Macbook Slowdown - Troubleshooting

[beastwarking]

Hello, I'm just gonna jump right in for the sake brevity.

Recently, my MacBook (purchased new in 2008) has started to slow down substantially. The biggest problem appears to be with Firefox 8 constantly slowing to a crawl and eventually crashing or requiring a force quit. This manifests itself as incredibly latent keyboard recognition and the battery area, or bottom of the computer, is getting very hot.

I am not savvy with computers, and what information I do know on computer maintenance is in regards to PCs. I was wondering if this was a cache issue, or some other problem I can fix myself through direction or guidance. I don't have much more information on me: I am currently waiting for my economics class to start and can't retrieve the box or manual to list system specifics. I do know however that I manually installed 2 gigs of ram and am running OSX 10.5.8 with a 2.1 Ghz Dual Core processor.

Any and all help is much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[GGJstudios]

For performance issues, there are a few things you can check:

• Check your Login Items under System Preferences > Accounts to see what you have automatically launching.
• Also check /Library/LaunchAgents/ and /Users/yourusername/Library/LaunchAgents/ for items launching at startup
• Look at what widgets you may have running.
• Launch Activity Monitor and change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes". Then look to see what may be consuming system resources.
• Take a look at the System Memory tab at the bottom of Activity Monitor to see if you have excessive "page outs", a sign that you may benefit from more RAM.
• Make sure you're not running any 3rd party antivirus app, as many of those will drain resources, reducing performance. They're not needed to protect your Mac.

You might also consider reinstalling Firefox or trying another browser, to see how they perform. Be aware that Flash on websites puts high demands on your system, resulting in increased heat and performance impact.

 

[beastwarking]

Following the instructions

I have only one thing starting up at launch - Skype
I don't have any widgets installed


I have looked at the processes list and there are some programs that are hogging up a lot of the virtual and real memory.

There are however, some things I don't recognize and would like to make sure that by closing them I won't do any damage.

List of ones I am concerned about:
blued [root user] 597MB virtual memory
dynamic_pager [root user] 581.65MB virtual memory
Firefox [me] 411MB real memory but fluctuates in CPU (as high 7.6) and memory usage

I only listed Firefox to see if that kind of usage was common or not
I don't run anti-virus programs.

If more information is need I am free to provide some. From what it looks like, I may need more ram unless there is a virus or something on my computer

Thanks again

 

[GGJstudios]

From what it looks like, I may need more ram

What do your page outs look like?

unless there is a virus or something on my computer

Macs are not immune to malware, but no true viruses exist in the wild that can run on Mac OS X, and there never have been any since it was released 10 years ago. The only malware in the wild that can affect Mac OS X is a handful of trojans, which can be easily avoided with some basic education, common sense and care in what software you install. Also, Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Lion have anti-malware protection built in, further reducing the need for 3rd party antivirus apps.

Mac Virus/Malware Info​

 

[beastwarking]

What do your page outs look like?

I don't know what a page out is but I'll give it a shot:
It says page outs are 1.28 GB, Page ins are 3.39GB (if that is helpful)
I have ~580MB free, 970MB in use, and ~100MB inactive

I do have some add-ons on firefox (web of trust, adblocker+, etc) so I didn't think any form of infection was likely, I just wanted to rule it out.

Thanks

 

[GGJstudios]

It says page outs are 1.28 GB,

That indicates that you may benefit from more RAM. Page outs are cumulative since your last restart, so the best way to check is to restart your computer and track page outs during normal workloads.

 

[logana]

You have checked memory usage in Activity Monitor now check CPU usage in Activity Monitor and look at all processes.

I suspect it is blued that is causing the problem - OSX bluetooth controller - is Bluetooth off or on - do you use it need it ?

Blued caused lots of problems in 10.5 - is there a reason you have not upgraded to 10.6 ?

 

[beastwarking]

You have checked memory usage in Activity Monitor now check CPU usage in Activity Monitor and look at all processes.

I suspect it is blued that is causing the problem - OSX bluetooth controller - is Bluetooth off or on - do you use it need it ?

Blued caused lots of problems in 10.5 - is there a reason you have not upgraded to 10.6 ?

Bluetooth is turned off so I can just shut that off from the task manager then?

In regards to 10.6, do I just download the latest version from Apple.com or what?

 

[Nameci]

There is no task manager...

 

[beastwarking]

There is no task manager...

Err... activity manager

 

[logana]

Bluetooth is turned off so I can just shut that off from the task manager then?

In regards to 10.6, do I just download the latest version from Apple.com or what?

You can try killing blued from Activity Monitor but I suspect you may need to restart - but please check how much CPU it is using - it could be 30% or more which is slowing down everything.

I also suspect that blued will reappear in Activity Monitor after the restart.....

10.6 is available on dvd - was about $25 but don't know if still available in store - maybe have to order from Amazon or whatever

 

[beastwarking]

You can try killing blued from Activity Monitor but I suspect you may need to restart - but please check how much CPU it is using - it could be 30% or more which is slowing down everything.

I also suspect that blued will reappear in Activity Monitor after the restart.....

10.6 is available on dvd - was about $25 but don't know if still available in store - maybe have to order from Amazon or whatever

Thanks I tried doing so after I posted my comment and it just came back. Evil bugger.

At any rate, after comparing prices on the Apple Store I could get OS X Lion for close to the same price. Is there any major differences between the 2? I looked at the tech specs and I meet the requirements to run both except for this little number:
OS X v10.6.6 or later (v10.6.8 recommended)

Does that mean I would have to buy Snow Leopard just for option to download Lion? If that's the case, ignore everything else and I'll just download Snow Leopard.

 

[logana]

Yes - you need 10.6.6 to be able to download Lion from the Apple App store..

You still have not told us/me how much CPU blued was/is using

If you go to 10.7 you will need more than 2GB ram though - with 10.6 and no blued you will probably be ok - just

 

[beastwarking]

Yes - you need 10.6.6 to be able to download Lion from the Apple App store..

You still have not told us/me how much CPU blued was/is using

If you go to 10.7 you will need more than 2GB ram though - with 10.6 and no blued you will probably be ok - just

blued is currently using 0.0 CPU... things. So that probably isn't the problem

Also, thanks for the info Snow Leopard and Lion. I guess I will just get SL after Christmas.