Painfully Slow Macbook, SPOD all the time:Automator, Finder problem?!

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Dear all,

This is my first post and I'm suffering the ignominy of writing this on a PC and with a French keyboard to boot!

My beloved Macbook is keeling over and dying. Please help. I've searched the forums and tried tips already suggested for other users, but nothing's licked it yet.

Stats:
-White Macbook 1.1
- Intel Core Duo 1.83 Ghz
- L2 cache 2MB, Memory 2 GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM
- Disk Usage: 35.83GB, 75.64GB free
- Mac OS X 10.4.11

For the past year, the Macbook has been running without any problems and I really use it a lot - for blogging, downloading, the usual - nothing special. I don't run any big programs like Aperture, etc. I've backed everything up onto an external hardrive, but don't have the CD Discs (Repair/Install etc) with me.

The other night I suddenly kept getting the Spinning Beachball of Death for EVERY single task: closing a window, using Spotlight, dragging and dropping a file, typing into Google search bar...

I came here and followed suggestions to others to use MainMenu. Having downloaded this and run all the diagnostics like empting cache, temporary files, repairing permissions, etc. it seems to have slowed it more, especially in terms of booting up! The only one I have been able to run is Repair Disk Permissions, which seems to spend an eternity "Determining correct file permissions" and that's all it does.

Running Activity Manager, I notice that Automator and Finder seem to be the problem. It mostly comes up 90-95% idle, but trying to look in Applications can take 5 minutes with nothing else running!!

Other potentially relevant info:
- I noticed that the screen seemed to change around the same time the problem began, going slighly lighter in colour
- I noticed that every web browser appears different: I can see colours and lines in web sites that I couldn't before, if that makes sense!
- I have 2 folders in the Trash that I just cannot delete, even when trying to Force Empty Trash via MainMenu. One is a wordpress folder which says its in use, but my blog is run off wordpress.com not wordpress.org (tho' I did download this publishing platform - hence the folder!) The other is Recovered Files.

I look forward to any help, advice or suggestions you can give me. I am still able to download stuff - I just require the patience of a saint to get the browser up!

Thanks in advance!

Neil
 
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Sorry, that should read: the only one I'm UNable to run in MainMenu is Disk Utility/Repair Disk Permissions

And something else that might be relevant:
System Memory: 1.47GB free; VM size: 7.48GB; page ins/outs 29967/0

Thanks,

Neil
 
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Your Mac's Specs
Aluminium Macbook 2.4 Ghz 4GB RAM, SSD 24" Samsung Display, iPhone 4, iPad 2
The problem might be a dying harddrive. Go to Apps > Utilities> Disk Utility and check your harddrive's "Smart status".
If the harddrive is slowly dying, make sure you have a backup of your important data and I'd probably swap it out.

You could easily test what the cause is by booting off an external harddrive with a clean install of OS X, if you have one around.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
MacbookPro 15.4, 2.2ghz i7 (Late 2011), Macbook 1,1 1.83ghz CoreDuo
i have a Macbook,1 -1.83ghz as well. i sometimes on dark movies see a light line across the top 1/3 of my screen, it doesnt bother me too much, i have alot of wear and tear on mine, it practically goes everywhere with me. BUT i had to replace/upgrade my harddrive for 1: too small (60gb), 2: It would goto sleep and stop spinning and would never wake back up.

So i purchased a new drive for $90 (320gb Seagate, faster @ 7200rpm)

Just backup your files that you can, get a new drive and re-install OSX.

I see you said you dont have the Restore Discs? or is it the Software for the applications you currently have loaded?
 

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