Slow response

[Balinka]

When I click on an App, or some items in drop down menus, it takes quite a while to respond. The Apps bounce up and down, for a while, and drop down items have a little revolving wheel. Can anyone advise me, please? I am on the latest Yosemite, It's a 15" Mid 2012, laptop with 2.6GHz i7 processor. 4Gb memory and 1Tb HDD.

 

[chas_m]

While 4GB of RAM might be the source of some of the issues (that's really too little, try upgrading to 8GB or more), I'd ask how full your hard drive is, how many apps you have open (command-tab to find out) and how old is that hard drive?

 

[Balinka]

Thanks for your comments.

The HDD, which is only about 2 years old, is about 10% full, and I tend to have only two or three apps open at any one time, so I hope that helps.

 

[chscag]

Thanks for your comments.

The HDD, which is only about 2 years old, is about 10% full, and I tend to have only two or three apps open at any one time, so I hope that helps.

Boot to your recovery partition (command + r), open utilities and select Disk Utility. Run a verify on the hard drive, repair if necessary. Let us know the results.

 

[Balinka]

Thanks again. I have run verify and it shows no problems, so I guess it may be a matter of upgrading the memory to 8Gb?

 

[chas_m]

I'm sure that would help, but I don't think it will fully solve the problem.

Have you tried signing into the guest account rather than your own, and comparing the performance of apps and normal operations there compared to your account?

Also, do you have ANY KIND of "cleaning" utility or anti-virus or anything along those lines running?

 

[Balinka]

Thanks very much, again.

I have just tried using Guest, and that worked quite quickly. When I went back to my own user account, that also seemed to be much better than before, with very little delay.

I have Kaspersky Internet Security, and Adware Medic installed, as I read that they are good to have. I did have Norton 360, but uninstalled that, as I read that it is not as good as Kaspersky, however, a Norton reminder keeps coming up asking me to renew my subscription, and I can't get rid of that - I have searched Norton on Finder, but nothing appears, so can't get rid of this annoying reminder.

I am still trying to get to grips with Apple, after very many years of using Microsoft, and although there are some similarities, there are also many big differences.

 

[Slydude]

Adware Medic shouldn't cause issues as only runs when you double click it as you would any other program.

If you are getting the Norton reminder there must be some remnants of the program left somewhere in the bowels of the system. How did you uninstall it? Dragging it to the trash is not enough because a number of invisible files are left behind. https://support.norton.com/sp/en/us..._mac_retail_6_en_us?q=uninstal+Norton+360+Mac

Personally, if it were me, I'd also get rid of Kaspersky as well. The things it's scanning for are Windows viruses that do not currently affect the Mac. It might be useful if you think you might pick one up and don't want to pass it on to other Windows users.

 

[Balinka]

Many thanks again, and for your patience.

I must have dragged Norton to the Trash, as I didn't know about the official way of uninstalling it. I guess I'll have to live with the reminder, as I don't want to pay for another licence just to be able to uninstall it properly.

I will uninstall Kaspersky, as you suggest, but keep the Adware Medic, if that is OK to run.

By the way, I had the slow running problem before I installed Kaspersky.

 

[MacInWin]

The slow running may be the remnants of Norton. AdwareMedic is fine, but I also would get rid of Kapersky for the same reasons Sly gave. If you feel you MUST have an AV package, get ClamXav and set it for "Passive" operations. That way it's not running all the time, only when you want it to scan.

 

[Slydude]

I don't think you would have to pay for a new license of Norton just to get what you need to uninstall it. I'll have to check though. I haven't had Norton on a Mac in probably more than a decade.

 

[chscag]

Norton installs a self starting kext and other hidden files which is very likely what's causing the "reminders" about renewing the subscription. He should be able uninstall all of those files by going to the Norton site and getting the instructions. He does not need to buy another license.

 

[Balinka]

I have uninstalled Kaspersky, using the instructions from their website, and have reinstalled Norton (surprisingly I had 13 days left of my subscription), so I have also uninstalled that using the correct method this time, in the hope that I will no longer get the reminder.

Hopefully, my mac will now settle down.

Thanks very much to everyone who has helped me.

 

[Slydude]

Let us know if that cures the problem. There might be other things worth investigating.

 

[Balinka]

I will do. Thanks very much.

Kind regards

Doug

 

[Balinka]

You will be pleased to know that I have upgraded from 4 to 8Gb RAM, and that has made a huge difference, so thank you for that advice.

I have also signed up for some MAC training, starting with the OS, which should help me move from Microsoft to MAC.

Thank you to everyone who helped me.

Kind Regards, Doug (Balinka)

 

[schuenej]

slow response

I will do. Thanks very much.

Kind regards

Doug

Hi, a couple of things. First, I'm going to try to sign on as guest as you did, and see if it helps some of my programs opening slow. Second, just for peace of mind, I have read in several forums to use ClamXv. (for your peace of mind) Also I read to install a free program called onYx to clean up your Mac. It cleans a bunch of useless stuff and specifically your cache. Give it a try....I did and it helps.

 

[Balinka]

Thanks very much, for those ideas, which I will try over the next few days.