mac slow?

Remove MacKeeper if present. Keep the hard drive from getting over 85% full. Backup your data religiously.

Do not install anti-virus or system optimizers. Do not install peer2peer software. Make sure to download Adobe updates straight from their website, and Java updates directly from http://www.java.com/

If your system has shut down on itself, and you get four language screens telling you to restart your computer now, those are kernel panics, generally a sign of bad hardware or a bad directory, but having a backup first is essential to isolating it without causing further damage. Once you tell us your backup status we can suggest more remediation.

what OS are you running on the mac? i would recommend removing the following items from finder:

in the user library:

~/library/caches folder

in the mac HD library:

/library/caches folder contents

/library/launch agents folder contents

/library/launch daemons folder contents

/library/startup items folder contents

/library/updates folder contents

after doing this, restart the mac and empty the trash (not securely) then see if the mac is running any better.

-if it's not then depending on the OS you're running boot to either the OS install disc or the recovery partition (restart holding command+R key)

-once booted to the install media i would open the disk utility and run repair disk to make sure there HD is ok

-can also reset the home folder and ACL permissions as well which will help w/ slowness issues

if you need to know how to reset these let me know and i will post the step by step instructions on how to do this.

I'm not too keen on removing cache files indiscriminately without a backup.

Some applications need startup items to run.

Before we recommend any of those steps, let's find the status of the backup.

it was already stated that a backup should be done before ANY troubleshooting be done. as far as caches they are temporary files and are perfectly safe to remove from the mac. allowing them to accumulate can lead to performance issues on the mac that are being described here. also rarely do applicaitons need startup items to run constantly in the background, if they do i would look in to finding a substitute that doesn't have that particular requirement.

I have to disagree. I have seen people delete caches, and end up with applications that won't launch, and even system preferences that won't launch. Remarkably, if you reboot, and the cache file has a chance to recreate itself it works. But the next reboot it doesn't. And then finally in the worst case scenarios, not even an archive and install will fix the problem, nor a directory fix. And it appears the directory is fine. In the end an erase and install or recover from backup before any of the cache cleaning was done was necessary to fix the problem. This doesn't affect browser cache, but it does system cache.

First, back up all data immediately, as your boot drive might be failing.

There are a few other possible causes of generalized slow performance that you can rule out easily.

• Reset the System Management Controller.
• If you have many image or video files on the Desktop with preview icons, move them to another folder.
• If applicable, uncheck all boxes in the iCloud preference pane.
• Disconnect all non-essential wired peripherals and remove aftermarket expansion cards, if any.
• Check your keychains in Keychain Access for excessively duplicated items.
• Boot into Recovery mode, launch Disk Utility, and run Repair Disk.
• If you're booting from an aftermarket SSD, see whether there's a firmware update for it.

Otherwise, take the steps below when you notice the problem.

Step 1

Launch the Activity Monitor application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Activity Monitor in the icon grid.

Select the CPU tab of the Activity Monitor window.

Select All Processes from the menu in the toolbar, if not already selected.

Click the heading of the % CPU column in the process table to sort the entries by CPU usage. You may have to click it twice to get the highest value at the top. What is it, and what is the process? Also post the values for % User, % System, and % Idle at the bottom of the window.

Select the System Memory tab. What values are shown in the bottom part of the window for Page outs and Swap used?

Next, select the Disk Activity tab. Post the approximate values shown for Reads in/sec and Writes out/sec (not Reads in and Writes out.)

Step 2

If you have more than one user account, you must be logged in as an administrator to carry out this step.

Launch the Console application in the same way you launched Activity Monitor. Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select

View ▹ Show Log List

from the menu bar.

Select the 50 or so most recent entries in the log. Copy them to the Clipboard (command-C). Paste into a reply to this message (command-V). You're looking for entries at the end of the log, not at the beginning.

When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.

Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.

Important: Some personal information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting. That should be easy to do if your extract is not too long.

This article will assist you with your slow MBP:

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3521

Ciao.