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hazedragon45

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 23, 2009
125
0
Hey, I'm a newb at these things.. but my macbook has been soo laggy lately and I only use it for school work.. I haven't installed anything... nor do i run multiple applications at a time. Right now on Firefox, if i type fast in the search bar.. it LAGS like mad.. then the swirly rainbow shows up... and this is the only thing open. How can i check for something wrong?
 
dumb question but have you shut it off and done a restart to clear the ram ?
 
How much RAM do you have? I am sure it does have to do with your internet though Firefox can be a RAM hog.
 
Wait am I missing something? Are there two different people telling him that it's his Internet speed that is causing the lag?

What would that have to do with the pinwheel of death that he's talking about? Please enlighten me if this indeed a documented issue.

Something definitely sounds wrong if you have indeed not installed many applications, are only running firefox, and are just trying to do a google search.

You might want to try the standard repair permissions which is in the Disk Utility app, and resetting the PRAM by restarting your machine and then immediately holding down command+option+P+R until you hear your laptop make the start up noise for a 2nd time.
 
btw.. it's not just firefox.. it's other programs running at the same time too like Preview, Word, iTunes.. Could it be because i'm using 100GB of 160 of my HD? Are we supposed to leave a lost of space left on it?
 
btw.. it's not just firefox.. it's other programs running at the same time too like Preview, Word, iTunes.. Could it be because i'm using 100GB of 160 of my HD? Are we supposed to leave a lost of space left on it?

No, not really. Repair permissions, clear your cache(CleanMyMac) and you might speed things up again.

Although for a more permanent effect, upgrade to 4 or more GBs of RAM. Will make a big difference.
 
No, not really. Repair permissions, clear your cache(CleanMyMac) and you might speed things up again.

Although for a more permanent effect, upgrade to 4 or more GBs of RAM. Will make a big difference.

Hi, i know this is a really dumb newb question... but how do i clean my cache? what are the consequences of it??
thanks
 
Make sure you are quitting the applications and not just closing them.

You can tell because there is a dot below them on the launcher.

Also, take a picture of the activity monitor, I'd love to see the technicals.

1. Command+Spacebar
2. Type in Activity Monitor
3. Near the bottom of the window, click System Memory.
4. Take a screen shot (Command+Shift+4 and then Spacebar, then click the window).
5. Upload it here (should be on your desktop).
 
Make sure you are quitting the applications and not just closing them.

You can tell because there is a dot below them on the launcher.

Also, take a picture of the activity monitor, I'd love to see the technicals.

Btw, i have the most basic MBP.. so 2gb ram. Also, is it ok to shut down my computer every night? i like helping out the environment =)
 

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Btw, i have the most basic MBP.. so 2gb ram. Also, is it ok to shut down my computer every night? i like helping out the environment =)

Holy crap! Something's chewing your RAM!

In that Activity Monitor window, change where it says "My Processes" to "All Processes" and then click on the "Real Memory" column so it shows the highest number at the top then grab a screen grab as before and upload it.

I want to see what's using all that RAM.
 
UPDATED ***
Here you go. I'm not sure if it'll tell you anything though, I took a whole screen shot of everything on my screen. I'm using Preview to look at Power Point slides in PDF format.
 

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Your RAM looks fine. This could be a hard drive issue. Is your HD filled near capacity? Also, please make sure you are quitting apps if you aren't using them. I'm not sure if you were still using Preview or iCal in your first screenshot but they are still open.
 
i know your ram looks fine, but trust me, upgrade. I have the same machine and I thought something might be wrong because I experienced the same things, upped the ram to 4gigs and that immediately took care of the problem. 4gigs is the solution
 
Firefox for Mac sucks.

Firefox for Windows is nice, but Firefox for Mac sucks.

It lags even when you scroll.

Use Safari. Or Chrome.

Hey, I'm a newb at these things.. but my macbook has been soo laggy lately and I only use it for school work.. I haven't installed anything... nor do i run multiple applications at a time. Right now on Firefox, if i type fast in the search bar.. it LAGS like mad.. then the swirly rainbow shows up... and this is the only thing open. How can i check for something wrong?
 
Btw, i have the most basic MBP.. so 2gb ram. Also, is it ok to shut down my computer every night? i like helping out the environment =)

apple suggests that you just close the lid/sleep it if you use your MBP more than once every 48 hours. i wouldn't suggest shutting it down every night (not because i can really think of anything specific that it does, but it wastes your time lol). and if you're trying to save the environment, im guessing you also keep it plugged in 24/7 which is horrible for the battery.
 
Actually shutting it down (not just putting it to sleep) will free up most of your RAM. It looks like you might be experiencing the same memory leak I am, and I think it is a 10.6.2 issue (other versions might be affected too). If I use my computer for a while then quit all the programs I have open, there will still be several GB of RAM in use. The RAM used by all the programs you have is actually very little. Firefox can easily use over 500MB at times if you leave it open too long or have too many tabs open.

Here's a thread I started about the problem:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/868744/
 
I've actually experienced this also. The other day, after doing some heavy school work with Word, Firefox, and iTunes open, I noticed a huge lag. I quit all applications (really, I mean I exited from the menu), but the lag continued.

All of the above
Restart your machine
Restart Firefox
Clear your cache

Then see what you have and go from there

I did restart my laptop and everything was cleared up. However, why must I do this? Are these applications that poorly developed that they can't clean up after themselves?

Not to mention,

Mac OS X has very efficient memory management. It will automatically move memory around as needed.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1342
 
...

you have very little green left on that pie chart. Supposedly as long as there is alot of blue and green together it will be fine but I have found that as soon as the green area gets small it gives me that lagging issue. I upgraded to an OWC SSD and 4gb of ram and my computer is super fast now and never bogs down...of course the laptop also cost me like 2 grand after these upgrades lol
 
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