Super Slow MacBook

Question

Level 1

9 points

Super Slow MacBook

Hoping someone can help me out. I've had my Macbook for a while, adn recently it has been running slooooooow. Not sure the best way to fix it, but I've had it for a few years so no more AppleCare to take it in. Hoping someone can give me some advice on here.

If there's anything anyone would recommend, please feel free to share (along with any instructions/links - I'm not the most computer savvy, but not totally helpless).

I ran EtreCheck and here is the report (I saw that in another thread):

Hardware Information:

MacBook (13-inch, Late 2009)

MacBook - model: MacBook6,1

1 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2 cores

2 GB RAM

Video Information:

NVIDIA GeForce 9400M - VRAM: 256 MB

System Software:

OS X 10.9.1 (13B42) - Uptime: 0 days 2:20:18

Disk Information:

TOSHIBA MK2555GSXF disk0 : (250.06 GB)

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

Macintosh HD (disk0s2) /: 249.2 GB (102.07 GB free)

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

MATSHITADVD-R UJ-898

USB Information:

Apple Inc. Built-in iSight

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Apple Inc. BRCM2070 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 3rd-Party support link

[loaded] com.adobe.versioncueCS3.plist 3rd-Party support link

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist 3rd-Party support link

[loaded] com.rim.BBDaemon.plist 3rd-Party support link

Launch Agents:

[loaded] com.rim.BBLaunchAgent.plist 3rd-Party support link

User Launch Agents:

[loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist 3rd-Party support link

[loaded] com.divx.agent.postinstall.plist 3rd-Party support link

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist 3rd-Party support link

[not loaded] jp.co.canon.Inkjet_Extended_Survey_Agent.plist 3rd-Party support link

User Login Items:

iTunesHelper

Canon IJ Network Scanner Selector2

Google Drive

iAntiVirus

Internet Plug-ins:

FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 11.8.800.168 - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support link

EPPEX Plugin: Version: 3.0.5.0 3rd-Party support link

Flash Player: Version: 11.8.800.168 - SDK 10.6 Outdated! Update

LogMeIn: Version: 1.0.935 - SDK 10.7 3rd-Party support link

AdobePDFViewer: Version: 8.0.0 3rd-Party support link

Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9

LogMeInSafari32: Version: 1.0.935 - SDK 10.7 3rd-Party support link

QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.1.2 3rd-Party support link

Silverlight: Version: 4.0.60531.0 3rd-Party support link

iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0

Audio Plug-ins:

BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9

AirPlay: Version: 1.9 - SDK 10.9

AppleAVBAudio: Version: 2.0.0 - SDK 10.9

iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9

User Internet Plug-ins:

WebEx: Version: 1.0 3rd-Party support link

3rd Party Preference Panes:

Adobe Version Cue CS3 3rd-Party support link

Flash Player 3rd-Party support link

Bad Fonts:

None

Old Applications:

/Applications/iWork '09

None

Time Machine:

Time Machine not configured!

Top Processes by CPU:

3% WindowServer

1% EtreCheck

0% BBLaunchAgent

0% Google Drive

0% aosnotifyd

Top Processes by Memory:

137 MB Mail

76 MB mds_stores

70 MB Safari

59 MB Finder

52 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent

Virtual Memory Information:

44 MB Free RAM

611 MB Active RAM

590 MB Inactive RAM

292 MB Wired RAM

879 MB Page-ins

50 MB Page-outs

MacBook (13-inch Late 2009)

Posted on Jan 5, 2014 3:20 PM

Reply

Answer 1

a brody

Level 10

82,941 points

Jan 5, 2014 5:34 PM in response to RichS2381

Update to Adobe Flash 11.9.

Check your DivX plugins are up to date.

See if disconnecting your Google drive makes a difference.

Check if Spotlight is indexed.

Tell us if your data is backed up.

Reply

Answer 2

John Galt

Level 10

141,126 points

Jan 5, 2014 11:49 PM in response to RichS2381

Start your Mac without loading the worthless Symantec iAntiVirus junk at login, and evaluate its performance without it.

Reply

Answer 3

thomas_r.

Level 7

31,989 points

Jan 6, 2014 4:44 AM in response to RichS2381

You have some Blackberry software installed. I've seen scattered reports of that causing problems. (I'm unsure of whether they're scattered because nobody's using Blackberries anymore or because it's not the cause of the problem. 😉) Try uninstalling that. Be sure to use the proper uninstaller, provided by the developer of that software.

John mentioned getting rid of iAntivirus. I would agree... that is a quite poor anti-virus program. It doesn't have good detection rates to begin with, and on top of that, it has no capability to update its definitions beyond infrequent app updates. You should delete it. For more information on how to protect yourself from malware, see my Mac Malware Guide. Note that if you choose to install some other anti-virus software after reading that, you should not do so until the performance problems are solved, as anti-virus software will cause some degree of performance drag when it's running.

Finally, it's possible your issues are not related to any of the software shown in your Etrecheck report. See my Mac Performance Guide for additional suggestions.

Reply

Answer 4

John Galt

Level 10

141,126 points

Jan 6, 2014 9:40 PM in response to thomas_r.

thomas_r. wrote:

John mentioned getting rid of iAntivirus.

That is not what I wrote, and I have reasons for writing it as I did.

I suggested starting the Mac without loading it at login, followed by evaluating the Mac's performance without it.

Reply

Answer 5

Lexiepex

Level 6

14,102 points

Jan 7, 2014 1:14 AM in response to RichS2381

So you have the best help here already ! Still, I want to contribute my view.

1. Do not hesitate: Uninstall Symantec(iAntivirus), your problems will never go away with it. Completely uninstalling is difficult. In case you do not succeed report here, remove it from the loginitems also.

2. get rid of Blackberry/Rim software, not compatible.

3. remove the AdobePDFViewer plugin(s), not necessary.

4. I would remove the Silverlight plugin also.

5. Make sure that Logmein is up to date (the new client and the host).

6. I do not know about Adobe Version Cue CS3. Is CS3 still compatible with 10.9?

8. 2GB of Ram is borderline, it would be better to have 4 or 8GB of Ram.

Reply

Answer 6

thomas_r.

Level 7

31,989 points

Jan 7, 2014 3:58 AM in response to John Galt

John mentioned getting rid of iAntivirus.

That is not what I wrote, and I have reasons for writing it as I did.

Well, if you say that's not what you meant, that's fine, and I apologize for claiming you said something you didn't. However, I recommend simply deleting it entirely, for the reasons I gave. If you're going to have anti-virus software, it should at least be something that does a decent job, and iAntivirus doesn't, so it has absolutely no useful purpose.

Reply

Answer 7

John Galt

Level 10

141,126 points

Jan 7, 2014 5:38 AM in response to thomas_r.

No need to apologize. It's worthless, but it's premature to conclude iAntiVirus is the sole cause of poor performance, which is the reason for my suggestion. Removing it from Login Items is the simplest action toward isolating the cause.

Reply