OS X running very slowly

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Level 1

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OS X running very slowly

We recently purchased the creative cloud cs6 and installed it on the office mac. The computer immediately began to run very slowly and hang up often. After uninstalling CS2, we rebooted and the computer went to a blue screen. This lasted about 15 minutes. It finally got to the desktop but now the computer will lock up if more than one window is open. It bogs down at the 3 - 4 window opening. Whether it is Illustrator, e-mail, internet etc. whenever, the 3rd or 4th program is opened, it gives an error that the program is not responding. This was not the case with CS2. In fact, most of the time our graphic artist had Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign CS2, the internet and her e-mail open all at the same time and it ran fine.

The system specs are as follows:

-OS X 10.6.8

-2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor

-4GB of DDR3 SDRAM

-320GB Harddrive

-NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics card

What could be causing this issue? I have already contacted the Adobe Help desk and they have no record of similar issues. In fact, they state that based on the system requirements there should be no issue with opening numerous applications at the same time. Could there be an uninstall error with CS2?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Nov 13, 2012 12:58 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Nov 13, 2012 1:03 PM in response to d.mantis

Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing the Drive

Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.

Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.

When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.

Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.

Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

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Answer 2

d.mantis Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 13, 2012 1:19 PM in response to Kappy

I just edited my initial post to clarify that the OS is not 10.8 but 10.6.8. Does this change your recomendation?

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Answer 3

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Nov 13, 2012 1:30 PM in response to d.mantis

Reinstall OS X without erasing the drive

Do the following:

1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions

Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.

If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.

2. Reinstall Snow Leopard

If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.

Download and install the Combo Updater for the version you prefer from support.apple.com/downloads/.

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Answer 4

d.mantis Author

Level 1

0 points

Dec 3, 2012 11:51 AM in response to Kappy

Kappy,

Thank you very much for the detailed instructions. I had never attempted this on a Mac and it went relatively smoothly.

Everything was working great after I had completed this. However, once the system was updated (including all the non-apple software) it started its usual sluggish performance. The slowness is one thing, but it started to repeat the issues that after the 3rd or 4th window an error would pop up that the program was not responding.

Could there be an issue with software that is installed on the machine that is old or possibly incompatible? I am a very new Mac user so I do not necessarily know how to check for something like this.

Thanks!

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