Macbook running SLOW

[tfulmino]

Hello.

My wife's Macbook is running VERY slow. She is not a power user - basic surfing, email, etc. The specs on the laptop are pretty good - Core2 w/ 1.5 gig ram. The problem is the round beach balls pops up often and just cripples the computer. I have tried to clean the machine; however, I have had no luck.

Do I need to reinstall the OS?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Hawkeye411]

Did you try repairing the permissions?

 

[surflordca]

Have you tried ONYX?
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/onyx.html

 

[tfulmino]

I downloaded a utility online, not Onyx, which cleans up permissions, etc. Nothing has changed. Does Onyx work well?

 

[killswitch1698]

Hello.

My wife's Macbook is running VERY slow. She is not a power user - basic surfing, email, etc. The specs on the laptop are pretty good - Core2 w/ 1.5 gig ram. The problem is the round beach balls pops up often and just cripples the computer. I have tried to clean the machine; however, I have had no luck.

Do I need to reinstall the OS?

Thanks in advance!

I dunno if this may be the problem but your computer is either on its last leg because its so old, or you might have to do some software updates. or you could just add more RAM

 

[dr. shdw]

Drive might be going or laptop overheating?

 

[Hawkeye411]

I downloaded a utility online, not Onyx, which cleans up permissions, etc. Nothing has changed. Does Onyx work well?

You don't need a utility to correct the permissions. Apple provides this for you., Just click on Utilities and then on Disk Utility. Then you choose your hard drive on the left and then click on "Repair Disk Permissions".

Cheers.

 

[benkenobi]

here is an article that might help:

"Clean Up and Revive Your Bloated, Sluggish Mac"
http://lifehacker.com/5252183/clean-up-and-revive-your-bloated-sluggish-mac

I have had the beach ball of death where it continuously froze the mac. After reinstalling the OS there were no problems. I suggest a reinstall if none of the solutions in the article work.

 

[surflordca]

You don't need a utility to correct the permissions. Apple provides this for you., Just click on Utilities and then on Disk Utility. Then you choose your hard drive on the left and then click on "Repair Disk Permissions".

Cheers.

Hawkeye is right about you repairing permissions. I didn't recommend the ONYX utility for that. It is worth a look at.

 

[tfulmino]

Thanks for all your help! I will try out the suggestions. Hopefully I am able to improve performance a little bit... she has been drooling over my MBP.