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iMac with the SLows....

Rhobes

Rhobes

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 28, 2004
357
7
Bigfork, MT
Hi All-

Within the past month my system has got real bothersome slow. It's going to take me forever to write this if I wait to see the text appear. eg. if I try to use the scroll bar I get the colored wheel many times. I get the colored wheel all the time !! I type a letter & I get the wheel then wait 5s for it to appear. This is driving me crazy.

I've restarted the computer with no change, I shut down every night and when brought back up & having closed all apps I still get the wheel for anything I do. I don't know if it's the hardware or software. I have DSL and it has always worked fine, I see no reason to think it's my connection, this is always the same response, soooo slooow!!

My system is in the sig at the bottom. Anything, that can be done? is there any way to check whats wrong? Could it be a virus? It has been running the same way for about a month or less now, nothing changes, just is a nightmare trying to do anything.

I will appreciate any suggestions, I'm about ready to bring it into a local mac fix-it parlor...:(
 
Check the amount of space left on your HD:
Rule of thumb.
You should maintain at least 10 GBs or 15% of your hard drive's capacity as free space, whichever is greater.
Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor > Disk usage on the bottom.

S.
 
Ashka said:
Check the amount of space left on your HD:
Rule of thumb.
You should maintain at least 10 GBs or 15% of your hard drive's capacity as free space, whichever is greater.
Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor > Disk usage on the bottom.

S.
Click to expand...

Thanks for giving me the pathway. Looks like I'm O.K. It shows 22.95GB of free space out of 74.4 GB total.:eek:
 
Few months ago I had a similar problem like yours. It was worst sometimes I had to wait for more than 10 minutes for an application to start working. The issue was so bad that after sending my MBP to maintenance for some weeks, the machine returned in the same state. The software was corrupted in some way, so I had to re-install everything again from scratch.
Maybe this helps you.
My computer is a MacBook Pro 17" Intel processor. I bought it in March/2009.
I decided to install Snow Leopard instead of Leopard. Since then, everything is working fine.
 
peoplevoice said:
Few months ago I had a similar problem like yours. It was worst sometimes I had to wait for more than 10 minutes for an application to start working. The issue was so bad that after sending my MBP to maintenance for some weeks, the machine returned in the same state. The software was corrupted in some way, so I had to re-install everything again from scratch.
Maybe this helps you.
My computer is a MacBook Pro 17" Intel processor. I bought it in March/2009.
I decided to install Snow Leopard instead of Leopard. Since then, everything is working fine.
Click to expand...

Good to know, well, I'll wait to see what other suggestions come up. I don't want Snow Leopard because it is not as yet compatable with my Nikon NX2 software, probably not for some time yet. I believe I downloaded 10.5.6 from the internet so I will have to look into that, hope I can do it again without paying for it again.
 
Rhobes said:
Good to know, well, I'll wait to see what other suggestions come up. I don't want Snow Leopard because it is not as yet compatable with my Nikon NX2 software, probably not for some time yet. I believe I downloaded 10.5.6 from the internet so I will have to look into that, hope I can do it again without paying for it again.
Click to expand...

Well, my idea is not that you move to Snow Leopard. The solution to my problem was that I had to erase everything and install again the operating system, the applications and get the data from some backup. So, in my case I took the chance to try the new operating system. In your case, you have to keep your current operating system. You can re-install the same operating system. This is the last thing one wants to do, it happened to me too. Sorry for the confusion.
 
try forcing the computer to run the daily, weekly and monthly maintenance routines.
go to "Terminal Window" in the "Utilities" folder in the "Applications" folder.

when the window opens, you will get a command prompt with a string of text that includes your username. Type in the following, one space between each word:

sudo periodic daily

Then hit return. It will ask you to enter your password. type in your password (it won't show what you are typing) and hit return.

You will most likely get a warning about how using the sudo command can really mess up your computer. Sudo is a powerful command line command, but as long as you are careful to type in the correct letters, you won't have an issue.

It will look like it isn't doing anything, but when the routine is done, you will get a new command prompt with the same string of text that includes your username.

Type in the following:
sudo periodic weekly

and hit return. This forces the weekly utility routines. Once again you will see no evidence of progress until you get a new command line and you'll know the routine finished. THIS ONE CAN TAKE A LONG TIME, BE PATIENT. I've seen it take up to 15 minutes.

When you get a command line, type in the following:
sudo periodic monthly

and hit return. This one should be pretty quick (as little as 5 seconds, up to a minute.)

When you get a command line prompt again, you are done and can close Terminal. It is not uncommon for terminal to ask for your password again between routines. If the "Password:" prompt pops up again, just type it in again and hit return. Once again, you will not see any evidence that your password is being input.

Hope this helps. :)

btw-I do this about once a month to keep things running well. I also run it whenever I have a glitch or problem. Sometimes it helps, sometimes not. Good to have in the toolbag.
 
Rhobes said:
Good to know, well, I'll wait to see what other suggestions come up. I don't want Snow Leopard because it is not as yet compatable with my Nikon NX2 software, probably not for some time yet. I believe I downloaded 10.5.6 from the internet so I will have to look into that, hope I can do it again without paying for it again.
Click to expand...

I use the latest version of Snow Leopard 10.6.2 with the latest NX2 version 2.2.3 all of the time and it works great. I'd say its even better than with Leopard as its much faster with my i7.
 
spork183 said:
try forcing the computer to run the daily, weekly and monthly maintenance routines.
go to "Terminal Window" in the "Utilities" folder in the "Applications" folder.

when the window opens, you will get a command prompt with a string of text that includes your username. Type in the following, one space between each word:

sudo periodic daily

Then hit return. It will ask you to enter your password. type in your password (it won't show what you are typing) and hit return.

You will most likely get a warning about how using the sudo command can really mess up your computer. Sudo is a powerful command line command, but as long as you are careful to type in the correct letters, you won't have an issue.

It will look like it isn't doing anything, but when the routine is done, you will get a new command prompt with the same string of text that includes your username.

Type in the following:
sudo periodic weekly

and hit return. This forces the weekly utility routines. Once again you will see no evidence of progress until you get a new command line and you'll know the routine finished. THIS ONE CAN TAKE A LONG TIME, BE PATIENT. I've seen it take up to 15 minutes.

When you get a command line, type in the following:
sudo periodic monthly

and hit return. This one should be pretty quick (as little as 5 seconds, up to a minute.)

When you get a command line prompt again, you are done and can close Terminal. It is not uncommon for terminal to ask for your password again between routines. If the "Password:" prompt pops up again, just type it in again and hit return. Once again, you will not see any evidence that your password is being input.

Hope this helps. :)

btw-I do this about once a month to keep things running well. I also run it whenever I have a glitch or problem. Sometimes it helps, sometimes not. Good to have in the toolbag.
Click to expand...

I first did the repair permissions as previously suggested & after that I could immediately tell it sure helped. I then immediately followed your suggestion.

I found utilities and Terminal(not Terminal Window) which opened as you mentioned & I typed the commands. I never got any type of warning, but each time entered the appropriate comment/password etc. What I noticed is all the commands functioned immediately, I hit return & the next line was waiting for my pass or command, made it seem like nothing could have been done? Could reparing the permissions have caused it to run so fast? I was left with the feeling that it didn't do anything, so I did it again & all the same.:D

Thanks everyone...:cool:
 
cmvsm said:
I use the latest version of Snow Leopard 10.6.2 with the latest NX2 version 2.2.3 all of the time and it works great. I'd say its even better than with Leopard as its much faster with my i7.
Click to expand...

I understood that if running Snow Leopard you don't want to upgrade View NX to v.1.5 because it is not compatible, yet.

I have my eyes on the i7 too....
 
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