 3 424.00 KB 28.73 MB
21 dynamic_pager root 0.00 1 344.00 KB 26.63 MB
1 launchd root 0.00 3 332.00 KB 27.69 MB
223 cupsd root 0.00 2 308.00 KB 27.85 MB
183 rpc.lockd root 0.00 1 224.00 KB 26.68 MB
174 nfsiod root 0.00 5 212.00 KB 28.63 MB
I hope this makes things a clearer, I wouldn't even know where to begin with what any of it means, outside of the software I am intentionally running.
Thanks again.