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How can I regain responsiveness?

Since Lion, responsiveness of my Macbook Pro (15'') has decreased dramatically.

For instance, I double-click a JPG file - then 5 seconds nothing happens - then Preview shows it, but it also gives me the beach ball - another 5 seconds, unti I can finally do something.

And this happens so often, with so many trivial actions on my Macbook that it really adds up.


Is there anything I can do to make it more responsive?


(My Macbook is brand-new, by the way.)


Regards,

Gabriel.

iPhone 4S, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on May 10, 2012 7:34 AM

Reply
26 replies

May 10, 2012 8:19 AM in response to GabrielZ

Well, this is certainly a first and I guess everyone is entitled to an opinion. Based on the discription of the problem this is a solution I have used in the past and found that it works quite well and in fact I still periodically use this procedure to boost performance. I post very little any more but certainly will not be listening (reading) to this type of opinionated self importance.

May 10, 2012 8:25 AM in response to GabrielZ

Agree with both of the above posters. Caches are not your problem, and looking at Activity monitor might offer us some clues.


Also, how long ago did you upgrade to Lion? Has this been going on a while or did you just upgrade to Lion in the last 24 hours? If the latter, Spotlight and possibly Time Machine (if you use it) and still indexing and backing up.


If you upgraded more than 24 hours ago, please open Activity Monitory (Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor.app), click on the drop down menu on the right side of the panel and choose 'All Processes'.


Next, click on the %CPU tab in the window, twice if necessary, so that the little arrow is pointing downwards. What are the top 5 or so items? Is anything taking up over 50% or so of CPU?


If you're not sure, post a screenshot. To do so, hold down 'command-shift-4' on your keyboard. Release, then press the Spacebar. Then click your mouse or the trackpad. The screenshot is on your desktop.

May 10, 2012 9:16 AM in response to softwater

I think I upgraded in November last year.


And, yes, this kind of "sluggish" responsiveness by my Macbook has occured from the beginning.

Sometimes more, sometimes a bit less, but always worse than under Snow Leopard.

I am running 10.7.3 right now.


Here is the top processes from Activity Monitor - I hope they get across alright.


34555 Firefoxzach6.024192.6 MB3,148,6411,536,522175.2 MB
34134 activitymonitordroot5.312.0 MB198,785,22999,387,22428.9 MB
13273 Safari Web Contentzach3.7141.50 GB396,973,992199,810,6082.97 GB
0 kernel_taskroot2.586463.0 MB989,884,561867,102,52152.4 MB
70391 iTuneszach2.03867.6 MB122,899,99559,098,722464.2 MB
9017 Safarizach2.021108.3 MB340,025,761172,103,181669.2 MB
44 hiddroot1.551.2 MB6,648,4672,879,45590.6 MB
34130 Activity Monitorzach1.5223.9 MB82,21728,76585.2 MB
195 WindowServer_windowserver1.011110.4 MB152,177,06647,840,29685.2 MB

May 10, 2012 9:25 AM in response to GabrielZ

Agreed, nothing looks amiss in Activity Monitor, but you should keep it open and then try to open something that causes the beachballing and see what hits the top of the list.


I doubt its anything to do with versions, it only kicks in if you're using Pages, TextEdit, Preview and a few other apps. It won't beachball you unless you're making changes in a large jpg in Preview.


Some questions:


1. How much RAM have you got? How much free Hard Disk space?


2. What's in your Login Items (have a look here


 > System Preferences > Users & Groups | Login Items


and please list them).


3. Do you have MacKeeper or any other AV software installed?

May 10, 2012 9:44 AM in response to GabrielZ

Here is another example:

I switch to Finder (command-tab), 5 seconds before it brings the finder windows to the front, after that, another 2 seconds until one of them actually has the focus, I click on the "Icon view" icon, another 2 seconds until the window shows all items in icon view, etc.


It's not lways as bad as that, but always noticeable.

May 10, 2012 9:54 AM in response to GabrielZ

Have you tried booting into safe mode? This will disable

any third party drivers. Some times a corrupt or non-Lion

driver and/or its config file could be causing a "blocking"

action, i.e. holding up other processes even though it isn't

really using CPU.


This same could also occur if an OSX config or driver is

amiss.


First see if it is some third party app/driver by booting in safe

mode.


Also, try creating another user and log into it. Sometimes some

corrupt user settings can cause issues depending on which one is amiss.

May 10, 2012 10:13 AM in response to GabrielZ

One of the benefits of booting intoSafeMode is it clears the dynamic loader cache automatically and rebuilds on reboot.


The boot process takes a bit longer initially, but not to worry.


This was my suspicion from the get go, but did not want to get into the delete cache debate.


you can read more here if interested:


http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#releasenotes/DeveloperTools/RN-dyld/_ind ex.html



The 10.7.4 Combo has seemed to better my preformance. http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1524


I have had to wait for Finder windows as well and it is frustrating being such an intergral part of the OS it should always have the focus.

Lion with all its redundency seems to be a bit of "bloat-ware" in my opinion.

How can I regain responsiveness?

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