I have MacBook Pro 13-in Late 2011 on Yosemite 10.10.4 with 4GB memory. I have recently been experiencing a really slow laptop and downloaded Dr. Cleaner to monitor the memory usage and it is at 3.98GB and I'm not doing anything at all. I was wondering what may be causing the problem.
MacBook Pro (13-inch Late 2011), OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)
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6 Easy Tips to Speed Up OS X Yosemite on Your Mac
Avoid using any third-party software that claims to clean up your computer. Usually this software does more bad than good. Furthermore, you don't need it. Note that all computers will become slower over time even under normal use. Experienced users typically erase the hard drive and do a clean install from scratch at least once a year or whenever installing a major OS upgrade. Of course doing so also means you must maintain regular and multiple backups.
Add more RAM or cut back on the number of concurrently running applications and utilities. Remove unnecessary software such as anti-malware and software that promises to clean your Mac. Check for runaway processes: Runaway applications can shorten battery runtime, affect performance, and increase heat and fan acti… Also see:
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, 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.
I think it's a function of the OS and available RAM. I too put Yosemite on an iMac with 4GB of RAM and it is super slow compared to my MBP with 16GB of RAM. I bet Dr. Cleaner is saying that "Finder" or your "Dock" is using up that memory right? It was the same with my iMac.
Do a google search for how to speed up Yosemite...there are like 7 things to can check. I'd post the link but I don't know what it is anymore.
Edit...There you go. The links are provided above.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Yosemite can run quite nicely in 4 GBs. There are those who run it nicely in 2 GBs. But unlike most people they understand the limits. They also understand how Yosemite manages memory.
No way it runs nicely on a core 2 duo with 4GB of RAM. Just opening Photos is a chore. There is nothing else running. I would love to know who runs Yosemite on 2GB and is satisfied.
Dr. Cleaner
Start by getting rid of that useless junk, which may be making the problem worse. Then see below.
When you see a beachball cursor or the slowness is especially bad, 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 and start typing the name.
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.
When you post the log extract, you might see an error message on the web page: "You have included content in your post that is not permitted," or "The message contains invalid characters." That's a bug in the forum software. Please post the text on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.
Why is my computer running so slowly with high amounts of memory being used?
