Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Slowing up, clean-up??

P

Peter Franks

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jun 9, 2011
2,118
125
I know I was told a while back that Macs don't need a 'clean-up' as such, like Windows do, as it runs it's own scripts etc, in the background, but i have noticed a decline in speed, for instance when I clicked on the blue 'downloads' folder the far right one in the dock it always showed pics instantly, now it is a slower process and pics open slower. Prior they were instant.

Also, I know start up is slower than when new as I have stuff on the hard drive, Still have 276 of the 320 HD. Any advice as to what you guys and gals do would be appreciated, just to give it a kick after it's first 6 months..

Thanks
 
If you really want to clean up the rubbish that may have collected over the past 6 months then copy your documents/ applications and media files to an external HDD and then erase and restore.
 
How do you restore without going into too much detail, Is that a putting disk in and starting from 'as new'? Documents I can drag and drop etc, but things like photoshop, can they be saved on to a HDD or is that a whole new install with the original disk.

Not sure as to RAM when it's doing that, is that an Activity monitor job?
 
Peter Franks said:
How do you restore without going into too much detail, Is that a putting disk in and starting from 'as new'? Documents I can drag and drop etc, but things like photoshop, can they be saved on to a HDD or is that a whole new install with the original disk.
Click to expand...

Yes. Clean install with all the disks etc.

Peter Franks said:
Not sure as to RAM when it's doing that, is that an Activity monitor job?
Click to expand...

Yes. Open Activity Monitor and post the memory usage next time it slows down.
 
stridemat said:
Yes. Open Activity Monitor and post the memory usage next time it slows down.
Click to expand...
Preferable the process list ordered by "% CPU" too. Often a slow down is due to some buggy app claiming all the CPU time it can get.
 
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.
 
Thanks, there's nothing untoward on here, as far as I'm aware. No virus protection, etc.. no apps other than, flash, perion, flip4mac etc, and a downloaded photoshop from proper disk. Was angling to see if there were any nasties from the web that had been picked up and were hiding

Thanks
 
Peter Franks said:
Was angling to see if there were any nasties from the web that had been picked up and were hiding
Click to expand...
If by "nasties from the web" you mean malware, it's not likely at all. 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.
 
I've had Onyx installed for years but must admit I never use it! Provided, when not using it, you put your iMac to sleep instead of switching it of completely, the regular maintenance scripts run automatically.
 
John T said:
I've had Onyx installed for years but must admit I never use it! Provided, when not using it, you put your iMac to sleep instead of switching it of completely, the regular maintenance scripts run automatically.
Click to expand...
The Mac OS X maintenance scripts do not run when the Mac is in sleep mode. However, if your Mac is off or asleep at the time the scripts are scheduled to run, they will run the next time your Mac is awake.
 
GGJstudios said:
The Mac OS X maintenance scripts do not run when the Mac is in sleep mode. However, if your Mac is off or asleep at the time the scripts are scheduled to run, they will run the next time your Mac is awake.
Click to expand...

I didn't know this so thanks :)

I'll post this link up anyway 'cos it's the one that I was using when looking at general mac maintenance (of which there isn't a lot, happily)


http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/maintscripts.html
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back