Performance slowing down :: Mac Mini i7

[schmoofee]

The performance of my 2.7 GHz i7 8GB RAM Mid 2011 mac mini (about screenshot attached) is slowing down and I believe something is not right. App conflict? RAM being gobbled up by? I could use some help troubleshooting.

Using Chrome and Firefox, I cannot pull in my gmail nor my Google Docs folders! Safari handles both of those with ease.

I have attached several activity monitor screenshots in the hope that the issue can be more quickly identified.

What is using up so much RAM? I thought that upgrading to 8GB would give us enough headroom to do almost any basic tasks. We are only using email, surfing the web for fun and research, rarely use iTunes, sometimes skype with family and do some screensharing using join.me.

What can I do to self diagnose?
What diagnostic tool can I use to identify issue(s)?
Looking forward to hearing some ideas.
Cheers
Neil

 

[GGJstudios]

The performance of my 2.7 GHz i7 8GB RAM Mid 2011 mac mini (about screenshot attached) is slowing down and I believe something is not right. App conflict? RAM being gobbled up by? I could use some help troubleshooting.

Using Chrome and Firefox, I cannot pull in my gmail nor my Google Docs folders! Safari handles both of those with ease.

I have attached several activity monitor screenshots in the hope that the issue can be more quickly identified.

What is using up so much RAM?

Your RAM usage is fine. It is quite normal for all of your memory to be in use by OS X. It does not mean that you are running out of memory or that it is maxed out. OS X will manage all available memory, making it available to apps on an as-needed basis. Refer to the following Apple support article for more information on how to understand your Activity Monitor readings.

OS X Mavericks: About Activity Monitor​

The combination of Free, Wired, Active, Inactive & Used memory statistics in previous versions of Activity Monitor have been replaced in Mavericks with an easy to read "Memory Pressure" graph.
Memory pressure is indicated by color:

• Green – RAM memory resources are available.
• Amber – RAM memory resources are being tasked.
• Red – RAM memory resources are depleted and OS X is using the drive for memory.

There have been many complaints by users that Chrome is a resource hog.

Look at Activity Monitor again, this time focusing on CPU usage, instead of RAM usage.

If you're having performance issues, this may help:

Performance Tips For Mac OS X​

 

[Weaselboy]

The performance of my 2.7 GHz i7 8GB RAM Mid 2011 mac mini (about screenshot attached) is slowing down and I believe something is not right. App conflict? RAM being gobbled up by? I could use some help troubleshooting.

Using Chrome and Firefox, I cannot pull in my gmail nor my Google Docs folders! Safari handles both of those with ease.

I have attached several activity monitor screenshots in the hope that the issue can be more quickly identified.

What is using up so much RAM? I thought that upgrading to 8GB would give us enough headroom to do almost any basic tasks. We are only using email, surfing the web for fun and research, rarely use iTunes, sometimes skype with family and do some screensharing using join.me.

What can I do to self diagnose?
What diagnostic tool can I use to identify issue(s)?
Looking forward to hearing some ideas.
Cheers
Neil

Your memory pressure is in the green, so that is not the issue.

Take another look at Activity Monitor and look at the CPU tab then sort by CPU% and see if you have anything chewing up CPU cycles.

You have a bunch of third party utilities/daemons running there that may also be causing conflicts such as all that Intego stuff like "Washing Machine" and "Family Protector" and the like. I would remove all the Intego software.

Run the utility Etrecheck and post up the results. That will list all those startup and login items and make it easier to help you narrow things down.

 

[schmoofee]

@GGGJstudios...
Thank you for your informative reply, explanation of RAM allocation and link to Apple support page and your Performance Tips For Mac OS X.

Attached is the CPU% report for you perusal. What does it reveal? What actions do I need to take?

Also back to the gmail issue = what do you think is causing both Firefox and Chrome to "hang" on login into my gmail account? Refreshing multiple times sometimes gets me logged in.

Thanks again
Neil

 

[schmoofee]

@Weaselboy
Thank you for clarifying that memory pressure is ok. I had no idea there were several colors! and that green means ok.

I just included in my previous reply the CPU%. Please comment on what you notice. Please

In what way does removing all the Intego software help? Or is there some other issue that you have with that product/service? Is there an alternative solution for that utility you'd suggest?

Below is the Etrecheck results. I am curious what suggestions you have about what I need to do to remove further conflicts.

Cheers
Neil

-=-=-=-=


EtreCheck version: 1.9.15 (52)
Report generated October 9, 2014 at 2:06:46 PM PDT

Hardware Information: ?
Mac mini (Mid 2011) (Verified)
Mac mini - model: Macmini5,2
1 2.7 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 2 cores
8 GB RAM

Video Information: ?
AMD Radeon HD 6630M - VRAM: 256 MB
Cinema HD 1920 x 1200

System Software: ?
OS X 10.9.5 (13F34) - Uptime: 0 days 2:27:31

Disk Information: ?
APPLE HDD HTS727575A9E362 disk0 : (750.16 GB)
S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified
EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
Heart of Gold (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 749.3 GB (406.16 GB free)
Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB

USB Information: ?
Western Digital My Book 1 TB
S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified
EFI (disk1s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
Magrathea (disk1s2) /Volumes/Magrathea: 999.86 GB (674.19 GB free)
Canon MX700 series
harman/kardon SoundSticks
Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
HP Deluxe Webcam KQ246AA HP Deluxe Webcam KQ246AA
Apple, Inc. Keyboard Hub
Primax Electronics Apple Optical USB Mouse
Apple, Inc Apple Keyboard
Apple Computer, Inc. Apple Cinema HD Display
Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Thunderbolt Information: ?
Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Gatekeeper: ?
Mac App Store and identified developers

Kernel Extensions: ?
[not loaded] com.intego.Family-Protector.safe-boot (10.7.5 - SDK 10.8) Support
[loaded] net.telestream.driver.TelestreamAudio (1.1.0 - SDK 10.8) Support
[not loaded] org.fuse4x.kext.fuse4x (0.9.2 - SDK 10.5) Support

Startup Items: ?
ChmodBPF: Path: /Library/StartupItems/ChmodBPF

Launch Daemons: ?
[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support
[loaded] com.barebones.authd.plist Support
[running] com.connecteddata.CDHelperApp.plist Support
[loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist Support
[running] com.intego.commonservices.daemon.integod.plist Support
[running] com.intego.commonservices.daemon.taskmanager.plist Support
[loaded] com.intego.commonservices.icalserver.plist Support
[failed] com.intego.commonservices.metrics.kschecker.plist Support
[running] com.intego.Family-Protector.daemon.plist Support
[running] com.intego.netbarrier.daemon.logger.plist Support
[running] com.intego.netbarrier.daemon.monitor.plist Support
[running] com.intego.netbarrier.daemon.plist Support
[running] com.intego.netupdate.daemon.plist Support
[running] com.intego.PersonalBackup.daemon.plist Support
[loaded] com.intego.virusbarrier.daemon.emlparser.plist Support
[running] com.intego.virusbarrier.daemon.logger.plist Support
[running] com.intego.virusbarrier.daemon.plist Support
[running] com.intego.virusbarrier.daemon.scanner.plist Support
[running] com.intego.WashingMachine.service.plist Support
[failed] com.micromat.TechToolProDaemon.plist Support

Launch Agents: ?
[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist Support
[running] com.intego.commonservices.integomenu.plist Support
[loaded] com.intego.commonservices.taskmanager.plist Support
[loaded] com.intego.commonservices.uninstaller.plist Support
[running] com.intego.Family-Protector.agent.plist Support
[loaded] com.intego.netbarrier.alert.plist Support
[running] com.intego.netupdate.agent.plist Support
[loaded] com.intego.personalbackup.agent.plist Support
[loaded] com.intego.virusbarrier.alert.plist Support
[loaded] org.fuse4x.autoupdater.plist Support

User Launch Agents: ?
[loaded] com.shirtpocket.backupbytime.plist Support
[failed] ws.agile.1PasswordAgent.plist Support

User Login Items: ?
Dropbox
Alfred 2
BusyCal
HazelHelper
TextExpander

Internet Plug-ins: ?
FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 15.0.0.152 - SDK 10.6 Support
Flash Player: Version: 15.0.0.152 - SDK 10.6 Support
QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 14.8.0 - SDK 10.9 Check version
Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9

Safari Extensions: ?
Evernote Web Clipper
1Password
AdBlock

Audio Plug-ins: ?
BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9
AirPlay: Version: 2.0 - SDK 10.9
AppleAVBAudio: Version: 203.2 - SDK 10.9
iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9

iTunes Plug-ins: ?
Quartz Composer Visualizer: Version: 1.4 - SDK 10.9

3rd Party Preference Panes: ?
Flash Player Support
Hazel Support

Time Machine: ?
Time Machine not configured!

Top Processes by CPU: ?
3% WindowServer
1% NETGEARGenieDaemon
1% fontd
0% Activity Monitor
0% Safari

Top Processes by Memory: ?
369 MB com.apple.IconServicesAgent
328 MB Safari
229 MB mds_stores
172 MB Mail
164 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent

Virtual Memory Information: ?
1.26 GB Free RAM
3.43 GB Active RAM
2.19 GB Inactive RAM
1.12 GB Wired RAM
673 MB Page-ins
0 B Page-outs

----------

Looking at alternatives for Intego, I found http://www.titanium.free.fr and either http://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/sophos-antivirus-for-mac-home-edition.aspx or http://www.clamxav.com

Would you be willing to share your opinions and effectiveness of these? in lieu of Intego?

Thank you
Neil

 

[GGJstudios]

@GGGJstudios...
Thank you for your informative reply, explanation of RAM allocation and link to Apple support page and your Performance Tips For Mac OS X.

Attached is the CPU% report for you perusal. What does it reveal? What actions do I need to take?

Also back to the gmail issue = what do you think is causing both Firefox and Chrome to "hang" on login into my gmail account? Refreshing multiple times sometimes gets me logged in.

Thanks again
Neil

There's nothing that indicates unusually high CPU activity on the part of any particular process. It does appear that you are running an antivirus app on your Mac, many of which can consume system resources and may slow the loading of emails and webpages as they are scanned. It is not necessary to run an antivirus app on your Mac, as long as you practice safe computing.

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 over 12 years ago. The only malware in the wild that can affect Mac OS X is a handful of trojans, which can be easily avoided by practicing safe computing (see below). 3rd party antivirus apps are not necessary to keep a Mac malware-free, as long as a user practices safe computing, as described in the following link.

​

Read the What security steps should I take? section of the Mac Virus/Malware FAQ for tips on practicing safe computing.

 

[Weaselboy]

@Weaselboy
Thank you for clarifying that memory pressure is ok. I had no idea there were several colors! and that green means ok.

I just included in my previous reply the CPU%. Please comment on what you notice. Please

In what way does removing all the Intego software help? Or is there some other issue that you have with that product/service? Is there an alternative solution for that utility you'd suggest?

Nothing looks off with that CPU usage.

My concern with the Intego product is it is not just a virus scanner but a bunch of other file monitor utilities and other things all thrown together in one big utility. Look at that Etrecheck list at all the different processes that Intego package is running. My concern is one or many of them may be interfering with your OS.

Let's try a test. Do a safe mode boot by holding the shift key at startup. That will bypass all these startup/login items and allow only the OS to run without all the utilities you have. Test it out like that and let us know if things improve. If they do, that tells us it is a startup/login item (like Intego or others) causing the issue and we can start removing things to troubleshoot.

Do you recall if this started when you changed or updated anything like installing the Intego package or something else?

If you would like to run an antivirus, you would be better off running one like ClamXAV (free) that you can run when you want to scan. It does not run in the background like Intego and others that may cause conflicts.

Let us know how safe mode works out.