06-23-2011, 10:42 AM

Hi All

I have a 3 year ols mac pro with 14 gb ram and it used to run perfectly, recently its started to slow down and I took advice to repair disk permissions and clear cache etc but its still the same.

as a test I started a new user, logged into that user and my mac was blazing fast again,

I am assuming its a software issue ? any ideas how to resolve this or should I start from scratch with a new user which is a bit of a pain cos I will look all my setups that I love, ie preferences for Cs5 etc

Any ideas please ?

Thanks jules

06-23-2011, 03:23 PM

As you've already discovered, something that's running in the background (or perhaps a login/startup item) in your user folder is the culprit.

Helping you narrow that down, when you say it "slows down" do you mean generally (ie disk and file operations) or just in certain apps (like internet apps)?

06-23-2011, 03:32 PM

Hi Chas,

Thank you .....

The slow down is not internet related more general operations such as clicking on finder and it taking a few seconds to open, or once open clicking on another folder and that takes a while to open

I really appreciate your help

Jules

06-23-2011, 03:49 PM

Can you think of anything that has been added/changed between the time the system was fine and the time you noticed the slowdown.

06-23-2011, 10:05 PM

Just to see if this makes a difference, start up in your account but in Safe Mode (hold shift key at login). If the system is suddenly all zippy again, your next step (after rebooting) is to start looking at your third-party login items, menubar items and background processes, because that's what is slowing you down.

06-24-2011, 02:31 AM

Thanks again Chas,

Ok i am off to photograph a wedding today but I will try that tomorrow thank you.

Again this is probably dumb, but how best do I check, login/startup programs or items?

I assume then just remove them one at a time until it corrects itself,

Thanks,


Slydude, I dont think I have added anything recently, apart from updates, I added the latest microsoft word 2011 ?

Thanks both Jules

06-24-2011, 03:12 AM

In System Preferences, click on Accounts, then your own account if it's not already highlighted, then "Login Items" and then ... actually best to just list them here and we'll tell you which ones can be safely deleted. It's kinda tricky.

If you see any login items that correspond to programs you have uninstalled, those of course you can delete (with the little "minus" key below the list).

06-24-2011, 07:00 PM

And consider downloading and using Onyx to clean things out. It is a great, free utility.


http://www.apple.com/downloads/macos...ties/onyx.html

06-24-2011, 07:55 PM

I'm new to the forum and also to Mac. Just throwing this out there, I installed Microsoft Office '11 on my Macbook Pro, the instant I did that, I noticed a considerable difference in speed and performance. Tried everything to bring it back to normal, Coincidentally, when I removed it, my Mac was back to normal. Not saying that's what wrong with yours, just a thought though. I ended up with iWork instead. LOVIN LIFE WITH MY NEW MAC!!!!!

06-24-2011, 08:04 PM

On a Mac Pro Office runs just fine so it will not be that as it will have no bearing if the suite is not open.