My Macbook is slow!

[Stampeder 2]

So I purchased a brand new macbook a month or so after they came out. I never really used it much at first because it was for university and I was still at home and just used the family pc. Now this thing is a gross peice of junk. It takes forever to load any program, even safari is slow. I have no idea why its gotten so damn slow, but it never used to be like this. Anyone have any idea what I can do about this? I am way too poor to upgrad the RAM right now.

[Guest OSTOR]

virus maybe or you just have way to much crap on it

[NuggyBuggy 0]

I would wipe the thing and reinstall, reasonably painless, just make sure you back your stuff up. Unless it was better before and now has gotten worse, I'd guess that more RAM would help - so save your pennies. Operating systems and applications these days hog memory, and so do all those graphical effects and other functionless crap that the Mac has.

I have a Macbook Pro and in many ways I think it absolutely sucks.

[Stampeder 2]

Would be be a good idea to get rid of all the stuff that comes (that I likely will never use )with it like iChat, iMovie, iDvd that comes installed already? All I really run on it is MSN, iTunes, BitTorrent, and maybe Limewire sometimes.

[NuggyBuggy 0]

Would be be a good idea to get rid of all the stuff that comes (that I likely will never use )with it like iChat, iMovie, iDvd that comes installed already? All I really run on it is MSN, iTunes, BitTorrent, and maybe Limewire sometimes.

You could probably get rid of them but unless you're short on disk space, there's no great reason to do so. I doubt that it would solve your speed problem since they shouldn't draw many resources if any, if you're not using them.

I would wager that you have a 512 MB Macbook that needs more RAM. Google "slow macbook" and you'll find a bunch of people complaining about how the Macbook needs more RAM, especially the 512MB model. Most seem to recommend 2GB, but I only have 1GB and it runs perfectly well, and I run extra stuff in the background like database servers.

If I were really stuck and couldn't google around for solutions, I would try doing things like turning off all the animations that are available in the OS, turning off text smoothing, turning down the number of colors used in the display, etc, to see what helps and what doesn't. Stuff like animating the opening of windows takes some resources, but are cosmetic only. Oh, and turning off Airport and Bluetooth if you're not using them might help. These things might help, but they won't make a HUGE difference.

[D3nZ 0]

Go on the Apple website, there is a huge discussion board on how to's and troubleshooting and all that stuff, maybe it could help you out. Go on the Apple website click on the support tab and then the discussion link.

[J-Shera 0]

Wheres Vapor with all the praises now?

[Stampeder 2]

Yeah I kinda wish I could get that kid's take on my problem. But I guess I'll try turning off as much animation stuff as I can. I wanted to email apple about how terrible this is, but it was taking forever for safari to do anything. Can't turn off airport and Bluetooth because thats my internet and mouse.

[Muzza_77 0]

I wouldn't bother with turning off animation, that shouldn't have any effect on the speed of the computer. Does you computer have bootcamp loaded?

the interesting part is that safaris is also running slow..hmm...I would try to repair permissions, if that doesn't work, I would check the RAM using an app in utilities (I am not sure right now as I am not using my mac right now) and if it doesn't show correctly try to re-seat the RAM. Is your desktop really cluted?

if none of that works then you should at the extreme (you really SHOULDN'T have to fet to this point as it is a mac) either leave your computer on at around, I think that is is 5am or use an app to clean up some data. During that early time period a 'cron' script is run which cleans out you computer, though I have only ever done this twice in 3 years for a spring clean.

Relax. it is a mac it will work and work easier that a PC will.

[Stampeder 2]

Nope didn't want to bother with bootcamp because it would take up way too much space. I have no idea how to re-seat RAM or what what is. Desktop has some jpegs and torrent files on it, nothing too much. My computer is always on throughout the night, just leave it to download stuff.

[Stampeder 2]

Ok this thing is a fucking joke. I see the little umbrela spinning for a minute when I run only safari or firefox. I try to click on the msh favorite link at the top and it freezes for like a minute trying to process the request. I hate it!!

[ju87 0]

downloading torrents takes up a lot of memory and since you haven't upgraded your ram, that may be the culprit. does the system still run slowly when you are not running any bittorrent clients?

i have a macbook pro w/2gb ram...running Transmission (bittorrent client) i notice that my system is slowed down a bit and there is a lot of memory activity going on due to Transmission.

[AnthonyJTa 0]

Ok this thing is a fucking joke. I see the little umbrela spinning for a minute when I run only safari or firefox. I try to click on the msh favorite link at the top and it freezes for like a minute trying to process the request. I hate it!!

this is why I'm petrified to upgrade my Powerbook G4 to a duo-core Macbook.... I'm straight with Windows/Intel all together.

Run diagnostics on it, and make sure none of your files are corrupt. I would ditch Limewire.. it's nothing but problems. BitTorrent should be fine for d/loading music. I highly doubt it's a virus.. there are little to no known viruses for OSX