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3 GBs used, no apps running.

User uploaded fileI'd like to know if this is normal, having 3 GBs of RAM being used up without having any programs opened within 10 minutes of boot-up. I have not tried any fixes because this problem just popped up a week or so ago. Everything feels sluggish, copying/pasting, typing, opening apps, pretty much everything except boot up time.


I've attached a screenshot of my Activity Monitor and if there's anything else I could provide, tell me and I will. Thanks for your time, I appreciate it.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)

Posted on Jul 21, 2014 4:21 PM

Reply
17 replies

Jul 21, 2014 5:17 PM in response to TheMuchkler

Since this is happening withing 10 minutes of boot up, check apps you have in your Login Items. If you are closing immediately, you might want to remove from Login items.


System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login

App Memory – The amount of memory being used up by programs.


File Cache – Memory that is available in RAM to be used by apps that contains recently used files. For example, if you close Safari, then the RAM safari was using will be marked as File Cache and can be used by another app. However, if you don’t open another app and you open Safari again before that memory gets overwritten, Safari will open faster because it’s file cache still exists.


Wired Memory – This is memory that can’t be moved to disk and therefore must remain in the physical RAM. It also can’t be used by other apps.


More info Understanding Memory Pressure in OS X Mavericks


If you could upgrade to 8GB RAM you would see much better performance.

Jul 21, 2014 6:34 PM in response to TheMuchkler

I'd like to know if this is normal, having 3 GBs of RAM being used up without having any programs opened within 10 minutes of boot-up.

It's normal in Mavericks for all or almost all memory to be used by applications and the operating system. That's what you would want, since unused memory is going to waste. The relevant measure of whether memory is in short supply is "memory pressure." Apple's explanation of memory pressure is here. If you want a more detailed, technical description, see here.

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.

The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select

SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages

from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select

View ▹ Show Log List

from the menu bar at the top of the screen.Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then try the action that you're having trouble with again. Select any messages that appear in the Console window. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.

The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.

Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.

Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.

Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

Jul 21, 2014 10:56 PM in response to BobHarris

EtreCheck version: 1.9.12 (48)

Report generated 22 July 2014 07:52:59 EET


Hardware Information:

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011) (Verified)

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro8,1

1 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2 cores

4 GB RAM


Video Information:

Intel HD Graphics 3000 - VRAM: 384 MB

SwitchResX4 - Color LCD 1280 x 800


System Software:

OS X 10.9.4 (13E28) - Uptime: 0 days 0:13:36


Disk Information:

Hitachi HTS545032B9A302 disk0 : (320.07 GB)

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 319.21 GB (246.67 GB free)

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


MATSHITADVD-R UJ-8A8


USB Information:

Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Microsoft Microsoft Basic Optical Mouse v2.0

Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver


Thunderbolt Information:

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus


Configuration files:

/etc/hosts - Count: 42


Gatekeeper:

Mac App Store and identified developers


Launch Daemons:

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support

[loaded] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist Support

[running] com.bjango.istatmenusdaemon.plist Support

[loaded] com.ea.origin.ESHelper.plist Support

[loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2.Agent.plist Support

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

[loaded] com.tunnelbear.mac.tbeard.plist Support


Launch Agents:

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

[loaded] com.adobe.CS5ServiceManager.plist Support

[running] com.bjango.istatmenusagent.plist Support


User Launch Agents:

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

[loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist Support

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

[loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2Helper.diskSpaceWatcher.plist Support

[loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2Helper.scheduledScan.plist Support

[loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2Helper.trashWatcher.plist Support

[loaded] com.valvesoftware.steamclean.plist Support


User Login Items:

iTunesHelper


Internet Plug-ins:

FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 14.0.0.145 - SDK 10.6 Support

Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9

AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: Version: 11.0.04 - SDK 10.6 Support

AdobePDFViewer: Version: 11.0.04 - SDK 10.6 Support

Flash Player: Version: 14.0.0.145 - SDK 10.6 Cannot contact Adobe

QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.0.0 Support

DirectorShockwave: Version: 12.0.9r149 - SDK 10.6 Support

JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 14.9.0 - SDK 10.7 Check version


Audio Plug-ins:

BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9

AirPlay: Version: 2.0 - SDK 10.9

AppleAVBAudio: Version: 203.2 - SDK 10.9

iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9


iTunes Plug-ins:

Quartz Composer Visualizer: Version: 1.4 - SDK 10.9


3rd Party Preference Panes:

Flash Player Support


Time Machine:

Time Machine not configured!


Top Processes by CPU:

17% LoLLauncher

3% WindowServer

1% Google Chrome

0% fontd

0% ps


Top Processes by Memory:

135 MB com.apple.IconServicesAgent

123 MB Google Chrome

123 MB LoLLauncher

82 MB mds_stores

66 MB Google Chrome Helper


Virtual Memory Information:

1.12 GB Free RAM

1.49 GB Active RAM

444 MB Inactive RAM

985 MB Wired RAM

865 MB Page-ins

0 B Page-outs


I don't know if this is worth mentioning, but I've heard that having Bootcamp would slow down my OS X performance, so I decided to remove my Windows partition and still haven't noticed any improvements performance-wise.

Jul 22, 2014 6:16 AM in response to TheMuchkler

Boot Camp is unlikely to affect your performance, as it just allows you to boot into either Windows OR Mac. Otherwise it should not affect either OS.


I assume LoLLauncher is League of Legends. Is it always running, or did it just happen to be running when you took the EtreCheck sample?


Do you have a good reason for having CleanMyMac2 on your Mac? Many of these helper apps do not help, but still consume resources.


Google Chrome is running. Again, did you know it was running when your took the EtreCheck output? I am NOT picking on Chrome, just checking to see if the 3GB used when not running any apps conditions was used when you took the EtreCheck output, or if you were now running some apps.


NOT related, but why do you have 42 entries in your /etc/hosts file? Mine has 4, and that is a default /etc/hosts. NOTE: Lots of /etc/hosts entries will not affect performance, unless you are experiencing networking issues, then it might factor into DNS name lookups.


I would experiment by booting into "Safe Mode"

<http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1564>

which will not load/start the 3rd party extensions, just to see if the performance issues you are having go away or at least are not as bad.


For what it is worth, I found after adding RAM to my Macbook Pro (16GB) and change my hard disk to an SSD to my Late 2011 Macbook Pro runs very nicely and I enjoy using it again. But that is just me.

Jul 24, 2014 6:00 AM in response to TheMuchkler

That Mac's memory usage is normal, but the performance you describe is not. At the time you posted the Activity Monitor screenshot, its performance was not being limited by available memory, and installing more will have no effect.


TheMuchkler wrote:

... or will this be enough? OS X Mavericks: Reinstall OS X


No. Read the post linked by dianeoforegon.


An apparently modified Hosts file is another concern. If you know the reason for altering Hosts then you can troubleshoot it on the basis of that knowledge. If you do not know the reason, it often occurs as a result of installing pirated or "cracked" software to circumvent its ability to contact an external host to verify their software was legitimately obtained. If that's the case then anything is possible as a result of having installed illegally obtained software.


There is no way to reverse the effects of having used CleanMyMac2, and the developer's uninstallation instructions are ineffective. Only MacPaw, its developer, can know the reason for that, but I can think of two possibilities: either they are purposefully leaving components behind for reasons known only to them, or they simply don't know what they're doing. Neither one of those possibilities is particularly comforting for the user. EtreCheck does not reveal the presence of these components.


Reinstalling OS X alone will have no effect on either removing CleanMyMac or reversing the damage it is capable of inflicting upon a system.

Follow the applicable recovery procedure below:


  • If you have a backup that you created prior to using CleanMyMac, now is the time to use it. For Time Machine, boot OS X Recovery, and at the Mac OS X Utilities screen, choose Restore from Time Machine Backup. Choose a date preceding the installation of CleanMyMac.
  • If you do not have a backup that predates the use of CleanMyMac, create one now. To do that read Mac Basics: Time Machine backs up your Mac.
    • The recovery procedure will require that you erase the Mac using OS X Recovery, and then create a new user whose contents will be empty. You will then be able to use Setup Assistant to migrate your essential documents including photos, music, work products and other essential files.
    • When doing so, select only your previous User account and do not select "Applications", "Computer and Network Settings" or "Other files and folders". De-select those choices.
    • Subsequent to using Setup Assistant, you will need to reinstall the essential software you may require, once again remembering to install software only from their original sources, and omitting all non-essential software.


To erase and install Mavericks read: OS X Mavericks: Erase and reinstall OS X


To migrate your essential documents read: OS X: How to migrate data from another Mac using Mavericks and follow the procedure under Time Machine or other disk migration.

Apr 27, 2015 12:27 PM in response to Lanny

I'm not clear on CleanMyMac as I don't recall ever seeing that program. I've searched my system and there's no CleanMyMac app on it. AVG Cleaner was present although unused. It is now deleted. Memory Cleaner was there as well, also unused, and it is now deleted. I'll boot and observe.


Final Cut 10.2 has been mentioned frequently but that is only the fastest way to trigger the problem. It will crash in sleep almost every time with nothing running other than Skype and Safari.


I have further contacted Rogue Amoeba regarding their software as it is definitely validated for Mavericks but Yosemite is not mentioned.

Apr 27, 2015 12:31 PM in response to Silas Scarborough

From your report, CleanMyMac2 is on there:



Gatekeeper:

Mac App Store and identified developers


Launch Daemons:

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support

[loaded] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist Support

[running] com.bjango.istatmenusdaemon.plist Support

[loaded] com.ea.origin.ESHelper.plist Support

[loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2.Agent.plist Support

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

[loaded] com.tunnelbear.mac.tbeard.plist Support


Launch Agents:

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

[loaded] com.adobe.CS5ServiceManager.plist Support

[running] com.bjango.istatmenusagent.plist Support


User Launch Agents:

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

[loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist Support

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

[loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2Helper.diskSpaceWatcher.plist Support

[loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2Helper.scheduledScan.plist Support

[loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2Helper.trashWatcher.plist Support

[loaded] com.valvesoftware.steamclean.plist Support

3 GBs used, no apps running.

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