Tons of free space, macbook still slow.

Nadya Gurba wrote:
I freed space by literally deleting everything except my applications.

If your first statement were true you could not boot your Mac. But, maybe it is partially true to the extent that you have deleted files important to the System, and if so, that could have a lot to do with it running poorly.

Again, if you used to have enough RAM and you are still running the same apps, more RAM will not help. If it does, you must have some errant app using it up because RAM does not diminish over time.

Hi Nadya,

Your available HD space won't have a huge bearing on system performance unless you're less than 10% free (of total HD capacity). Usually sluggishness is caused by a lack of available RAM or a process that's hogging CPU processing power.

If you go into Activity Monitor, show "All Processes" and change the view to System Memory... what percentage of that pie chart is green? 50%? 25%? less?

Is there any application/process consuming more than 10% CPU?

I have deliberately filled up my hard drive until there was only 1/2 of a gigabyte left and it made no difference in the speed. Keeping 10% of the HD free really only applies if you have a very small (by todays standards) hard drive.

As was said, having enough RAM matters and not having some rogue process over using the CPU matters. Nothing should be using double digit %CPU unless you have some app running that is rendering video or audio etc. In other words, just launching Safari and Mail and browsing the web without watching videos should not be any slower now than it ever has been unless you have something has changed.

If you used to have enough RAM you still do unless you are now running apps that need more than the apps you used to run. Also, Repair your Permissions using Disk Utility if you have not done so. Repair Disk also while you are there.

More RAM is hopefully the answer - we upgraded our macbook from 512MB ro 2GB and it made a huge difference, BUT the computer would still get slower and slower over time until finally the hard drive crashed.

It's a Seagate 5400.2 "momentus" drive with 7.01 firmware. These drives are known to crash and apple hasn't recalled them. Search google for "5400.2 momentus" and you'll find nothing but problems.

Anyway, make sure your drive isn't one of the seagates, but otherwise RAM is the key - macbooks like about 2GB or more to be speedy. If you're a power user, you can open the "terminal" in your applications->utilities folder and run "top". Near the top of the output from this utility is how much memory is free and how much is in the "swap". if you have the swap number changing regularly, you need more memory even if you have a little memory reported as free.

Restart your computer then open Activity Monitor and leave it open, and click on System Memory in the lower half of the window, and then keep an eye on "page outs". Page-ins does not mean a thing for this, disregard it. Now go about your business using your computer in whatever manner that you do that is too slow. Look at the "page outs" number. If it is still zero or is a very low number, as in under a megabyte or so, more RAM will not help one bit. More RAM will help if that number, page outs, climbs and keeps climbing with continued use of the computer.

Page Outs represents how many times the computer had to write the contents of RAM back to the disk drive. That is a very slow process compared to not having to do it at all. If there are no, or very few page outs, then more RAM will only cost you money, not speed up your computer.

If you only have 500MB of installed RAM, and you are running OS 10.4.x, 10.5.x or 10.6.x then it is almost certain that more RAM will help. If you have 2GB it may be questionable if more will help at all. It depends entirely on what apps you run and what exactly you do with them.

I have 4GB RAM because that is what my computer came with. I could easily run it just as fast with 2GB. I rarely ever have less than 2GB free, meaning I rarely ever use that last 2GB. My page outs are of course always zero. And, a few page outs now and then really means little. It is akin to saying that looking out your office window from time to time will slow down your working day. Yes, perhaps a minute or two out of your 8 hour shift.

astaples wrote:
More RAM is hopefully the answer -

Anyway, make sure your drive isn't one of the seagates, but otherwise RAM is the key...

Hopefully more RAM is not the answer because that will cost a good amount of money. Hopefully it is an errant app, or the Permissions need Rebuilding or the Disk Repair needs run etc. These things are free.

The reason I am so adamant about not over buying RAM is because it costs a lot of money and if you have enough, more will not help. The key is finding out if you do or if you do not have enough for the way you use your computer.

Restart your computer then open Activity Monitor and leave it open, and click on System Memory in the lower half of the window, and then keep an eye on "page outs". Page-ins does not mean a thing for this, disregard it. Now go about your business using your computer in whatever manner that you do that is too slow. Look at the "page outs" number. If it is still zero or is a very low number, as in under a megabyte or so, more RAM will not help one bit. More RAM will help if that number, page outs, climbs and keeps climbing with continued use of the computer.

Page Outs represents how many times the computer had to write the contents of RAM back to the disk drive. That is a very slow process compared to not having to do it at all. If there are no, or very few page outs, then more RAM will only cost you money, not speed up your computer.

If you only have 500MB of installed RAM, and you are running OS 10.4.x, 10.5.x or 10.6.x then it is almost certain that more RAM will help. If you have 2GB it may be questionable if more will help at all. It depends entirely on what apps you run and what exactly you do with them.

I have 4GB RAM because that is what my computer came with. I could easily run it just as fast with 2GB. I rarely ever have less than 2GB free, meaning I rarely ever use that last 2GB. My page outs are of course always zero. And, a few page outs now and then really means little. It is akin to saying that looking out your office window from time to time will slow down your working day. Yes, perhaps a minute or two out of your 8 hour shift.