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vix2000

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 27, 2010
148
8
My macbook air 11.6 is running really slow. Its painful actually. I'm talking minutes to load each page.

Being a new mac convert, I only know that if this was a pc I would be running my anti virus, spyware and adware software and doing a config, but I have no idea what the equivalent is on the mac.

Don't know if its a coincidence but I did an online survey just before the problem started and have been getting pop ups which I never had before.

This is driving me crazy so if anyone can help I would be very grateful.
 

imaketouchtheme

macrumors 65816
Dec 5, 2007
1,097
4
Open Activity Monitor (search Spotlight for it) and sort the list under System Memory by the amount of Real Memory the program is taking up first.

Then post back with the results. Leave everything the same as you have it now.
 

vix2000

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 27, 2010
148
8
Sorry, I have done the screen capture but don't know how to post it on here!!!
 

vix2000

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 27, 2010
148
8
Hope this has worked.
 

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munkery

macrumors 68020
Dec 18, 2006
2,217
1
Set Activity Monitor to "All processes, hierarchical." Then, repost the screen shot. Make sure to screen shot all the contents listed Activity Monitor.

Please.

Or, run the following command in Terminal:

ps -ax > process.txt

Then upload that file. It should be located in your home folder after you run the command.
 
Last edited:

vix2000

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 27, 2010
148
8
Thanks for the help.

As you requested, but had closed some pages down since the first screenshot.

Hope thats not caused a problem?
 

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vix2000

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 27, 2010
148
8
It is taking 5 minutes just to post each reply now so I'm going to have to close down and restart and hope theres an improvement!!!!Sorry.
 

vix2000

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 27, 2010
148
8
It seems to be marginally better now but not as it used to be.
 

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
Being a new mac convert, I only know that if this was a pc I would be running my anti virus, spyware and adware software and doing a config, but I have no idea what the equivalent is on the mac.
There has never been a virus in the wild that affects Mac OS X since it was released 10 years ago. The handful of trojans that exist can be easily avoided with some education and common sense and care in what software you install:
 

vix2000

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 27, 2010
148
8
Thanks for the help I will try all your suggestions, although utorrent was one of the first things I installed and has never previously caused a problem, but I will disable it to check.
 

munkery

macrumors 68020
Dec 18, 2006
2,217
1
Downloading torrents can eat up all your bandwidth independent of internal factors such as memory.

Is it only your browsing speed that is lagging?

Did you change the default port?

Did you set reasonable speed limits?

Did you set reasonable peer limits?

Are you using outgoing and incoming protocol encryption to prevent bandwidth throttling by your ISP? I don't think uTorrent is able to encrypt both.
 

chrono1081

macrumors G3
Jan 26, 2008
8,456
4,164
Isla Nublar
Being a new mac convert, I only know that if this was a pc I would be running my anti virus, spyware and adware software and doing a config, but I have no idea what the equivalent is on the mac.
Macs are wildly different than PC's. No need to worry about viruses here. Also on your PC if you had a virus most likely you wouldn't know. The generally don't affect the performance of your computer. Adware, scareware, and other types of malware is what gives you popups and such.

Downloading torrents can eat up all your bandwidth independent of internal factors such as memory.

Is it only your browsing speed that is lagging?

Did you change the default port?

Did you set reasonable speed limits?

Did you set reasonable peer limits?

Are you using outgoing and incoming protocol encryption to prevent bandwidth throttling by your ISP? I don't think uTorrent is able to encrypt both.

This. Also make sure that you aren't maxing your upload speed. If you do your internet will be unusable. I'd also suggest not using Firefox after seeing how much CPU its using. Is the internet fine when using safari?
 

ajack

macrumors member
May 31, 2010
43
0
I'm also a convert from PC to MAC. I'm not gonna raise the war between MAC, Windows, PC or anything else, whatever... I, myself, use macbook air for most the personal stuff like watching HD movie, web browser, music and word. After 6 months of using, this is what I came up:

1. MAC OS is, for me, stable than Windows (even Win98, XP or 7). It can run about long term without any speed down. Actually, I did some testing with my brother Macbook Pro, who is using it 2 years or so.

2. But, in the other hand, Mac is somehow not multi-task like Window, just running uTorrent or Jdownloader, Skype and that's it! You should stop do anything else while using these programs.

3. Coolbook can increase speed. What I mean is if the system is cooler with certain speed (in this case is frequency), you can easily jump to higher speed. And one more thing, cooler system can prevent core shutdown in macbook air as well
 

ajack

macrumors member
May 31, 2010
43
0
One more thing, Windows can run a lot of programs and it's more adaptive than Mac. There are fewer apps in Mac and you have to find one that fit your needs.

What I want to mention here is Firefox 4 for Mac is ultra slow! Since Firefox upgraded to 4.x, I have to switch to Chrome (which is incredibly fast!)
 

vix2000

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 27, 2010
148
8
Thanks for all the information. I have, coincidentally, asked about coolbook in another thread in relation to the very noisy fan. I have not used chrome before so will have a go with it and see what its like. I have nothing on utorrent at the moment so it will not affect it. Thanks again, and still up for any further advice.
 

chrono1081

macrumors G3
Jan 26, 2008
8,456
4,164
Isla Nublar
2. But, in the other hand, Mac is somehow not multi-task like Window, just running uTorrent or Jdownloader, Skype and that's it! You should stop do anything else while using these programs.

Um...what??? Lol. Macs blow Windows out of the water with multitasking. (Hence why I switched my workflow). I'd post everything I use at once on my machine but its too lengthy and not important.

If you are running into bottle necks with running a few apps then something else is the problem. Check to see how much free ram you have (skype can be a bit of a piggie) and make sure that your upload speed isn't maxed, because if it is your internet will be horrible.
 

vix2000

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 27, 2010
148
8
Thanks for the input. I have now got chrome and have just activated coolbook. I don't have skype, I don't know how to check how much ram I'm using. I have totally closed utorrent if thats what you mean by upload speed. I am just trying to find out what coolbook settings I should be using.
 

munkery

macrumors 68020
Dec 18, 2006
2,217
1
All that is not the right diagnosis. Do you happen to have Adobe Reader installed? AdobeResourceSynchronizer process is eating up your CPU like crazy in the Activity Monitor screenshots you provided. See this discussion...

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1067212/

Nice catch. I totally forgot to look at CPU usage. Duh!

To the OP, any specific reason you need Adobe Reader. Preview does a pretty good job with PDFs.
 

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
To the OP, any specific reason you need Adobe Reader. Preview does a pretty good job with PDFs.
Preview does a good job most of the time. However, there are some instances where Preview will distort page layout or will not allow the user to fill in a form, where Adobe Reader will. I use Preview 95% of the time and Reader 5%.
 

munkery

macrumors 68020
Dec 18, 2006
2,217
1
Preview does a good job most of the time. However, there are some instances where Preview will distort page layout or will not allow the user to fill in a form, where Adobe Reader will. I use Preview 95% of the time and Reader 5%.

Thanks for the info.

I have been lucky. I have never encountered a PDF that Preview couldn't handle. But, for a while I was using a PDF viewer called Skim until Preview started to have more features.

Any examples of forms that do not work? Your on Leopard, right?
 
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