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If my macbook's memory pressure goes red with just Safari and Word open, is it just a memory issue?

Hello all,


I'd really appreciate any input on this issue. I'm not especially expert with regard to computer systems and software, so I ask that you please bear with me; I'll try to provide the best information I can. What has been happening with my computer is that it has been freezing and crashing, even with only Safari and Microsoft Word open. More information about the system as well as what I've done so far is below.


I have a mid-2012 13-inch Macbook Pro with a 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 processor, 4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 memory (two 2 GB cards), and an Intel HD Graphics 4000 card. I am running I have approximately 280 gigs free on my 500 GB Apple HDD. I am running OS X 10.9.3 (13D65), Kernel version Darwin 13.2.0.


In March or April of this year, my computer started seriously slowing down and freezing and crashing. (I think that this was around the time I upgraded to Mavericks, but am not 100% positive.) Since it is my only computer and I'm a PhD student, it took me until May to seriously address the issue. I ran Apple hardware diagnostics and the disk utility (verified the disk; verified & repaired the permissions), and tried uninstalling programs I thought might be causing issues, but nothing improved. Since it didn't appear to be a hardware issue, I decided to do a clean install of Mavericks with a full software update [and didn't use a time machine backup like I'd done in the past; I only backed up files and bookmarks this time and installed new versions of all my programs]. Although my computer ran better for a few weeks, it started slowing down again, and lately has been crashing on a near-daily basis.


After reading through the fora, I re-ran disk utility (disks check out fine; one permission -- for Safari -- seems to refuse to be repaired), re-ran Apple Hardware test twice (no issues found), and have been running the Activity Monitor [I put it in my dock with the bars showing CPU usage]. Today, when my computer started seriously slowing while I had only two programs open (Safari & Microsoft Word), the Activity Monitor icon on the dock showed all four bars at max.


I managed to get a few screencaps of the Activity Monitor:


User uploaded file


User uploaded file


So, this suggests to me that either (a) I have insufficient RAM to run Mavericks and run basic computer programs, or (b) there is some other issue.


Do you all have any recommendations as to the best way to proceed? I don't have a lot of cash, so I can't really spend money unless it is really warranted. Would it be worth running OnyX first? Or is this a pretty clear indication that I need new RAM? Alternately, are there any other issues that seem likely (an undetected hard drive problem, etc.)?


Thank you!

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), OS X Mavericks (10.9.3)

Posted on Jul 24, 2014 8:40 PM

Reply
10 replies

Jul 24, 2014 9:26 PM in response to t.c.d.

t.c.d.,


your screencaps show that 13 to 14 GB of virtual memory were being used. Since you have 4 GB of physical RAM, that would explain why you’re seeing such a high memory pressure. Are you sure that only Safari and Word were open? Perhaps other apps were also running in the background?


Try downloading and installing EtreCheck, and please include in your reply the output generated from a run of EtreCheck.

Jul 25, 2014 11:29 AM in response to Melophage

Hi Melophage,


Thank you. Although it is possible something was running in the background, in Force Quit, the only applications visible were Finder, Microsoft Word, and Safari.


I ran Etrecheck and have included the output here:


EtreCheck version: 1.9.12 (48)

Report generated July 25, 2014 at 2:17:04 PM EDT


Hardware Information:

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012) (Verified)

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro9,2

1 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2 cores

4 GB RAM


Video Information:

Intel HD Graphics 4000 - VRAM: (null)

Color LCD 1280 x 800


System Software:

OS X 10.9.3 (13D65) - Uptime: 1 day 2:16:0


Disk Information:

APPLE HDD HTS547550A9E384 disk0 : (500.11 GB)

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 399.25 GB (220.13 GB free)

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

BOOTCAMP (disk0s4) /Volumes/BOOTCAMP: 100 GB (58.85 GB free)


HL-DT-ST DVDRW GS31N


USB Information:

Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad


Thunderbolt Information:

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus


Gatekeeper:

Mac App Store and identified developers


Kernel Extensions:

[not loaded] com.millisecond.driver.InquisitParallelPort (2285 - SDK 10.8) Support

[not loaded] edu.sissa.iokit.ioLabResponseBox (2.0 - SDK 10.6) Support


Problem System Launch Daemons:

[failed] com.apple.installd.plist

[failed] com.apple.wdhelper.plist


Launch Daemons:

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support

[running] com.daz3d.content_management_service.plist Support

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

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

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist Support

[loaded] net.cloudpath.HelperTool.plist Support


Launch Agents:

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

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist Support


User Login Items:

iTunesHelper

RescueTime

Dropbox

Activity Monitor


Internet Plug-ins:

FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 14.0.0.145 - SDK 10.6 Support

Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9

Flash Player: Version: 14.0.0.145 - SDK 10.6 Support

QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

o1dbrowserplugin: Version: 5.4.2.18903 Support

SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.4.3 - SDK 10.6 Support

googletalkbrowserplugin: Version: 5.4.2.18903 Support

Silverlight: Version: 5.1.30317.0 - SDK 10.6 Support

MeetingJoinPlugin: Version: (null) - SDK 10.6 Support

JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 7 Update 55 Check version


Safari Extensions:

Ebates: Version: 3.0.2.5

Save to Pocket: Version: 1.9.1

PriceBlink: Version: 4.1

Evernote Web Clipper: Version: 6.1.3

Hukkster: Version: 1.1

Add To Amazon Wish List: Version: 1.8

Instapaper: Version: 1.2.1

Coupons at Checkout: Version: 1.1


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

Java Support


Time Machine:

Time Machine not configured!


Top Processes by CPU:

23% firefox

4% WindowServer

0% fontd

0% Activity Monitor

0% sysmond


Top Processes by Memory:

818 MB firefox

111 MB com.apple.IconServicesAgent

102 MB Finder

98 MB Microsoft Word

94 MB mds_stores


Virtual Memory Information:

311 MB Free RAM

1.49 GB Active RAM

1.22 GB Inactive RAM

895 MB Wired RAM

3.49 GB Page-ins

159 MB Page-outs


[Looking at the output, I would like to point out that Daz 3D is newer than the issues I've been having; I just recently installed it for a research project.]


Does anything stand out to you? Thanks!

Jul 25, 2014 11:50 AM in response to Linc Davis

Hi Linc,


It seemed like most of the top entries were from Safari. I tried to replicate the freeze by opening Safari on top of the other applications I already had running in order to screencap what is happening:


User uploaded file


So it seems like Safari is really driving the memory issues here. But this is strange, because the number of tabs I had open is not in any way unusual for me -- I did the same in prior versions of the OS on this same computer. (When I Force-Quit Safari, the pressure went back to green.)


Any thoughts/suggestions? I'd like to be able to continue to use Safari because it has a number of tools I find useful and I try to keep Firefox as my work-only browser (I have it set to block all social media, etc.), but this is obviously not sustainable. Is there a way to potentially fix Safari without losing my bookmarks and reading list? Thanks!

Jul 25, 2014 11:53 AM in response to t.c.d.

t.c.d.,


your installed versions of Java and Silverlight are outdated. You can download their most recent versions from here and here respectively.


If you run Activity Monitor and select its Memory tab, which apps are shown as taking at least 100 MB of memory each?


If you boot into Safe mode, do you still have a red Memory Pressure graph then?

EDIT: You beat me to it. Could the problem be in one of your Safari extensions?

Jul 25, 2014 1:13 PM in response to Linc Davis

Turning the extensions off seemed to help quite a bit, but turning all them back on hasn't caused the memory pressure to go back to red. I tried turning each extension on and off, but couldn't identify a particular culprit. Some of the extensions are quite useful (I use Pocket to clip web articles relevant to my research; Amazon wishlist is is really useful; and I also use the Evernote clipper regularly).


Is it possible that the extensions are interacting with some other kind of process that I'm not currently running?


Thank you!

If my macbook's memory pressure goes red with just Safari and Word open, is it just a memory issue?

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