Ok here is my screenshot. I have no idea what any of this is but maybe you can help lol. I sorted by most memory being used. What are all those google chrome helpers? And I'm using chrome only because safari kept being stupid and chrome seemed to work the best. I had a couple tabs open in chrome and pages open when I took the screen shot.
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macbook air 13 vs 11 and 4gb vs 8gb ram
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Ok here is my screenshot. I have no idea what any of this is but maybe you can help lol. I sorted by most memory being used. What are all those google chrome helpers? And I'm using chrome only because safari kept being stupid and chrome seemed to work the best. I had a couple tabs open in chrome and pages open when I took the screen shot.
My understanding is that each google chrome helper is affiliated with a different open tab. I don't like Safari as much, but I finally switched back after Chrome was really elevating CPU usage (and concurrently, laptop temperature) significantly. I'm no expert, however.
Of course, each tab in Safari also takes up its own memory usage, but I believe that it is less impact, at least it has been for me.
Of course, each tab in Safari also takes up its own memory usage, but I believe that it is less impact, at least it has been for me.
Looks like you have a bunch of free memory, so running out of memory almost certainly isn't your problem re: seeing those beach balls.
The way Chrome works is to run each tab as a separate process (program), so if a tab crashes or hangs then it doesn't affect the other tabs. It's also better for security. So each of those Chrome Helpers is to contain a tab. Safari does the same thing, but the processes are named after the web sites and not just called "Safari Helpers."
I don't know what might be causing your computer to misbehave but if you update the operating system to Yosemite, that will remove one variable when trying to solve the problem.
If you're worried that Yosemite won't work as well as what you have now, I think you should be able to back up your hard drive to an external drive using SuperDuper! (or similar) and then if you decide you don't like the update, you can switch back. I'm not 100% sure if you can switch back though so that might require some research.
Either way though it's a good idea to have regular backups of your work etc. obviously.
It seems like there was a change to Chrome over the past ~2 weeks and all of a sudden my computer was running horribly. Running out of memory, stuttering, etc. I don't know what they changed but it was enough that I finally switched to Safari myself even though I've been a long time proponent of Chrome (or at least, not a Chrome opponent).
I'm sorry you've had the same experience, though a bit comforted that it wasn't just me. It was making me (and the laptop) crazy.
Yeah I do have an external hardrive I have backed up my whole system to. Maybe about 3 months ago? I did a time machine thing but just the once on the external hd. I do like safari better, and I'm sure that will work better with yosemite. So it could be the chrome too that's making it act up!
I'm thinking of just saying F*** it and update to yosemite and see what happens. Especially if I plan to get a new laptop anyway. (this one is being used as a desktop since the screen shattered). It's 5 years old anyway, so maybe it's just getting old too. (as far as the slowness is concerned).
As Motrek says, you don't have a problem with memory. In OS X versions older than Yosemite the best way to judge is look at the ratio between page ins and page outs. You want the page out value to be proportionally much larger. But you can also see that paging is 0 bytes per second, so small you would never see it! You can also see that even with all those Chrome tasks, you are only using about 3GB of your 4GB RAM (add active to wired to get the amount being used). Chrome is gobbling memory. You won't be running the latest Safari and in newer OS X versions it's more efficient.
That's probably what I would do, except might as well refresh that update you have first. If you made it with Time Machine, it might be as simple as just plugging in the drive again!
A few months ago I bought a base 2014 11" MBA at BestBuy for $720 plus tax and it's been great. The other day, after scrolling through a very long advertisement, 15 pages of items for sale, I began getting the beachball. I called Applecare and the problem was quickly resolved: Open in safe mode holding down the shift key when booting and leaving go when the apple logo appears. He couldn't explain why it happened. But that was the very first glitch I've had. It really is one solid computer, so portable yet does it all. I plan to get the rmb. when it's more reasonably priced. Recently I tried out a base rmb. but returned it because the screen kept wobbling when I typed on it. The screen on the MBA is solid. Its just not better for my eyes than the rmb is. it's a shame apple didn't give the mba retina.
Great, thank you. And thanks to everyone else. I'll back up and then update to Yosemite. Then I'll look at MBA's!
Chrome is quite the resource hog and battery drainer. Also, restart your Mac daily or at least every other day. 1GB Swap used, indicates that you ran out of memory and now your RAM speed is dictated by how fast your slow hard drive is. Upgrading to an SSD drive will do wonders, but also restarting your Mac can clean up sleeping processes that have swapped out to disk.
For a writer, you'll be ok with 4GB on an MBA 13". 128GB SSD will do also unless you get into Video editing. All new Macs of the last 3 years have USB 3.0, so transferring to/fro a 1 or 2TB external portable drive will be much zippier, if that drive also support USB 3.
As for you busted screen, train your cat to lay next to your keyboard, not on it
Mine has a little soft blanket next to it on my desk and he also avoids stepping on the keyboard when he departs.
I would suggest a fresh install of whatever OS you decide. Sometime upgrades don't carry over legacy software very well. I always start with a fresh system and reinstall my Apps separately. It also clears out the junk from years of use and often you'll find that Apps you installed but haven't used in years are no longer needed. There's a lot of junk that builds up in /Library/Application Support and other places.
If you're about to get a new MBA anyhow, why waste time upgrading to Yosemite on your MBP ?
Else, if you want to extend the life and wait for the next iteration MBA then go an do a fresh install of Yosemite on it. Of course, don't forget to do a backup/mirror of your current OS to an external drive. Best to do a bootable image backup.
Confession time: I don't turn off my computer much, because I'm often on AC power, so this is something I (am ashamed to say) wasn't aware of. Thanks.
This isn't good for the battery (keeping it on AC power all the time). I wouldn't worry too much about the other concerns. Our desktop computers normally only get booted up when required by a software update. And I've never done a fresh OS install except when buying a new system (and then I migrate all my files to the new system). We've got several computers that have been upgraded Snow Leopard => Lion => Mountain Lion => Mavericks => Yosemite (and two that have gone Yosemite => El Capitan) with all the point steps in-between.
You shouldn't be aware of it because it's wrong.
Having some data in a swap file just means that at some point your computer ran out of RAM. It doesn't mean that your computer is currently out of RAM.
Turning off your computer or rebooting it on some schedule is not necessary or helpful.
This is wrong. Please keep your computer on AC power whenever it's convenient. It will reduce wear on the battery.
I said that it should not be on AC all the time, not that running on AC is bad. The battery should be cycled occasionally. There used to be instructions to cycle the battery once a month, although I can't find that on the site now. (Maybe it's no longer needed since the batteries now have a 1000 cycle lifetime?)
Sorry that I jumped to conclusions about your post. There are many people here who think you should only run your laptop on battery power and not have it connected to the AC adapter unless the battery needs to be charged. Sorry that I lumped you in with these people when you seem to actually have a very good handle on this stuff.
Apple removed the recommendation to cycle the battery once a month. That was done a couple years ago IIRC. I don't know their motivation for removing it. I suspect people were misinterpreting the instructions, e.g., that if it was good to cycle the battery once a month it must be better to cycle it many times per month, that sort of thing.
I don't understand the physics behind why it might be good to cycle your battery once in a while. I'm not sure anybody does. I recall that scientists only recently figured out that lithium ion batteries lose capacity when charged/discharged due to microfractures and dendrite formation. Something about them using electron microscopes on worn-out batteries last year:
https://www.asme.org/engineering-topics/articles/energy/lengthening-life-of-lithiumion-batteries
Frankly I'm a little disappointed that battery scientists/engineers have only just recently figured this sort of thing out.
The cycling at least recalibrates the battery meter. The older NiCad batteries would take a set, basically ruining their capacity if not cycled. Apple does say that for long term storage the battery should be at 50% charge. There does seem to be "magic" involved in using these batteries optimally!
You like saying "wrong" a lot. it's just a different opinion. Besides, this a 1 year old thread resurrected by writergirl824 and very little to do with the OP's question. In her case, a 5 year old Macbook battery requires different measures than a 2015 one.
As for swap, different OS X version have varying memory management policies. Rebooting occasionally cleans up user space and IS helpful. Long browser sessions with lots of java apps eat up RAM quickly and then get swapped out to disk. Less critical on SSD, but in her case a hard drive slows things up considerably.
In pro environments upgrades are much more controlled and typically run on test systems prior to production roll out.
Home users often download and try out unsigned software that can cause issues after an OS upgrade. MR is full of threads with upgrade users complaining how their system has slowed down after an upgrade and then report better results after a fresh install. YMMV.
Uh, why?
And I don't "like" saying that things/people are wrong, but sometimes they are and it's not a difference of opinion. Sometimes things are just wrong. 2 + 2 is not equal to 5, that's a fact, not an opinion.
This middle part makes no sense. Running out of memory can happen regardless of what software you're using, it has nothing to do with browsers. And when was the last time you ran Java anything in a browser? That's becoming so vanishingly rare that Apple doesn't even ship Java with OS X anymore. I haven't had Java installed for years, visit web sites all the time, and haven't missed it.
What does software signing have to do with anything?
Of course software (including the OS) can get into a bad state, including a bad state caused by updating, and reinstalling will get it back into a known-good state. This doesn't seem like it has anything to do with rebooting every night or two like you suggested earlier in this thread.