MacBook Pro running slow

[Demon505]

Yesterday my Mac had an error message that told me to reboot my Mac. When I did it would try to boot up and then shut off and then try to boot up and shut down. This happened for a while until it finally started up but now it runs supper slow. I'm not sure what's wrong with it or what to do.

[simsaladimbamba]

What you experienced is called a "kernel panic", sometimes nothing to worry about, but when it is repeating, you should investigate the cause.

Can you post what exact MacBook Pro and Mac OS X version you use?

To find out what Mac OS X version you run, click > About This Mac:

To find out, what exact Mac model you use, click > About This Mac > More Info > Hardware Overview:

To see a more elaborate image explaining the above steps, click here.
To see a more detailed video tutorial showing the above steps, click here (2 MB, 23s, .mp4).

Open Activity Monitor and select All Processes and then sort by CPU to show you the process(es) slowing down your Mac and also go to the System Memory* tab and look for Page Outs and Swap used and report back.

Using Activity Monitor to show you CPU and RAM usage

* Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor

If you want to enhance the performance of your Mac, be sure to check these two articles, do not just use applications, that promise to do it for you.

• Performance Tips For Mac OS X
• Mac Performance Guide

[Demon505]

My OS is version 10.6.8
My model is MacBookPro8,1
Highest CPU is kernel_task
Page outs is 0 bytes
Swap used is 0 bytes