Mac is still SLOW!

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Level 1

15 points

Mac is still SLOW!

I recently upgraded to Lion, which is as far as my computer can go. Since then, it is SLOW!

I was told it was because I had no room on my MAC drive (which I didn't), so I got an external drive and moved all my data files to there.

Then, I was told that it was because I had the external drive on a hub, so I moved it to connect directly through one of the USB ports. Still no go.

I now have 147 GB free on my Mac HD, 859 GB free on my Seagate External drive, which is connected directly to the computer. My Time Machine drive is also connected directly to the computer. I have 2.5GB of RAM (out of a possible 3).

Can anyone give me an idea why my Mac has slowed down so much, and what to do about this? I see that pinwheel SO MUCH nowadays, it's like every operation is a PB&J opportunity...

Thanks!

iMac (20-inch Late 2006), Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Apr 14, 2014 9:13 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Kolgrath

Level 1

30 points

Apr 14, 2014 10:42 AM in response to John Randone

Hi John,

Oh man, nothing more frustrating than a pinwheel festival when you're just trying to use your computer.

One of the first things to look at as to why your system is being slow is to take a look at the Activity Monitor. There you can see if there are any programs hogging up all of your RAM and/or CPU processing power. It may be a situation where a third party application isn't playing nice with Lion.

Also, look at what login items you currently have when you log into your computer. (System Preferences > Users & Groups) Try disabling some.

Other things to try:

1) Safe boot

http://support.apple.com/kb/ph4373

2) Try repairing your disk with Disk Utility.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1417

3) Try repairing disk permissions with Disk Utility.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1452

4) You may need to re-install your operating system.

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH3878

Maybe other community members will have other suggestions as well. Best of luck to you John, hope you get your computer back up to speed soon!

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Answer 2

John Randone Author

Level 1

15 points

Apr 14, 2014 11:33 AM in response to Kolgrath

Hi Kolgrath,

The activity monitor seems pretty quiet (usually about 86% idle), though my "Seagate Dashboard" takes some 8-10% of CPU, and the "HP device monitor" can go as high as 13%.

For my logon items, I deleted a bunch of Kies things, but there is a "fuspredownloader.app" that I have no idea what THAT is. I'm afraid to delete it without knowing. I even deleted the auto-connect at logon for my GPS.

Guess I'll restart and see if that helps.

Thanks!

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Answer 3

John Randone Author

Level 1

15 points

Apr 14, 2014 11:44 AM in response to Kolgrath

Thanks, Kolgrath!

Your suggestions seemed to help quite a bit!

Now, I can tell my wife we don't need to buy a new computer...

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Answer 4

Apr 14, 2014 11:50 AM in response to John Randone

Hi John,

First of all, your computer is about 8 years old and probably can only handle about 3 or 4 GB of memory, if I am not mistaken. There are going to be many things that will slow down your computer, and one of them is having the low end of the processor and graphics requirements for the OS that you have running on it.

As far as your login items, the "fuspredownloader.app" is part of your Kies items. Look up this discussion for some answers:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread/3286521?answerId=22168779022#22168779022

Take care

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Answer 5

John Randone Author

Level 1

15 points

Apr 15, 2014 8:38 AM in response to Kolgrath

I repaired the disk permissions, as well. It, too seems to help a bit. I also disabled the Seagate Dashboard, not only on startup, but turned it off. Not only do I not know what it does, it doesn't recognize the Seagate ext drive that gave me the Dashboard, AND, it took up 10% or more (even up to 30%) of CPU time.

What's "weird" is, my wife doesn't sleep the computer; she just walks away from it. When I come to it, the screensaver takes a Loooong time to wake up. I know this is a symptom, but it only started when I put in the external drive and moved my data files to it.

Most other things seem to work more normally.

John

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Answer 6

John Randone Author

Level 1

15 points

Apr 15, 2014 8:41 AM in response to Timothy Fink

Hi Tim,

I know it's old, but I have to baby it along right now.

Yes, it can only handle 3 GB of memory, and I have 2.5 installed.

I'm thinking of getting away from Kies, since it apparently cannot figure out that m music is stored on my external drive--it keeps saying "original file not found," then I have to go point it out to Kies. Annoying! And, Tedious!

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