Slow Macbook

dieeldoctor said:

I'm new to your forum, so hi there. I have a problem I hope someone can help me with. I'm not a real good with computers so plain english please. I've had apple computers since I started so I know a little. My problem is it takes a very long time to load a site. We had hughes net installed because our old provider was really slow on the speed testlike .85 down and .14 upload. now a speed test at speedtest.net is 10.5 download so that isn't the problem. My computer is a macbook 13", specs are Macbook 2.1, smc version 1.17fo, running osx 10.5.8, 2.16 GHz intel duo core, memory 2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM. I've run disc verify and repair and it is ok. It takes sometimes as long as 3 min to load a site. any help is appreciated.

Walt

Click to expand...

Have you done a SMC reset and pram reset? What web browser are you using? If it's safari then you can also try resetting safari to see if things improve.

dieeldoctor said:

therein lies a problem... yes I have done a safari reset, no help there, I need to learn these other resets can you help don't know what smc is or how to reset it or how to reset it. I know some folks get irritated about neophytes asking dumb questions on some forums, but could you help with the rests or direct me to a place that explains how, like I said I'm a real dummy when it comes to this. Also should say that wifes almost brand new macbook pro has same issue with slow loading of sites as well.

thanks Walt

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The smc is short for system management controller. To reset the smc on your macbook 2,1 follow the steps below

1) Shut down the computer.
2) Disconnect the MagSafe power adapter from the computer, if it's connected.
3) Remove the battery.
4) Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.
5) Release the power button.
6) Reconnect the battery and MagSafe power adapter.
7) Press the power button to turn on the computer.

The process for resetting the smc on unibody MacBooks and macbook pros is slightly different.

To reset the Pram follow the steps as shown below.

1) Shut down your Mac.
2) Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
3) Turn on the computer.
4) Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys before the gray screen appears.
5) Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.

if the above steps dont work, it could also be hughes net as my family used to use it and it was ridiculously slow. we bought a verizon internet router thingy that works through the verizon tower, and it works so much faster than hughes net.
just a thought

Seeing as the same problem is happening on two different computers, I would say it is your internet connection. I've never had Hughes Net, but I have heard it isn't the greatest provider when it comes to internet speeds.

dieeldoctor said:

I thank you all for your time and trouble helping out. I had found, in a search how to do the resets, however yours were much better thank you. I did them and it is marginally better. When the hughes tech (outside vendor) called as he was supposed to come and try to repair the problem, he said sounds like a virus, I'm sure it isn't. He directed me to speedtest.net and it showed 10.5 download speed, now I'm not convinced that is ACTUAL but it is better than their 10.0 they say you get so he will not come out. I'm thinking about just canning the whole OS and reloading it from the discs and then just upgrading to 10.6 or 10.7 whichever will work better on the older 2.1 macbook. I hate to get rid of the mac for a newer one as it otherwise works well and does what I need it for. What do you folks think?

Thanks Walt

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I just had a thought. Have you tried disabling the routers firewall. You can do this and still leave your password enabled. You'll find the routers login details on the base or back or the router. Open up your web browser navigate to the settings ip as shown on your router sticker, log in with the details supplied and disable the firewall. If you have a password enabled on your network leave it enabled, just change the firewall settings to off.

Theres no need to reinstall the os, if the slowness of your web page loading is the only issue. I'd only consider reinstalling if something was critically wrong with the system. Another thing you could do is to repair the disk permissions in disk utility if you haven't already done so. Open up disk utility, select the volume from the left (usually macintosh hd unless you've changed it) and click on repair.