Why is Lion so slow?

I was just sitting here with this problem again.... And I tried your check and got this answer:

vm.swapusage: total = 256.00M used = 15.00M free = 241.00M (encrypted)

Does that mean it is enabled?

The only way out of my hang-situations is to restart my computer with CMD-R and do an verification and repear of rights.

Then it last for some hours or even days happy and fresh. To day it started to **** up after using Numbers for a short time. So now it hangs in Safari, Finder, Numbers and even Terminal was hard to both start and use without waiting for the spinning ball (usually for some 15-30 seconds).

Hope yoe can give me an answer if it is or not enabled.

Thanks mate 🙂

Yes, this mean virtual memory is encrypted to avoid thieves ... I don't know if each time there is an write/read it decrypt or only when we open/close the session, but on all others versions of OSX (Snow, Leopard, Tiger, etc) it was not enabled; and it is known to eat cpu...

Try to disable it and see if it change something...

You can also try to see if you are in 32/64 bits, and see if switching on the other mode change something :

To know which mode 32/64bits you are booted on :

In terminal, type : uname -a

To switch on 64 bits on next reboot if your computer support it :

type : sudo systemsetup -setkernelbootarchitecture x86_64

To switch on 32bits, type :

sudo systemsetup -setkernelbootarchitecture i386

You can also try to disable all the gadgets Lion have enables (in comparison to olders OS) with Onyx or Cocktail... Like finder animations, snapshot application state, etc...

Also sometime Spotlight and Flash Player make CPU going to more than 90/100%

You can easily replace Spotlight with "Easyfind" small freeware, which is very useful... (easyfind on macupdate)

For Flash i have found a plugin wich replace Flash player by HTML5 for some youtube movies but i don't have seen working yet... http://www.mactrast.com/2011/08/new-safari-extension-replaces-flash-video-with-h tml-5/

On Lion i was having also lot of problems with Safari (the wheel of the dead, turning and turning)... You can try an older version, or use Firefox...

I disabled it and took a restart. Was not able to start my computer again, it just restarted and restarted. So I startet it in safe mode and enabled it again and the computer started normaly. 😮

So I guess I dont want to test more aroud that topic hi hi...

I hear about so many people with this problem. For me it started after going from SL til Lion. I have bought new disk and have enough memory, but still fighting over this problem for months. Never had a Windows box witg so many problems as this is making.

It cant be all of us there is someting wrong with(?), so why cant Apple please try to fix this. 😢

Really ? it is impossible...

Secure Virtual memory is just encryption, on my macbook pro (i5 mid 2010 with 4go ram) i have disabled it and restarted without problem...

now i'm with it disabled...

macbookpro-airport:~ ced$ sysctl vm.swapusage

vm.swapusage: total = 1024.00M used = 471.59M free = 552.41M

May be i have given to you a bad command ? look here :

http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20110920052038951

http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/45729/any-performance-gains-when-disabl ing-secure-virtual-memory

Remember Lion is very unstable, on all computers... very few peoples don't have problems with it, but the big majority have problems; and nobody use it in production... you should go on Snow... (i asked for a refund to Apple - buyed it the June 15 th 2012 - asked for refund last week - too buggy)

Try to disable spotlight, from Spotlight pane, and others option wich you don't have utility with Cocktail, Onyx or MacPilot (i recommand "cocktail" get it as demo 15 days - because one time onyx have crashed my computer, cocktail never...)

Have a look also in Activity Monitor (Applications -> Utilities folder -> Activity monitor : Window menu : Activity Monitor) - and see if there is something that eat cpu time... if you found something, try to identify it, and try to disable it...

Sorry 😕

fced wrote:

Really ? it is impossible...

What is impossible?

Remember Lion is very unstable, on all computers... very few peoples don't have problems with it, but the big majority have problems; and nobody use it in production

Must be the language...

You mean it is very stable on all computers, very few people have any problems with it and eveyone uses it for "production" (as their regular OS).

You should buy better glasses Chris, you are on a post wich say "why is lion so slow" with 260 replies (18 pages)...

I mean Lion is unstable.

I mean also "impossible/strange disabling Secure VM crashe your system". it should not cause problem...

I mean also, nobody wich work on production with their computer use Lion, except some very very lucky peoples which don't have problems with it, but the big majority are on Snow... or Leopard...

Don't deform the posts, when peoples try to help others by giving them sincere advise...

fced wrote:

You should buy better glasses Chris, you are on a post wich say "why is lion so slow" with 260 replies (18 pages)...

Only 216 replies? (and manuy of those are replies to fixing an uissue, not with having a problem).

Considering +15 million people are using it, this is literally a non-issue.

I mean Lion is unstable.

I mean it is not. It is extremely stable on my system and millions (literally) of other's systems.

nobody wich work on production with their computer use Lion, except some very very lucky peoples which don't have problems with it

Nobody is using it? Except for very, very lucky people?

Really? Where are you getting this (incorrect) information?

Don't deform the posts, when peoples try to help others by giving them sincere advise...

You may be sincere with your advice but it is wrong and it is simply FUD (google it).

fced wrote:

You should buy better glasses Chris, you are on a post wich say "why is lion so slow" with 260 replies (18 pages)...

I mean Lion is unstable.

I mean also "impossible/strange disabling Secure VM crashe your system". it should not cause problem...

I mean also, nobody wich work on production with their computer use Lion, except some very very lucky peoples which don't have problems with it, but the big majority are on Snow... or Leopard...

Don't deform the posts, when peoples try to help others by giving them sincere advise...

You could not be more wrong, I have (currently in use) 32 Macs (MBP's and Mini's) all with Lion, all fast, all stable. Your experience is just that yours, fix your Lion installation rather than ranting.

Can you all remember that people that genuinly have problems here also follow this by email so that every time someone replies we get alerts. It really doesn't help when the people start arguing on stuff (right or wrong). If it isn't helping move on. Thanks

Moke123 you are right! As for me I just desided to live with my problems since no good solutions came up. But from time to time I look into this tread and some hundred other discussions about the spinning ball.

Whenever Lion works, it works like a sharm 🙂 But when it starts ******* up its not making me or others happy.

It started when upgrading til Lion, it followed back down to SL and up again to Lion. I have done everything. It feels like there is something done on a deeper level that the OS, and that it is stuck there for us that got the problem.

My English is maybe not taht good but I have been working with computers since I started as a Cobol-programmer an dI got my first Mac in 1986. So I always try my best first. Sorry if my, and others, problem with this irritates some of you that have a smooth Lion experience 😉

Your problems don't irritate me at all - I too am here as I have problems with my Mac and I'm hoping that a solution does come up which may help - hence why I've signed up to receive email alerts every time a comment is left. But I guess, what doesn't help is when there people start arguing about things that don't add to the goal of trying to find a solution. I'm very much in the same boat as you. My comment wasn't meant to offend only to remind people that sometimes other 'noise' can distract from the issue.

Yeah, you are right Moke, sorry for the outside subject post... sorry for my poor english speaking...

Anyway, on my Lion install, if i remember correctly (because i gone on snow now),

- i disabled spotlight (just to see if it change something), it helped a bit because mdworker and mdworker 32 have disapeared instead of eating 80-90%Cpu...

- Disabling secure virtual memory helped me a bit also ...

- Installing another version of Safari (i have got the old one on my macbook pro with Snow V505), i have lost some of the Safari 5.1.7 functions but, older safari was working better for me, and it don't give me the wheel of the death .

- I tried also to disable usage of virtual memory by the system with with Cocktail or Onyx, but system came more unstable... don't disable it, it change nothing.

- Lion Tweak (freeware), can give some help, because it have been created specifically to Lion, and can disable some Lion specific options you don't use...

Have you seen in Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor if there is softwares wich eat cpu time or your Ram ? Can you give some more details about your config (Cpu, Ram, free ram) ?

Hope it will help

Ced

Has anyone who continues to this issue tried downloading the new OS Mountain Lion and notice that their issue was resolved by the update? I was only able to fix Lion by doing a clean install and now that everything is runnIng smoothly, I'm hesitant to do the upgrade if it's just going to reintroduce the spinning beach ball problem.

To anyone, Bugs are completely resolved in Mountain Lion...

Forget Lion, get Mountain,

i have buyed it today, and it's a comet, it's Snow Leopard in better...

more reactive, more fast, more nice... And for now no safari bugs, no spotlight bugs...
I don't have seen spotlight problems...

My macbook pro work now as it should be...

Go get it now 🙂

I was very angry against Apple for Lion, but Mountain have make me friend again with Apple... Just one thing i don't like;.. Ftp share, and Webserver share which have disappeared in system prefs...

I will post after testing more... and see if i install it on my MacPro working computer (compatibility with softwares i use), but for now it's perfect... System is very reactive...

I love it

Ced

Excellent news Ced, thanks!

This article from International Business Times states that users are reporting that the issue with CPU slowing is resolved in ML. Hooray! I also post the link to the artcle as evidence for the people who like to troll this thread accusing those of us affected by the problem of exaggerating its scope. The slowing/freezing problem is a legitimate issue with Lion for many users, enough so to make headlines. More importantly, it affected enough users that Apple should have done something about it. Shame on them for doing nothing.

If you weren't affected, consider yourself lucky, because it's made owning my MBP living **** for the last year. This is why I left the world of PCs!

Let's pray the nightmare is over.