Apologies - Another EtreCheck report for diagnosis

Uninstall any Western Digital "SmartWare" or "Drive Utility" software. It has been known to completly erase hard disk data.

Dot-Mac failed because MobileMe has been discontinued for some time.

Uninstall the Kaspersky junk according to its instructions and ensure all its remnants are completely eradicated from your Mac. At least as of a few days ago Kaspersky was not compatible with Mavericks. Unfortunately that means its uninstaller may not be compatible either. You may have to consult Kaspersky to determine your options.

Google Drive doesn't work either.

The 'wdhelper' is Apples own Wifi tool. As such it's not an issue, aside from the fact it is failing.

I'll post more info on the report shortly.

double post: ignore

With John's warning it may not be compatible in mind.

Kapersky Uninstall

Google Drive Uninstall

Braunius wrote:

Top Processes by Memory:

180 MB kav

156 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent

139 MB Adobe Photoshop Elements

94 MB Skype

90 MB Mail

86 MB Finder

70 MB WindowServer

66 MB Safari

45 MB Google Drive

41 MB Microsoft Word

Virtual Memory Statistics:

24 MB Free RAM

1.17 GB Active RAM

1.15 GB Inactive RAM

516 MB Wired RAM

5.05 GB Page-ins

1.36 GB Page-outs

I can see that there are a couple of [failed]'s as well as what looks like high page-in page-out counts though I would be interested to know whether these ought to be zero ideally, i.e. when should you start worrying about these?

I noticed that I have been having more problems on Snow Leopard after I had installed MS-Office (no choice I am afraid) and Kaspersky. Neither seems to be hogging CPU or RAM according to the above though. Up until that point I had always made a big point to PC-using-friends that I have an old Mac still running like new.

I notice that after the Mac has been running for a few hours I can hear very faint disk chatter (supporting the paging I guess) when I try to change windows. If I have left the machine along for a while it can take a minute or so to come partially back to life.

If it is just about needing more RAM would be happy to purchase, but loathe to do this speculatively.

Many thanks for taking the time to read this.

The first failed job 'wdhelper' is an Apple system job, so we'll need to get that working.

Page-ins is when a file is read from disk into memory - It's not a bad thing, memory is faster than disk so it speeds up working on files.

Page-outs is when memory is saved to disk, memory is faster than disk sothis is a slow process. This is the figure that is best if it is 0. The Mac was running for over 3 days, so I think 1.3 GB is reasonable, considering you have 4GB of RAM.

Kapersky appears to be using the most memory when you took the report. I'm unconvinced that it isn't part of your issues.

What are your symptoms?

Is it confined to specific apps?

Have you tried to reproduce them in Safe mode?

Hold shift after the chime until the spinning 'cog' appears. Ensure the login window says 'safe mode'.

https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1455

It will disable all third party extensions & startup items.

Be aware that some features will be disabled like wifi on some models, graphics drivers will be in a reduced mode - this is normal in safe mode. Reboot to go back to normal.

Braunius wrote:

Startup Items:

MySQLCOM - Path: /Library/StartupItems/MySQLCOM

Kernel Extensions:

com.kaspersky.kext.klif (3.0.2a39)

com.kaspersky.nke (1.6.2a12)

com.kaspersky.kext.kimul.44 (44)

com.kaspersky.kext.mark.1.0.3 (1.0.3)

Problem System Launch Daemons:

[failed] com.apple.wdhelper.plist

Launch Daemons:

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist

[loaded] com.barebones.textwrangler.plist

[loaded] com.kaspersky.kav.plist

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist

Launch Agents:

[not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist

[loaded] com.kaspersky.kav.gui.plist

[loaded] jp.co.canon.CUPSCAPT.BG.plist

User Launch Agents:

[loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist

[loaded] com.akamai.client.plist

[loaded] com.akamai.single-user-client.plist

[failed] com.apple.CSConfigDotMacCert-@me.com-SharedServices.Agent.plist

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

[loaded] com.microsoft.LaunchAgent.SyncServicesAgent.plist

User Login Items:

iTunesHelper

Safari

Google Drive

Dropbox

Microsoft Database Daemon

3rd Party Preference Panes:

Akamai NetSession Preferences

Flash Player

MySQL

Internet Plug-ins:

CANONiMAGEGATEWAYDL.plugin

Default Browser.plugin

Flash Player.plugin

FlashPlayer-10.6.plugin

Google Earth Web Plug-in.plugin

iPhotoPhotocast.plugin

JavaAppletPlugin.plugin

QuickTime Plugin.plugin

SharePointBrowserPlugin.plugin

Red items are loaded at the system level

Blue items are loaded at the user level

Your HD is getting low on space, 30GB free on a 250GB drive isn't much. The OS will be forced to use the slowest part of the disk for new files because the HD fills from the outside towards the center of the platter. See the second chart at http://macperformanceguide.com/Storage-Drive-Seagate-MomentusXT-500GB.html for an illustration of how read & write speed decreases across a spinning HD. Whilst I think more RAM may help, getting an SSD or faster HD with more free space will help performance.

The old MySQL startup item should be removed or updated if you use it.

I'd also remove Kaspersky to see if it has any effect. Is it up to date too? ClamXAV is a better option for AV scanning, it uses less resources & doesn't try to load it's own changes at the kernel level.

Also update/remove Canon.cupscapt.bg? It's also a system level job.

Akamai could cause issues in your user account, so update or remove.

Delete the old.mac job… it will be in ~/Library/LaunchAgents

com.apple.CSConfigDotMacCert-[redacted]@me.com-SharedServices.Agent.plist

Hopefully you have already attended to Google Drive via the Eric's link.

If you are lucky removing Kaspersky or other system level items may make the com.apple.wdhelper job be able to load. Reboot & check it doesn't fail, otherwise wifi may have issues. The rest should help you understand what EtreCheck is reporting to you.

Cleanup:

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.

How to find updates:

The critical launchd jobs & kernel extensions use reverse domain notation e.g.

com.logmein.hamachi.plist means look at http://logmein.com for updates (if you don't recognize it removing it may be appropriate)

In short: You want to try to update or remove all the system level items.

Startup Items: Stored in /Library/StartupItems/

Startup Items 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. The developers are ignoring Apple guidelines by installing these - not a good sign.

Kernel Extensions: Stored in /Library/Extensions/

Kernel Extensions 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 remove ['failed'], non-system 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. You can also right click to remove 3rd party preference panes in System preferences

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).

Hope that isn't too daunting, the OS should be better if there are less old items running at the system level.

Your page outs are definitely too high, and that suggests that you need more RAM for the tasks that you are doing. This may resolve itself after you clean out some of the junk software running in the background, though.

I would agree with John that you should get rid of Kaspersky. The original disk image containing the installer also contains the uninstaller. If you no longer have that disk image, you'll need to re-download it. Make sure you get the one matching your version of Kaspersky. Do not try to use some kind of general-purpose uninstaller, like AppZapper. Such apps will not get everything.

Google Drive is known for causing problems with Mavericks. Unless it has been updated to fix those problems (I don't use it myself, so I don't know), you should remove it.

You should also get rid of Akamai NetSession Interface, as that basically works similarly to a torrent client, in that it turns your machine into a server for other people to download from. You don't need to donate your processor power and internet bandwidth to Akamai.

Once you've removed all that stuff, restart your computer, and then let the machine run for a while. Use it normally during that time. If performance problems return, open Activity Monitor and switch to the Memory tab. Keep an eye on the Memory Pressure graph. If it gets high, that indicates that you do actually need more RAM.

Some other performance-related suggestions can be found in my Mac Performance Guide.

Interesting to know why you think it is so bad and also what would you recommend in its place.

Take a look at my testing of anti-virus software from earlier this year:

http://www.thesafemac.com/mac-anti-virus-testing-01-2013/

Kaspersky only did so-so. A 93% might be a passing grade in school, but when it comes to detecting malware, why settle for an A- when you can get an A+ and have less chance of annoying side-effects?

Speaking of side-effects, Kaspersky products have been known a few times in the last couple years to cause problems on Mac OS X... in one case, even deleting user data. I don't trust them at this point.

I have seen a few comments on other posts saying it is unecessary to install AV software on a Mac - which seems extreme?

Most people do take this to a rather silly extreme, but in general it can be true. See my Mac Malware Guide for more info.