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Slow running macbook

S

shebax

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 11, 2008
8
0
Hey all, sorry if there is a mass thread about this, I didn't see one but I'm a bit careless :/


Anyway, I have a Macbook. I purchased it in July of 2006 (I'm not sure what that falls under). Within the last year and a half it has begun to run a bit slower. I have erased a lot of things that I didn't need and I have about 15.6 gigs open. But its still running laggy, occasionally freezes up, acts a little strange, etc. I don't have an Apple store in the vicinity so I can't just go to a genius bar until I get back to my dorms in NY the second week of August.

I know I'm going to have to send my macbook in because it has had the dvd My Cousin Vinny stuck inside its jaws for about 2 months. But before I send it in is there anyway I could clean up my disk and help it run better? Or is old age just getting to my poor baby? I'm under Applecare still, so should I just wait it out? I've googled this a lot but got a lot of jargon I didn't understand (I'm a make up artist/journalism student/archaeology student, so a lot of it is completely lost on me).

Processor: 2GHz Intel Core Duo
Memory: 512 MB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM


Any ideas? TIA
 
You need more RAM but install that after you get the DVD drive fixed. 512 MB is barely enough to run OS X with a pleasant user experience. Look at me I have 4 GB (4096 MB) of RAM. ;)
 
Back up your stuff and then do a clean install of Mac OS X - or do an "Archive and Install"
 
I'm having the same problem and got my MacBook at about the same time.

Is RAM expensive to purchase? Do you have to have someone do it for you, or is it something I (a total tech dummy) can do myself?

Thanks.
 
yaymac said:
I'm having the same problem and got my MacBook at about the same time.

Is RAM expensive to purchase? Do you have to have someone do it for you, or is it something I (a total tech dummy) can do myself?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

You can easily do it yourself

Google Crucial, OWC or see the Guide on this site

Woof, Woof - Dawg
pawprint.gif
 
Most likely the fact the the computer is a previous revision I may not take 4GB ram, the most that it may take is 3. Everyone else's suggestions are correct in saying that 512Mb is not enough. I'm assuming you have applecare, otherwise a superdrive replacement is going to cost about 300 to 400 buck. I should know, I just had one replaced in my girlfriends macbook. Luckily, I made her buy applecare. LOL
 
It's interesting...I was just taking a look at the links above (thank you!), and it talked about programs which are high energy -- like Photoshop, etc. But my MacBook runs slow when using just average programs, like Firefox, and especially Word, Excel, etc. I don't use anything beyond the internet, Office programs, iTunes, and iPhoto. So do I still need more RAM? Or what else could be causing the slow down?

I do have about 2,000+ photos and lots of music on my computer. But those programs aren't even open all the time.

Using OS X 10.4.11, if that's useful information. Call me clueless!:rolleyes:
 
OSX is a RAM hog. Previous version of OSX a.k.a Tiger ran decent on 512 or 1GB if you have Leopard I would not attempt to run it on anything less than 1GB as unfavorable results may happen. Can you open activity monitor and post your page in's and page outs for us please?
 
yaymac said:
It's interesting...I was just taking a look at the links above (thank you!), and it talked about programs which are high energy -- like Photoshop, etc. But my MacBook runs slow when using just average programs, like Firefox, and especially Word, Excel, etc. I don't use anything beyond the internet, Office programs, iTunes, and iPhoto. So do I still need more RAM? Or what else could be causing the slow down?

I do have about 2,000+ photos and lots of music on my computer. But those programs aren't even open all the time.

Using OS X 10.4.11, if that's useful information. Call me clueless!:rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Okay, since you are running 10.4.11 the minimum requirement for that OS is 256MB. Now, how many programs are you using at once? That's the next thing. RAM does NOT determine speed. It places programs there so they can be accessed faster by the CPU instead of reading it from the HDD which is a lot slower. RAM helps running multiple programs.

FireFox uses around 175,000k~52MB from what I'm reading. But it backs off when you use other programs. So that can be one of the leading sources of why your computer is running slow. If you want to run a lot of programs at once, then yes, you have to upgrade your RAM. If you aren't running a lot of programs then it is something else.

EDIT: Office also uses a lot of RAM. 512MB is the requirement. So this might be the cause as to why your computer is running slow. You might be running FireFox and Office at once which chews up a lot of RAM causing your computer to run slowly because it then has to much stuff in RAM so there for when you go back to word from FireFox it must first ask the CPU the info for it and then send it to RAM then send it to the CPU causing your computer to slow down. If this is the case then upgrade RAM.
 
i had the same problem with you. i bought mine in june of 06. so its the oldest macbook. lol well anyways.. i started out with 512 ram for about 2 years. it was very slow. it was workable.. but only if you are patient.. and i was for about 2 years. if i ran like one or 2 programs at a time then it would run fine... but if you want to listen to music or just open more than one tab in safari or firefox, it would slow up majorly. the ram should do the trick. now my computer is running like its brand new.
 
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