HELP! Slowing down!

cheddar-caveman · Sep 13, 2013

My MacBook Pro Retina, now just five months old, is slowing dow considerably! It staggers to open Yahoo Mail and other pages, the blue bar at the top creeping along where when hew it took milliseconds! I also get the spinning,coloured disc when processing pictures whch again it never did when new!

What could be causing this slowdown please and what's the best way to speed it up again?

Lifeisabeach · Sep 13, 2013

cheddar-caveman said:
My MacBook Pro Retina, now just five months old, is slowing dow considerably! It staggers to open Yahoo Mail and other pages, the blue bar at the top creeping along where when hew it took milliseconds! I also get the spinning,coloured disc when processing pictures whch again it never did when new!

What could be causing this slowdown please and what's the best way to speed it up again?

Start with the basics. Download Onyx and run its full suite of maintenance and cache cleaning tool. See if that helps. You may have a corrupted cache.

Let us know how much drive space you have used and how much is free. Also tell us if you have any 3rd party software that is running in the background, especially antivirus tools, and any extensions/plug-ins for Safari (or whatever browser you are using). Make sure Flash and Java are fully up to date, if they are installed.

cheddar-caveman · Sep 14, 2013

Thanks for that lifesabeach but seem to be having problems with that download? I click on the "download" button, the little flying thing goes into my download folder but then nothing? Checking downloads in Finder there is nothing downloaded???

bobtomay · Sep 14, 2013

cheddar-caveman said:
Thanks for that lifesabeach but seem to be having problems with that download? I click on the "download" button, the little flying thing goes into my download folder but then nothing? Checking downloads in Finder there is nothing downloaded???

Really need to:

lifeisabeach said:
...

Let us know how much drive space you have used and how much is free. Also tell us if you have any 3rd party software that is running in the background, especially antivirus tools, and any extensions/plug-ins for Safari (or whatever browser you are using). Make sure Flash and Java are fully up to date, if they are installed.

cheddar-caveman · Sep 14, 2013

I have 195Gb of free disc space and as far as I know am not running any anti virus or 3rd party software in the background. I am using Safari as my browser.

I have got Onyx up and running, backed up the Mac, performed the initial verification with Onyx and just about to start the maintenance etc.

Thanks guys. I'll let you know what happens!

bobtomay · Sep 14, 2013

To verify any background running apps launching at startup:

Open System Preferences - Users and accounts - Login Items

Why we ask for the amount of used and free space...
If that free space is on anything smaller than a 1TB drive - you are probably ok.
If that is a 1 TB drive or larger - then you could very well be seeing an issue of not enough free space (in particular, contiguous free space).

cheddar-caveman · Sep 14, 2013

OK. Have run the various OnyX programs and the computer is "fast"! Thank you guys very much for your help. I'll keep the OnyX onboard for future use.

Cheers

RadDave · Sep 14, 2013

Hi All experienced Onyx users - I just DL the app and first had the same problem installing & opening the program, after finally getting the app installed and going through checking my HD, I had a long list of descriptions - where does one go from there in checking out one's computer? Probably simple but there is not a clear menu of options - would appreciate some advice before doing 'too much' - thanks - Dave

lifeisabeach said:
Start with the basics. Download Onyx and run its full suite of maintenance and cache cleaning tool. See if that helps. You may have a corrupted cache.

cheddar-caveman said:
Thanks for that lifesabeach but seem to be having problems with that download? I click on the "download" button, the little flying thing goes into my download folder but then nothing? Checking downloads in Finder there is nothing downloaded???

harryb2448 · Sep 15, 2013

Here is a tutorial:-

Onyx Mac – Instant Download Onyx for Mac OS X » Blog Archive » How to use OnyX for Mac

RadDave · Sep 15, 2013

harryb2448 said:
Here is a tutorial:-

Onyx Mac – Instant Download Onyx for Mac OS X » Blog Archive » How to use OnyX for Mac

Thanks Harry - about to take a look @ the link - Dave

cheddar-caveman · Sep 17, 2013

Onyx downloaded and run and it made a considerable difference to my Mac. Many thanks for all the help and advice!

I also find the different names for the operating systems! Mine is 10.8.4 according to "about this Mac". What is that from the list please and why do they use two different names for the same thing?

Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard and even the newest: OnyX Lion.

Cheers

Lifeisabeach · Sep 17, 2013

cheddar-caveman said:
Onyx downloaded and run and it made a considerable difference to my Mac. Many thanks for all the help and advice!

I also find the different names for the operating systems! Mine is 10.8.4 according to "about this Mac". What is that from the list please and why do they use two different names for the same thing?

Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard and even the newest: OnyX Lion.

There is no "Onyx Lion". Onyx is the piece of software we recommended for using in OS X. Here's the Wikipedia section explaining the OS version numbers and their "code names" (those "cats"):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS_X#Versions

RadDave · Sep 17, 2013

cheddar-caveman said:
Onyx downloaded and run and it made a considerable difference to my Mac. Many thanks for all the help and advice!

I also find the different names for the operating systems! Mine is 10.8.4 according to "about this Mac". What is that from the list please and why do they use two different names for the same thing?

Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard and even the newest: OnyX Lion.

Cheers

Hi Caveman - LOL!

Maybe you're kidding - not sure? But the recent versions of Mac OS X have been named after 'CATS' - the latest, i.e. 10.8.x (I have 10.8.5 on our Mac computers) is 'Mountain Lion' - WELL, Apple seems to have run out of cats (although Saber Tooth would have been my decision for the next one) - for a change of pace, the next update which I assume will be 10.9.x will be called 'Mavericks', so are we going to horses? Dave

cheddar-caveman · Sep 18, 2013

So my system is also Mountain Lion (10.8.4) and no, I wasn't joking. I just wondered why Apple have to have two names for the same thing! My computer tells me that I have OSX 10.8.4 so why do I then need to "translate" this into Mountain Lion when the subject comes up? I run a Saab 9.5 Estate - it isn't also called a Mad Mare or whatever. Anybody who says a 9.5 Estate, everybody knows what they are talking about. Oh well, too much ramble!!