Snow Leopard maintenance

What maintenance is recommended for Snow Leopard? I just installed it about 4 months ago, and it's running slow.

How much free space is on the drive?
How much ram?
How many applications are open at the same time?
How long has it been since you shut it down and restarted?
How long has it been sine you did a Disk Permissions Repair?
Is everything running slow or just item specific?

Hi osxx,
Disk is only 26% full, 1 GB ram, most of the time either one or two apps running, I don't restart often - but just did, permission repair just run, and most everything slow - especially on app start up. I get the spinning beach ball almost every time I start an app.
I have run the disk permissions utility about a half dozen times. I've cleared the history between times, and sometimes shut the mac down and restarted it, then run the repair permissions again, and the same permissions need repaired again - without running any other apps in between.
One permission problem that keeps appearing is:
Warning: SUID "system/library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAgent" has been modified and will not be repaired.
Two other permissions that always come up are "user differs (names the file) should be 0 is 95. It repairs them, then on next run they appear again for the same files. There are several permission issues with Java, and a lot with "CoreSystem/RemoteManagement."
There are between 75 - 100 permission issues that get "fixed", but come right back the next time.
I hope this gives you a better picture of what I'm dealing with.

Thanks,
Bucky

It's probably safe to ignore these permissions errors. Apple has a growing list of permissions errors that are safe to ignore

Although Snow Leopard will run with 1 GB of ram that may be part of the slowdown. More ram might help a bit. You can try the following experiment to see what is happening with memory.

1, Reboot the Mac, Login as usual and launch Activity Monitor (in the Utilities folder).
2. Set Activity Monitor to show memory usage.
3. When things slow down look at Activity Monitor and check the number off page ins/page outs.

As this number climbs the machine will probably slow even more because the Mac is having to write the contents of memory to the hard drive. The longer the machine is running the more it will happen. Especially if you are running an application that does not release memory well.

I bet adding ram will solve most of your problems and if you do decide on that path I would max it out I like Crucial and if you use their scanner it will give you the part number exact which you can order direct or from a reseller close to you.

Thanks Slydude,
I figured that RAM was part of the issue, I'll have to see how much I can upgrade this Mac Mini. Getting it apart may be a challenge as well. I'll try restarting the machine more often too. Your response to the permissions issue eased my mind.
Overall, its a great machine that I haven't had any issues with. It's just a little slower than I'd like.
Thanks again for your input.

In case you're unsure how to do a ram upgrade on your Mac-Mini. Visit ifixit.com...and check out the procedure.

- Nick

Check out this page at OWC. You can use the model identifier number to find the right information for your Mini. There is a link which tells you how to find this number if you don't know it.

Once you have the right Mini identified check out their installation videos. It will give you a good idea of the difficulty of this task.

Slydude said:

Check out this page at OWC. You can use the model identifier number to find the right information for your Mini. There is a link which tells you how to find this number if you don't know it.

Once you have the right Mini identified check out their installation videos. It will give you a good idea of the difficulty of this task.

Click to expand...

Thanks.
I did install Onyx and ran it, which seemed to help.
I also checked out the OWC site, and it says up to 4 GB memory for my core 2 duo. Apple says the max is 2 GB for that unit. I'm hesitant to install more than the manufacturer's max. What is the consensus at mac forums on this? And why would Apple put a 2 GB max on the unit if it would safely handle 4GB?
As for the ease/difficulty of actually completing this task for me, it looks fairly simple, just requires a deft touch.

Thanks for your help!

Your mini can handle 4GB of RAM. This is due to the density of the new RAM...it boils down to how RAM is made these days. Apple says my mini can handle 8GB, but it can actually handle 16GB per OWC's site. Installation of RAM in a mini is an easy task. Save the money and do it yourself. OWC has installation videos...very helpful!

Dogbreath said:

Your mini can handle 4GB of RAM. This is due to the density of the new RAM...it boils down to how RAM is made these days. Apple says my mini can handle 8GB, but it can actually handle 16GB per OWC's site. Installation of RAM in a mini is an easy task. Save the money and do it yourself. OWC has installation videos...very helpful!

Click to expand...

Thanks for your input.
Does anyone else want to weigh in on this? Apple and Crucial.com is saying 2 MB max, OWC is saying 4 MB max. How can there be this large of a disparity?

Some 2007 (early) I believe could only make use of 3GB of ram and since most things run better with a matched pair hence 2GB recommendation although 4GB will work you just might be limited to 3 without knowing the full spec of your mini along with model number best that I can do.

osxx said:

Some 2007 (early) I believe could only make use of 3GB of ram and since most things run better with a matched pair hence 2GB recommendation although 4GB will work you just might be limited to 3 without knowing the full spec of your mini along with model number best that I can do.

Click to expand...

When I get home I will post the model number, then maybe we can get a better answer.

Thanks.

Go with OWC's 4GB. They are Mac specialists.

osxx said:

Some 2007 (early) I believe could only make use of 3GB of ram and since most things run better with a matched pair hence 2GB recommendation although 4GB will work you just might be limited to 3 without knowing the full spec of your mini along with model number best that I can do.

Click to expand...

My Mac Mini specs are:
Model Name: Mac mini
Model Identifier: Macmini2,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 1.83 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 2 MB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MM21.009A.B00
SMC Version (system): 1.19f2
Serial Number (system): YM836467YL1
Hardware UUID: 00000000-0000-1000-8000-001FF3454252

Just looked at Mactracker it also states maximum useable memory 3GB.

bucky1, I installed Snow Leopard in January. After a month or so of use, I noticed everything was slowing down. Having heard from some of the members here that they recalled having to do a clean install after upgrading to Snow Leopard, I bit the bullet and did that yesterday. I am now in the midst of reinstalling all my other software. I think your problem is less likely to be an issue with RAM as it is an issue with the upgrade not being "perfect". I did consult a "Genius" at the Apple Store yesterday, and was told the problem probably had something to do with incorrect mapping of data on the disc. That's my layman's translation. Perhaps someone else here can explain that in technical terms.

If you decide to do a clean install, make sure you have a good backup or a clone of your Mac. It is a lot of work without a clone, as I'm finding out, but I'm not sure how much easier that would make it.

When you say "clean install" do you mean to wipe the drive and re-install everything? That's what it sounds like to me. If that's the case, I would rather the "problem" be a RAM upgrade, which seems like it would be easier for me to do.

Yes, that's right, and it's not a walk in the park. You'd fare better with a good backup or a clone of your entire computer. It won't hurt to install more RAM, but it might not help much.

bucky1 said:

When you say "clean install" do you mean to wipe the drive and re-install everything? That's what it sounds like to me. If that's the case, I would rather the "problem" be a RAM upgrade, which seems like it would be easier for me to do.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, you don't get to pick what is causing the problem. It could very well be a lack of RAM, and bumping that up to see if it resolves your issue is certainly reasonable.

Mine was slowing down too, and the clean install actually doesn't seem to have solved the problem. Although SL takes up less space on the hard drive than Leopard did, it seems that Leopard was faster.

Don't be too frightened by the prospect of a clean install. It wasn't really too bad for me restoring my other applications, and I did not have a clone or a Time Machine backup. The worst was Office 2004. I ended up upgrading to 2011, which I was going to have to do at some point anyway.