Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Cam is very laggy

D

digitalove

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 12, 2012
197
1
I bought a new MacBook Air '13 (Early 2014).

Everything is ok. Except the cam: every time I open the FaceTime app or also Photo Booth the camera lags a lot. The image is really slow to update.

Is there anything I could do to fix it?
 
J

John marts

macrumors member
Sep 20, 2014
79
3
Mine is laggy too. I also get the spinning beach ball when choosing effects in photo booth.
 
D

digitalove

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 12, 2012
197
1
capital47 said:
did you find a way to fix it?
Click to expand...

I didn't.

1.4 GHz i5
4 GB
OS X 10.10.1

The mac is new, it's the early 2014 model.
I can't believe the camera lag so badly and also sometimes Safari isn't very fast. You must consider that the mac is new and I didn't install anything on it.. So I'm safe and the mac is new. I can't get why the camera is laggy..
 
Meister

Meister

Suspended
Oct 10, 2013
5,456
4,310
JUNNEL20 said:
What are your MBAs' specs? RAM?
Click to expand...
The macbook specs (especially RAM) are completely irrelevant for this issue. We have a mba 1.3/4/256 and I've recorded and simultaneously monitored 1080p uncompressed video from a professional camera via Black magic Ultrastudio. Nothing lagged.

----------
digitalove said:
I bought a new MacBook Air '13 (Early 2014).

Everything is ok. Except the cam: every time I open the FaceTime app or also Photo Booth the camera lags a lot. The image is really slow to update.

Is there anything I could do to fix it?
Click to expand...
That is really inacceptable and this is what I recommend:

  • Reset pram
  • Repair disk permissions
  • Make a timemachine backup
  • Reboot into recovery to reinstall the OS
  • Test the camera right after the installation without other apps installed

If it still lags take it to the :apple:store and they have to do a hardware check and give you a replacement.
 
D

digitalove

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 12, 2012
197
1
Well I have reinstalled OS and now the camera works :) !

To be honest it's pretty weird that I had to reinstall the OS X since this Air isn't even 1 month old. But yeah now the camera works and I feel the mac is faster than before.

Btw I'm not sure if I did format on the right way: at first I reboot and then I went to the utility panel. I did erase both things (2 partition) so I had to reinstall first Mavericks and then - once I reinstalled Mavericks - I had to reinstall Yosemite again.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3abm7x6igx34jap/Screenshot 2014-12-03 12.50.36.png?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5bzyoo33wdxclz5/Screenshot 2014-12-03 12.50.38.png?dl=0

I don't know why it says that I used 120 gb. Maybe Mavericks is still there? How can I delete it?

I didn't install any 3rd part apps, not even from the mac app store except Dropbox/Adobe. (I don't have more than 3-4 gb of stuff on Dropbox)
 
D

digitalove

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 12, 2012
197
1
digitalove said:
Well I have reinstalled OS and now the camera works :) !

To be honest it's pretty weird that I had to reinstall the OS X since this Air isn't even 1 month old. But yeah now the camera works and I feel the mac is faster than before.

Btw I'm not sure if I did format on the right way: at first I reboot and then I went to the utility panel. I did erase both things (2 partition) so I had to reinstall first Mavericks and then - once I reinstalled Mavericks - I had to reinstall Yosemite again.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3abm7x6igx34jap/Screenshot 2014-12-03 12.50.36.png?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5bzyoo33wdxclz5/Screenshot 2014-12-03 12.50.38.png?dl=0

I don't know why it says that I used 120 gb. Maybe Mavericks is still there? How can I delete it?

I didn't install any 3rd part apps, not even from the mac app store except Dropbox/Adobe. (I don't have more than 3-4 gb of stuff on Dropbox)
Click to expand...

Edit: I was browsing youporn and then the mackeeeper page opened itself (I didn't open/download anything)
Guess what? After that the camera is lagging again, ****.
 
Meister

Meister

Suspended
Oct 10, 2013
5,456
4,310
digitalove said:
Well I have reinstalled OS and now the camera works :) !

To be honest it's pretty weird that I had to reinstall the OS X since this Air isn't even 1 month old. But yeah now the camera works and I feel the mac is faster than before.
Click to expand...
I told you so. Remember that 99% of all problems are software related.
If you write that your cam is laggy and someone is actually equating that to "not enough RAM" then you know that they have to be full of it.

----------
digitalove said:
Edit: I was browsing youporn and then the mackeeeper page opened itself (I didn't open/download anything)
Guess what? After that the camera is lagging again, ****.
Click to expand...
Stay away from porn!
If you somehow can't restrain yourself, watch it on an iPad, since iPads can't get malware.
 
M

motrek

macrumors 68030
Sep 14, 2012
2,613
305
digitalove said:
Edit: I was browsing youporn and then the mackeeeper page opened itself (I didn't open/download anything)
Guess what? After that the camera is lagging again, ****.
Click to expand...

I doubt it's related. I'm not aware of any Mac malware you can get simply by seeing a web site popup.

It sounds like you have a problem but clearly nobody knows what it is or what's causing it. Sorry.

What software are you using to test camera performance? Maybe reboot your Mac and don't run any software other than FaceTime to see how well it's working?
 
D

digitalove

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 12, 2012
197
1
Meister said:
The macbook specs (especially RAM) are completely irrelevant for this issue. We have a mba 1.3/4/256 and I've recorded and simultaneously monitored 1080p uncompressed video from a professional camera via Black magic Ultrastudio. Nothing lagged.

----------

That is really inacceptable and this is what I recommend:

  • Reset pram
  • Repair disk permissions
  • Make a timemachine backup
  • Reboot into recovery to reinstall the OS
  • Test the camera right after the installation without other apps installed

If it still lags take it to the :apple:store and they have to do a hardware check and give you a replacement.
Click to expand...

I tried everything on your list but the problem is still here.
I guess I'll take it to the apple store.. even if I will see because I need it so it's a mess. I didn't expect at all to have some issues with a new MacBook, really surprised..
 
Meister

Meister

Suspended
Oct 10, 2013
5,456
4,310
digitalove said:
I tried everything on your list but the problem is still here.
I guess I'll take it to the apple store.. even if I will see because I need it so it's a mess. I didn't expect at all to have some issues with a new MacBook, really surprised..
Click to expand...
It's the right thing to do. It shouldn't act like you described.
 
C

capital47

macrumors newbie
Nov 24, 2014
3
0
I had this laggy camera problem when i opened Chatreoullete.com with Safari, my solution was to simply restart my mac and use Chrome. No problem with Google Chrome what so ever. Lots of problems with that Safari tho. I had also some service that would take a LOT of ram for unknown reason. I stopped using Safari for good until they fix it...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom