Newb question

I got a new Macbook Pro about a week ago and it's running really slow. All I do is watch TV and surf the internet. There's a lag as I type this now, and scrolling down long web pages is the worst! I'm plagued by the spiral wheel of death too. REALLY slow. How do I find out what processes are consuming all of my CPU and/or memory?

"I'll just assume you're using Safari."

Check out the Activity Monitor: Go > Utilities > Activity Monitor

Activity Monitor is sortable by Process Name and ID, %CPU usage, Threads, Kind of Processing (64 bit vs 32 bit), as well as Real Memory and Virtual Memory.

Safari tends to be a memory hog after prolonged use.

EDIT: Also if you're interested in monitoring your performance check out Activity Monitor > View > Dock Icon. You can have a live feed of CPU Usage or History, Network Usage, Disk Activity, and Memory Usage. I usually have it on CPU usage.

Thanks. I restarted Firefox and it's working more smoothly now, but Activity monitor says its using 130% of the CPU. Is that normal?

Waste; said:

Thanks. I restarted Firefox and it's working more smoothly now, but Activity monitor says its using 130% of the CPU. Is that normal?

Click to expand...

Nope... Figure out what app or process is eating up the CPU.. (you can sort by it). And kill the major issue...

And/or reboot... If the issue happens again, check (and remove unneeded) start-upmitems, located in System Preferences > Accounts > login Items.

Wowowow. How is that possible?

torrey0012 said:

Wowowow. How is that possible?

Click to expand...

How is what possible. Please, we're not psychic; take a little time and clearly articulate what you're trying to say. All we have is the words you type, so put ALL the info we need into your posts.

If by chance you're referring to the 130% CPU usage, remember that an Intel Core 2 *Duo* has TWO processors, so 200% would be the maximum.

As for the slowness (your original question): how much RAM does your machine have, and how full is the hard drive?