mac running slow though low processor usage

[rawjac]

The pattern in my problem seems to be that actions not carried out since last computer restart run extremely slow. By actions not only meant starting up a program, but also for example pressing a button in a program that has not been pressed since last restart. Though this doesn't apply in every case, sometimes my programs run slow all the time.

One of these actions not carried out since last restart can take up to ten times longer than usual, which I find really annoying.

But what's really interesting about this problem is that while my programs are running so slow, 90% of my processor is idle. And my RAM-memory seems to feel just fine. As told, some of my programs seems to work better the second time I start them, which result in more processor usage. When I play games, I have also experienced significant frames-per-second drops connected to peaks of idle processor percentage.

I have been experiencing this problem for about a week now, and it doesn't seems to get any better or worse. I share my computer with my little brother sometimes and at first, I took the slowness as a need of a restart. Therefore I cannot say exactly what caused this and to me this seems like a very strange problem.

Please ask further questions and leave suggestions, I'll be grateful for anything!
/rawjac

 

[oldscribe]

Hi and welcome,

Have you used disk utility to repair permissions? If not I would do this, also how much free space have on your hard drive?

Edit:
Would also be good to know Mac specs.

 

[rawjac]

Updated to latest mac version - no change
Repaired permissions - found some errors, still no change

Macbook Pro
Mac OS X version 10.8.4 (12E55)
Processor: 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory: 4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Graphic: Intel HQ Graphics 4000 512 MB

Do you want any other information?

By the way, I may also inform you that my mac's startup process has interestingly not been slowed.

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

By the way, I may also inform you that my mac's startup process has interestingly not been slowed.

Yes seems strange and you say there are no resource hungry applications, within activity monitor.
Two questions.
1) how much free hard drive space do you have?
2) have you recently installed any new software?

I would suggest an SMC reset, if you have never done this have a look here.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

 

[rawjac]

Oh yes, I forgot: 87% free hard drive space (438 GB)

New software? No, I don't think so.

I'm programming some at my spare time, and one of my friends thought that could be a reason for my issue, however I don't find this likely.

I hope an SMC reset is not harmful to my computer in any way... However, It's getting late so I won't do any SMC reset tonight. Thanks a lot for trying to help me out, and I hope you'll hear of me tomorrow morning. Unfortunately I'll be away large parts of the following four days, so this thread might seem abandoned when it's really not.

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

I hope an SMC reset is not harmful to my computer in any way..

It is an Apple routine for Macs to help solve many issues, resetting the system management controller is very helpful in a lot of areas one of which is sluggishness.

 

[rawjac]

Well, now I'm back - finally!

Unfortunately, the SMC reset didn't help. You seem full of ideas, I'm in need of another one.

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

Sorry the suggestion has not helped, it would be good to know if this issue is system wide or if it's just user specific, could you create a new user log into this account and see if you have the same symptoms.

 

[rawjac]

hello again,

Just tried with an other user. Same symptoms.

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

So we know it is system wide now, turn the Mac off and leave for say five minuets then reboot go into system monitor and check for a process called SyncServer, what is the CPU and real memory running at?

 

[rawjac]

Hi,

There seems to be no process with such name. But there was one called SystemUIServer, was that what you meant? And yes, I am showing all processes in my list.

By the way, I looked into the system messages and found some errors and warnings I had during the restart. I have no clue what they mean but I guess it wont hurt to post them:

1. kdc[44]: WARNING Found KDC certificate
(O=System Identity,CN=com.apple.kerberos.kdc)is missing the
PK-INIT KDC EKU, this is bad for interoperability.

2. loginwindow[41]: ERROR | ScreensharingLoginNotification
| Failed sending message to screen sharing GetScreensharingPort, err: 1102

There were two of this one:
3. SystemUIServer[156]: *** WARNING:
-[NSImage compositeToPoint:operation:fraction:]
is deprecated in MacOSX 10.8 and later.
Please use -[NSImage drawAtPoint:fromRect:operation:fraction:] instead.

And two of this one, too.
4. mdwrite[191]: [ERROR] [0.000s] com.apple.
UBItemStatusNotification.c:805 _do_UBItemStatusNotificationRegisterURLs()
can't find realpath for
"/Users/jacard/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~system~spotlight/mdlabels"
, was blocked at "/Users/jacard/Library/Mobile Documents": 2 (No such file or directory)

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

As your getting error messages I would reset your NVRAM again have a look here

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

Really do hope this resolves things.

 

[rawjac]

Hi,

I tried reseting NVRAM, but that did not help either.

But I just compared my system messages to the system messages of my brother's identical but perfectly healthy macbook pro. He also received errors and warnings number 2, 3 and 4, so those cannot be the problem. However he did not receive the first one of my warnings, so maybe that could be a clue? (or it's just a part of another problem) Unfortunately I get no information of the issue looking at the message. Other than the fact that there is something missing, hurting interoperability. Can you understand anything further?

Or maybe you know more procedures that I'll be glad to try out.

 

[oldscribe]

Hi rawjac,

No sorry never looked deep into logs, but maybe Kaveman or Spawn_Dooley might know, worth sending private message and ask to look at this thread.

 

[rawjac]

Hi,

To send PM to Kaveman I must have posted 15 messages... I've posted to Spawn_Dooley, at least.

Considering the error message, I found this tread:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4310796?start=0&tstart=0
Here the problem was solved by reinstalling the OS, and I also found this page:
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10763?viewlocale=en_US
About how to reinstall the OS without cleaning disk.

Is this a wise thing to do, or can there possibly be dangers? It's said that my files and user settings will be intact, but how about programs payed for, like photoshop? The macbook pro has a built-in recovery disk, right?

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

The macbook pro has a built-in recovery disk, right?

Yes on Mountain Lion hold down Command-R during startup and OS X Recovery will start.

 

[rawjac]

Are there any dangers with reinstalling the OS X? Would bought programs like photoshop be affected?

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

My personal preference as there defiantly seems to be a system issue, would be to do a clean instal of OS X, then reinstall my bought software iWork, Aperture etc from a Time machine backup.
So the first thing you should do is a full backup.

Are there any dangers with reinstalling the OS X?

I can not see one.

Would bought programs like photoshop be affected?

You would need to reinstall them, very simple from TM and here is a little more about OS X recovery.

http://www.apple.com/osx/recovery/

 

[rawjac]

Hi, oldscribe!

Long time since you heard of me last, life came in the way.
My mac has been a tiny bit faster since the OS X reinstall, I think, but it's still not fixed.
New ideas?

 

[oldscribe]

Hi rawjac,

Good to hear that you reinstalled fine,

By the way, I may also inform you that my mac's startup process has interestingly not been slowed.

Have you noticed any improvement in the above, or is it still slow during startup?