philmitz

Q: my mac has suddenly started to perform poorly, any tips please?

My mac has been running like a dream and making my studies a lot easier. Only thing is now I've noticed slow screen shifts left and right, jumpy movement of Pages (used to be slick) and long pauses here and there. I'm gutted! any tips on improvements or at least prolonging of the inevitable death of my wonderful mac!

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), iOS 8.1.2

Posted on Dec 10, 2014 1:05 PM

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Q: my mac has suddenly started to perform poorly, any tips please?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Dec 10, 2014 1:07 PM in response to philmitz
    Level 10 (271,169 points)
    Desktops
    Dec 10, 2014 1:07 PM in response to philmitz

    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.

     

    Under no circumstances should you install so-called maintenance software from MacPaw or ZeoBit (CleanMyMac/CleanMyDrive or Mac Keeper, respectively.) You do not need special software to maintain your computer.

     

    Helpful Links Regarding Malware Protection

     

    If you are having an immediate problem with ads popping up see The Safe Mac » Adware Removal Guide and AdwareMedic.

     

    Open Safari, select Preferences from the Safari menu. Click on Extensions icon in the toolbar. Disable all Extensions. If this stops your problem, then re-enable them one by one until the problem returns. Now remove that extension as it is causing the problem.

     

    The following comes from user stevejobsfan0123. I have made minor changes to adapt to this presentation.

     

    Fix Some Browser Pop-ups That Take Over Safari

     

    Common pop-ups include a message saying the government has seized your computer and you must pay to have it released (often called "Moneypak"), or a phony message saying that your computer has been infected, and you need to call a tech support number (sometimes claiming to be Apple) to get it resolved. First, understand that these pop-ups are not caused by a virus and your computer has not been affected. This "hijack" is limited to your web browser. Also understand that these messages are scams, so do not pay any money, call the listed number, or provide any personal information. This article will outline the solution to dismiss the pop-up.

     

    Quit Safari

     

    Usually, these pop-ups will not go away by either clicking "OK" or "Cancel." Furthermore, several menus in the menu bar may become disabled and show in gray, including the option to quit Safari. You will likely have to force quit Safari. To do this, press Command + option + esc, select Safari, and press Force Quit.

     

    Relaunch Safari

     

    If you relaunch Safari, the page will reopen. To prevent this from happening, hold down the 'Shift' key while opening Safari. This will prevent windows from the last time Safari was running from reopening.

     

    This will not work in all cases. The shift key must be held at the right time, and in some cases, even if done correctly, the window reappears. In these circumstances, after force quitting Safari, turn off Wi-Fi or disconnect Ethernet, depending on how you connect to the Internet. Then relaunch Safari normally. It will try to reload the malicious webpage, but without a connection, it won't be able to. Navigate away from that page by entering a different URL, i.e. www.apple.com, and trying to load it. Now you can reconnect to the Internet, and the page you entered will appear rather than the malicious one.

     

    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

      OS X Mavericks- Protect your Mac from malware

      About file quarantine in OS X

     

    If you require anti-virus protection Thomas Reed recommends using ClamXAV. (Thank you to Thomas Reed for this recommendation.)

     

    From user Joe Bailey comes this equally useful advice:

     

    The facts are:

     

    1. There is no anti-malware software that can detect 100% of the malware out there.

    2. There is no anti-malware that can detect everything targeting the Mac.

    3. The very best way to prevent the most attacks is for you as the user to be aware that

         the most successful malware attacks rely on very sophisticated social engineering

         techniques preying on human avarice, ****, and fear.

    4. Internet popups saying the FBI, NSA, Microsoft, your ISP has detected malware on

        your computer is intended to entice you to install their malware thinking it is a

        protection against malware.

    5. Some of the anti-malware products on the market are worse than the malware

        from which they purport to protect you.

    6. Be cautious where you go on the internet.

    7. Only download anything from sites you know are safe.

    8. Avoid links you receive in email, always be suspicious even if you get something

        you think is from a friend, but you were not expecting.

    9. If there is any question in your mind, then assume it is malware.

     

    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 petermac87,

    petermac87 petermac87 Dec 10, 2014 1:11 PM in response to philmitz
    Level 5 (7,402 points)
    Dec 10, 2014 1:11 PM in response to philmitz

    What OSX are you using? (iOS is only for iPhones and iPads)

     

    etresoft  a long time contributer to Apple Support Communities wrote a very useful app he called etrecheck which helps in diagnosing many problems caused by third party installs etc.. Go to his website, read his information and from there download and run the program according to his instructions

     

    Visit his site here


    Download etrecheck and paste the results back here

     

     

    Pete

  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Dec 10, 2014 1:15 PM in response to philmitz
    Level 10 (188,994 points)
    Desktops
    Dec 10, 2014 1:15 PM in response to philmitz

    Run this and post the results

    EtreCheck


    BTW, this is the Mac Pro desktop forum

  • by philmitz,

    philmitz philmitz Dec 10, 2014 1:33 PM in response to lllaass
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 10, 2014 1:33 PM in response to lllaass

    Problem description:

    slow running mac

     

    EtreCheck version: 2.1.1 (104)

    Report generated 10 December 2014 21:30:36 GMT

     

    Hardware Information: ℹ️

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

      MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro9,2

      1 2.9 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 2-core

      8 GB RAM Upgradeable

      BANK 0/DIMM0

      4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

      BANK 1/DIMM0

      4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

      Bluetooth: Good - Handoff/Airdrop2 supported

      Wireless:  en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n

     

    Video Information: ℹ️

      Intel HD Graphics 4000 -

      Color LCD 1280 x 800

     

    System Software: ℹ️

      OS X 10.10.1 (14B25) - Uptime: 13:15:30

     

    Disk Information: ℹ️

      APPLE HDD HTS547575A9E384 disk0 : (750.16 GB)

      S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified

      EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

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

      Macintosh HD (disk1) / : 748.93 GB (699.49 GB free)

      Core Storage: disk0s2 749.30 GB Online

     

      HL-DT-ST DVDRW  GS31N 

     

    USB Information: ℹ️

      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: ℹ️

      Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

     

    Gatekeeper: ℹ️

      Mac App Store and identified developers

     

    Launch Agents: ℹ️

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

     

    Launch Daemons: ℹ️

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

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

      [loaded] com.oracle.java.JavaUpdateHelper.plist [Support]

     

    User Launch Agents: ℹ️

      [running] com.amazon.music.plist [Support]

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

      [running] com.spotify.webhelper.plist [Support]

     

    User Login Items: ℹ️

      iTunesHelper Application (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)

      Deezer Controller UNKNOWN (missing value)

     

    Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️

      Silverlight: Version: 5.1.30514.0 - SDK 10.6 [Support]

      FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 16.0.0.235 - SDK 10.6 [Support]

      Flash Player: Version: 16.0.0.235 - SDK 10.6 [Support]

      QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

      JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 7 Update 71 Check version

      Default Browser: Version: 600 - SDK 10.10

     

    User internet Plug-ins: ℹ️

      Google Earth Web Plug-in: Version: 7.1 [Support]

     

    Safari Extensions: ℹ️

      AdBlock

     

    3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️

      Flash Player  [Support]

      FUSE for OS X (OSXFUSE)  [Support]

      Java  [Support]

     

    Time Machine: ℹ️

      Time Machine not configured!

     

    Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️

          6% WindowServer

          0% fontd

          0% com.apple.WebKit.WebContent

          0% System Events

          0% Safari

     

    Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️

      524 MB Finder

      301 MB Preview

      180 MB Safari

      137 MB softwareupdated

      137 MB mds_stores

     

    Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️

      2.42 GB Free RAM

      4.34 GB Active RAM

      839 MB Inactive RAM

      991 MB Wired RAM

      6.03 GB Page-ins

      168 KB Page-outs

     

    Diagnostics Information: ℹ️

      Dec 10, 2014, 08:15:42 AM Self test - passed

     

    Sorry, first time using the forum!

  • by philmitz,

    philmitz philmitz Dec 10, 2014 1:38 PM in response to petermac87
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 10, 2014 1:38 PM in response to petermac87

    I'm using Yosemite 10.10.1 btw, sorry for posting on a desktop forum!

  • by lllaass,Helpful

    lllaass lllaass Dec 10, 2014 1:43 PM in response to philmitz
    Level 10 (188,994 points)
    Desktops
    Dec 10, 2014 1:43 PM in response to philmitz

    The only think that stands out is:   Deezer Controller UNKNOWN (missing value) in your user login items.

    I would go to System Preferences>Users and Groups>your user>Login Items and not have Deezer open at log on. The reboot.

  • by Kappy,Helpful

    Kappy Kappy Dec 10, 2014 1:50 PM in response to philmitz
    Level 10 (271,169 points)
    Desktops
    Dec 10, 2014 1:50 PM in response to philmitz

    I would agree with lllaass. There is nothing unusual except the Login Item , Deezer .... You have plenty of free RAM, but the computer is writing Page-outs even with 8 GBs of memory, which it shouldn't need to do.

     

    Two things you can try:

     

    Create a new admin user account. Disable Automatic Login if it's enabled. Reboot the computer and log into the new account. Is this a bit snappier to you?

     

    Boot into Safe Mode and see if it is snappier than a normal boot. Note that startup using safe mode is much slower than a normal startup.

  • by philmitz,

    philmitz philmitz Dec 10, 2014 1:54 PM in response to lllaass
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 10, 2014 1:54 PM in response to lllaass

    ok done many thanks! maybe my mac is rebelling from being overused the last 2 days lol

  • by philmitz,

    philmitz philmitz Dec 10, 2014 1:55 PM in response to Kappy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 10, 2014 1:55 PM in response to Kappy

    ok will try many thanks. coincidentally, what are Page-outs if I may ask?

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Dec 10, 2014 5:29 PM in response to philmitz
    Level 10 (207,983 points)
    Applications
    Dec 10, 2014 5:29 PM in response to philmitz

    When you have the problem, note the exact time: hour, minute, second.  

    These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.

    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.

    Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Scroll back to the time you noted above.

    Select the messages entered from then until the end of the episode, or until they start to repeat, whichever comes first.

    Copy the messages 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 it useless for 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.