Late 2010 MBA starting to run slow. HELP?

SRLMJ23 · Jul 1, 2013

My Late 2010 MacBook Air (which was my first Mac ever) is starting to run slow and I am not really sure why? I do not install many programs at all and I don't run many programs together, in fact it is just Safari running right now but usually I'll have iTunes fired up.

I do have some extensions installed for Safari, and though I can't remember exactly when I installed them I want to say this MAY have started when I installed these extensions. I currently have AdBlock, 1-Click Weather, Click-To-Flash, and Do Not Track installed. Could those cause the slow down of Safari?? Generally I do have several tabs opened at once, sometimes up to 7 or so and usually they are YouTube. I have it so all flash is disabled and I prefer HTML5 when possible.

I do not think it is the entire Operating System (Mountain Lion) with all updates which has been installed since the Mountain Lion release date, so it's been a while.

I am extremely great with technology, however, I have not really taken the time to learn the "inner-depths" of OSX, like I did with Windows 98 through Windows 7. I probably should get on top of that but before this it ran so smoothly I figured I didn't even need to learn about performance monitor and the like.

So is OSX like Windows in the sense that every now and then you have to do a Fresh Install just for the benefit or are there tools I can use in OSX to get things running smoothly again. Like I said, I do not think it is the whole OS, more-so Safari but that could also be the entire OS slowing down a bit and causing Safari to be slower.

I also noticed that webpages do not load as fast but I am almost 100% positive that has to do with some of the extensions added because they have to filter our all the crap on the webpages.

My System: Late 2010 MacBook Air 1.4Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB 1067 MHz DDR3 RAM, OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.4. If anymore info is needed please let me know and I will get it to you ASAP. Please help a fellow a member out

Thank You for reading (and helping!!!)

~SRL

beautifulcoder · Jul 3, 2013

SRLMJ23 said:
So is OSX like Windows in the sense that every now and then you have to do a Fresh Install just for the benefit or are there tools I can use in OSX to get things running smoothly again.

Hell no! This ain't ghetto-ware. OS X should work fine for a long as you have plenty of space on your hard drive.

SRLMJ23 said:
Like I said, I do not think it is the whole OS, more-so Safari but that could also be the entire OS slowing down a bit and causing Safari to be slower.

You might be right, have you tried another browser? Like Opera? It may be a plugin that's causing the slow down.

Javik · Jul 3, 2013

Lol my 2010 MBA is truly on its last legs. I still don't know how I'm able to run 150 plugin intensive tracks in Logic on this beauty of a computer. 2 Gigs of ram sure does the trick!

jksu · Jul 3, 2013

is your drive close to full? since you only have 2gigs ram, if programs you're running need more memory it will tap your hard drive... if that's close to full, it will slow down

love my 2010 MBA 11 too but it's 128gig drive only has 10gig left and usually leaving 15-20% free is recommended for best performance.

can try moving music/videos to an external drive to free up space

luisito · Jul 3, 2013

SRLMJ23 said:
I do not think it is the entire Operating System (Mountain Lion) with all updates which has been installed since the Mountain Lion release date, so it's been a while.

I am extremely great with technology, however, I have not really taken the time to learn the "inner-depths" of OSX, like I did with Windows 98 through Windows 7. I probably should get on top of that but before this it ran so smoothly I figured I didn't even need to learn about performance monitor and the like.

OS X doesn't benefit from a clean install if you are looking for speed (Clean install for OS X only benefits the user to free up space, sometimes you may have 2 copies of the same thing on 2 different places, like email). You are thinking of this because you are comparing it with Windows, which for Windows, it does work. Both OSs work completely different, updates on OS X do not make the computer slow, sometimes they make it even faster because they add better components and remove redundancies on the code, but you do need a full shutdown after each update as recommended but not necessary; for Windows, the updates only patch holes and sometimes don't even work and, due to the registry it makes the computer much slower.

SRLMJ23 said:
So is OSX like Windows in the sense that every now and then you have to do a Fresh Install just for the benefit or are there tools I can use in OSX to get things running smoothly again.

Nope. Remember what I wrote above.

SRLMJ23 said:
My System: Late 2010 MacBook Air 1.4Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB 1067 MHz DDR3 RAM, OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.4. If anymore info is needed please let me know and I will get it to you ASAP. Please help a fellow a member out

Thank You for reading (and helping!!!)

~SRL

Your problem lies on the 2GB of RAM. As new OSs come out, new versions of different software, like Safari, etc, they start requiring a little bit more of ram. What is happening to your system is normal.

There is a common suggestion for people that want to keep their MBA for sometime to get the most of it: upgrade the RAM when you buy it (BTO), because it can't be upgraded after. I've heard this over and over and over and over here at macrumors, and people aren't saying that to kill your wallet, but because with each software upgrade, specially for the OS itself, the computer loses its speed due to ram.

I am afraid there is much you can't do. You are hardware limited.

Mrbobb · Jul 3, 2013

First thing to check is whether you are paging out a a lot, that means you are running out of memory and the system is using slower storage to compensate. If so, all you can do is to close whatever you are not using and free up memory.

Here is the deal... OSX in 2010 was built for 2010 hardware. Since then they have added "stuff" to it, and wants additional horsepower. Even that Flash plug-in and you told it to yes, Keep Me Updated Automatically, is been dutifully doing that, and I bet with certainty wants more umph from your machine than it did back in 2010. While you maybe perfectly happy going back running the 2010 version of OSX, a Flash 2010 won't be able to deal with the current Flash contents websites are throwing at us. It's a conspiracy to make us have to be upgrading our hardware every few years.

SRLMJ23 · Jul 4, 2013

Thank you all for responses. My flash drive only has 10.2gb left so I can imagine that can cause some problems with the OS using some of the drive as v-ram but I actually uninstalled some safari extensions and things have sped up quite a bit.

There was one extension that I had installed, I forget the name now but it was to correct grammar and spelling and stuff, and I am not really sure why I had it installed because I know how to write but that was overly-invasive as it worked real time and I have a feeling took up TONS of RAM because it was ALWAYS working and scanning whatever I typed.

So, now I am pretty much happy again! System is speedy as I can remember. I do use Onyx which I think helps clean things up, and I just restart at least once a day and things seem to be smooth as hell.

So, once againthank you everyone for your responses!

Happy 4th of July, enjoy AND be SAFE!

Mrbobb · Jul 4, 2013

Despite what fanboys say I would still re-install from scratch because nobody remembers what ELSE we had added (junks, unused) since.

But if u have speeded up wo re-install stick with it and save it until u got no choice left.

2IS · Jul 4, 2013

10.2GB of free space should be plenty enough not to cause problems.

2GB of ram is really iffy, especially on ML. I also have a 2010 (with 4GB) and have went though all the OS's (SL, Lion, ML) and memory usage progressively increased with each iteration. On SL my memory usage was almost always under 2GB even with everything I needed on a regular basis running. With ML, it's always over 2GB in the same scenario.

beautifulcoder · Jul 4, 2013

Oh and Mavericks has better memory management when it comes out. So you should be fine for the next few years in terms of RAM. Not sure about 10GB of free space. UNIX based systems really take advantage of free disk space in terms of performance. I recommend moving stuff to an external drive.

Jefe's MacAir · Jul 4, 2013

Do the 'Mac Cleaners' work?

I see ads for them all over but I have never tried one as my gut says they are nothing more than some sort of gimmick or something.

There's even one in the App store but most reviews reveal it's some sort of gimmick that you as a user can do w/o the app.

2IS · Jul 5, 2013

beautifulcoder said:
Oh and Mavericks has better memory management when it comes out. So you should be fine for the next few years in terms of RAM. Not sure about 10GB of free space. UNIX based systems really take advantage of free disk space in terms of performance. I recommend moving stuff to an external drive.

Better "management" doesn't mean it uses less memory. Windows 7 has better management than XP, but it uses more.

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Late 2010 MBA starting to run slow. HELP?

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