Macbook running very slow.

Joined
Jun 14, 2007
Messages
341
Reaction score
3
Points
18
Location
Lincolnshire, UK
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook - 2.4 ghz intel core duo / 4 gig of ram.
I have a macbook (black one, 2.4 GHZ core 2 duo, 4 gig of ram running leopard, update: 10.5.6).
Lately, it has been running chronically slow when accessing my files in finder. I used Onyx yesterday (and do so on a fairly regular basis) and it hasn't fixed anything. I have also done a spyware and virus check and nothing has been picked up.

Just now Finder crashed and I had to go into activity monitor to kill it. What could be causing this? It is becoming very frustrating, it never used to run like this and with the specs I have it shouldn't be running this bad.

Any suggestions will be very helpful
 

chscag

Well-known member
Staff member
Admin
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
65,248
Reaction score
1,833
Points
113
Location
Keller, Texas
Your Mac's Specs
2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
You might find it helpful to run your "Activity Monitor.app" while using the machine. That should give you some idea if there is an ongoing process which is causing the slowdown.

And - from System Preferences, go to Accounts. Highlight your account name (the one you're currently logged on as) and then select "Login Items" from the tab. Take a look at what's listed to see if any of your current startup items can be removed from that list.

Sometimes we forget how many applications or small processes are starting up when we log on. An accumulation of them can slow down the machine.

Something else which can cause slowdowns is the lack of hard drive space. When there is around 20% or less space remaining on the drive, everything begins to slowdown.

Regards.
 
Joined
Mar 29, 2009
Messages
18
Reaction score
0
Points
1
how old is your blackbook? please make sure your HDD is 100% healthy and not failing.
 
OP
vaughan80
Joined
Jun 14, 2007
Messages
341
Reaction score
3
Points
18
Location
Lincolnshire, UK
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook - 2.4 ghz intel core duo / 4 gig of ram.
My macbook is about 6 months old. I have no log in items under my log in and there seems to be no massive ram hogs in activity monitor, although, i'm not entirely certain what is considered normal in there.

The biggest processes are:

Kernel task, which is using 75.39 ram
and Window server 37.47ram

Strangely, tasks called "UserEventAgent" and "coreaudiod" are not responding, could these be an issue?

My hard drive is 232.57 gigs in size, I have 61.44GB of space remaining.

Anything else I should try?
 
Joined
Jan 13, 2006
Messages
226
Reaction score
1
Points
18
Location
Upstate California
Your Mac's Specs
'09 8-core MacPro | '12 MBA | iPad 2 16GB | iPhone 5C 16GB
What about a clean reformat? Sometimes if running utilities and such doesn't work for me I just backup everything that's important and do a clean sweep of my hard drive.
 
Joined
Jan 16, 2008
Messages
314
Reaction score
0
Points
16
Hmm, I remember something like that happening to me when I just got my Blackbook, 2.16Ghz, 2GB RAM. I didn't know what was wrong with it. Eventually Apple released a Mac OS X Combo Update and after I installed it my computer was faster than ever. Have you kept up with the updates?
 
OP
vaughan80
Joined
Jun 14, 2007
Messages
341
Reaction score
3
Points
18
Location
Lincolnshire, UK
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook - 2.4 ghz intel core duo / 4 gig of ram.
Just checked apple updates, I have the latest version. Very annoyed about this. I decided to leave windows because I was sick of having to reformat every 6 months now it's happening with apple. :Grimmace:
 
Joined
Jan 16, 2008
Messages
314
Reaction score
0
Points
16
Stay cool man. All will be fixed shortly. Do you have any programs which start when your computer boots? Maybe it's your hard drive, it could have some bad sectors making it harder to retrieve information. How long has this problem been occurring? When was the last time you downloaded a Mac OS X Update?

Try taking your computer to a local Apple store and have a Genius look at it. They may be able to give you a proper diagnosis.
 

vansmith

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2008
Messages
19,924
Reaction score
559
Points
113
Location
Queensland
Your Mac's Specs
Mini (2014, 2018, 2020), MBA (2020), iPad Pro (2018), iPhone 13 Pro Max, Watch (S6)
I used Onyx yesterday (and do so on a fairly regular basis) and it hasn't fixed anything.
What exactly are you running when you do maintenance with OnyX?
 
OP
vaughan80
Joined
Jun 14, 2007
Messages
341
Reaction score
3
Points
18
Location
Lincolnshire, UK
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook - 2.4 ghz intel core duo / 4 gig of ram.
My nearest apple store is nearly 200 miles away, so no dice there...

I updated about a month-ish ago. I have been having the problem on and off for about 3 months. I have no items or apps that start when I turn the mac on either.

With Onyx, i'll be honest, I usually leave the settings at default. I don't really know what i'm doing in there and dont want to mess it up further. Anything I should be doing?
 
Joined
Mar 9, 2004
Messages
9,065
Reaction score
331
Points
83
Location
Munich
Your Mac's Specs
Aluminium Macbook 2.4 Ghz 4GB RAM, SSD 24" Samsung Display, iPhone 4, iPad 2
How much space left on the drive?
Could be that, or it sounds like a dying harddrive... make sure you have your stuff backed up in any case!
 
OP
vaughan80
Joined
Jun 14, 2007
Messages
341
Reaction score
3
Points
18
Location
Lincolnshire, UK
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook - 2.4 ghz intel core duo / 4 gig of ram.
My hard drive is 232.57 gigs in size, I have 61.44GB approx of space remaining.
I have a recent backup. Thing is, I can't take it back to a store until it actually goes wrong.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top