OS X Mavericks - Awful Performance

John Galt Wrote:

Apple Support Communities contributor etresoft wrote a very useful app to quickly gather certain system information that may help point to a cause of this problem. Go to his website, download and run EtreCheck:

http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck

Etrecheck will be in your Downloads folder. Open it from there. You may see the following dialog box:

I know you weren't in a conversation with me, but I've had the same issues and have tried everything you've advised (as well as others) I ran EtreCheckup, and here's my results...if you'd have time to let me know what is amiss, I'd truly appreciate it:

Hardware Information:

iMac (24-inch, Early 2009)

iMac - model: iMac9,1

1 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2 cores

4 GB RAM

Video Information:

NVIDIA GeForce 9400 - VRAM: 256 MB

Audio Plug-ins:

BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0

AirPlay: Version: 1.9

AppleAVBAudio: Version: 2.0.0

iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3

System Software:

OS X 10.9 (13A603) - Uptime: 1 day 5:48:45

Disk Information:

ST2000DM001-9YN164 disk0 : (2 TB)

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

Chad's HD (disk0s2) /: 2 TB (838.13 GB free)

Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB

OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5670S disk5 : (719.7 MB)

disk5s1 (disk5s1) <not mounted>: 30.3 MB

disk5s2 (disk5s2) <not mounted>: 47.9 MB

disk5s3 (disk5s3) <not mounted>: 28.8 MB

disk5s4 (disk5s4) <not mounted>: 46.7 MB

disk5s5 (disk5s5) <not mounted>: 53.5 MB

disk5s6 (disk5s6) <not mounted>: 21.9 MB

disk5s7 (disk5s7) <not mounted>: 66.1 MB

disk5s8 (disk5s8) <not mounted>: 39.1 MB

disk5s9 (disk5s9) <not mounted>: 43 MB

disk5s10 (disk5s10) <not mounted>: 45.3 MB

disk5s11 (disk5s11) <not mounted>: 47.7 MB

disk5s12 (disk5s12) <not mounted>: 49.9 MB

disk5s13 (disk5s13) <not mounted>: 45 MB

disk5s14 (disk5s14) <not mounted>: 25 MB

disk5s15 (disk5s15) <not mounted>: 65.7 MB

disk5s16 (disk5s16) <not mounted>: 63.8 MB

USB Information:

Apple Inc. Built-in iSight

Seagate FreeAgentDesktop 500.11 GB

disk3s1 (disk3s1) <not mounted>: 32 KB

PeripheralHD (disk3s3) /Volumes/PeripheralHD: 499.97 GB (110.81 GB free)

Seagate FreeAgent Go 500.11 GB

disk2s1 (disk2s1) <not mounted>: 32 KB

NYC Apple (disk2s3) /Volumes/NYC Apple: 499.97 GB (43.45 GB free)

Western Digital My Passport 0746 1 TB

disk1s1 (disk1s1) <not mounted>: 32 KB

disk1s2 (disk1s2) <not mounted>: 29 KB

disk1s3 (disk1s3) <not mounted>: 29 KB

disk1s4 (disk1s4) <not mounted>: 29 KB

disk1s5 (disk1s5) <not mounted>: 29 KB

disk1s6 (disk1s6) <not mounted>: 262 KB

disk1s7 (disk1s7) <not mounted>: 262 KB

disk1s8 (disk1s8) <not mounted>: 262 KB

Chad's WD Drive (disk1s10) /Volumes/Chad's WD Drive : 1 TB (182.47 GB free)

Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

FireWire Information:

Thunderbolt Information:

Kernel Extensions:

Problem System Launch Daemons:

Problem System Launch Agents:

Launch Daemons:

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist

[loaded] com.freemacsoft.appcleanerdaemon.plist

[loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx.plist

Launch Agents:

[loaded] com.divx.dms.agent.plist

[loaded] com.divx.update.agent.plist

[loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.startx.plist

User Launch Agents:

User Login Items:

iTunesHelper

3rd Party Preference Panes:

Flash Player

Flip4Mac WMV

Perian

Internet Plug-ins:

DivX Web Player.plugin

Flash Player.plugin

FlashPlayer-10.6.plugin

OVSHelper.plugin

User Internet Plug-ins:

Bad Fonts:

None

Time Machine:

Time Machine not configured!

Top Processes by CPU:

2% WindowServer

1% fontd

1% EtreCheck

0% SystemUIServer

0% aosnotifyd

Top Processes by Memory:

262 MB iTunes

143 MB Finder

143 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent

139 MB softwareupdated

102 MB WindowServer

78 MB mds_stores

66 MB Safari

57 MB Flip Player

49 MB com.apple.WebKit.Networking

41 MB com.apple.IconServicesAgent

Virtual Memory Statistics:

774 MB Free RAM

1.61 GB Active RAM

594 MB Inactive RAM

533 MB Wired RAM

4.24 GB Page-ins

24 MB Page-outs

Thanks for your help,

C

Message was edited by: James Williams2

.

Hi James Williams2

FreeMacSoft's AppCleaner is installed on your Mac. Uninstall it according to its documentation and ensure all its remnants are completely eradicated from your system.

Even after uninstalling AppCleaner, your Mac may be suffering the effects of having used it, which is system corruption caused by deletion of required system files that must not be deleted, and cannot be deleted through normal means. The only guaranteed recovery from that is to completely erase your system and rebuild it, either by restoring from a backup created prior to using AppCleaner, or laboriously rebuilding it from the ground up.

If the only files affected by AppCleaner were those required by OS X itself, you may be able to recover by reinstalling OS X using OS X Recovery.

Hi,

My initial impression of Mavericks was really bad on my MacBook Pro i5 mid 2010 (8GB RAM). With ML, everything worked perfectly, but from Mavericks, the beach ball of the death was back.

I'm seriously considering going back to ML, but I decided to wait for 10.9.1 to see if there is an improvement. In the meanwhile, I booted up from the backup partition and did a check to the disk using Disk Utility. It turned out that after fixing some broken links with the filesystem, Mavericks it's running a little more decent than before, but never like ML. Maybe this would help you too.

I don't buy theories of drivers for disk or ram upgrades. If Apple is telling us that this OS X release works fine on hardware earlier than ours (2008), they have a problem. I already sent a message to Apple to the OS X feedback URL, and please, if you're experience issues, do it also. Apple checks this forums (see what happened with iWork "missing" features?) and if we are many, they will improve.

Jaime

John Galt wrote:

Hi James Williams2

FreeMacSoft's AppCleaner is installed on your Mac. Uninstall it according to its documentation and ensure all its remnants are completely eradicated from your system.

I really appreciate you taking the time to drudge through my lengthy mess of what to me is gibberish. I've taken your advice and removed appcleaner--ironic, an application that is intended to improve system performance by knocking loose those hidden cobwebs of code actually can end up toying with your sanity. Okay, a little dramatic. But you haven't been here with my two dogs for the past 3 days...they're a nervous wreck! LOL

I'm going to start with the easier OSX Recovery. I'm not erasing my entire hard drive, right? If I were I'm sure Apple toss up a few WARNING windows before. I booted in command R and repaired permissions that way, but didn't reinstall the software. It seems like this is the next logical step.

Again, I genuinely appreciate your time and expertise in areas where I "slipped through the cracks" with my education. However, an area I was overly enthusiastic about was...well I've read Atlas Shrugged, almost twice. It's difficult to counter her philosophies when she beats you over the head page after page with her 'objectives.' She felt people missed the purposefulness of Fountainhead so she explicitly and repeatedly detailed her convictions in Atlas. Loved it.

Ewww. Sorry. Sidebar. Going for the Recovery. Thanks again!

Chadwick

John Galt wrote:

Hi James Williams2

If the only files affected by AppCleaner were those required by OS X itself, you may be able to recover by reinstalling OS X using OS X Recovery.

I did the reinstall and so far so good. My flv files are playing in QT7pro, my .mov movies are working as well...haven't checked if they work iin itunes yet, but my hopes are high. Also, speed is much improved. Thank you so much for your advice. I was about to take my unit in to a private Mac specialist here in Orlando.

You're the best,

C

HI John,

I am facing similar performance issues after upgrading to Mavericks. Normally I used to have about 1-1.5 Gb of free RAM during normal use which used to become about 500Mb free RAM when I sued to work in Windows 7 within Vmware Fusion.

Now, without even starting the Vmware, I am reaching even below 100 Mb free RAM with just a Safari in use!

This is the logs from EtreCheck,

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

---------------------------------------------------

Hardware Information:

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010)

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro7,1

1 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2 cores

4 GB RAM

Video Information:

NVIDIA GeForce 320M - VRAM: 256 MB

Audio Plug-ins:

BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0

AirPlay: Version: 1.9

AppleAVBAudio: Version: 2.0.0

iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3

Startup Items:

VirtualBox - Path: /Library/StartupItems/VirtualBox

System Software:

OS X 10.9 (13A603) - Uptime: 0 days 2:58:7

Disk Information:

Hitachi HTS545025B9SA02 disk0 : (250.06 GB)

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

Macintosh HD (disk0s2) /: 249.2 GB (137.11 GB free)

Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB

MATSHITADVD-R UJ-898

USB Information:

Apple Internal Memory Card Reader

Apple Inc. Built-in iSight

Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

FireWire Information:

Thunderbolt Information:

Kernel Extensions:

org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv (4.2.6)

org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB (4.2.6)

Problem System Launch Daemons:

Problem System Launch Agents:

Launch Daemons:

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist

Launch Agents:

User Launch Agents:

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist

[not loaded] org.virtualbox.vboxwebsrv.plist

User Login Items:

Google Chrome

Memory Scope

iTunesHelper

EvernoteHelper

KiesAgent

KiesViaWiFiAgent

VMware Fusion Start Menu

FreeMemory

fuspredownloader

3rd Party Preference Panes:

Flash Player

Internet Plug-ins:

Default Browser.plugin

Flash Player.plugin

FlashPlayer-10.6.plugin

QuickTime Plugin.plugin

User Internet Plug-ins:

CitrixOnlineWebDeploymentPlugin.plugin

Bad Fonts:

None

Time Machine:

Time Machine not configured!

Top Processes by CPU:

4% WindowServer

1% EtreCheck

0% fontd

0% SystemUIServer

0% sysmond

0% aosnotifyd

Top Processes by Memory:

217 MB Safari

152 MB mds_stores

123 MB softwareupdated

119 MB PluginProcess

66 MB com.apple.WebKit.Networking

61 MB WindowServer

49 MB Finder

41 MB Dock

33 MB com.apple.IconServicesAgent

33 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent

Virtual Memory Statistics:

644 MB Free RAM

1.67 GB Active RAM

859 MB Inactive RAM

625 MB Wired RAM

397 MB Page-ins

0 B Page-outs

---------------------------------------------------

Regards.

Nitin.

Mavericks has not but is a (transfer) bug

Even the iBooks update 1.0.1 did nothing to resolve the issue of not conneting my MacBook to the iBooks folder - thought everything works on my iPad / iPhone.

I resolved the issue for me temporarily by doing a "clean install" of Mavericks on a seperate HD. After that the Mavericks system works somehow ad advertised. Somehow. Thought pictures and docs had to be saved on a seperate medium and uploaded individually - same with pdf and off-Apple installed books - by dragging in iTunes ⚠ from any iOs gear to the iBooks folder.

Some glitches remain e.g. iMessage forgets all previously entered data.

Actually I do not see a lot of argument to go throgh the hassle fearing I may have forgotton something through moving up to Mavericks, just to find probably out later I may have forgotten something (a doc in iBooks or on a platter)

So I finally went back to SnowLeopard and dont look back on Mavericks since - until Apple manages seamlessly to move me over - as they have done in the years when Steve was at the helm of Apple...

Boris Michael v. LUHOVOY wrote:

Mavericks has not but is a (transfer) bug

Sorry, that doesn't make sense. Just because you could not manage Mavericks does not mean that most others cannot either. There are cosidrably less posts here complaining about Mavericks than there were in the initial release of both Lion and Mountain Lion. 😉

Mavericks has not but is a (transfer) bug

Sorry, I still can't make sense of that statement.

Cheers

Pete

petermac87,

I wish you wouldn't always infer that our comments about Mavericks' poor performance were not valid. You sound like an Apple employee trying to defend Mavericks rather then an objective poster. For many of us, Mavericks has major issues. If you are not having any issues with Mavericks, that's great.

We all know that our problems may be unique to ourselves. But we are trying to find if there are solutions or whether perhaps they are inherent in Mavericks in certain environments.

If you cannot take a less condescending tone, perhaps it's time you took a week off of this thread.

Joe Seidler wrote:

petermac87,

If you cannot take a less condescending tone, perhaps it's time you took a week off of this thread.

Na. I'm good. There are some that wish to be helped and are prepared to address their issues, instead of just ranting. So I'll be around here for a while yet.

Cheers

Pete

nj77 wrote:

HI John,

I am facing similar performance issues after upgrading to Mavericks. Normally I used to have about 1-1.5 Gb of free RAM during normal use which used to become about 500Mb free RAM when I sued to work in Windows 7 within Vmware Fusion.

Now, without even starting the Vmware, I am reaching even below 100 Mb free RAM with just a Safari in use!

This is the logs from EtreCheck,

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

OS X 10.9 (13A603) - Uptime: 0 days 2:58:7

Virtual Memory Statistics:

644 MB Free RAM

1.67 GB Active RAM

859 MB Inactive RAM

625 MB Wired RAM

397 MB Page-ins

0 B Page-outs

---------------------------------------------------

Regards.

Nitin.

Please stop looking at your RAM.

This Mac has been running for 3 hours & it hasn't run out of RAM once. That is indicated by…

0 B Page-outs

If you don't know how to read the figures you end up making mistakes like purging RAM (that just gets reloaded at the expense of time & CPU load). Or you blame the 'slowness' on not having 'free RAM'.

'Free RAM' is useless to you.

'Free RAM' means your computer isn't using every resource available.

Mavericks will try to use ALL your RAM, then it will start compressing the RAM to make more room. This is a fast process. Once it eventually runs out of the ability to compress RAM it will write that memory to disk (page-out). Paging-out is the slowest memory process. Your system hasn't done this in this report. Your systems RAM is FINE.

I will post more info on the report, but please stop thinking you know how to handle RAM better than the OS.

Read all about it in the meantime…

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/10/os-x-10-9/17/#compressed-memory

Good day Drew,

Thanks for taking time to check the logs and for replying back. Appreciate that!

And thanks for clarifying my concerns that its not a RAM related performance issue.

That was the only visible sign to me, so I pointed it out and I know that there could be n other variables affecting my system performance.

So, I am keen to know and rectify whats causing the performance hit,

when nothing else besides the OS has changed in my mac!?

I ll go thru that ArsTechnica link in the meanwhile...it seems pretty good and detailed.

and will gladly wait for your further info on my logs...

-Nitin

All the usual caveats apply, backup before you modify the system, delete the items (or move them to another disk or folder if you are worried about deleting the wrong thing) but ensure the originals are gone or updated.

Use the Finders "Go menu > Go to Folder…" to open the hidden ~/Library (your users library).

Reboot for the system changes to take effect.

I'm trimming the report back to the items I think are worth looking into…

nj77 wrote:

Startup Items:

VirtualBox - Path: /Library/StartupItems/VirtualBox

Kernel Extensions:

org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv (4.2.6)

org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB (4.2.6)

Launch Daemons:

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist

Launch Agents:

User Launch Agents:

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist

[not loaded] org.virtualbox.vboxwebsrv.plist

User Login Items:

Google Chrome

Memory Scope

iTunesHelper

EvernoteHelper

KiesAgent

KiesViaWiFiAgent

VMware Fusion Start Menu

FreeMemory

fuspredownloader

3rd Party Preference Panes:

Flash Player

Internet Plug-ins:

Default Browser.plugin

Flash Player.plugin

FlashPlayer-10.6.plugin

QuickTime Plugin.plugin

User Internet Plug-ins:

CitrixOnlineWebDeploymentPlugin.plugin

Once again STOP LOOKING AT FREE RAM (just so I make that clear) 🙂

VirtualBox is from December 2012 & it is loading a startup item & a kernel extension. Update it &/or remove these. Other threads suggest VirtualBox doesn't work on 10.9 yet, so remove the .kext's & the startup items.

Memory Scope is a bad idea - you don't know how to handle RAM better than the system. You will cause the system to run slower in your quest for 'Free RAM'. Please spend a week NOT looking at your RAM - you will be surprised how well 10.9 handles RAM. The previoius link explain the new 10.9 memory system read it over & over until you can understand the graphs in Activity Monitor. Other tools must be updated otherwise they will tell you that you need to create 'Free RAM' when you don't need it at all.

Free RAM is a LIE.

Startup Items:

Inside /Library/StartupItems/

These have been discontinued by Apple since Mac OS 10.4. They are responsible for making changes at a system level. Remove them all or spend time ensuring ALL related software is up to date. You need a very good reason to have anything installed in here.

Kernel Extensions:

Inside /Library/Extensions/

These also load third party code, but they insert it into the 'core' of the OS. These can be safe, however you must ensure the related tools or apps are up to date, otherwise the system is basically built upon quicksand. Remove them all & see if the OS works better.

Launchd jobs: several types

LaunchAgents - Stored in /Library/LaunchAgents

LaunchDaemons - Stored in /Library/LaunchDaemons

User LaunchAgents - Stored in ~/Library/LaunchAgents

These are all background jobs, they are not necessarily bad, but if they are loading old code it could be doing untold damage to the performance & stability of the entire OS. Focus on the System level jobs (the ones inside /Library - the system level) also look at 'failed' jobs.

EtreCheck gives a status on launchd jobs…

[loaded] - a running job

[not loaded] - jobs that are set not to run, basically harmless, remove them unless you plan to use the associated software (if it is up to date)

[failed] - jobs in a crashed or unknown state, it could be forking processes or using all the system resources, remove these.

User login items:

Applications and helpers that are managed inside 'Systems Preferences > Users and groups > Login Items tab'.

These are loaded at the 'User level', consider removing all of them whilst you troubleshoot. When you decide to re-add them ensure the software is up to date.

3rd Party Preference Panes: & Internet Plug-ins:

/Library/PreferencePanes/ and ~/Library/PreferencePanes/

/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/ and ~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/

Once again these items all must be up to date, or remove them from your system. If the prefpanes manage additional software use the uninstaller or see the developers site for uninstall instructions.

Read the list of Internet plug-ins carefully, there are often duplicate Flash player versions that won't help stability, it's just wasted space too.

Don't forget to also update Safari's extensions in it's preferences (if you have any).

Re-run EtreCheck after cleaning up to see if items have returned (some apps will reload the background jobs when re-opened, so either update or remove the software).

Virtual Memory Statistics

How much memory is being used for applications & services on the computer.

The critical items to look at are:

page-ins - writing files from disk into memory (this is completely normal)

page-outs - writing memory to disk. This is a slow process, it's a sign your machine has run out of RAM.

Hope that helps.

Stay away from the RAM.

Drew

Ars Technica's article is good.

Sorry for banging on about the RAM so much but so many people are reading it wrong & it is infuriating 🙂.

It has changed so much that old tools don't understand & they lie. Clean up as above & it should help the OS run smoother.