11-07-2010, 08:37 PM

Hey everyone,

I'm about as noob and green as it gets with my Macbook. I use it for internet, music, pics and that's mostly it.

I have had a couple issues recently and am completely lost.

I have been running Epson printers on this for the last year and a half and have never had this issue. All of a sudden I get "Epson Printer Monitor" randomly starting. I have no printer hooked up and have never had an issue with just unplugging the printer. It seems like part of the general slowing happens with this.

The other part...

I have noticed I have a "slow" OS now. I mean slow. I only have Firefox, Itunes, and thats usually it running. After a look through the Activity monitor I noticed I have these programs using gig's of virtual memory. Is this right? Over a gig to run Firefox or Itunes?

I did a scan with macscan and it got rid of a bunch of spyware that was found and it ran great for about one day.

Now what?

Thanks in advance and sorry for the noob-ness.

Mike

11-07-2010, 08:48 PM

Originally Posted by Mikeyk

After a look through the Activity monitor I noticed I have these programs using gig's of virtual memory. Is this right? Over a gig to run Firefox or Itunes?

No, that is not normal. iTunes is using 68.3MB and I just opened Firefox and it's using 89.1MB (it did just open though). Try quitting the applications and opening them again.

Could you post a picture of Activity Monitor for us? In case you don't know how, push Command-Shift-4 and then push spacebar. Your cursor should turn into a camera. Click the AM window and the screenshot will be saved on the desktop.

11-07-2010, 10:35 PM

As far as the memory goes I have plenty of space on the hard drive and have always tried to keep some free. I did notice at points I would have little to no memory and I never had this problem before.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/52015264@N02/5156428707/

11-08-2010, 10:02 AM

You're looking at the wrong column. The amount of memory an application is using can be found in the "real memory" column. As you can see in that picture, you have 1.19GB free out of a total of 2GB.

Take a look at this and this (the second is only useful if you want more detailed info on virtual memory).

11-08-2010, 10:18 AM

So this is all normal then? What would cause the Epson Print monitor to randomly start up then?

11-08-2010, 10:45 AM

Another program may be opening it. Let me give you an example: I had set up alarms in iCal once and to email out the reminders, it would try to do so through Mail. I didn't know this at the time so to me, it appeared that Mail was randomly trying to open itself. I eventually figured out that it was iCal doing it but at the time I thought my Mac was possessed.

Is there any app that may be opening it? Do you notice it happening at a specific time or regular interval? Does it only happen when certain applications are open(ed)? Is it in your login items ( > System Preferences > Accounts > click your user > Login Items)?

11-08-2010, 03:44 PM

Nope. Not under log in items. It seems random but I'll pay a little more attention to it.

The only thing i can think of is it has been doing it since the last time I printed a document. I have always just shut off the printer and pulled the plug out. Not ejected it through the computer.

Could that have something to do with it?

11-08-2010, 03:49 PM

Indeed. Quit the Epson Printer Utility.