Mac Pro - Mighty Slow

Had my mac pro around 2 years now and I have re-formated about 4 or 5 times. Why? Because all of a sudden it becomes very slow. Like now for example, I haven't changed anything, haven't installed anything but the whole system has just turned mega slow! Safari has crashed 4 times trying to write this thread, programs take ages to respond, opening new tabs in safari takes a good 5-10 seconds.

The whole system is just super slow and the only thing to fix it, is to re-format.

I try macjanitor, onyx, clam XAV, macsweeper. None of it helps. For example if I click on finder and then apps. It takes a good 5 seconds to show them, dashboard is very laggy etc etc

Here are my system specs:

2.66 Dual Core Intel Xeon
4 GB RAM
1 X 250 GB - Main HDD (around 30Gb left)
1 X 200 GB - Uni work (around 100GB left)
1 X 500 GB - Multimedia (around 100GB left)

Boot up times are slow, sometimes it wont chime and I have to turn off mac for 10 mins and start it up again to get it working. Sometime the keyboard and mouse till take 5 mins to work.

It is all very random and I wish I didn't have to re-format ever time it gets lagged down but I dont know of any other option?

Help!!

What OS do you have installed

Do you have tons of fonts open

What tasks are you running in Onyx

Sorry for all the questions but there is usually no need to reintall OS X very often

I am running 10.5.4

How do I check if I have tons of fonts open?

In Onyx i run the automation and do everything apart from clean fonts and rebuild folder display

Thanks for your help

Joe

I have tried cleaning fonts and still no difference. I can hear the hdd working overtime all the time. this takes me back to my bad PC days when it would take me ages just to surf the web!

any help appreciated

im afraid I give up - time to reformat!

Maybe time for a new hard disk!

It could very well be possible that you have faulty hardware. There is no other explanation for why a fresh install of OS X would run so slowly on such a powerful system. I get the feeling that you might have bad sectors on your hard drive that tend to grow as you use the system, and every time you format, OS X gets installed on the good sectors and works fine until those sectors eventually go bad.

Do you have AppleCare? If so, there should have been a disc included that runs hardware tests. Pop that in and see if it can find any hardware issues. If you don't have one, give Apple a call and see if they can perhaps help with diagnosing the problem.

Hi Kash,

thanks for the help. After re-installing OSX I didn't notice much of a difference (still being very slow) so I think your right, there is a problem with the hard drive. Do you suggest me running tests or just purchase a new drive?

Thanks again,

Joe

*EDIT* Seeing as hard drives are so cheap now I think I might just get a new one and start a fresh:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/130826

run your Apple Hardware Test disc for errors.

Although I have applecare I have a feeling the disc is "stored away somewhere safe" is there any other way for me to run the test? I have the leopard disk if that helps?

You might run the Install disc if it includes Software Install. There might be a volume for the test on it. I've heard of the test being downloadable from Apple if you have Apple Pro Support. Maybe applecare applies idk.

I think I know why things have gone bad, we had a power surge a week or so back which killed my mum's laptop and my dad's PC also having hardware problems.

i tried holding down D with the leopard disk in and no luck - I will search for the applecare disk and go on apple to see if I can find anything

thank you all for your help

Have you tried resetting Safari?

It builds up crap over time which can slow the whole system.

Ram Stick

I recently upgraded my mac pro to 6gb ram. How would i know if the sticks arent working or if its defected? Its working now (i assume), but Ive heard that it breaks down sometimes especially if the brand isnt that great.

Did your Mac Pro come with Leopard or Tiger? The Hardware Test would be on the DVD that shipped with the machine and not an After the fact Leopard DVD you later purchased.

As there has been a strike, try resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) as set out in this Apple link:-

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1806

joe.morgan said:

1 X 250 GB - Main HDD (around 30Gb left)
1 X 200 GB - Uni work (around 100GB left)
1 X 500 GB - Multimedia (around 100GB left)

Click to expand...

Have you tried to free up more space on your main HDD? Move 50Gb to one of the other HDD and see if that improves anything.

Have you tried one of the other HDs for the OS?

Safari usually freaks out on me -- kill safari and everything is fine. Don't think reformatting will help you -- that sounds like a Windows 2000 type of solution?

Hopefully someday Apple will make Safari good and not bad.

Thank for all your help. I have tried freeing up more space on the HDD, did nothing. I reformatted and its still very slow. It came with tiger, again the disk is stored somewhere "safe" and I cannot find it. I think I am going to have to get a new HDD.

Another question, my macbook seems to be very slow when starting up. Getting to the login screen is ok, slower than normal but nothing to worry about. When i enter the password and go into osx it all takes a long time to settle. Dock takes a good 10 seconds but the main bar at the top (the name has slipped my mind) takes forever! Sometimes I will only load if i go to open system pref. Only thing I can put this down too is iDisk taking a while to boot up and sync? Things like safari and itunes are ok, not as quick as I would like. I know viruses for macs are rare but do you thing there might be something harming both my macbook and my mac pro for me to experiencing problems with both of them?

thanks again for all your help