Mavericks running slow...

[madfi42]

Hello, I have a late 2013 MBA and am now running the latest version of Mavericks (10.9.2). I have recently noticed that things get slow to respond, and I now see the spinning wheel much more often, especially while surfing the web; when scrolling down, changing tabs or typing (the typing is sometimes heavily delayed). I find this weird because going from my activity monitor, everything seemed fine. But then suddenly the memory pressure went yellow?

I don't know much about this OS (or any other, for that matter). Can someone tell me if there's something I'm missing?

 

[Weaselboy]

The only process I see there that is sort of non-standard is the BDLDaemon process from Bit Defender anti virus. You might try uninstalling that and see if it helps. Nothing seems to be hogging memory though.

Post up the CPU tab sorted by CPU% to see if anything there is chewing up resources when this lag is happening.

Try making a new test account and see if the issue occurs while in that account. That will tell you if it is something specific to your account, like perhaps a login/startup item.

 

[madfi42]

Hi, thanks for replying!

My memory pressure went back to green after I made my post. Here's my CPU usage...

EDIT: I created a new account and everything ran smoothly and beautifully. Does this mean my antivirus is messing things up? I'd hate to uninstall it since I've already paid for quite some time but I will if it compromises my memory usage.
Also, I hadn't rebooted in like a week. Could this be related too?

 

[Weaselboy]

Hi, thanks for replying!

My memory pressure went back to green after I made my post. Here's my CPU usage...

EDIT: I created a new account and everything ran smoothly and beautifully. Does this mean my antivirus is messing things up? I'd hate to uninstall it since I've already paid for quite some time but I will if it compromises my memory usage.
Also, I hadn't rebooted in like a week. Could this be related too?

I don't see anything there hogging CPU time.

That memory pressure is real time, so not booting in a week would not matter.

The fact a new account works perfectly proves it is something specific to your account like a login/startup item. I would start removing things from login/startup to narrow it down including uninstalling the AV app. If it turns out not to be the AV app you can always reinstall it.

There do seem to be quite a few posts on the Apple support forums from people having slow downs from Bit Defender.

 

[madfi42]

I don't have many things in my startup list but I'm disabling what I can. What is iTunesHelper for, though, and can I disable that too?

Thanks for the advice on the antivirus. Guess I should've done some research before installing, but well. After rebooting, though, my memory pressure is just a thin green line on the bottom (and not the thicker one it used to be) which is what led me to believe booting had something to do with it.

 

[Weaselboy]

I don't have many things in my startup list but I'm disabling what I can. What is iTunesHelper for, though, and can I disable that too?

Thanks for the advice on the antivirus. Guess I should've done some research before installing, but well. After rebooting, though, my memory pressure is just a thin green line on the bottom (and not the thicker one it used to be) which is what led me to believe booting had something to do with it.

iTunesHelper watches for devices you attach to the Mac so it can launch iTunes. I would remove everything step by step just to track this down. Although iTunesHelper is unlikely to be the culprit. Usually with these issues it is some non-Apple utility causing the problems.

Rebooting will clear the memory and temporarily fix the green pressure, but not rebooting should not cause it to go out of the green (if that makes sense )

 

[madfi42]

iTunesHelper watches for devices you attach to the Mac so it can launch iTunes. I would remove everything step by step just to track this down. Although iTunesHelper is unlikely to be the culprit. Usually with these issues it is some non-Apple utility causing the problems.

Rebooting will clear the memory and temporarily fix the green pressure, but not rebooting should not cause it to go out of the green (if that makes sense )

Yeah, I think get it (lol I know almost nothing of how these things work). Anyway my startup folder only has the iTunesHelper thingie and dropbox, so I really don't think there's an issue there. For now I have disabled Bitdefender's continuous scan as well as the Safari extension, to see if there's an improvement. If the problem persists though I will simply uninstall...

Been reading a few posts of people saying av's aren't necessary... I'm a bit paranoid but I admit I should probably just get rid of it, as I know how to stay away from viruses 99% of the time. What's your opinion on this?

 

[Weaselboy]

Yeah, I think get it (lol I know almost nothing of how these things work). Anyway my startup folder only has the iTunesHelper thingie and dropbox, so I really don't think there's an issue there. For now I have disabled Bitdefender's continuous scan as well as the Safari extension, to see if there's an improvement. If the problem persists though I will simply uninstall...

Been reading a few posts of people saying av's aren't necessary... I'm a bit paranoid but I admit I should probably just get rid of it, as I know how to stay away from viruses 99% of the time. What's your opinion on this?

There aren't any viruses at this point that are native to OS X, but you can still get malware and trojans, so there may be some benefit to running an AV to alert you to those types of infections. Also, if you share files with people on Windows, a Mac could still send off a Windows virus, so you may want to protect against that.

If your Mac is updated and you don't install files from unknown sources, you are relatively safe.

Lots of Mac users here seem to like ClamXAV if you do want to run AV, and it is free.

 

[madfi42]

There aren't any viruses at this point that are native to OS X, but you can still get malware and trojans, so there may be some benefit to running an AV to alert you to those types of infections. Also, if you share files with people on Windows, a Mac could still send off a Windows virus, so you may want to protect against that.

If your Mac is updated and you don't install files from unknown sources, you are relatively safe.

Lots of Mac users here seem to like ClamXAV if you do want to run AV, and it is free.

Great! Thanks a lot for your help and advice