Hi All,
I had (hopefully) the same problem but after following the instructions posted by aesthetica everything seems to be ok now.
The problem I had was similar and started when I was watching HD content through iTunes and then it started with my music as well except it was accompanied by a loud high pitched clicking or knocking sound which I thought was the start of my HDD failing but after removing everything from the prefs folder - no more problems.
I should also note that I followed the instructions below from a post I found today regarding other similar issues I was having that had escalated to all running applications slowing down and hanging including the OS... hope this helps!
Here are a list of things you can do to make your Mac run like new:
1. Make sure that Mac OS X and your applications are all up to date. You can check for updates that apply to your current applications at VersionTracker.com or MacUpdate.com and just search for the program. Alternatively, some applications have built in update functionality (usually located in the Menu bar under the applications name (for example: Adium > Check For Updates...)
2. Disable any un-needed login items. Some applications can enable "daemons" or services which run in the background when you log into your Mac. To check for these startup items, open System Preferences, click on Accounts, click on your account in the left hand side, and then click on "Login Items". Uncheck or remove anything you don't need.
Do some spring cleaning on your files:
3a. If you have a lot of old music that you don't listen to anymore, you may want to remove it from your iTunes library. To do this, simply highlight the songs in iTunes, and then tap the "delete" key on your keyboard. iTunes will ask if you want to move the files to the trash as well, click on Yes. Alternatively, you could burn these files to a CD or DVD for safe keeping (You can find your AAC/MP3/audio files in /Users/your user name/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music).
3b. Archive or remove any old documents. If you have a lot of documents or pictures on your hard drive that you rarely access, it may be a good idea to burn them to a CD or DVD so that you can remove them from the hard drive and reclaim some free space. To do this, insert a blank CD or DVD into your computers disc drive and the Finder should show an "Untitled CD" or "Untitled DVD" on your desktop. Now you can drag and drop your unused files to the icon on your desktop. To burn the files, open the Finder and you should see "Untitled CD/DVD" in your Sidebar with a burn icon next to it. Click on the Burn icon and it will prompt you for a name and the burn speed. Input the correct information here and then click on Burn.
3c. If you've uninstalled any programs in the past there may be a chance that their preference files and support files are still kicking around on your hard drive. If you no longer use an application, do the following to remove it and its associated files:
- Drag the application (such as Adium) to the trash.
- Navigate to /Users/your user name/Library/Application Support.
- Drag the folder associated with the application (in this case, Adium 2.0) to the trash.
- Navigate to /Users/your user name/Library/Preferences.
- Drag and drop "com.AdiumX.AdiumX.plist" to the trash.
- Empty the trash.
The file naming scheme for most preference files is "com.[vendor].[applicationname].plist" - so if you've got "TextWrangler" by Bare Bones Software (great text editor, in my opinion), the preference file would be called "com.barebones.textwrangler.plist". Note for this application there is also a folder called "com.barebones.textwrangler.PreferenceData", which would be safe to remove as well.
4. Run the maintenance scripts once a week if you put your Mac to sleep or shut it down a lot to ensure that the system software clears its caches, and also repair your disk permissions every now and then to make sure that nothing has been tampered with.
To do this, open a new Terminal window (you can find the Terminal in /Applications/Utilities/).
In the terminal window, type the following commands:
Code:
sudo periodic daily weekly monthly
sudo diskutil repairPermissions /
sudo -K
When you are prompted for your password, simply type it in and then press Return or Enter on your keyboard. "Sudo" is a command that runs an application or command as a "super user" or "root" which has higher permissions, and should only be used when required (these commands require that they be run as super user/root for best results).
The above commands will perform the following actions:
- Repair permissions on your boot volume.
- Run the "daily", "weekly", and "monthly" maintenance scripts which clear caches etc.
- Reset the sudo command as if it were never run so you are presented with the 'sudo command warning' message when you run it again (I'd recommend doing this if you don't use the Terminal a lot).
5. Last but not least, if you've had your Mac on for a long time without restarting it (this includes putting it in and out of sleep for two months straight), you may want to try restarting it, which clears some other caches and clears out any possible memory leaks from faulty application daemons/services, etc. Just click on the Apple menu and click on "Restart...", and when you are prompted if you'd like to continue just click on "Restart". Alternatively, if you hold down the Option key and click on the Apple menu and then click on Restart, it will go ahead and restart immediately without prompting you (you can do this for shut down and log off as well).
Also, if you find that your Mac is just dog slow when you're running a lot of applications at once, you may want to invest in a RAM (memory) upgrade. Your MacBook currently has 1GB (which is most likely installed in a 2x512MB DDR2 configuration) of RAM. I'd recommend purchasing 2x1GB DDR2 memory modules (make sure that you get notebook RAM or "SODIMM") and install them in your MacBook for a performance boost. Please note that the maximum amount of memory you can install in your 2.16 GHz MacBook is 2GB (some have reported that 3GB will work as well, however as far as I know this is unsupported by Apple on the 2.16 GHz MacBook, and you most likely won't need any more than 2 GB of RAM unless you are doing a lot of heavy duty tasks like editing large files in Photoshop and running over 10 applications at once). For information on installing RAM in your MacBook, please see the following Apple Support articles:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303721
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/Mac...Memory_DIY.pdf
