tedtoal2

Q: Very sluggish performance since installing Mavericks

As with many other people, my MacBook is running really sluggishly, ever since I installed Mavericks.  It is running much slower than it was with OSX Lion that I had before.  This is a 2010 Macbook with 4 GB RAM.  I talked to someone this morning with an even older MacBook that is just flying along with Mavericks. Something must be wrong with mine.

 

An example of sluggishness is that after clicking on a menu item, it may take several seconds for the drop-down menu to appear.

 

Another problem I'm having, which I believe is a known problem that is presumably being addressed, is that my Apple Bluetooth mouse is unable to perform scrolling by dragging my finger along it, in some apps, some of the time.  Sometimes apps recover the ability to do scrolling.

 

I tried disabling App Nap on all apps I keep running most of the time and it made no difference.  I've looked at Activity Monitor but there doesn't seem to be any unusual load on the system.  I looked at Console and there are a lot of messages of many kinds, but at the moment no new activity.  However, at times there was rapid generation of an "Invalid display" message, with jillions of them present in the console list.  I suspect these may relate to the fact that I use a second monitor off and on during the day.  Right now the second monitor is plugged in, and no such messages are occurring, but the log shows a lot of them earlier.  They look like this:

 

11/14/13 11:58:56.366 AM BBEdit[202]: CGSCopyDisplayUUID: Invalid display 0x2b3c49d5

11/14/13 11:58:56.399 AM BBEdit[202]: CGSCopyDisplayUUID: Invalid display 0x2b3c49d5

11/14/13 11:58:56.615 AM BBEdit[202]: CGSCopyDisplayUUID: Invalid display 0x2b3c49d5

11/14/13 11:58:56.832 AM BBEdit[202]: CGSCopyDisplayUUID: Invalid display 0x2b3c49d5

11/14/13 11:58:57.116 AM BBEdit[202]: CGSCopyDisplayUUID: Invalid display 0x2b3c49d5

 

These are all from BBEdit, but earlier there were lots from Excel and Word too.

 

I ran etrecheck (downloaded from http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck) and got the following.  There are a lot of failed items in there, and for some of them I think I need to uninstall or disable certain things, but for others I'm not really sure what I'm looking at.

 

Hardware Information:

          MacBook (13-inch, Mid 2010)

          MacBook - model: MacBook7,1

          1 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2 cores

          4 GB RAM

 

Video Information:

          NVIDIA GeForce 320M - VRAM: 256 MB

 

Audio Plug-ins:

          BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0

          AirPlay: Version: 1.9

          AppleAVBAudio: Version: 2.0.0

          iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3

 

Startup Items:

          daemonic-mysql - Path: /Library/StartupItems/daemonic-mysql

 

System Software:

          OS X 10.9 (13A603) - Uptime: 6 days 6:44:30

 

Disk Information:

          TOSHIBA MK5065GSXF disk0 : (500.11 GB)

                    EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

                    Mac OS HD (disk0s2) /: 499.25 GB (273.4 GB free)

                    Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB

 

          OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5970H 

 

USB Information:

          Apple Inc. Built-in iSight

 

 

          KINESIS CORPORATION KB700M Kinesis Freestyle for Mac

 

          Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub

                    Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

 

          Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

 

FireWire Information:

 

Thunderbolt Information:

 

Kernel Extensions:

          com.Cycling74.driver.Soundflower          (1.5.2)

 

Problem System Launch Daemons:

          [failed] com.apple.AOSNotificationOSX.plist

          [failed] com.apple.installd.plist

          [failed] com.apple.wdhelper.plist

 

Problem System Launch Agents:

 

Launch Daemons:

          [loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist

          [loaded] com.barebones.authd.plist

          [not loaded] com.barebones.bbedit.plist

          [not loaded] com.barebones.textwrangler.plist

          [failed] com.edb.launchd.apache.plist

          [loaded] com.github.GitHub.GHInstallCLI.plist

          [loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist

          [loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist

          [loaded] com.oracle.java.JavaUpdateHelper.plist

          [failed] com.starfield.backupservice.plist

          [failed] org.openafs.filesystems.afs.plist

 

Launch Agents:

          [loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist

          [loaded] org.tigris.scplugin.launch.plist

 

User Launch Agents:

          [failed] com.apple.CSConfigDotMacCert-ted@me.com-SharedServices.Agent.plist

          [failed] com.apple.SafariBookmarksSyncer.plist

          [loaded] com.facebook.videochat.tedtoal.plist

          [failed] it.infn.lnf.network.AFSBackgrounder.plist

 

User Login Items:

          FamiliarHelper

          Mail

          Preview

          BBEdit

          Microsoft Word

          SCToolbarButton

          Google Drive

          Dropbox

          Calendar

          Safari

 

3rd Party Preference Panes:

          Flash Player

          Flip4Mac WMV

          MacFUSE

 

Internet Plug-ins:

          Default Browser.plugin

          DirectorShockwave.plugin

          JavaAppletPlugin.plugin

          Flash Player.plugin

          FlashPlayer-10.6.plugin

          Flip4Mac WMV Plugin.plugin

          googletalkbrowserplugin.plugin

          iPhotoPhotocast.plugin

          JavaAppletPlugin.plugin

          npgtpo3dautoplugin.plugin

          o1dbrowserplugin.plugin

          QuickTime Plugin.plugin

          SharePointBrowserPlugin.plugin

          Silverlight.plugin

          Unity Web Player.plugin

 

User Internet Plug-ins:

          Picasa.plugin

 

Bad Fonts:

          None

 

Time Machine:

          Skip System Files: NO

          Mobile backups: OFF

          Auto backup: NO

          Volumes being backed up:

                    Mac OS HD: Disk size: 499.25 GB Disk used: 225.85 GB

          Destinations:

                    Time Machine Backups [Local] (Last used)

                    Total size: 999.86 GB

                    Total number of backups: 32

                    Oldest backup: 2012-12-31 12:24:11 +0000

                    Last backup: 2013-11-13 04:59:39 +0000

                    Size of backup disk: Adequate

                              Backup size 999.86 GB > (Disk used 225.85 GB X 3)

 

Top Processes by CPU:

              11%          WindowServer

               3%          Safari

               3%          EtreCheck

               2%          BBEdit

               2%          hidd

               1%          sysmond

               1%          SystemUIServer

               1%          Activity Monitor

               1%          Microsoft Excel

               0%          Dropbox

 

Top Processes by Memory:

          102 MB             systemstats

          98 MB              WindowServer

          86 MB              Finder

          78 MB              BBEdit

          70 MB              Microsoft Excel

          41 MB              com.apple.IconServicesAgent

          41 MB              Mail

          41 MB              Console

          37 MB              Safari

          33 MB              Dock

 

Virtual Memory Statistics:

          159 MB             Free RAM

          753 MB             Active RAM

          646 MB             Inactive RAM

          842 MB             Wired RAM

          21.33 GB           Page-ins

          828 MB             Page-outs

MacBook, iPad, iPod, PC/Windows7-64bit

Posted on Nov 14, 2013 1:58 PM

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Q: Very sluggish performance since installing Mavericks

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  • by tedtoal2,

    tedtoal2 tedtoal2 Feb 18, 2014 7:14 PM in response to tedtoal2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 18, 2014 7:14 PM in response to tedtoal2

    Ok, guess what?  I really COULD and DID update to 16 GB of RAM!!!!   Not sure yet how it will affect performance, that remains to be seen.  Just booted with the new RAM.  It took two tries.  The first RAM I bought sounded right, except for one thing: it was 1333MHz instead of 1066MHz.  I figured that meant it could tolerate a faster clock speed, and surely my slower clock speed would not be a problem.  But it failed, with beeps when I tried to boot.  I tried again, this time ordering Mushkin 997019 DDR3 SODIMM (2x8GB) 16GB PC3-8500 SODIMM 204p 7-7-7-20 1.5v RAM from RAMEXPERTS for $165 and it worked.  Sweet, real sweet.  Thank you so much for letting me know this was possible!

     

    Also, in the meantime, I upgraded my 500 GB HD to a Seagate 1TB SSHD, about which I posted separately my process of getting it working.  So, I have two separate changes that should speed up the system.  I will post in a month or so after I've had a chance to see how it works.  If I don't get BETTER performance than pre-Mavericks, I will attempt to downgrade back to Lion. 

     

    Ted

  • by MichelPM,

    MichelPM MichelPM Feb 18, 2014 8:54 PM in response to tedtoal2
    Level 6 (14,172 points)
    iPad
    Feb 18, 2014 8:54 PM in response to tedtoal2

    Not sure where you have gotten your 16 Gbs of RAM from, but Macs are very, VERY picky about the RAM they want to use.

    You can't use any will nilly Windows PC RAM ina a Mac.

    Corsair, Kingston, PNY and any type of bargain or "value" RAM is unreliable in Mac, too!

    Correct spec'd and reliable Mac RAM can be purchased from online Mac RAM sources Crucial memory or OWC (macsales.com).

  • by tedtoal2,

    tedtoal2 tedtoal2 Feb 19, 2014 7:43 AM in response to MichelPM
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 19, 2014 7:43 AM in response to MichelPM

    The first RAM I tried that did not work was from Crucial.  When I returned it I tried to get something different from them, but their analysis tool that you download told me I was limited to 4 GB, and an email to their customer service with my macbook specs resulted in a reply that I needed to call them.  Too complicated.  The Mushkin RAM seems to be working fine.

  • by Poodle Bites,

    Poodle Bites Poodle Bites Feb 19, 2014 12:23 PM in response to tedtoal2
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Feb 19, 2014 12:23 PM in response to tedtoal2

    Glad that it works Your Mac should definetely show better performance now. If you still experience sluggishness you could probably try to disable the new Mavericks memory compression feature:

     

    http://superuser.com/questions/668114/disable-compressed-memory-in-mac-os-10-9-m avericks

     

    To get it back:

     

    http://superuser.com/questions/701759/how-to-get-compressed-memory-back-in-os-x- 10-9-mavericks?rq=1

     

    But I would wait for 10.9.2 before I'd try that. It can't be that long until this update is here and maybe this feature got some improvements.

  • by MichelPM,

    MichelPM MichelPM Feb 19, 2014 12:53 PM in response to tedtoal2
    Level 6 (14,172 points)
    iPad
    Feb 19, 2014 12:53 PM in response to tedtoal2

    Never heard of it, but if your MacBook starts exhibiting freezes ( called Kernel Panics) and starts giving off a series of beeps when you try to boot your Mac, this is a very strong indication of hardware incompatibilities related to the RAM you installed into your Mac.

  • by Dwenson,

    Dwenson Dwenson Feb 26, 2014 9:07 AM in response to tedtoal2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 26, 2014 9:07 AM in response to tedtoal2

    Install update OSX 10.9.2 and it will solve the problem.. Solves pauses and stops when swiping on launchpad menu.

  • by BgladNYC,

    BgladNYC BgladNYC Feb 26, 2014 4:42 PM in response to Dwenson
    Level 1 (11 points)
    iPhone
    Feb 26, 2014 4:42 PM in response to Dwenson

    Yes,it's much faster now. However, the joy lasted for only a day... My MAIL is acting up again and I am still sometimes getting the pixelated background noise in graphics...

  • by fedallah,

    fedallah fedallah Mar 31, 2014 5:40 PM in response to tedtoal2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 31, 2014 5:40 PM in response to tedtoal2

    I had the same problem with intermittent pauses, but my machine has always had max RAM, and I'm running 10.9.2. My "invalid display" errors were fixed with this:

     

     

    Try turning off "Displays have separate Spaces" in System Preferences -> Mission Control. Restart instead of logging out as it suggests, otherwise the setting may turn itself back on.

     

     

    Much thanks to: https://discussions.apple.com/message/24119698#24119698

  • by tedtoal2,Solvedanswer

    tedtoal2 tedtoal2 Jun 14, 2014 12:02 PM in response to tedtoal2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 14, 2014 12:02 PM in response to tedtoal2

    It has been four months and I'm happy to report that my Mac with OSX 10.9.3 and 16 GB RAM is running quite well, no more slowness!  I think the speedups were a combination of the OSX update, the additional RAM, and the SSHD drive.

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