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How to Speed up a Slowing Mac
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Dav
Aug 2, 2012, 6:03:20 AM8/2/12
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Speeding up a slow mac
1. Reboot the whole system. Just shut the computer down. You can also press Command-Option-P-R on startup until you hear the second chime and that will clear the PRAM (Parameter Random Access Memory).
2a. How many applications do you have open? I typically limit mine to only the ones that I am or will be using soon. Be aware of the number of apps that you have open. If it has the blue light on under it then it's open. You can quit it by control clicking the application's icon and the dock and clicking "Quit". If the application is stubborn and it's not responding then you can press Option when you control click and click Force Quit (or you can click the Apple icon in the top left corner and click "Force Quit...", which will take you to a window where you can choose which applications to force quit). Applications that are not responding generally use up more RAM and CPU (that's bad).
2b. If you are consistently having slowdowns, open Activity Monitor (/Applications/Utilities/Acitivity Monitor.app)
a. Use the sort arrows to find find the processes that are using up the most CPU and RAM
b. You may want to quit those processes if you aren't using them. Also look for processes that aren't responding.
3. Have enough RAM
a. The more RAM that you have the better. You can find out how much RAM you have by opening System Profiler (/Applications/Utilities/System Profiler). Click the primary "Hardware" section and it will be called Memory. My snow leopard has 2 GB, which is find for most stuff I do.
b. You can purchase more RAM and there are lots of youTube videos on how to install it, or you can just take it in.
4. Have enough disk space
a. Disk space is storage space. Storage space isn't the same as RAM. RAM doesn't store anything after the power is off. Disk space does.
b. Make sure that you have plenty of it (at least 10 GB). I have 200 GB out of my 250 GB hardrive remaining. If you are running out of space then you will be experiencing slowdowns.
c. Move unused pictures, videos, documents, applications, etc... over to an external USB harddrive.
5, Clear caches
a. In a Finder window (from your home folder) open Library/ and you will see a Caches folder. Move that folder to the trash. I recommend that you quit as many applications as possible before you move the folder to the trash, but it will probably be ok even if you don't. Empty the trash. If some items don't empty THAT'S OK. Just click "Finder" in the menubar and click "Secure Empty Trash".
b. Clear disk caches. Open up Terminal (Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app). Type purge then press the enter key. Don't be worried if the system temporarily slows down.
6. Keep your desktop uncluttered — this keeps your computer from having to constantly process the data for those items
7. Consider downloading a tool like OnyX. This tool will let you run all sorts of different maintenance easily.
More tips to come
Dav
1. Reboot the whole system. Just shut the computer down. You can also press Command-Option-P-R on startup until you hear the second chime and that will clear the PRAM (Parameter Random Access Memory).
2a. How many applications do you have open? I typically limit mine to only the ones that I am or will be using soon. Be aware of the number of apps that you have open. If it has the blue light on under it then it's open. You can quit it by control clicking the application's icon and the dock and clicking "Quit". If the application is stubborn and it's not responding then you can press Option when you control click and click Force Quit (or you can click the Apple icon in the top left corner and click "Force Quit...", which will take you to a window where you can choose which applications to force quit). Applications that are not responding generally use up more RAM and CPU (that's bad).
2b. If you are consistently having slowdowns, open Activity Monitor (/Applications/Utilities/Acitivity Monitor.app)
a. Use the sort arrows to find find the processes that are using up the most CPU and RAM
b. You may want to quit those processes if you aren't using them. Also look for processes that aren't responding.
3. Have enough RAM
a. The more RAM that you have the better. You can find out how much RAM you have by opening System Profiler (/Applications/Utilities/System Profiler). Click the primary "Hardware" section and it will be called Memory. My snow leopard has 2 GB, which is find for most stuff I do.
b. You can purchase more RAM and there are lots of youTube videos on how to install it, or you can just take it in.
4. Have enough disk space
a. Disk space is storage space. Storage space isn't the same as RAM. RAM doesn't store anything after the power is off. Disk space does.
b. Make sure that you have plenty of it (at least 10 GB). I have 200 GB out of my 250 GB hardrive remaining. If you are running out of space then you will be experiencing slowdowns.
c. Move unused pictures, videos, documents, applications, etc... over to an external USB harddrive.
5, Clear caches
a. In a Finder window (from your home folder) open Library/ and you will see a Caches folder. Move that folder to the trash. I recommend that you quit as many applications as possible before you move the folder to the trash, but it will probably be ok even if you don't. Empty the trash. If some items don't empty THAT'S OK. Just click "Finder" in the menubar and click "Secure Empty Trash".
b. Clear disk caches. Open up Terminal (Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app). Type purge then press the enter key. Don't be worried if the system temporarily slows down.
6. Keep your desktop uncluttered — this keeps your computer from having to constantly process the data for those items
7. Consider downloading a tool like OnyX. This tool will let you run all sorts of different maintenance easily.
More tips to come
Dav
Dav
Aug 2, 2012, 7:25:36 PM8/2/12
to
Dav
Aug 3, 2012, 7:53:08 AM8/3/12
to
Dav
Aug 3, 2012, 8:10:17 AM8/3/12
to
On Thursday, August 2, 2012 6:03:20 AM UTC-4, Dav wrote:
Go to /Users/My_User/Library/Preferences/ and find the .plist file that goes with the application.
So if maybe Preview is giving me problems...
I would quit Preview (YOU MUST QUIT THE APPLICATION or it will just make a copy of the .plist file).
I would go to /Users/My_User/Library/Preferences/com.apple.preview.plist and I would delete that file.
Sometimes there are other ones that apply to Preview such as com.apple.preview.ImageSizingPresets.plist. These are generally ok to delete.
Note that on some applications you may have to re-set-it-up. Such as in mail. It will act like it did when you first turned on your mac. And another example will be the dock. If you delete the com.apple.dock.plist, your dock will be reset to what it was when you opened your mac for the first time.
So be careful, but it often helps.
Another tip, don't delete it until you know it worked ok. Just move the preference to the desktop or trash, and if everything worked then you can delete it.
Dav
Aug 3, 2012, 2:08:45 PM8/3/12
to
> I forgot to mention that an Apple provided desktop background is significantly faster than using one that you create or find. But it really matters whether you want speed or personalization. And the Apple backgrounds are pretty good.
This is a test I came up with. I purged the caches each time before I ran a command so that it wouldn't have the answer stored up.
With default background
time lwp-request www.apple.com > ~/Desktop/test1.txt
real 0m0.370s
user 0m0.130s
sys 0m0.022'
time mdfind -name jsdlkjasdf
real 0m0.951
user 0m0.016
sys 0m0.015
With non-default background
lwp-request www.apple.com > ~/Desktop/test2.txt
real 0m0.400s
user 0m0.134s
sys 0m0.23
time mdfind -name jsdlkjasdf
real 0m1.383s
user 0m0.017s
sys 0m0.017s
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