Macbook running slow and all applications stop responding

avast and skype is your problem.....

there is a bug in skype that makes it use up to 100% of your CPU's resources when you're in idle mode...

avast is also a memory hog....

uninstall those.

replace skye with the older version....

replace avast with ClamX AV.....no need since there are no viruses for mac but to make you feel secure, use ClamX AV....

as for the login items - system preferences - users and groups - login items - see what you have there and if you don't need it running highlight and click on the minus sign...

leave the ones in your login items if you need them.....

i still believe you should get rid of avast....

if skype isn't running then you can leave it....A few users have problems with skype when running in the background...

not sure what else to tell you since i don't use some of the software you have....

one or some of them is creating your conflicts/slow downs......

i think he suggested to reinstall your OS.....Although it's a good idea, only do it if you've got your files backed up.....

sorry if i couldn't be more help to you....

good luck though...

you need the original disk that came with your macbook........

Hi,

I have a MacBook from mid 2010, with a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, with 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR RAM, running Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5. The hard drive has 250GB capacity (230GB according to OmniDiskSweeper), of which 76GB is free and 173GB is used.

Lately it my Mac been running slower and slower. I thought the problem was related to having filled up the hard drive, so I bought an external hard drive and moved most of the home video raw footage there to clear up some space. I did the same with some iTunes files using TuneSpan.

However, clearing up this space on the hard drive didn't help things. I am trying to edit an HD movie using iTunes, and it runs so slow that it is impossible to complete the project. Transitions don't appear when running a playback, the playback is jumpy, and video skimming has a delay which makes it useless. Opening up TextEdit to write this note took between 15 and 20 seconds, and I have the following programs open which I don't think is particularly excessive: iPhoto, Mail, Chrome, Activity Monitor and of course, iMovie. As another quick test - with all of the above running - iTunes took 14 "bounces" before it opened, and another couple of seconds to become responsive.

I'm getting a bit desperate, because I really like my Mac, I keep buying stuff from Apple, and I want it all to work as promised. I'm not an expert user, I'm happy to use the Apple suit of software as their programmers expect the average consumer to use do. But right now the MacBook is just not delivering.

Here is some more information that hopefully someone with more expertise than I have might use to help me get my Mac running fast again (I tried to follow the advice in the thread before posting):

- Checked the SMC support page (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964) - I don't have any of the symptoms don't suggest that a SMC reset is needed, but I could be wrong about this

- Ran the disk utility and verified the hard disk - no apparent problems

- Verified permissions and repaired a whole bunch of them. Restarted the computer and that seemed to help speed things up a bit. Apple Apps open faster, less of that horrible beach ball thingy. Chrome still opens slowly.

- Rerunning the Verify Permissions app came up with a new (but much shorter list of problems), which I also fixed. Things are definitely better (9 "bounces" to open iTunes). But iMovie still runs very slow, particularly with the HD movies.

- I've kept an eye on the Activity Monitor and see the same thing that Lavichal sees (kernel_task plus the other applications mentioned above).

After repairing permissions, I'm not sure if this is really a "slow MacBook" problem, or something more specific to iMovie. Since I still suspect the former, I'm posting here (#1 result when searching "slow macbook" in Google).

Thanks very much in advance for any advice you can provide.

The verify disk and repair disk options worked great for me. Thx Bimmer 7.