Slow computer
Computer is moving at a snail's pace
A few months ago, I installed Tiger on my tower G4 800, and the difference in ‘snappiness’ was very apparent.
Recently, the system has slowed down to a snail’s pace. I have run repair permissions and repair disk - no luck.
Disk Utility said there was an ‘exit’ problem with the main HDD, and repair disk fixed that problem. But the computer is still slower than molasses.
Another thing I’ve noticed is that when I run SuperDuper, it will back up “Users” with no problem. However, when I try to do a full backup, SuperDuper does not complete the task. The blue line stops a fraction of an inch from the end and never completes. I’ve let it run for a couple of hours, but it does not complete.
I don’t know if there is any connection between the two problems, but they seem to be the only two apparent problems.
Oh yeah, another anomaly: At times, as when I reboot, I find a folder ‘Recovered files’ in the Trash Bin.
At this time, the recovered files are: com.apple.mail.drag and com.apple.mail.drag [w/ a string of #’s and letters after it.]
ActivityMonitor shows SystemMemory (1GB): @ 983 MB in use and @ 41 MB free.
System: @ 90 %; User @ 10 %.
Hardly anything is open. I closed down almost everything. The largest CPU usage is the ActivityMonitor at 5%. All the rest use under 5%.
Something doesn’t seem right there, but I’m not tech savvy enough to know what or what to do about it.
I posted the above in a Mac OS thread awhile back; however, I received no replies. I'm trying again in this Genius Bar hoping for help.
Now I get the d___ed beach ball very often and nothing seems to work at a normal pace. When I type, the letters take time to appear; when I try to move a pane, it thinks about it and then jumps to where I stopped dragging it. Everything is in slow motion.
I reinstalled Tiger 4.11, but that didn't help. Because the "Recovered files" mention Mac Mail, I've tried deleting a lot of saved mail, but that doesn't help either.
Any suggestions will be gratefully received. What other info would you need to help diagnose my problem?
A few months ago, I installed Tiger on my tower G4 800, and the difference in ‘snappiness’ was very apparent.
Recently, the system has slowed down to a snail’s pace. I have run repair permissions and repair disk - no luck.
Disk Utility said there was an ‘exit’ problem with the main HDD, and repair disk fixed that problem. But the computer is still slower than molasses.
Another thing I’ve noticed is that when I run SuperDuper, it will back up “Users” with no problem. However, when I try to do a full backup, SuperDuper does not complete the task. The blue line stops a fraction of an inch from the end and never completes. I’ve let it run for a couple of hours, but it does not complete.
I don’t know if there is any connection between the two problems, but they seem to be the only two apparent problems.
Oh yeah, another anomaly: At times, as when I reboot, I find a folder ‘Recovered files’ in the Trash Bin.
At this time, the recovered files are: com.apple.mail.drag and com.apple.mail.drag [w/ a string of #’s and letters after it.]
ActivityMonitor shows SystemMemory (1GB): @ 983 MB in use and @ 41 MB free.
System: @ 90 %; User @ 10 %.
Hardly anything is open. I closed down almost everything. The largest CPU usage is the ActivityMonitor at 5%. All the rest use under 5%.
Something doesn’t seem right there, but I’m not tech savvy enough to know what or what to do about it.
I posted the above in a Mac OS thread awhile back; however, I received no replies. I'm trying again in this Genius Bar hoping for help.
Now I get the d___ed beach ball very often and nothing seems to work at a normal pace. When I type, the letters take time to appear; when I try to move a pane, it thinks about it and then jumps to where I stopped dragging it. Everything is in slow motion.
I reinstalled Tiger 4.11, but that didn't help. Because the "Recovered files" mention Mac Mail, I've tried deleting a lot of saved mail, but that doesn't help either.
Any suggestions will be gratefully received. What other info would you need to help diagnose my problem?
Comments
To do this, choose a time when the machine has been being used for a few hours after reboot, preferably when it is slow. (If you haven't rebooted recently, you are good to go).
Open Terminal and type the command
vm_stat
and post the output.
With RAM so full, I would want to know how much VM paging was going on.
To do this, choose a time when the machine has been being used for a few hours after reboot, preferably when it is slow. (If you haven't rebooted recently, you are good to go).
Open Terminal and type the command
vm_stat
and post the output.
Lundy,
This is SHORTLY after a reboot. I had restarted with my BackUp to see if the same problem was on the BU. It was, so I restarted with my main HDD. I'll repost after a few hours. Thanks.
Last login: Sat May 10 13:18:07 on ttyp1
Welcome to Darwin!
c-71-206-66-170:~ adstewart$ vm_stat
Mach Virtual Memory Statistics: (page size of 4096 bytes)
Pages free: 102613.
Pages active: 34775.
Pages inactive: 101060.
Pages wired down: 23696.
"Translation faults": 1128328.
Pages copy-on-write: 32159.
Pages zero filled: 552894.
Pages reactivated: 0.
Pageins: 26096.
Pageouts: 0.
Object cache: 5907 hits of 108458 lookups (5% hit rate)
c-71-206-66-170:~ adstewart$
Another thing I?ve noticed is that when I run SuperDuper, it will back up ?Users? with no problem. However, when I try to do a full backup, SuperDuper does not complete the task. The blue line stops a fraction of an inch from the end and never completes. I?ve let it run for a couple of hours, but it does not complete.
Make sure you don't have any .download files on your system - they are partial downloads that come from Safari. For some reason, Superduper doesn't like them - I had a case where it wrote a massive file to disk and the longer you leave it, the larger the file gets and it will never finish backing up until you run out of drive space.
Do a search for .download in Spotlight and see if any show up. If so, finish them or delete them. If you have none, check the folder modification times to see which folder on your backup was changed most recently and narrow down where Superduper is getting stuck. You can also check out your console logs (/applications/utilities/console) to see if anything is written in there.
Oh yeah, another anomaly: At times, as when I reboot, I find a folder ?Recovered files? in the Trash Bin.
At this time, the recovered files are: com.apple.mail.drag and com.apple.mail.drag [w/ a string of #?s and letters after it.]
That's normal unfortunately.
It only started with Tiger. I suppose in the odd, extremely rare case that there is a shut down and some recovered temp file in the trash saves the day then I guess it's worth having but I doubt it will be and having to empty the trash every time gets annoying.
Now I get the d___ed beach ball very often and nothing seems to work at a normal pace. When I type, the letters take time to appear; when I try to move a pane, it thinks about it and then jumps to where I stopped dragging it. Everything is in slow motion.
Sounds like your system caches are a bit messed up. Try repairing your permissions with Disk Utility. Then get Cocktail:
http://www.maintain.se/cocktail/index.php
Launch it, type in your password so it can run things with higher permissions.
Go to files and the caches tab and click on the options button.
Under system, check all the component caches, the core files, the kernel caches and swap files.
Under user, check all of those including your font caches - you can ignore the Adobe, MS ones etc.
Then click ok and in the caches tab, check the system and user buttons, no need to clear the internet caches.
Then hit clear. It may ask you to reboot. If it doesn't, reboot anyway because those caches need to be rebuilt. Startup will take a bit longer than usual.
This is the latest vm_stat I've run:
Last login: Sat May 10 13:18:27 on ttyp1
Welcome to Darwin!
c-71-206-66-170:~ adstewart$ vm_stat
Mach Virtual Memory Statistics: (page size of 4096 bytes)
Pages free: 33045.
Pages active: 43658.
Pages inactive: 160721.
Pages wired down: 24720.
"Translation faults": 2361296.
Pages copy-on-write: 68600.
Pages zero filled: 1173747.
Pages reactivated: 0.
Pageins: 35876.
Pageouts: 0.
Object cache: 23312 hits of 129515 lookups (17% hit rate)
c-71-206-66-170:~ adstewart$
However, I haven't had the time to use my computer much since the last iteration. I mention that in case it has some bearing on the results.
Do a search for .download in Spotlight and see if any show up. If so, finish them or delete them. If you have none, check the folder modification times to see which folder on your backup was changed most recently and narrow down where Superduper is getting stuck. You can also check out your console logs (/applications/utilities/console) to see if anything is written in there.
There are about 4000. How do I delete them at one time or do I have to do them one at a time?
Sounds like your system caches are a bit messed up. Try repairing your permissions with Disk Utility..
Ran 'Repair permissions.
Then get Cocktail:
http://www.maintain.se/cocktail/index.php
Launch it, type in your password so it can run things with higher permissions.
Go to files and the caches tab and click on the options button.
Under system, check all the component caches, the core files, the kernel caches and swap files.
Under user, check all of those including your font caches - you can ignore the Adobe, MS ones etc.
Then click ok and in the caches tab, check the system and user buttons, no need to clear the internet caches.
Then hit clear. It may ask you to reboot. If it doesn't, reboot anyway because those caches need to be rebuilt. Startup will take a bit longer than usual.
There isn't a "Clear" button in the Tiger version 4.0.2. I did click 'OK' after checking off the boxes you suggested. Nothing seems to happen. I rebooted after a while, but computer is still slow - probably the .downloads.
I can't figure out how to delete the .downloads en masse. No 'delete' under Edit, Delete key doesn't do it. No 'Send this to trash".
Actually there aren't as many as I first thought. Spotlighting .download shows them in my main HDD and two BackUps. How can I tell if they have completed or not? I opened some and they seem complete.
There are about 4000. How do I delete them at one time or do I have to do them one at a time?
Spotlight searches inside files too so the default search is probably returning more results. Click on the Finder and hit command-f and then set the drop down menu just below the toolbar to name contains and type .download. It should only list files ending in .download. I wouldn't expect there to be very many.
There isn't a "Clear" button in the Tiger version 4.0.2. I did click 'OK' after checking off the boxes you suggested. Nothing seems to happen. I rebooted after a while, but computer is still slow - probably the .downloads.
The clear button is on the bottom right of the caches panel:
Spotlight searches inside files too so the default search is probably returning more results. Click on the Finder and hit command-f and then set the drop down menu just below the toolbar to name contains and type .download. It should only list files ending in .download. I wouldn't expect there to be very many.
Right. There were only a few and I could send them to the trash and delete them.
The clear button is on the bottom right of the caches panel:
Tiger version of Cocktail 4.0.2 doesn't look like that. It has three tabs across the top with System/User/Internet. No Clear button, just 'OK'. I expected some sign that it was doing something like a blue line or ... However, nothing indicates it is functioning. I just waited a few minutes and rebooted. The version above must be for Leopard.
Edit: Something made a difference: Letters appear as I type them; panes move with the cursor; things move a little faster but are jerky. I think it was deleting the .downloads because Cocktail didn't seem to change anything. However, I don't know if Cocktail actually functioned as there wasn't any indication. The computer isn't as 'snappy' as before, but I can live with this without pulling my hair out. If you think of anything else I can try, I'd appreciate it
Thanks
Tiger version of Cocktail 4.0.2 doesn't look like that. It has three tabs across the top with System/User/Internet. No Clear button, just 'OK'.
That's the version I used too. Are you sure you're not looking at the options popup?
Once you choose the options and click ok, that just sets which caches you want to remove, it doesn't remove them. I'm sure the recent versions of cocktail ask you to reboot once you have cleared the caches.
I think it was deleting the .downloads because Cocktail didn't seem to change anything.
That shouldn't really make a difference to performance as they are just files/bundles. Deleting them should hopefully allow superduper to complete the backup though.
Another way to clear your caches out btw is to boot into safe mode. You do this by rebooting and holding down the shift key. Once you are in safe mode, you can reboot again normally.
That's the version I used too. Are you sure you're not looking at the options popup?
Once you choose the options and click ok, that just sets which caches you want to remove, it doesn't remove them. I'm sure the recent versions of cocktail ask you to reboot once you have cleared the caches.
Yes, that's what I'm looking at - the options popup. I don't seem to have the other pane you show. In the menu under Cocktail, I clicked on Preferences which gives me three tabs: General/Caches/Logs. General gives me boxes for Check SMART, use secure delete, Display confirmation dialogs, and Check for updates.
Caches gives me the pane you show. And Logs. There isn't anything else.
The menu under "File" is Close, Page Setup, and Print. I cannot see the pane that has the 'Clear' button. What is it under.
EDIT: Sorry, I was looking at the wrong pane. I found the right one. The problem is that the pane with the 'Clear' button doesn't always come up when I click on Cocktail. In fact, I can't get it to come up again. Only the menu bar shows when I open Cocktail. I may have a defective copy. I'll download it again.
I re-downloaded Cocktail and now it's working. I found another possible culprit. Checking the Activity Monitor, I noticed that GoogleDeskTop was using a lot of memory. I deleted GDT and freed up some memory.
I now have 400-500 MB of free memory whereas before I deleted GDT, I had 300 MB or (much) less.
BTW, how do I delete something from booting at startup? I deleted QuickSilver as I don't use it anymore, but it still shows at startup. I don't see it when I Spotlight startup items.
The computer has gotten a little faster, but clips and other stuff jerk instead of running smoothly.
That shouldn't really make a difference to performance as they are just files/bundles. Deleting them should hopefully allow superduper to complete the backup though.
That it did. I was able to do a full backup for the first time in quite a while.
Thanks.
Marvin,
I re-downloaded Cocktail and now it's working. I found another possible culprit. Checking the Activity Monitor, I noticed that GoogleDeskTop was using a lot of memory. I deleted GDT and freed up some memory.
I now have 400-500 MB of free memory whereas before I deleted GDT, I had 300 MB or (much) less.
BTW, how do I delete something from booting at startup? I deleted QuickSilver as I don't use it anymore, but it still shows at startup. I don't see it when I Spotlight startup items.
The computer has gotten a little faster, but clips and other stuff jerk instead of running smoothly.
Normally on a Mac you don't need to free up memory - the Mach kernel will just fill it up again. You don't have any pageouts but as you said, the machine wasn't running very long.
To look for startup items, look in the Login Items in the Accounts preference pane in System Preferences. Then look in all of your /Library/LaunchDaemons and /Library/LaunchAgents folders.
There may be some in the /Library/StartupItems too, although that is deprecated.
Lundy,
The latest vm_stat is:
Last login: Sun May 11 13:34:58 on console
Welcome to Darwin!
c-71-206-66-170:~ adstewart$ vm_stat
Mach Virtual Memory Statistics: (page size of 4096 bytes)
Pages free: 42218.
Pages active: 82007.
Pages inactive: 113751.
Pages wired down: 24168.
"Translation faults": 23405484.
Pages copy-on-write: 234697.
Pages zero filled: 14143939.
Pages reactivated: 155621.
Pageins: 81675.
Pageouts: 1727.
Object cache: 22761 hits of 1339727 lookups (1% hit rate)
c-71-206-66-170:~ adstewart$
Any suggestions as to what I should try next will be gratefully received. I'm back to pulling my hair out and I don't really have much to begin with.
Your pageouts are fine so it is not a memory problem.
Archive and Install. That's what I would do. If it is slow and nothing is hogging the processor, then there is something waiting on something, either I/O or waiting for a lock to be released. Finding it will be a lot harder than just doing an A&I.
Your pageouts are fine so it is not a memory problem.
Will do. Thanks.
finally I bought a bigger internal hard drive for my MacBOOK and backed up the machine to a third drive and duped in back on the 250 G and that fixed it...it was back to normal....I have been told by an Apple specialist that the hard drive can cause the problem...and apparently it did....as all files and system etc where copied on to the new drive...I was planning on trying it this way and thinking it would not solve the problem then later scrub and install a new system...but thankfully it was fixed....I have now a different problem....running Applejack...it says can't find my VM swap files...and now I am stuck in Safe Boot mode permanently and I NEED HELP....I can't find anything on the net that tells me how to book back to normal with Safe Boot off...
Any able to shed light on turning off safe boot?
Thanks.
Colin