Upgraded to Snow Leopard and now everything lags

Joined
Dec 8, 2008
Messages
78
Reaction score
1
Points
8
Hey all,

Been a while since I've posted here.

Just recently I purchased the Snow Leopard 10.6 upgrade disc and upgraded from Leopard to Snow Leopard on my early 2008 MacBook 2.1 GHz base model (no superdrive).

After my upgrade everything has been starting to lag up. I know this operating system is optimized for 64-bit but is there a problem using 1GB of RAM? Aside from the lagging I am also getting a lot of crashes, is this normal?

Here are some problems:

iChat crashes a lot
iChat will not let me video chat sometimes
iTunes takes very long to open
Firefox "hangs" (which it never did before)
Safari "hangs" even more than usual
iChat, iTunes, Safari, Firefox, Adium and Screenflow crash a lot/do not work correctly

Is there a way I could stop the lagging and the crashes or would I have to wait for more updates?
 
Joined
Jul 7, 2008
Messages
144
Reaction score
0
Points
16
i'd say, do a fresh reinstall.. i know it means losing your stuff, but it might be for the better..
 
OP
T
Joined
Dec 8, 2008
Messages
78
Reaction score
1
Points
8
I don't think that would really help anything. I just did a fresh a install recently (like 3 weeks ago) and all I have extra is a few things such as Adium, Camouflage, InsomniaX, nothing really too large it's basically fresh.
 
Joined
Dec 15, 2004
Messages
98
Reaction score
3
Points
8
Why don't you upgrade to at least 2GB RAM? It's pretty easy to do. Try reseting the PRAM and repair the disk permissions and see if that helps. When I upgraded to Snow Leopard, things moved quicker in general and the laptop ran cooler.
 
Joined
Sep 6, 2009
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Points
1
I noticed that finder lags bad compared to leopard, I have 2GB of RAM... wonder if an upgrade will come soon to fix it
 

bobtomay

,
Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 22, 2006
Messages
26,561
Reaction score
677
Points
113
Location
Texas, where else?
Your Mac's Specs
15" MBP '06 2.33 C2D 4GB 10.7; 13" MBA '14 1.8 i7 8GB 10.11; 21" iMac '13 2.9 i5 8GB 10.11; 6S
You need to uninstall both Insomniax and Camouflage until they update to SL compatibility.

Not just drag and drop to the trash either. Need to use their uninstallers' to remove the hooks both of those programs put into the OS.

If you have installed any 3rd party app, you no longer have a clean install. Especially if you've done so without verifying it's compatibility with the new OS.


As a side note:

Practically every issue I've seen thus far on SL has been with 3rd party software and not to do with SL.

Anyone installing any new OS, whether it be OS X, Windows or any of the hundreds of Linux distro's the first month after release needs to be prepared at least to troubleshoot their machines for any and all 3rd party apps that may have quit functioning or are just causing problems due to some incompatibility.

If you are the first one posting about some issue a week after the release of SL: you can almost assuredly count on your issue being one of some 3rd party app(s) you have installed that is causing the problem.
 
OP
T
Joined
Dec 8, 2008
Messages
78
Reaction score
1
Points
8
Oh, I don't have the uninstaller for InsomniaX...
I'll see if I can find the one for Camouflage.
 

bobtomay

,
Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 22, 2006
Messages
26,561
Reaction score
677
Points
113
Location
Texas, where else?
Your Mac's Specs
15" MBP '06 2.33 C2D 4GB 10.7; 13" MBA '14 1.8 i7 8GB 10.11; 21" iMac '13 2.9 i5 8GB 10.11; 6S
If you don't have the uninstaller - just download it and unpack the dmg - should be in there

I have not used either of these - am just "assuming" they will have an installer and uninstaller pkg since it appears that each of these put hooks into the OS.
 
OP
T
Joined
Dec 8, 2008
Messages
78
Reaction score
1
Points
8
Alright, I'll get the DMG again. I am pretty sure it does not have an uninstaller though, I will check.

Is there any reason Safari lags so much? Even in Leopard it lagged a lot, I got the spinning beach ball when I try to open new tabs, sometimes when I scroll down a page, etc. One of my friends also has a Mac and he says Safari runs perfectly
 

bobtomay

,
Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 22, 2006
Messages
26,561
Reaction score
677
Points
113
Location
Texas, where else?
Your Mac's Specs
15" MBP '06 2.33 C2D 4GB 10.7; 13" MBA '14 1.8 i7 8GB 10.11; 21" iMac '13 2.9 i5 8GB 10.11; 6S
When's the last time you did any regular maintenance on your Mac:

Verify / repair permissions
Verify / repair disk
Deleted old cache, Reset Safari or ran MainMenu or Onyx for overall cleanup tasks

Wouldn't try running either one of those last two under SL yet. But, they're both working on updates.
 
Joined
Sep 5, 2009
Messages
67
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
Athens, Greece
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Pro: 2 x Quad Core Xeon 3.0, 8 Gb RAM, 4TB Storage, 8800 GT
I had the same problem (only with Finder though) until I did a clean install!
 
Joined
Feb 13, 2005
Messages
1,186
Reaction score
73
Points
48
Location
New Orleans, LA, USA
Your Mac's Specs
13" Macbook Pro 2.26Ghz Unibody 4G RAM 160G HDD Superdrive
My issue oddly enough has been Safari. It's given me the beach ball a few times and it's mostly stable, but when it hangs, it'll hang for awhile.

Mostly rock stable the rest of the time. The new Quicktime is pretty spiffy and for the most part, still a better computing experience all around. No other problems to report.
 
OP
T
Joined
Dec 8, 2008
Messages
78
Reaction score
1
Points
8
The last time I repaired my permissions was 2 weeks ago I believe. Safari has always lagged for me though, after a clean install, a repair of permissions, anything, it just lags every single time.
 

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
IMO, there's a speed difference from doing an upgrade install of Snow Leopard rather than a clean install. A clean install will usually result in a better, faster all around operating system.

Certain software from previous installs, can place "hooks" into the OS and even though you drag the program to the Trash, the hooks will remain. Doing a clean install get's rid of those hooks and impediments to the OS - at least until you start collecting "stuff" again.

If you have a good Time Machine backup, a clean install is the way to go. After Snow Leopard installs and the welcome screen is finished, it'll ask if you wish to restore from your Time Machine backup. Takes about 15 to 30 minutes to restore (depending on the amount of data) and you're back up but this time with a cleaner, leaner system.

Regards.
 
OP
T
Joined
Dec 8, 2008
Messages
78
Reaction score
1
Points
8
I only have the upgrade disc so I believe I cannot do a clean install with it.

Would I have to do a clean install with my leopard disc, then upgrade to snow leopard, then I would just download Adium and VLC player and I'm set (for now)
 
Joined
Sep 9, 2009
Messages
102
Reaction score
0
Points
16
Question,why is my computer now taking forever to idle when I shut the screen and sometimes turn off when I press turn off..It stays there stuck loading something for a good minute or so..SL is pissing me off.
 
Joined
Sep 9, 2009
Messages
102
Reaction score
0
Points
16
IMO, there's a speed difference from doing an upgrade install of Snow Leopard rather than a clean install. A clean install will usually result in a better, faster all around operating system.

Certain software from previous installs, can place "hooks" into the OS and even though you drag the program to the Trash, the hooks will remain. Doing a clean install get's rid of those hooks and impediments to the OS - at least until you start collecting "stuff" again.

If you have a good Time Machine backup, a clean install is the way to go. After Snow Leopard installs and the welcome screen is finished, it'll ask if you wish to restore from your Time Machine backup. Takes about 15 to 30 minutes to restore (depending on the amount of data) and you're back up but this time with a cleaner, leaner system.

Regards.
So if I save my stuff with TM I can just "re wipe" my computer and go for it? My computer was only 3 weeks old when SL came out.So Its not like i have 6 months of trash building up.
 
Joined
Feb 26, 2010
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Points
1
I was having the lag problem as well after upgrading my MacBook Pro 14" 2.6GHz.

I restarted from the Snow Leopard Install DVD and ran Disk Utility to Repair Disk Permissions on the start-up disk.I also ran Repair Disk.

Since restarting I've noticed a BIG performance improvement. No more lag.
 
Joined
Nov 13, 2009
Messages
23
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Your Mac's Specs
Model Name: MacBook Model Identifier: MacBook4,1 Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor S
I too had this issue after upgrading to SL earlier today. I ran disk utility and repair disk permissions and then rebooted and that sorted it out :)
 

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