Experiencing beach balls after RAM upgrade

[countfufu]

i got rid of avast and magican since onyx is similar. i assume it can purge ram when it's nearly full and uninstall programs?
Since avast is out, can you recommend an antivirus that has web protection?

 

[countfufu]

i also did an extensive apple hardware test to make sure the theremal sensors were ok. no problems were found, which makes it stranger

 

[MacInWin]

i got rid of avast and magican since onyx is similar. i assume it can purge ram when it's nearly full and uninstall programs?
Since avast is out, can you recommend an antivirus that has web protection?

You don't need any a/v, web protection or not. There are not viruses for OS X. Adware and Ghostery will block most ads.

 

[countfufu]

ghostery is really good. avast has caught a few threats, it doesn't hurt to have a small a/v than can scan, clean and quarantine

 

[MacInWin]

it doesn't hurt to have a small a/v than can scan, clean and quarantine

Anything it caught was for Windows, not OS X. And a/v CAN cause a performance hit. Just. Say. No.

 

[countfufu]

i'll try and do without a a/v. are there any programs that would interfere with the fan and the mac's temperature? the fan seems to work overtime and the mac starts to heat up right before the beach balls. everything seems fine on the activity monitor and the apple hardware test has not produced any problems so i'm thinking there is something behind the scenes that is causing this.

 

[countfufu]

i think i'll have to upgrade to yosemite. are there any problems i should look out for? any preference changes i should make?

 

[countfufu]

i took some screenshots of the activity monitor when the freeze starts and stops. i can't trace the source of the freeze though

 

[harryb2448]

Wondershare Player seems to be a bit of a hog. Was it operating at the time the Activity Monitor shots were taken?

 

[countfufu]

yes it was running. I uninstalled it. I've decided to update to yosemite, it's the only thing i think might work since it uses less RAM

 

[pigoo3]

I want to help you with this problem…but so far the best logical approach has not been followed (I tried to suggest this earlier in the thread).

What you want to determine is…whether the problem is hardware or software related. In order to do this…you need to erase & reformat the HD…then install a fresh copy of the OS (and NOTHING ELSE)!!! Since this computer had a new HD installed in it recently…this shouldn't be a problem.

If this approach is followed (with only the OS installed along with the Apple apps that normally are installed along with the OS install)…you are keeping things as simple & "virgin" as possible (no interactions from other sources).

Now if you are only running the OS on the computer…plus maybe opening Safari for testing purposes…you will have two outcomes:

1. If you don't get any "beach balls"...then you are good to go…AND you know that the beach balls experienced previously were from the other software that was installed & running.
2. If you still get "beach balls" then is very very unlikely it is coming from the fresh OS install…but is being caused by something hardware related.

AND…if it is hardware related…it could be from the new hardware (ram maybe) that was installed. So this means that the old ram must be reinstalled…and then test the computer further as mentioned above (fresh OS install on the HD only).

Every time I see screenshots with all sorts of non-Apple apps running…I see a "dog chasing its tail"…getting no where. Things need to be simplified…before concrete conclusions can be reached as to the source of the problem!

- Nick

 

[countfufu]

did the clean install. the beach balls haven't appeared and i managed to play large mp4 files with quick look from an ex. HD without any problems. there are some files missing from the most recent back up for some reason. i'm guessing the next step is redownloading each app one by one and finding out which one could have caused the issue?

 

[pigoo3]

did the clean install. the beach balls haven't appeared and i managed to play large mp4 files with quick look from an ex. HD without any problems. there are some files missing from the most recent back up for some reason. i'm guessing the next step is redownloading each app one by one and finding out which one could have caused the issue?

You've mentioned a number of things here (clean install, no beach balls, quick look at mp4 files, files missing from backup, etc.).

I'm not sure how much testing you did after ONLY the clean OS install (I would have done at least a few hours)…or whatever amount of time that would greatly exceed when you would normally see beach balls…just to be sure.

I certainly would not have done any "quick looking" or anything related to a backup until I was 100% sure things were rock solid.

But yes like you mentioned. If you do think that things are stable (no beach balls)…then this would indicate that something (or a combination of things) from a software perspective was installed previously that was causing the beach balls. And if everything is restored from a previous backup…then these problems may simply be replicated if restored from a backup.

So the best method to avoid replicating the problem…is to do a fresh install of your apps. Restoring your files from a backup should be ok (music, project files you created, videos, photos, etc.).

In many cases…the problem applications probably were/are uncommon/unfamiliar 3rd party apps like:

- interface customizing apps
- utility apps
- torrent site stuff
- some anti malware, anti virus, "cleaning" apps
- basically stuff that could potentially be problematic or not work well with the Mac OS (sometimes this sort of stuff is just learned via trial & error)

* Nick

 

[countfufu]

are there any mac friendly versions of these programs? for the torrent stuff i use transmission, cleaning onyx and for the antivirus i tried sophos, clamxav, eset and avast

 

[harryb2448]

Wow no wonder it is confused with all those AV programs running and scanning. Uninstall all except ClamXAV using the respective uninstaller otherwise parts will have remained behind. Suggest with what has happened you nay be up for erasing the hard drive and doing a clean install all over again.

Be careful using backup as this is also problematical.

 

[countfufu]

sorry for the mix up, i used eset first [a long time ago], then uninstalled it and switched to clamxav and sophos which ran at the same time. i read about issues with sophos and uninstalled it. i can't remember why i uninstalled clamxav but i can try it again. avast was the most recent A/V that i tried

 

[MacInWin]

You don't need any a/v at all. If you must have it, ClamXAV is the only one that makes sense in a Mac world. It doesn't take up residency, doesn't consume resources needlessly. You also don't need (and shouldn't use) any torrent software. Torrent software is (most of the time) used to download pirated files and because of that the torrent software tends to be, shall we say, "suspect" in it's intentions and actions. Just don't do it. Stick with what OS X provides, it's pretty good. About all you need is Onyx to run once a year or so.

 

[harryb2448]

Great you removed these. Did you use the uninstaller and not simply drag to the Trash?

 

[countfufu]

i typed in the name in the finder search bar and clicked the + button on the far right and selected 'system files' and 'are included'. I clicked the + button again and chose 'name' and 'match' and typed the name again. i deleted the files that appeared.

torrents are a bit risky, i've been thinking about switching to usenet

 

[chscag]

torrents are a bit risky, i've been thinking about switching to usenet

Before you jump into the usenet crowd, go to your local sports super store and buy some flame retardant suits.