4GB RAM - only some MB left help

Question

Level 1

8 points

4GB RAM - only some MB left help

Hi there,

yesterday I noticed several hick ups with missing RAM. All running programs were stopped in a crash scenario. There (in OSX Yosemite) I thought the issue might have been "addressbooksourcesync" which took a lot of RAM. I have then solved that problem so that this application doesn´t take it anymore but the problem remained. I then upgraded to El Capitan but still all my RAM seems to be gone and the machine is incredibly slow. Below there are some hard facts from my analyses but I couldn´t see the main issue so far. Is there anyone out there who is able to help me?

Thanks in advance,

BR Nick!

Model: MacBook Air 13", mid 2012, 1,8 GhZ Intel Core i5, 4GB RAM

iStat Pro only shows 51 MB left, but still 1 GB inactive
Activity monitor shows 3,13 GB wired, about 800 MB Cache, most of it used for "kernel_task". I also read some posts about it but I suppose the problem is hidden somewhere else
EtreCheck show 3,97 GB used RAM, but there are not too many applications running in my eyes and I am not able to identify the trouble maker

EtreCheck version: 2.6.6 (226)

Report generated 05.12.15, 20:05

Runtime 1:43

Download EtreCheck from http://etrecheck.com

Click the [Click for support] links for help with non-Apple products.

Click the [Click for details] links for more information about that line.

Hardware Information: (What does this mean?)

MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2012)

[Click for Technical Specifications]

[Click for User Guide]

MacBook Air - model: MacBookAir5,2

1 1,8 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2-core

4 GB RAM Not upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

Bluetooth: Good - Handoff/Airdrop2 supported

Wireless: en0: 802.11 a/b/g/n

Battery: Health = Check Battery - Cycle count = 586 - SN = D8624160J6SDKRNAX

Video Information: (What does this mean?)

Intel HD Graphics 4000

Color LCD 1440 x 900

System Software: (What does this mean?)

OS X El Capitan 10.11.1 (15B42) - Time since boot: about 8 hours

Disk Information: (What does this mean?)

APPLE SSD TS128E disk0 : (121,33 GB) (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

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

Macintosh HD (disk1) / : 120.10 GB (63.37 GB free)

Core Storage: disk0s2 120.47 GB Online

USB Information: (What does this mean?)

Apple Card Reader

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

Thunderbolt Information: (What does this mean?)

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Gatekeeper: (What does this mean?)

Mac App Store and identified developers

Launch Agents: (What does this mean?)

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.startx.plist [Click for support]

Launch Daemons: (What does this mean?)

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx.plist [Click for support]

User Launch Agents: (What does this mean?)

[running] com.amazon.music.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist [Click for support]

User Login Items: (What does this mean?)

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

Dropbox Programm (/Applications/Dropbox.app)

TuneupMyMac UNKNOWN (missing value)

Sony Ericsson Bridge Helper Programm Hidden (~/Library/Application Support/Sony Ericsson Bridge for Mac/Sony Ericsson Bridge Helper.app)

Other Apps: (What does this mean?)

[running] com.apple.xpc.launchd.oneshot.0x10000003.EtreCheck

[running] com.google.Chrome.48032

[running] com.sonyericsson.Sony-Ericsson-Bridge-Helper.72352

Internet Plug-ins: (What does this mean?)

FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 19.0.0.245 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

Flash Player: Version: 19.0.0.245 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

Default Browser: Version: 601 - SDK 10.11

SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.0.0 [Click for support]

AmazonMP3DownloaderPlugin101749: Version: Unknown

JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 7 Update 55 Check version

User internet Plug-ins: (What does this mean?)

WebEx64: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

Google Earth Web Plug-in: Version: 7.1 [Click for support]

Safari Extensions: (What does this mean?)

MyPermissions Cleaner

3rd Party Preference Panes: (What does this mean?)

Flash Player [Click for support]

Java [Click for support]

Time Machine: (What does this mean?)

Skip System Files: NO

Mobile backups: OFF

Auto backup: YES

Volumes being backed up:

Macintosh HD: Disk size: 120.10 GB Disk used: 56.73 GB

Destinations:

My Passport for Mac [Local]

Total size: 2.00 TB

Total number of backups: 4

Oldest backup: 15.02.15, 19:11

Last backup: 05.12.15, 09:09

Size of backup disk: Excellent

Backup size 2.00 TB > (Disk size 120.10 GB X 3)

Top Processes by CPU: (What does this mean?)

6% kernel_task

4% hidd

3% com.apple.WebKit.WebContent(7)

2% fontd

1% com.apple.WebKit.Plugin.64

Top Processes by Memory: (What does this mean?)

811 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent(7)

496 MB kernel_task

147 MB Google Chrome Helper(4)

139 MB Safari

94 MB com.apple.WebKit.Plugin.64

Virtual Memory Information: (What does this mean?)

24 MB Free RAM

3.97 GB Used RAM (682 MB Cached)

0 B Swap Used

Diagnostics Information: (What does this mean?)

Dec 5, 2015, 07:23:32 PM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/secd_2015-12-05-192332_[redacted].crash

Dec 5, 2015, 01:23:23 PM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/secd_2015-12-05-132323_[redacted].crash

Dec 5, 2015, 11:04:32 AM Self test - passed

Dec 4, 2015, 11:03:33 PM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/CallHistoryPluginHelper_2015-12-04-230333_[red acted].crash

MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2012), OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)

Posted on Dec 5, 2015 11:41 AM

Reply

Answer 1

KiltedTim

Level 10

228,666 points

Dec 5, 2015 11:45 AM in response to nickvanbeat

Are you actually having a performance problem?

Stop worrying about it. OS X, like all modern UNIX systems, will use all available RAM to increase performance. The important thing is Memory Pressure, which is green in the screen shot you post. There is nothing wrong. This is the way it's supposed to work.

Reply

Answer 2

nickvanbeat Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 5, 2015 12:36 PM in response to KiltedTim

Thanks for your reply.

Yes I do have a performance issue. At leat I define it like one. Dunno if it´s the correct or rather official translation but in German my Mac says:

"Your program memory is full" (which I interpret to be the RAM memory). The running programs - for example Safari, iTunes and a TV streaming app are then automatically stopped and the system crashes. The streaming app worked properly for the last three years, my files have been stored on an external hard drive so that it´s just basics and not many programs on my Mac right now. (and of course I know that the physical memory and the RAM are not correlated) ...but I expect the system to cope with that situation better than now.

Reply

Answer 3

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Dec 5, 2015 12:56 PM in response to nickvanbeat

When you took that screenshot, memory usage was normal.

When you see the alert, there is excessive swapping of data between physical memory (that is, the memory chips on the logic board) and virtual memory (one or more files on the startup volume.) That activity is relatively slow and causes the whole system to be less responsive. It can happen for two reasons:

A long-running process with a memory leak (a kind of bug)

Not enough memory for your usage pattern

Please note that if the cause is a memory leak, installing more memory will not help. That's likely if you already have more than 4 GB of memory. Tracking down a memory leak can be difficult, and it may come down to a process of elimination.

These instructions are for OS X 10.9 and later. Some details may be slightly different for earlier versions of OS X.

When you notice the slowdown, open the Activity Monitor application and select All Processes from the View menu, if it's not already selected. Select the Memory tab. Click the heading of the Real Mem column in the process table twice to sort the table with the highest value at the top. If you don't see that column, select

View ▹ Columns ▹ Real Memory

from the menu bar.

If one process (excluding "kernel_task") is using much more memory than all the others, that could be an indication of a leak. A better indication would be a process that continually grabs more and more real memory over time without ever releasing it. Here is an example of how it's done.

"Wired" memory should be less than half of the total. That memory is not swapped, but it makes less physical memory available which may then result in swapping. If most of the memory is wired, that may be an indication of a memory leak in a third-party program that modifies the operating system at a low level. Ask for guidance in that case.

If you don't have an obvious memory leak, the options are to install more memory (if possible) or to run fewer programs simultaneously.

The next suggestion is only for users familiar with the shell. For a more precise, but potentially misleading, test, run the following command:

sudo leaks -nocontext -nostacks process | grep total

where process is the name of a process you suspect of leaking memory. Almost every process will leak some memory; the question is how much, and especially how much the leak increases with time. I can’t be more specific. See the leaks(1) man page and the Apple developer documentation for details.

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Answer 4

etresoft

Level 9

57,212 points

Dec 6, 2015 9:38 AM in response to nickvanbeat

Hello nickvanbeat,

Unfortunately, system RAM is no longer considered something that users should be looking at. Unless you have 16 GB RAM, the system will pretty much use every bit of it. EtreCheck does not show any evidence of low RAM. Whereas Activity Monitor shows only your current RAM usage, EtreCheck may be able to report any incidents of low memory since the last time you restarted (8 hours in your case). If you avoid restarting and run EtreCheck after experiencing a problem, your EtreCheck report may have more information. You have a MacBook Air, so you aren't going to be upgrading that anyway.

System memory and RAM are correlated - they are the same thing. It is storage and RAM that are different.

I'm not sure if the "out of memory" dialog you encountered was real or not. You do have two different "clean up" or "tune up" programs installed. I suggest you remove those. Internet scams are running at epidemic levels right now. There is literally no safe place from some type of tech-support scam anymore. Can you elaborate on "the system crashes"? What actually happened, specifically? EtreCheck will show diagnostic reports, but it only goes back three days.

Aside from removing those two "clean up" and "tune up" programs, there isn't much you can do. OS X 10.10 and 10.11 are much slower than any previous OS versions. You can't upgrade your RAM and you already have an SSD. Try to limit your use of non-Apple software, especially known memory hogs like Photoshop or Google Chrome.

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4GB RAM - only some MB left *help*

4GB RAM - only some MB left help