Computer slower and a few other strange problems since upgrading to SL

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Hi all,

About a month ago, I upgraded my mid-2009 MBP to SL. I'm now on 10.6.1. Ever since the upgrade, my computer's been somewhat slower than it was when I ran Leopard (although many people I know say their machines are faster). I did restart several times at one point, and that seemed to speed it up, although it still experiences delays I didn't have before. I've also had a bunch of strange issues:



1) Safari is most noticeably slow, especially when using something like Top Sites on Safari 4. I alleviated this problem somewhat by setting new tabs to open a blank window rather than Top Sites, but even so, Safari is generally slower, gives me 'pinwheels' often, and also is less stable.



2) The other day, I restarted to find that all fonts except system fonts had been mysteriously deactivated. As a designer, I rely heavily on my many fonts, which I manage using Linotype FontExplorer.



3) Today, I opened my computer up after having it sleeping in a backpack, and it had turned off. It was not out of battery; it had just turned off for no apparent reason.



4) Judging by Activity Monitor, RAM is being used somewhat more heavily by the system, contrary to the advertisements of a 'lighter' footprint for SL as compared to Leopard. However, according to Activity Monitor (which I check frequently), the processor does not appear to be getting taxed any more heavily than under Leopard, which makes the sluggishness more inexplicable.



5) Yesterday, I could not get my computer to recognize my Time Machine backup disc. After restarting, it worked, but this is a pain.



I appreciate any advice I can get. Does anyone else have similar problems or solutions? Or is the general consensus that these are SL bugs that Apple will work out by about 10.6.4 or so?



Thanks,

Nathan

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,322moderator
    Try booting into safe mode holding the shift-key at boot. It will take a while. This will clear out your font caches among others.
  • Reply 2 of 8
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Marvin View Post


    Try booting into safe mode holding the shift-key at boot. It will take a while. This will clear out your font caches among others.



    What should I do when safe booting-- just boot into Safe Mode, then shut down and restart normally?
  • Reply 3 of 8
    outsideroutsider Posts: 6,008member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by nateeanes View Post


    What should I do when safe booting-- just boot into Safe Mode, then shut down and restart normally?



    Yes, pretty much.
  • Reply 4 of 8
    I have one of the new 17" MacBook Pro laptops that came out around March 09 and installed Mac OS X Snow Leopard upgrade 2 days ago.



    My computer performance now sucks, like stated above in this thread. Safari performance is terrible. I did reboot a couple of times and things seemed to get better for a while, but ultimately gets worse again, even as I am typing this note my letters are sometimes showing up after I have typed the word or two later.



    Programs seem to take forever to open, don't see any improvement and most things seem worse than before I loaded this upgrade.



    If I perform a restore, will the new updated OS system be removed also?



    Chris
  • Reply 5 of 8
    For problems like this, I'd suspect incompatible software -- something you installed in Leopard that doesn't like running in Snow Leopard (Linotype FontExplorer in this case?). If you don't have the patience to research specific software issues that may have been documented by others, you could try an Archive and Install. Note that you may lose the use of previously installed software that has installed a kernel extension in the System.



    I don't know if repairing permissions would help, but it couldn't hurt. As for Snow Leopard having a smaller RAM footprint, I don't think I believe it.
  • Reply 6 of 8
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dr Millmoss View Post


    As for Snow Leopard having a smaller RAM footprint, I don't think I believe it.



    I thought the smaller footprint referred to how much space SL occupies on your HD.
  • Reply 7 of 8
    Btw have you tried using a program like Onyx to delete various caches (boot, kernel, applications, etc)? Might be worth a try.
  • Reply 8 of 8
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by richermartyn View Post


    hi there....



    I don't think your problems are general at all. I'd do an erase and install of either Sno or Leo. I also would backup my data before and drag and drop them back after the install. I also would reinstall all apps by hand. I suspect that your current problems are at least a partial function of the backup you used, or the existing installation you had, when you upgraded to Sno.



    Bad advice all around. Erase and Install is almost never necessary, and trying this before an Archive and Install is pointless. Also, if the issue is incompatible software, then reinstalling it will only recreate the problem and you've now spent hours and hours and gotten nowhere.
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