MacBook Pro Running slow

Hi Im new to the macbook pro i just got it about 3 weeks ago. and when i first got it i started up fine but within a week it stated to load up leopard really slow. I did the verify disk permissions and everything was fine. Now i do not have the newest macbook pro with the new processors, but in some way i think i should have got one, I got this version and its was normally 2299.00 but my school discounted it to 1699.00 but then i saw that pretty much the same specs for the lowest model is 1799.00, I like my macbook pro but does the new one run leopard faster. Did I get ripped off? I saved a hundred bucks but still. can you help? anyone else machine running slow?

devast8or said:

Hi Im new to the macbook pro i just got it about 3 weeks ago. and when i first got it i started up fine but within a week it stated to load up leopard really slow. I did the verify disk permissions and everything was fine. Now i do not have the newest macbook pro with the new processors, but in some way i think i should have got one, I got this version and its was normally 2299.00 but my school discounted it to 1699.00 but then i saw that pretty much the same specs for the lowest model is 1799.00, I like my macbook pro but does the new one run leopard faster. Did I get ripped off? I saved a hundred bucks but still. can you help? anyone else machine running slow?

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You're asking 3 different questions there.

Did you get ripped off? Nope, but you were perhaps unlucky to buy a machine right on the cusp of a new one being released. I think you could get it exchanged, but I know that many schools have a very strict 'no return' policy (NYU does). Considering the saving you got, it's hardly surprising.

As for the slow down, as soon as you start adding applications and updates, the system gets a little slower. Startup times are always the 1st to become affected. Unless the system is noticeably slower AFTER boot up, I would not worry. Leopard does some house-keeping on startup and shutdown, so this is fairly normal.

Oh Really i didnt know that leopard did that, thats good to know, I still like my macbook pro and my school return policy is like no returns on sale merchandise which is fine. im sure this computer will last me untill the next macbook pro upgrade in a year or so lol. thanks for answering.

This is a frequent question, and I have accumulated the usual steps into a single response that I routinely post in response to such questions when they appear. With apologies to the frequent denizens of this forum, who have seen it before, here are some steps you can take to help return your Mac to its erstwhile speed:

First, check that your processor is running full speed. In Tiger at least, go to Preferences, Energy Saver, Options and look at the drop box down near the bottom called Processor Performance. If it is not set to "Highest", set it to that right away. This maximizes performance, but for notebooks, it may run down the battery faster. Note that not all Macs have this setting - my certainly my PowerMac G5 tower does, but not all Macs do. For Leopard, the preference panel is a bit different in this regard, but poke around and make sure that you are set up for optimum performance, not optimum battery life.

Next, for Intel Macs, fire up Activity Monitor and check for any processes running that are PPC not Intel (this is shown in one of the rightmost columns of the Processes display). If you are routinely running a background process of perhaps even a widget that is PPC, that process is running under Rosetta and that is consuming more CPU. You might wish to upgrade it to a Universal Binary, or replace it with something else.

Next, download OnyX and run the complete set of clean up and maintenance scripts and then evaluate again. Get OnyX at:

http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs/english.html

Next, you may wish to check that you have enough free space on your hard drive. Highlight the Macintosh HD icon on your desktop, CTL-click it and select Get Info from the resulting menu. Make sure you have a reasonable amount of space left. If not, a little spring cleaning may be in order.

There are two excellent apps for showing where all of your hard disk space has gone, Disk Inventory X and WhatSize. Get them at:

Disk Inventory X: http://www.derlien.com

WhatSize: http://www.id-design.com/software/whatsize

Both do a great job at letting you zero in on your largest disk space consumers, so that you can hunt down any rogue files (and both are freeware, which is good).

Finally, it is possible you may have some processes running that are consuming a lot of idle CPU, thus slowing down your machine overall. I had a bad widget that did this once. Open Activity Monitor and look at your "resting" CPU occupancy when you are not doing anything in particular with the machine. It should be pretty much zero (maybe 1% to 2% at most). If it not, identify the process or processes that are taking the time. What are they? Do you recognize them? Are they needed?

If you find one that is not needed, kill it and see how your machine starts to behave. If this is the cure, you will need to identify the startup item that launches it and delete it.

So, in summary then, take the following steps in order:
1/ Start with ensuring that your processor speed setting is full (applies to many Macs but not all)
2/ For Intel Macs, check for PPC processes and potentially prune them out
3/ Do Onyx based full maintenance
4/ Check that you have sufficient available disk space
5/ Search for processes that are consuming an unexpected amount of CPU

A final thought. If you routinely leave your web browser running when you are not using it, and have it open at a "busy" page like Mac-Forums, you will find that the Flash-based animated ads on the page consume a ridiculous amount of CPU time. If you want to leave your web browser loaded and running all the time, try pointing it a peaceful page like Google's basic search page - no ads, no unusual CPU consumption. This may help as well.

wow thank you so much

i know i didn't ask the question but i checked on activiy monitor while nothing was running (exept safari & activity monitor)

the top 3 items listed when viewing cpu usage are pmtool windowserver & kernel_task

i'm guessing they are system processes... (in total its around 4 percent....mostly system usage)

This is how I fixed it

I know this post is a little late, but thought it might help some people with there new macbooks.

My browsers were running really slow when I got me new macbook, and I did some research. This solved the problem:

Access your router admin page and write down the DNS servers that it is using. Then add those servers ( 00.00.000.000 ) to the DNS tab for your airport.

Currently mine only had the router address in my DNS servers tab 192.168.1.1, but by adding the two found in the router admin page solved my problem completely

Some weeks ago, I started to have the same problem... so I remembered about this forum and I looked for a post with something similar.

I've found this one, and I followed your suggestions, Mac57, and it worked perfectly!!!

Thank you!!!

Now my mac came back to work as it used to!!!