How to track down the source of Internet ‘crawl’ on a MacBook?

andyBall_uk wrote:

>>it rarely takes very long (usually under an hour from power on) for Activity Monitor to show little-to-no ‘free’ memory

and does it also show high page outs ?

If so - there's the problem, just as you've said, not a download speed issue.

Have you tried other browsers ? (although quitting regularly is likely going to be necessary using any, with only 2GB available).

Is 6.02GB (PAGE OUTS) "high"? And assuming it is, how can I figure out what's causing them?

Is 2 GB RAM really not sufficient for handling just the browser (i.e., no other apps running)?

By "quitting" do you mean doing a 'reset,' exiting/restarting the browser, or something else?

I haven't tried other browsers recently, but recall having had similar problems with Safari and Firefox.

Snapshot from a few minutes ago, with the fan on (it's now shut off):

PAGE INS . . . 46.34 GB

PAGE OUTS . . . 6.02 GB

MEMORY:

FREE . . . 36.6 MB

WIRED . . . 296.1 MB

ACTIVE . . . 1.15 GB

INACTIVE . . . 535.5 MB

Carolyn Samit wrote:

Verizon DSL (basic service level).

Run this speed test > Speedtest.net - The Global Broadband Speed Test

If the download speed is less than 15Mbps, contact your ISP for upgrade options.

Try emptying the Chrome cache and data > Delete your cache and other browser data - Chrome Help

Having too many tabs open may account for the fan issue.

Thanks. So far I keep getting a "Configuration Load Failed" error message with Speedtest. I'll keep trying.

Re: emptying cache, etc., why would these affect the kind of speed issues I've reported? Isn't the cache intended to speed up data transfer?

I know this is a common troubleshooting recommendation, but when I've tried it in the past I don't recall ever having seen any discernable beneficial effect from doing it.

andyBall_uk wrote:

>>Is 6.02GB (PAGE OUTS) "high"?

Yes - at times, the computer will at best be very slow & could seem completely unresponsive.

>>Is 2 GB RAM really not sufficient for handling just the browser (i.e., no other apps running)?

Depending on the sites visited & how often you quit/restart the browser - Yes.

>>By "quitting" do you mean doing a 'reset,' exiting/restarting the browser, or something else?

Exiting/restarting the browser

>>how can I figure out what's causing them?

Activity Monitor should show you which apps have used the most - but since you say 'no other apps running' - it's likely to be the browser, but certainly worth confirming.

Thanks.

So if it's just the browser (i.e., since this even happens when I'm running only the browser), what should I conclude -- just that I have too many windows/tabs open (for Chrome) with 2 GB RAM?

And that that's also what's causing the high PAGE OUTS?

In my experience, exiting/restarting the browser has no effect. I do it every day, since I exit the browser before putting the MacBook to sleep. The Activity Monitor pie chart doesn't budge.

andyBall_uk wrote:

>>In my experience, exiting/restarting the browser has no effect. I do it every day, since I exit the browser before putting the MacBook to sleep. The Activity Monitor pie chart doesn't budge.

Screenshots showing all processes arranged by real memory, including the pie chart, before & after closing the browser, might show something else - I think that Chrome may have other processes running which don't necessarily quit when it does. I don't use it, preferring to avoid the auto-update application & other things it brings along (or used to).

Sorry, my mistake, I mixed up Chrome with Google Drive (the umbrella for Google’s suite of office webapps). It’s the latter that I exit (i.e., not Chrome) with no discernible freeing up of memory.

Re: the processes, is that Real Mem-ordered display (in Activity Monitor) a chronological one? I ask because I see a great many (looks like around thirty) successive entries all labeled "Google Chrome Renderer," so if these are all running simultaneously, aside from using up a lot of memory, I wonder what they’re doing.

Is there a particular Mac browser that’s considered to be the most RAM-efficient?

John Galt wrote:

Your system is using an excessive amount of virtual memory.

2 GB is not an abundant amount of memory, and Google Chrome is a notorious resource hog that runs poorly on Macs.

Thanks. I recall having had similar problems with Firefox -- it was actually the main reason I decided to try Chrome.

Which browser do you recommend? (Safari?)

Any knowledge of how well the Mac version of Tor works?

John Galt wrote:

dymar wrote:

Which browser do you recommend? (Safari?)

Yes.

Don't know about Tor, but it seems clear to me that if you're interested in it, the very last browser you'd want to use is Chrome. Chrome is specifically designed to track your every movement, strictly for Google's benefit. Its intrusiveness upon your privacy cannot be reasonably circumvented.

Thanks. I'm actually in the process of divesting myself of all things Google, both for the reasons you mentioned and because of what in my view is its clear disdain for its user base, as evidenced by its near-non-existent customer support.

andyBall_uk wrote:

>> I mixed up Chrome with Google Drive...

no problem - try quitting Chrome & hopefully all those 'Google Chrome Renderer' processes will stop too - there's one for each tab at least, if I recall correctly.

Checking Chrome's 'Task Manager' I've become aware that some browser tabs take up as much as 150-200 MB of RAM, so with 2 GB of memory I guess that that, together with the resulting continuous CPU usage for virtual memory allocations, probably is the main factor in what's causing my slowdowns. I'll be giving Safari another try to compare. Thanks.