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Activity Monitor - Shut Down Processes

jusacruiser

jusacruiser

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 15, 2009
343
14
Palm Beach, Florida
I have a feeling that there are too many processes running in the background slowing down my computer.

I looked at the Activity Monitor and am not sure which processes could be shut down, and which processes need to stay running.

What processes can be shut down?
 
Generally, any process still running is needed by the OS or some service or app and you would not need to manually close any.

Is there one in particular you are concerned about?
 
Weaselboy said:
Generally, any process still running is needed by the OS or some service or app and you would not need to manually close any.

Is there one in particular you are concerned about?
Click to expand...

Well, there are a lot of processes running in the background. There is one called "core audiod". What is that?

Then in the user column.....there are a lot of processes labeled "root." Can those be shut down?

My computer has been running sluggish and I am just trying to figure out why.
 
jusacruiser said:
Well, there are a lot of processes running in the background. There is one called "core audiod". What is that?

Then in the user column.....there are a lot of processes labeled "root." Can those be shut down?

My computer has been running sluggish and I am just trying to figure out why.
Click to expand...

Core audio handles all the sound output for the system. The root processes are all system level processes needed by the OS.

Look in the CPU tab of activity monitor for any processes consuming high CPU cycles and that may point you to an app that is slowing your system. But just shutting down processes is not going to help you.
 
Right..
In your Activity Monitor, if you click the header line to sort by CPU, your processes will then sort in a list showing how much CPU is used by each process. Click again to sort in the opposite direction. You will likely find that most processes consume almost no resources, and are simply kept in the list for use by the system when needed (idle). Even though you might see a long list - randomly stopping a particular process may prevent an app from working (until the process reloads), or even cause problems with your system - until you restart.

More relevant would be for you to post back with specific information about your Mac, such as the model, how new it is, and how much RAM memory is installed. "Slow performance" can happen if you hard drive is close to full. You can check to see how much space is available on the hard drive. Also, notice the capacity of the hard drive.
 
DeltaMac said:
Right..
In your Activity Monitor, if you click the header line to sort by CPU, your processes will then sort in a list showing how much CPU is used by each process. Click again to sort in the opposite direction. You will likely find that most processes consume almost no resources, and are simply kept in the list for use by the system when needed (idle). Even though you might see a long list - randomly stopping a particular process may prevent an app from working (until the process reloads), or even cause problems with your system - until you restart.

More relevant would be for you to post back with specific information about your Mac, such as the model, how new it is, and how much RAM memory is installed. "Slow performance" can happen if you hard drive is close to full. You can check to see how much space is available on the hard drive. Also, notice the capacity of the hard drive.
Click to expand...

I have 4 GB of RAM. HD: 143 GB Available, Capacity 249GB 2010 MBP

I also did a virus scan and it said i have no viruses.
 
jusacruiser said:
I have 4 GB of RAM. HD: 143 GB Available, Capacity 249GB 2010 MBP

I also did a virus scan and it said i have no viruses.
Click to expand...

If you've installed a 'virus scanner', I wonder what other dodgy software you've installed. There are no viruses on your MBP, assuming you're running an Apple OS; there is, however, plenty of malware swilling around the internet waiting for you to install it and do harm. A nasty piece of alleged anti-virus software beat the crap out of XP users a couple of years ago.

I'm not saying this has happened to you. But be careful. If I had any doubt in my mind I'd do a fresh OS install.
 
jusacruiser said:
I have 4 GB of RAM. HD: 143 GB Available, Capacity 249GB 2010 MBP

I also did a virus scan and it said i have no viruses.
Click to expand...

virus scanners are notorious for slowing down the computer, any computer. I would classify lots of the virus scanners as malware anyway.

There are no extant viruses in the world for osx. Virus scanners will find windows viruses in mail attachments, but they do nothing as they do not run on osx.
 
Look for stuff YOU installed; as noted the virus utility would be one to chuck right now. Use its uninstaller, or find one for it. Look in your menu bar for other stuff you installed, and remove that. And in System Preferences in Login items. Without knowing more, no one can advise you on what to remove, other than to remove all the unnecessary stuff that you yourself installed. But only you know what that is.
 
robgendreau said:
Look for stuff YOU installed; as noted the virus utility would be one to chuck right now. Use its uninstaller, or find one for it. Look in your menu bar for other stuff you installed, and remove that. And in System Preferences in Login items. Without knowing more, no one can advise you on what to remove, other than to remove all the unnecessary stuff that you yourself installed. But only you know what that is.
Click to expand...

This is the wisest and safest suggestion. Thanks.
 
To be honest, I'd expect a 2010 MBP to be somewhat sluggish. I would suggest replacing your hardddrive with an SSD, it will make your notebook feel brand new.
 
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