slow MBP

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my lappy is running really slow. it shows mostly when browsing the web, but i erased my free space with the 7x scan option in disk utility. its running a lot better but no where what it used to. nothing is taking up cpu except running programs typically mail safari and i tunes but they don't really go over 2-3%. as it is right now, sites open slowly videos hardly buffer at all. what should i do to get some more speed?

oh and i do have a bunch of things that show up in the activity monitor but dont use any cpu, for what its worth

thanks guys
 
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What kind of computer is it (specs)? and what OS?
 
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its a macbook pro with 2.66 ghz core 2 duo with 4gigs of ram and 156 gb left on the HD
its running 10.6.7
 
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Currently 13" Late 2010 MBA, 4GB/128GB; Early 2011 13" MBP, dual core i7 2.7ghz, 4gb ram, 500gb hd
One thing that does slow down network traffic on Macs is the order in which the network devices are listed. Open the Network preference pane. Click the gear at the bottom and select Set Service Order. If Bluetooth and Firewire are above Ethernet and Airport, drag and drop them so BT and FW are at the bottom of the list. Typically, I set mine up with Ethernet, Airport, any 3rd party wifi or cell card, FW, BT. When BT is at the top of the list, all network requests try to resolve via BT first, then after a few seconds, they give up and move to the next option. By moving the fastest options first, you eliminate a lot of that lag.
 
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that did help Stranger but still not the whole problem. maybe its my ports or something
 
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2010 Mac Pro | 2011 15" MacBook Pro | 2009 13" MacBook Pro
You may also benefit from defragmenting your hard drive. However, do to this you'll need two things, I believe:

1) The ability to boot your Macbook from another/separate partition than the one you want to defragment.

2) A utility with disk defragmenting tools (like Drive Genius).

If you've been using your Mac for a while and have never defragmented its disk it may make a noticable improvement in your hard drive's speed.
 
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You may also benefit from defragmenting your hard drive. However, do to this you'll need two things, I believe:

1) The ability to boot your Macbook from another/separate partition than the one you want to defragment.

2) A utility with disk defragmenting tools (like Drive Genius).

If you've been using your Mac for a while and have never defragmented its disk it may make a noticable improvement in your hard drive's speed.


i thought defragment is automatically done each time we reboot the Mac?

or i got this wrong??
 
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No, Mac's do not defragment automatically with boot up...that'd really slow you down as defragmentation takes a little while even on a fast 7,200rpm drive...especially if its heavily fragmented (which is likely if its never been defragmented). I'm not sure why Apple doesn't include any mechanism to defragment the hard drive as its quite necessary to maintain top performance.
 
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No, Mac's do not defragment automatically with boot up...that'd really slow you down as defragmentation takes a little while even on a fast 7,200rpm drive...especially if its heavily fragmented (which is likely if its never been defragmented). I'm not sure why Apple doesn't include any mechanism to defragment the hard drive as its quite necessary to maintain top performance.

ok, how often do you need to do this?

a bit dissapointed when i heard this coz the reason i bought a Mac was because i dont like the hassle of maintaining the windows, had too much issues and i am not really computer savvy.

needed something that needs minimal software maintainence and will keep going and going
 
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If you use your Mac daily I'd recommend defragmenting at least 1 or 2 times a month.
 
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Actually, Macs to take care of most fragmentation issues themselves.

As for Haalcyon's tip to defrag 1-2x month? Hahaha, try I've never done that the entire time I've used a Mac, and that's been 24 years. This isn't Windows, don't treat it like it is.
 
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Actually, Macs to take care of most fragmentation issues themselves.

As for Haalcyon's tip to defrag 1-2x month? Hahaha, try I've never done that the entire time I've used a Mac, and that's been 24 years. This isn't Windows, don't treat it like it is.

man i am glad to read that. i hate doing all these maintainence as i am not good at it at all and being lazy - main reason i got a Mac.
 
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But that being said, do you leave your computer on overnight? Or do you sleep/shut down? Reason being, OS X does maintenance scripts overnight that can help keep the system clean and running smoothly.

If you don't you can download an app like Onyx (make sure you get the version for your OS) and manually run the scripts when you like.
 
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But that being said, do you leave your computer on overnight? Or do you sleep/shut down? Reason being, OS X does maintenance scripts overnight that can help keep the system clean and running smoothly.

If you don't you can download an app like Onyx (make sure you get the version for your OS) and manually run the scripts when you like.


mmm...my Mac is 5 days old now hehehe

1. yes i leave it on overnight

2. in the morning say 7am, i usually close the screen to put it to sleep, pull out the plug

3. once i get home from work, say 7 or 8pm, i plug it in again, open the lid and use it

i was told not necessary to shut it down unless it is for a long period
 
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You shouldn't have any issues then.
 

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I am one of those that does indeed defrag my OS X drives. In my experience:

OS X does an exceptional job at defragmenting files on the fly. It's only downfall is really in keeping free space defragmented - it does nothing related to free space as it uses free space as needed to keep files defragmented.

There is certainly no reason in my experience that anyone using OS X should be defragging their drive once or twice a month unless you're keeping your system partition at less than 20% free space "and" are moving a bunch of large (2-4GB+) files on and off the drive continually.

The real fix for the above individual is get a larger system drive and keep that free space at 30-40% minimum (40% if you want to keep it running at best speed - I start noticing a slow down at 30% free space). I indeed move a lot of files on and off my drive and it's typically not until the free space hits around 50% fragmented that there is any noticeable depreciation in speed. I'm only needing to defrag once every 4-8 months in order to maintain my system speed.

For a lot of the typical users - my wife for example - she's only got a 120GB drive - 4 year old Mac - has 75% free space - there is absolutely no reason to defrag her machine. It would provide zero benefit that she would ever experience.
 
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I defragment my mechanical disks regularly as I'd noted. It is, however, interesting to note that OS X is better at handling fragmentation than I'd thought.

I use Drive Genius to handle this and it does well, but to be honest, I'm using dual Raptors in RAID 0, and it will be a long time before I fill up the 1.2TB of space that provides. ...in such a situation it seems (according to the article) that I'm less apt to notice the affects of fragmentation...but habit is habit and I'll continue to defragment them regularly.

I still recommend defragmenting even if its not as important as I'd initially thought.
 

bobtomay

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I defragment my mechanical disks regularly as I'd noted. It is, however, interesting to note that OS X is better at handling fragmentation than I'd thought.

I use Drive Genius to handle this and it does well, but to be honest, I'm using dual Raptors in RAID 0, and it will be a long time before I fill up the 1.2TB of space that provides. ...in such a situation it seems (according to the article) that I'm less apt to notice the affects of fragmentation...but habit is habit and I'll continue to defragment them regularly.

I still recommend defragmenting even if its not as important as I'd initially thought.

Yep, still in that Windows mind set - and that's ok. It took me well over a year (and seeing for myself) to give it up. ;D
 

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