Slow MBP, RAM prob? CPU prob?

For the last 2 weeks my MBP has been really slow, even with the 10.5.2 update. I've also noticed that my RAM is always at a "stable" level, and that it never spikes as it used to, but my CPU has been constantly spiking. The processes that are really hitting hard are Windowserver and iTunes (when its on). My habits haven't changed, I havent been doing anything different.

I have a 2.6Ghz MBP, 4gb of ram. Is it possible that a portion of my ram failed? Is there a way to find this out, or to test out the ram itself?

Even with everything off (including Safari, iTunes), I notice that my CPU levels are still spiking, my dock is still stuttering when it comes out from auto-hide, all genie effects stutter a frame or two...its just all very clumsy.

My HDD still has 70GB left, out of 200GB. I only have 500 songs in my iTunes, when I had 3,000 songs on my PPC Powerbook, it ran fine..and it only had 512MB Ram. I've restarted multiple times, left it off for a whole day even.

I will try resetting my PRAM when I get home in an hour, does anyone know how to do that? Is there anything I can do? Should I order new ram?




The one on top is my ram, the one on the bottom is my CPU. Notice that my RAM is spiking up and down, when the only thing i have on is Safari. And notice that my RAM is not doing a thing. I did memtest and it said my ram is fine.

I would recommend that with no applications running (iTunes, Safari, etc.) you pull up Activity Monitor and try to find out what is causing the CPU spiking you show. This is clearly a contributor to the problem you are having. So, start Activity Monitor, sort is according to CPU Usage and try to find your culprit. Report back, and good luck!