Mac slow down

[helmutnc]

My Mac, operating on OS 10.6.8, has slowed down so much to become essentially unusable. What can I do?

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello,

It depends on whether it is a total system-wide slowdown, or certain apps like Safari, etc.

-Which model Mac is it again?
-How much free space is left on your hard drive?
-Do you have any third-party apps like MacKeeper or CleanMyMac installed?
-Do you have an antivirus apps installed?

C

 

[Joyce London]

iMac
394 gb
CleanMyMac installed
no antivirus

 

[honestone]

What exact iMac model do you have? Also, you need to get rid of CleanMyMac. It can cause issues. There are other, safer, and both free and inexpensive, ways of keeping your Mac "lean and clean".

Also, have you been making any backups to an external device?

And, have you ever performed any disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs?

 

[helmutnc]

Hello,

It depends on whether it is a total system-wide slowdown, or certain apps like Safari, etc.

-Which model Mac is it again?
-How much free space is left on your hard drive?
-Do you have any third-party apps like MacKeeper or CleanMyMac installed?
-Do you have an antivirus apps installed?

C

i mac
500.79 GB free
I had MacKeeper installed but did not use it. It is possible that the slowdown started about 2 months ago, when I installed it & got really bad when I uninstalled a day or so ago. I uninstalled it because in running clamXV it was segregated as a problem
I have had clamXV for ca 2 yr

 

[Cory Cooper]

OK, thanks for the additional information.

-Is it ClamXav or ClamAV?
-Maybe all of MacKeeper didn't get uninstalled? Macworld: How to uninstall MacKeeper from your Mac. Note the section that list file locations starting with ~/Library. Those are located in your User folder > Library.
-Check the ClamXav preferences to see if Launch ClamXav Sentry and Scan e-mail content for malware and phishing are checked. If so, try unchecking them, restarting, and see if things speed up.
-What items are listed in  > System Preferences... > Users > your user > Login Items?

C

 

[helmutnc]

OK, thanks for the additional information.

-Is it ClamXav or ClamAV?
-Maybe all of MacKeeper didn't get uninstalled? Macworld: How to uninstall MacKeeper from your Mac. Note the section that list file locations starting with ~/Library. Those are located in your User folder > Library.
-Check the ClamXav preferences to see if Launch ClamXav Sentry and Scan e-mail content for malware and phishing are checked. If so, try unchecking them, restarting, and see if things speed up.
-What items are listed in  > System Preferences... > Users > your user > Login Items?

C

I have an iMac 24"/3.05/4GB/1TB/512/SD/MSE/kb
ClamXav
MacKeeper completely uninstalled
Login Items: CM lite, vswire relessed, ITunes helper (checked), Adobe source synchronizer (checked), Mail, SymUAgent(all users), SymSecondaryLaunch(all users)

 

[Cory Cooper]

Thanks.

-I am not familiar with CM lite or vswire relessed. Do you know what they are?
-SymUIAgent and SymSecondaryLaunch are part of some Symantec protection or antivirus product. I would uninstall it, as it can severely slow down your Mac.
-You can delete Mail from Login Items if you don't want to wait for it to launch every time you startup/restart your Mac.
-iTunes Helper is OK, if you want your Mac to detect when you connect an iPhone/iPad/iPod and launch iTunes automatically.If not, you can remove it.
-AdobeResourceSynchronizer is part of Adobe Acrobat. If you don't collaborate with other users on your network with regards to PDFs, it can be deleted. It can be a resource hog.

Hope that helps,

C

 

[helmutnc]

I cannot delete either of the 2 sym items. you cannot change this item because accounts preference is locked.

 

[Cory Cooper]

You should be able to click on the lock, enter your user password, then be able to delete them. Also, look in the Applications folder to see if there is anything with Symantec in the name and delete that, or use the installer that came with the software to uninstall it.

C

 

[helmutnc]

How do I click on the lock? nothing happens when I click on it in log in items. Nothing with Symantec in Applications. I don't have anything from Symantec

 

[helmutnc]

My computer is still as slow as snail feces, mostly in Safari & google Chrome & occasionally in Mail. anybody have any suggestions?

 

[Cory Cooper]

Not sure why you can't click on the lock and enter your password? Your account is an admin account, correct?

-Do you have Adobe Flash or Java installed?
-Do you have any extensions installed in Safari or Chrome?

C

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

Just a thought.

My computer is still as slow as snail feces, mostly in Safari & google Chrome & occasionally in Mail. anybody have any suggestions?

These are web or ISP generated, what about other apps like pages numbers etc, possibley if they are fine this could be a ISP issue

 

[tompatrick]

My Mac, operating on OS 10.6.8, has slowed down so much to become essentially unusable. What can I do?

Hi helmutnc,

There are a number of things, which you can do to improve the performance of your slow Mac. But, before that you need to know the actual reasons, which are creating problems for your system.

Below are some of the most common reasons:

1.Desktop full of software icons

2.Mac hard drive is falling for a long time

3.System RAM is not sufficient

4.Too many apps running simultaneously

5.High CPU utilizations

6.Low disk space

7.Using outdated software

8.Spotlight search is indexing

In order to solve above problems and automate the task of Mac hard drive cleaning, I suggest you to use a Mac HD cleaning software.