Flash Player/Mac slowdown

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Fellow Apple enthusiasts,
I seem to be the first one to report this. I've found the cause of the infamous Mac "slowdown." I haven't seen this information posted anywhere yet, and hope to introduce a PROVEN solution to alleviate some frustrations with many Mac users out there. Don't return your iMac! Your hardware is fine. It is an Apple software issue that should be easily remedied with an update.

I'm posting this here in the iMac section first, because many seem to believe that only the iMac is affected. This is false. It will probably affect any Snow Leopard machine.

THE PROBLEM: Resource leakage, system slowdown, and slow/choppy Flash video playback while pegging CPU utilization for Flash Player, as observed in the Activity Monitor.

THE CAUSE: MAGIC MOUSE drivers. Yes, the Wireless Mouse update is the cause. With the update installed, the problem will occur as long as the mouse is paired with the Mac.

It will occur REGARDLESS if:

- The Magic Mouse is in standby mode
- The mouse is switched off via power switch underneath
- The mouse is disconnected under the Bluetooth drop down menu at top of screen

The reason I'm reporting the Wireless Mouse Update as the culprit is:

I have a 13" unibody MacBook Pro (Early 2009) and purchased a Magic Mouse online. Received it yesterday - Monday, November 2nd, and updated the Wireless Mouse driver files via Software Update under the Apple menu.

After the update, I noticed the same Flash Player problems mentioned online, and indeed, System Monitor showed about 104% utilization. Flash videos appeared to be running with 1/2 to 1/3 frame rates.


*** THE SOLUTION: Remove your Magic Mouse using the Bluetooth Utility.

- Click on the Bluetooth icon at top of screen, and choose "Open Bluetooth Preferences." Or, use equivalent steps via System Prefs.
- Highlight the Magic Mouse, and then click on the "-" minus at the bottom of the window.
- Your Magic Mouse will no longer function with your Mac, obviously. Use a different mouse to avoid the problems you've experienced.
- The Flash video problem will no longer occur, and suspect the resource leakage may cease as well.

A restart may or may not be necessary, but upon restarting my MBP, Flash video playback returned to normal, with about 40% utilization while streaming a single Flash video.

The steps above are simply what I used to rectify the problem. I don't know if other bluetooth mice will cause this problem. I have not tested any other wired or wireless mice either.

I'm just an average user who experienced and recognized the Flash video playback issue on my system. Upon seeing the problem occur, I simply reversed the last change I made to my computer, and found that this solved the problem. Both the problem and the fix are repeatable. The information here has been reported to Apple.

DON'T RETURN YOUR COMPUTERS! I'm confident that once Apple is aware, a software fix will be made. Again, this will probably occur on any machine running Snow Leopard, and may be even more widespread. I will continue conversation with Apple on this subject.

Good luck to us all in resolving this issue as quickly and easily as possible.
 

bobtomay

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Thread moved to more appropriate forum. Please read before posting in Rumors & Reports.

And just an FYI: Flash player has been using 100%+ resources for ages, long before there was any Magic Mouse released by Apple.

You're a moderator. Haven't you been reading about this problem... on your own forums? You know, the slowdowns reported on predominantly the new unibody iMacs?

This affects OSX as a whole! Flash video is just the one consistent indicator of the systemwide problem.

If anyplace, this belongs in the OSX Snow Leopard section. Please move this thread, it was more appropriate where it started, than OSX apps...
 

bobtomay

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You're a moderator. Haven't you been reading about this problem... on your own forums? You know, the slowdowns reported on predominantly the new unibody iMacs?

This affects OSX as a whole! Flash video is just the one consistent indicator of the systemwide problem.

If anyplace, this belongs in the OSX Snow Leopard section. Please move this thread, it was more appropriate where it started, than OSX apps...

Sorry, but maybe you should read your own first post.

You are the one that was blaming Flash on using 100% due to the Magic Mouse.

I am the one that pointed out the issue with Flash Player using this type of processing power has been an ongoing one for a long time.

I believe the issue is not one of OS X, but is an issue of the developers of Flash Player. There are other video apps out there that developers have put out that don't require that amount of raw processing power. Quicktime and VLC come to mind..

As such, it is an application issue and not an OS X issue. Therefore, it is currently in the proper forum.
 
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As such, it is an application issue and not an OS X issue. Therefore, it is currently in the proper forum.


Bravo!!
 
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Sorry, but maybe you should read your own first post.

You are the one that was blaming Flash on using 100% due to the Magic Mouse.

I am the one that pointed out the issue with Flash Player using this type of processing power has been an ongoing one for a long time.

I believe the issue is not one of OS X, but is an issue of the developers of Flash Player. There are other video apps out there that developers have put out that don't require that amount of raw processing power. Quicktime and VLC come to mind..

As such, it is an application issue and not an OS X issue. Therefore, it is currently in the proper forum.

I made two big mistakes when I began this thread;

1) I chose the wrong title for my thread, which you understandably misinterpreted. My wording in my initial post also mistakenly made it sound like this was exclusively a Flash player issue. I can't edit the title, so I can't argue with your reasoning.

2) More importantly, I assumed that users here were already aware of the curious problems affecting predominantly new unibody iMac owners (but susceptibility extends to any Snow Leopard machines.

For your benefit, please see links to threads about this subject.

The problem affects the system as a whole. It's a resource leak.

However, it is notorious for one particular symptom, Flash player slowdown. Perhaps these users were Youtube fanatics, but this was one main complaint people had.

Forget this thread, don't worry about moving it. Please read the following for your own information:

This person is experiencing the very same problem, but does not know it yet. I can tell by his symptoms:

I just purchased the new imac 21.5 inch last Friday. I'm noticing some strange performance issues that appear to be sound related. I use computer for software development (mostly just using terminals), listening to iTunes, iPhoto, and to play Wow. On Saturday, I logged into ichat AV to chat with my bud and play wow, played for about 2-3 hours, no issues at all. I may not have rebooted yet after first install of all the software though. Can't really remember, But i played and chatted a long while with not a single issue.

Yesterday, logged into ichat AV with a friend, played wow, about 20min. into playing, everything becamne super choppy, the sound was sputtering in and out, thought maybe lag, but didn't act like usual lag. Activity monitor showed over 100% cpu usage going to ichat, with 19 threads open! I shut it down, but wow was still fluttering around. Rebooted everything was fine again, after about another 45-1hour same thing happened again.

Basically I have to reboot now about every 30-60min. I don't think wow was the issue either. Because I logged into ichat without wow and launched a youtube video and it happened there too. I wonder if it's some kind of bug when 2 applications try to share the audio device.

Anyone else having this issue? I plan to do some more testing throughout the week with different apps. QT, Flash, Youtube, etc.

Thanks
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/ap...d-performance-issues-new-imac.html#post936786

Now, I don't want to link from other Mac-related forums, but I'm sure you're probably a member there too. Also for your information:

Mac Rumors post "New 27" iMac's have issues. DO NOT BUY"
New 27" iMac's have issues. DO NOT BUY - Mac Forums

Not all iMacs are affected, only a fraction. But those people are frustrated to no end, and wasting lots of time, patience and money reloading/returning their machines. People are seeing so many issues that it's hard to understand they're related. Again, forget about moving the post, I don't wanna argue with you about that. As a moderator, just informing YOU of an issue people have been seeing.

And I now know which forums are better organized/informed/moderated than others.
 

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THE PROBLEM: Resource leakage, system slowdown, and slow/choppy Flash video playback while pegging CPU utilization for Flash Player, as observed in the Activity Monitor.

THE CAUSE: MAGIC MOUSE drivers. Yes, the Wireless Mouse update is the cause. With the update installed, the problem will occur as long as the mouse is paired with the Mac.

It will occur REGARDLESS if:

- The Magic Mouse is in standby mode
- The mouse is switched off via power switch underneath
- The mouse is disconnected under the Bluetooth drop down menu at top of screen

The reason I'm reporting the Wireless Mouse Update as the culprit is:

I have a 13" unibody MacBook Pro (Early 2009) and purchased a Magic Mouse online. Received it yesterday - Monday, November 2nd, and updated the Wireless Mouse driver files via Software Update under the Apple menu.

After the update, I noticed the same Flash Player problems mentioned online, and indeed, System Monitor showed about 104% utilization. Flash videos appeared to be running with 1/2 to 1/3 frame rates.
While this could be a convincing argument, you haven't provided any proof. Simply stating that the problem occurred and ceased with the addition and removal of drivers could very well be construed as spurious logic. Do you have any objective proof to substantiate your claim? Even something as simple as output from Activity Monitor would lend some credence to your argument.

What I'm trying to get at here is that you haven't provided the names of any specific tasks that caused the high CPU usage nor have you linked these unnamed tasks to the operation of the mouse. My main reason for being skeptical, aside from the lack of concrete evidence, is that this is the first I have heard of this issue.
 
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If your machine experiences said slowdowns, well, all I can say is that you would definitely know it, and that it would suddenly become quite important.

When it manifests itself, hard evidence would be right in front of your eyes within seconds, and proof would follow a few seconds later. Everything will be slow, like your new machine just turned into a old PowerPC unit. Check your activity monitor, or watch a youtube video for a sure indicator that you've drawn a short straw.

Such is my case, and I'm lucky enough to be able to rectify it quickly. Many who see the problem are still dealing with it every day, or every hour... these are the ones who will recognize the nature of my post immediately, and want to know what I've found.

Again, I just want to save people some frustration, and help prevent unnecessary trouble for Apple and its customers.

If you're not affected, then simply consider yourself more informed.

I welcome comments whether they are for or against me.

While this could be a convincing argument, you haven't provided any proof. Simply stating that the problem occurred and ceased with the addition and removal of drivers could very well be construed as spurious logic. Do you have any objective proof to substantiate your claim? Even something as simple as output from Activity Monitor would lend some credence to your argument.

What I'm trying to get at here is that you haven't provided the names of any specific tasks that caused the high CPU usage nor have you linked these unnamed tasks to the operation of the mouse. My main reason for being skeptical, aside from the lack of concrete evidence, is that this is the first I have heard of this issue.

Fair enough, and understandable. Complaints, comments and supposed fixes for this issue have little bearing and/or effect, on those who don't experience it.
 

bobtomay

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Yes, and I've seen your posts at other forums also. No one there bought into it either.

The real answer appears to be in the link you provided above. The OP discovered and has reported receiving confirmation from Apple that the stuttering issue some are seeing is related to the Airport card. He also says they are working on it and should have an update soon.

This does explain the issues some are seeing with video stuttering and slowdowns related to iChat, WoW, Safari and other web apps while using the wireless connection.
 
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Yes, and I've seen your posts at other forums also. No one there bought into it either.

The real answer appears to be in the link you provided above. The OP discovered and has reported receiving confirmation from Apple that the stuttering issue some are seeing is related to the Airport card. He also says they are working on it and should have an update soon.

This does explain the issues some are seeing with video stuttering and slowdowns related to iChat, WoW, Safari and other web apps while using the wireless connection.

Are you seeing any problems on your Mac, as described? Has anybody involved in this thread experienced the issues I've described?

No? Well then OF COURSE you don't care about what I'm describing, and haven't "bought it." This information wasn't meant for you. It wasn't meant to convince YOU. Those who have these issues DON"T NEED convincing.

Go on and enjoy your Mac! This is for people whose Mac enjoyment is being interrupted constantly, and was why I was requesting this thread be moved to the OSX area int he first place.

From the bolded words in your quote, at least you now recognize that there IS a problem here. Perhaps you also recognize that the problem IS bigger than just Flash... That perhaps the problem is affecting the whole system - and simply making itself apparent in many ways? iChat, WoW, Safari and other web apps... The problem's showing up in all these apps, because the whole system is being sucked dry of resources.

Should this still be in the applications/games section?

But it seems pointless to convince you, since you think of yourself as a god of sorts.

Again, if your Mac is affected, you would know it. You would recognize it from the info my post. You'd try every step I've described in my post.

Whether the fix I've described was the root of peoples' problems or not, whether you believe me or not, and whether you approve of my info or not...

You've actively tried to block a sincere effort to HELP those who are looking for answers.

Great place you're running here.
 
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Okay, the bickering has gone on long enough.
Thread closed.
 
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