mdbanks2

Q: My Macbook Pro 10.6.8 suddenly deathly slow?! Help!

Just a couple days ago it was just fine and then all of the sudden it's like sludge?  So far I have tried the following without any improvement: Resetting Safari, booting up in safe mode, verified disk (verified ok), reset something else by hitting shift, ctrl, option and the power button at once then turning back on (?).  I downloaded EtreCheck following other threads and below is the result.  Please help anyone who can and thank you in advance!!! ~Melissa

 

EtreCheck version: 1.9.11 (43) - report generated May 31, 2014 4:59:16 PM PDT

 

Hardware Information:

          MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2008)

          MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro5,1

          1 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2 cores

          4 GB RAM

 

Video Information:

          NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT - VRAM: 256 MB

          NVIDIA GeForce 9400M - VRAM: 256 MB

 

System Software:

          Mac OS X 10.6.8 (10K549) - Uptime: 0 days 0:7:1

 

Disk Information:

          ST9500420AS disk0 : (465.76 GB)

                    (null) (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 200 MB

                    Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 465.44 GB (341.6 GB free)

 

          HL-DT-ST DVDRW  GS21N 

 

USB Information:

          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

 

Configuration files:

          /etc/hosts - Count: 184

 

Kernel Extensions:

          [not loaded] at.obdev.nke.LittleSnitch (2.4.4) Support

 

Launch Daemons:

          [not loaded] at.obdev.littlesnitchd.plist Support

          [not loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support

          [not loaded] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist Support

          [not loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist Support

 

Launch Agents:

          [not loaded] at.obdev.LittleSnitchNetworkMonitor.plist Support

          [not loaded] at.obdev.LittleSnitchUIAgent.plist Support

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

 

User Launch Agents:

          [not loaded] com.apple.CSConfigDotMacCert-mdbanks2-SharedServices.Agent.plist

 

User Login Items:

          iTunesHelper

          EEventManager

          EEventManager

 

Internet Plug-ins:

          FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 13.0.0.214 - SDK 10.6 Support

          iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0

          Flash Player: Version: 13.0.0.214 - SDK 10.6 Support

          JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 13.9.8 - SDK 10.6 Check version

          QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.6.6

          SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.0.0 Support

 

iTunes Plug-ins:

          Quartz Composer Visualizer: Version: 1.2

 

3rd Party Preference Panes:

          Flash Player  Support

 

Top Processes by CPU:

               1%          syslogd

               1%          fontd

               1%          kextd

               1%          ps

               0%          WindowServer

 

Top Processes by Memory:

          229 MB          WebProcess

          135 MB          Safari

          37 MB          Finder

          33 MB          WindowServer

          29 MB          Dock

 

Virtual Memory Information:

          1.39 GB          Free RAM

          603 MB          Active RAM

          319 MB          Inactive RAM

          1.46 GB          Wired RAM

          140 MB          Page-ins

          0 B          Page-outs

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on May 31, 2014 5:11 PM

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Q: My Macbook Pro 10.6.8 suddenly deathly slow?! Help!

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy May 31, 2014 5:16 PM in response to mdbanks2
    Level 10 (271,406 points)
    Desktops
    May 31, 2014 5:16 PM in response to mdbanks2

    Things You Can Do To Resolve Slow Downs

     

    If your computer seems to be running slower here are some things you can do:

     

    Start with visits to:     OS X Maintenance - MacAttorney;

                                      The X Lab: The X-FAQs;

                                      The Safe Mac » Mac Performance Guide;

                                      The Safe Mac » The myth of the dirty Mac;

                                      Mac maintenance Quick Assist.

     

    Boot into Safe Mode then repair your hard drive and permissions:

     

    Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions Pre-Lion

     

    Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list.  In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive.  If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.

     

    Repair the Hard Drive - Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks

     

    Boot to the Recovery HD:

     

    Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the Utilites Menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD disk icon and click on the arrow button below.

     

    When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list.  In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive.  If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported, then click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.

     

    Restart your computer normally and see if this has helped any. Next do some maintenance:

     

    For situations Disk Utility cannot handle the best third-party utility is Disk Warrior;  DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption; Disk Warrior 4.x is now Intel Mac compatible.

     

    Note: Alsoft ships DW on a bootable DVD that will startup Macs running Snow Leopard or earlier. It cannot start Macs that came with Lion or later pre-installed, however, DW will work on those models.

     

    Suggestions for OS X Maintenance

     

    OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) If this isn't the case, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep.  Dependence upon third-party utilities to run the periodic maintenance scripts was significantly reduced since Tiger.  These utilities have limited or no functionality with Snow Leopard or later and should not be installed.

     

    OS X automatically defragments files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive.

     

    Helpful Links Regarding Malware Protection

     

    An excellent link to read is Tom Reed's Mac Malware Guide.

    Also, visit The XLab FAQs and read Detecting and avoiding malware and spyware.

    See these Apple articles:

     

              Mac OS X Snow Leopard and malware detection

              OS X Lion- Protect your Mac from malware

              OS X Mountain Lion- Protect your Mac from malware

              About file quarantine in OS X

     

    If you require anti-virus protection I recommend using VirusBarrier Express 1.1.6 or Dr.Web Light both from the App Store. They're both free, and since they're from the App Store, they won't destabilize the system. (Thank you to Thomas Reed for these recommendations.)

     

    Troubleshooting Applications

     

    I recommend downloading a utility such as TinkerTool System, OnyX, Mavericks Cache Cleaner, or Cocktail that you can use for removing old log files and archives, clearing caches, etc. Corrupted cache, log, or temporary files can cause application or OS X crashes as well as kernel panics.

     

    If you have Snow Leopard or Leopard, then for similar repairs install the freeware utility Applejack.  If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the command line.  Note that AppleJack 1.5 is required for Leopard. AppleJack 1.6 is compatible with Snow Leopard. Applejack does not work with Lion and later.

     

    Basic Backup

     

    For some people Time Machine will be more than adequate. Time Machine is part of OS X. There are two components:

     

    1. A Time Machine preferences panel as part of System Preferences;

    2. A Time Machine application located in the Applications folder. It is

        used to manage backups and to restore backups. Time Machine

        requires a backup drive that is at least twice the capacity of the

        drive being backed up.

     

    Alternatively, get an external drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):

     

      1. Carbon Copy Cloner

      2. Get Backup

      3. Deja Vu

      4. SuperDuper!

      5. Synk Pro

      6. Tri-Backup

     

    Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore.  Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files. For help with using Time Machine visit Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine.

     

    Referenced software can be found at MacUpdate.

     

    Additional Hints

     

    Be sure you have an adequate amount of RAM installed for the number of applications you run concurrently. Be sure you leave a minimum of 10% of the hard drive's capacity as free space.

     

    Add more RAM. If your computer has less than 2 GBs of RAM and you are using OS X Leopard or later, then you can do with more RAM. Snow Leopard and Lion work much better with 4 GBs of RAM than their system minimums. The more concurrent applications you tend to use the more RAM you should have.

     

    Always maintain at least 15 GBs or 10% of your hard drive's capacity as free space, whichever is greater. OS X is frequently accessing your hard drive, so providing adequate free space will keep things from slowing down.

     

    Check for applications that may be hogging the CPU:

     

    Pre-Mavericks

     

    Open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder.  Select All Processes from the Processes dropdown menu.  Click twice on the CPU% column header to display in descending order.  If you find a process using a large amount of CPU time (>=70,) then select the process and click on the Quit icon in the toolbar.  Click on the Force Quit button to kill the process.  See if that helps.  Be sure to note the name of the runaway process so you can track down the cause of the problem.

     

    Mavericks and later

     

    Open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder.  Select All Processes from the View menu.  Click on the CPU tab in the toolbar. Click twice on the CPU% column header to display in descending order.  If you find a process using a large amount of CPU time (>=70,) then select the process and click on the Quit icon in the toolbar.  Click on the Force Quit button to kill the process.  See if that helps.  Be sure to note the name of the runaway process so you can track down the cause of the problem.

     

    Often this problem occurs because of a corrupted cache or preferences file or an attempt to write to a corrupted log file.

  • by mdbanks2,

    mdbanks2 mdbanks2 May 31, 2014 5:23 PM in response to Kappy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 31, 2014 5:23 PM in response to Kappy

    I have tried these things apart from the anti-virus (which i'm downloading now), these do not solve my problem.  Like I said, I've tried the safe mode, and my Mac disk has been verified. Does the Etrecheck info give any info about the problem?

  • by mdbanks2,

    mdbanks2 mdbanks2 May 31, 2014 5:31 PM in response to mdbanks2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 31, 2014 5:31 PM in response to mdbanks2

    Just as an update it was the SMC that I believe I reset before, again, with no results

  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy May 31, 2014 5:35 PM in response to mdbanks2
    Level 10 (271,406 points)
    Desktops
    May 31, 2014 5:35 PM in response to mdbanks2

    Why are you downloading anti-virus software? If you install that the computer will grind to a halt unless you discover the problem you currently have.

     

    There's much above you haven't tried. If there was much useful in Etrecheck, I might have mentioned it. I could question some of the software you have installed such as LittleSnitch, the two instances of EEvent Manager instead of only one. But there isn't anything else. You have plenty of free memory, not PageOuts, and the CPU usage is 1 or 2%.

     

    Have you opened the Console and checked for a long string of repetitive messages? Have you visited any of the referred sites for more help?