I have the macbook pro version 10.8.4. Yesterday it became insanely slow, taking up to 20 seconds to open a tab or a document. In adition my fan runs continuesly. My CPU is 90 % idle and I have tried to reset Pram and SMC. It did not help. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Best regards,
Martin
MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)
Open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder. Select All Processes from the Processes dropdown menu. Click twice on the CPU% column header to display in descending order. If you find a process using a large amount of CPU time (>=70,) then select the process and click on the Quit icon in the toolbar. Click on the Force Quit button to kill the process. See if that helps. Be sure to note the name of the runaway process so you can track down the cause of the problem.
How much RAM is installed in the computer?
Open the Terminal in the Utilities folder. At the prompt enter top and press RETURN.
Understanding top output in the Terminal
The amount of available RAM for applications is the sum of Free RAM and Inactive RAM. This will change as applications are opened and closed or change from active to inactive status. The Swap figure represents an estimate of the total amount of swap space required for VM if used, but does not necessarily indicate the actual size of the existing swap file. If you are really in need of more RAM that would be indicated by how frequently the system uses VM. If you open the Terminal and run the top command at the prompt you will find information reported on Pageins () and Pageouts (). Pageouts () is the important figure. If the value in the parentheses is 0 (zero) then OS X is not making instantaneous use of VM which means you have adequate physical RAM for the system with the applications you have loaded. If the figure in parentheses is running positive and your hard drive is constantly being used (thrashing) then you need more physical RAM.
My pageout is 0 (0). So I guess that was not the problem? I have Memory: 4 GB 1600 mhz. If that is the RAM hehe 😝 The highest CPU I have is the activity monitor at 12 %. So its not that.
Open Console in the Utilities folder. See if there is a stream of repetitive entries occurring. If so post one entry here.
Of course only do this when the problem is occurring. Your post sort of implies it isn't a constant issue.
Since yesterday it has been a constant issue. Whenever I open something, the console for example, it takes 1 mintue for it to load. Same if I open a tab or enter facebook or open word.
There were not really any repetetive patterns in the console. Here are three of the transcripts:
8/29/13 10:29:34.684 PM WindowServer[76]: reenable_update_for_connection: UI updates were finally reenabled by application "Microsoft Word" after 18.93 seconds (server forcibly re-enabled them after 1.00 seconds)
8/29/13 10:29:30.758 PM WindowServer[76]: disable_update_likely_unbalanced: UI updates still disabled by application "Microsoft Word" after 15.00 seconds (server forcibly re-enabled them after 1.00 seconds). Likely an unbalanced disableUpdate call.
8/29/13 10:29:16.758 PM WindowServer[76]: CGXDisableUpdate: UI updates were forcibly disabled by application "Microsoft Word" for over 1.00 seconds. Server has re-enabled them.
8/29/13 10:26:01.058 PM WindowServer[76]: reenable_update_for_connection: UI updates were finally reenabled by application "Microsoft Word" after 5.26 seconds (server forcibly re-enabled them after 1.00 seconds)
Or actually, there were a lot of these earlier:
8/29/13 10:25:33.914 PM Dock[163]: CGSSetWindowTransformsAtPlacement: Failed
8/29/13 10:25:33.915 PM Dock[163]: CGSSetWindowTransformAtPlacement: Failed
8/29/13 10:25:33.929 PM WindowServer[76]: CGXSetWindowListSystemAlpha: Invalid window 0x1bc
8/29/13 10:25:33.930 PM Dock[163]: CGSSetWindowListSystemAlpha: Failed
So, try this. Quit all your Office apps that are open. Does this impact the problem?
If you restart the computer with nothing running but the OS does the problem still manifest itself?
Create a new user account. Log out of your account and log into the new account (be sure Fast User Switching is disabled.) Does this fix the problem?
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on the SBBOD syndrome for other suggestions.
The problem still persist after point quitting apps and restarting the mac. The mac is slow also when logging in. You know the loading sign on the mouse? The colourful thing, its going almost all the time. Whenever I click something. Cronic slowness.
The new account is certainly faster. The fan is however going all the time, at low speed.
When we reach a soloution I will make sure to reward you handsomly with points 🙂
Is the soloution to delete the old account and start using the new one?
The fans run permanently. However, they idle around 2000 RPM. How much better is the new account? Is the computer running normally? If so, then there is a problem in your user account. Consider doing this:
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions if you have not already done so. See the following excerpts from my maintenance FAQ. Cache cleaning as well as cleaning temporary files and log files.
Four outstanding sources of information on Mac maintenance are:
1. OS X Maintenance - MacAttorney.
2. Mac maintenance Quick Assist
Cache Clearing
I recommend downloading a utility such as TinkerTool System, OnyX 2.4.3, Mountain Lion Cache Cleaner 7.0.9, Maintenance 1.6.8, or Cocktail 5.1.1 that you can use for periodic maintenance such as removing old log files and archives, clearing caches, etc. Corrupted cache files can cause slowness, kernel panics, and other issues. Although this is not a frequent nor a recurring problem, when it does happen there are tools such as those above to fix the problem.
Other Suggestions
Be sure you have an adequate amount of RAM installed for the number of applications you run concurrently. Be sure you leave a minimum of 10% of the hard drive's capacity or 20 GBs, whichever is greater, as free space. Avoid installing utilities that rely on Haxies, SIMBL, or that alter the OS appearance, add features you will rarely if ever need, etc. The more extras you install the greater the probability of having problems. If you install software be sure you know how to uninstall it. Avoid installing multiple new software at the same time. Install one at a time and use it for a while to be sure it's compatible.
Additional reading may be found in:
3. Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
4. Essential Mac Maintenance: Get set up
5. Essential Mac Maintenance: Rev up your routines
8. Myths of required versus not required maintenance for Mac OS X
Referenced software can be found at CNet Downloads or MacUpdate.
To begin with....
1) Disable excess login items. Check your System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Items
2) Remove unused icons from your finder menu bar. For OS X software, you can hold command and drag them off.
3) Clean up your desktop. Organize files into folders and place them in an alternative location (IE Documents).
Check your disk usage. From the finder menu bar > Apple Logo > About this mac > More info > Storage.
See this user tip:
How to safely defrag a Mac's hard drive: Apple Support Communities
And another gem:
Run this program, post the output in your reply. This will help identify third party launch agents/ daemons that may be running the background uneccesarily, but wouldn't appear in a User's login Items (IE, Microsoft update, for example):
Also, note that if spotlight is reindexing this would slow down your CPU and cause spikes in activity monitor as you had noted.
I'd like to avoid doing that because of the difficulty with moving files and folders from one account to another. But if you are up to doing that, then see Transferring files from one User Account to another.
Martin, just listen to Kappy 😎.
Defragmentation is never a solution to this type of problem. In fact it really is no longer needed.
The problem is apparently in the OP's user account since it stopped when he created and switched to a newly made account.
Please, if you have any helpful additions I'm sure the OP will appreciate them. So will I. 🙂
I don't think the problem is clear, even if the the machine runs faster on a new account. If the OP has a HDD, defrag would help this:
You know the loading sign on the mouse? The colourful thing, its going almost all the time. Whenever I click something. Cronic slowness.
Why is it no longer needed? Even with a journaled file system, the disk doesn't always store data contiguously.
Very slow macbook pro and continuesly running fan.
