Slow Mac Mini

[DougStocks]

My Mac Mini is about 4 to 5 years old. When I got it, it seemed blazingly fast compared to the Windows box it replaced. However now it is as slow as my old Windows machine. For example, it took 20 seconds for the word "Mac" to be entered into the title bar above. Clearly, this is not always the case or I could not have gotten this note written. However, it so often slows to a crawl that it is not really useful. I reboot frequently (2 or 3 times a day) and often have no more than one application open at a time. I have 4 GB RAM, the max when I bought it. I am running Snow Leopard and have no desire to try Mountain Lion. Any and all suggestions will be gratefully received.

Cheers,
Doug Stocks

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hi,

-How full is the HD?
-Do you have any anti-virus or software like MacKeeper running?
-Is Snow Leopard fully updated?

C

 

[DougStocks]

Hi,

-How full is the HD?
-Do you have any anti-virus or software like MacKeeper running?
-Is Snow Leopard fully updated?

Thank you for your reply.
- HD is 320 GB total, 118 GB available.
- No anti-virus.
- I think all software is up to date; just ran a search for updates and was told none available.

- Yesterday I emptied the cache and deleted over 1100 cookies. That seemed to help some. Today, slow again. Repeated cache empty and cookie deletion. I was slow in leaving that page. Within 10 seconds 4 new cookies had appear. Wrote a short letter; checked cookies again & total was up to 24.

 

[Cory Cooper]

OK...

-Have you tried repairing disk permissions in Disk Utility?
-Is it slower when using Safari, or when it is running while using other apps?
-Is Flash installed/updated?
-Do you have any sharing turned on - file/screen/printer/etc?

C

 

[DougStocks]

OK...

-Have you tried repairing disk permissions in Disk Utility?
-Is it slower when using Safari, or when it is running while using other apps?
-Is Flash installed/updated?
-Do you have any sharing turned on - file/screen/printer/etc?

C

Thanks for your continued support.
- In case it is relevant to any of your questions, I am the only person who has ever used this machine. I mention this in case it is relevant to your query re "permissions." At any rate, the answer to the first question is NO and I do not find anything called a "Disk Utility." (It should be clear to you, that while I use my computer almost constantly, I know almost nothing about the nuts and bolts of the machine itself.)
- Hard to say re when it's slower; sometimes I think the browser is the culprit, and certainly removing all those cookies helped a lot, but it is frequently slow when browsers are closed and I'm using only programs that reside on the machine (usually photoshop).
- Something called "Flash Player" is installed "Plug-in version 11.8.800.168 is installed" and the box for automatic updates is checked.
- If "sharing" means sharing any part of the computer or peripherals with another machine, then answer is No, not to my knowledge.

Again I very much appreciate your continued efforts to assist me.

Doug Stocks

 

[Cory Cooper]

Not a problem, that's why we're here.

Disk Utility is located here: Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility. Here's how:

Repair disk permissions to speed up your Mac

Also, what are the login items that load when you log in to your account?

Apple on menu bar > System Preferences... > Accounts > click on your account > Login Items

C

 

[DougStocks]

Not a problem, that's why we're here.

Disk Utility is located here: Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility. Here's how:

Repair disk permissions to speed up your Mac

Also, what are the login items that load when you log in to your account?

Apple on menu bar > System Preferences... > Accounts > click on your account > Login Items

C

Thank you for your kind assistance.
- Attempted to repair disk permissions. After 7 minutes, I received a message indication time remaining to be 6 hours. I stopped the process and will resume the effort tonight. I'll report back on Tuesday.
- Login Items are: iTunesHelper (hidden), ColorVisionStartup, MacInformer (hidden), bomgar-scc-20120119-101551, apple-scc-20130111-113710, YouSendIt Desktop Application, EpsonLowInkReminderAgent & Launch Nikon Message Center 2

Thanks Again,
Doug Stocks

 

[Cory Cooper]

-Did you let Repair Disk Permissions run overnight yet?
-Have you ever had AppleCare or another AASP login remotely to your Mac to diagnose it? If so that is why bomgar-scc-20120119-101551 and apple-scc-20130111-113710 are in the login items and you can delete them.
-YouSendIt can slow down your Mac, so I would delete it unless you use it every day.
-MacInformer is always running in the background and can slow things down when it checks for updates.

-You could also create a test user and login to it to see if the issue persists.

Basically, anything that I can run manually, I remove from Login Items. Anything that has Internet connectivity can slow things down periodically.

We'll keep working through this,

C

 

[DougStocks]

-Did you let Repair Disk Permissions run overnight yet?
-Have you ever had AppleCare or another AASP login remotely to your Mac to diagnose it? If so that is why bomgar-scc-20120119-101551 and apple-scc-20130111-113710 are in the login items and you can delete them.
-YouSendIt can slow down your Mac, so I would delete it unless you use it every day.
-MacInformer is always running in the background and can slow things down when it checks for updates.

-You could also create a test user and login to it to see if the issue persists.

Basically, anything that I can run manually, I remove from Login Items. Anything that has Internet connectivity can slow things down periodically.

We'll keep working through this,

C

Cory: Sorry for the delay in responding; I was completely occupied with other matters yesterday.
- Yes, I did run the Repair Disk Permissions. I don't know whether this produced noticeable improvement.
- I probably did seek tech assistance from Apple when machine was still in warranty but never from anyone else. I have deleted the "bomgar-scc" and the "apple-scc" and the YouSendIt. You did not advise to delete the MacInformer, so it remains on my machine.

The state my machine is in at the moment is that, to me, dreaded state of sometimes it runs beautifully and sometimes it seems to lock up for up to 4 or 5 minutes - or even more. Safari is presently the biggest culprit, so I "Quit Safari" every time I'm finished with it; unfortunately sometimes I need to leave it open as I refer back to some document. Speaking of Safari, I have a question. Are cookies browser specific or do multiple browsers share the set of cookies? I ask, because I have not been able to find the instructions for clearing the cache and the cookies from Firefox. Clearing them from Safari is the one thing that seems to have helped the most; it also freed up about 60 GB on the internal HD.

Without a doubt, the machine is in a lot better state now than when I posted this query and it is entirely due to your most generous assistance for which I once again thank you.

 

[Cory Cooper]

You can delete MacInformer for now to see if it helps. You can always add it back later, or run it manually when you want.

60 GB is a massive amount of cookies! Do you have it set to block cookies from third parties and advertisers in Safari > Preferences > Privacy? Also, do you have any Safari Extensions installed? I run Safari with Extensions turned completely off.

Firefox would have its own set of cookies/cache. Not sure how to clear it, as I don't use it. I am sure you can find the steps via Google.

No problem on reply time...it took me a while to respond last time as well.

C

 

[DougStocks]

You can delete MacInformer for now to see if it helps. You can always add it back later, or run it manually when you want.

60 GB is a massive amount of cookies! Do you have it set to block cookies from third parties and advertisers in Safari > Preferences > Privacy? Also, do you have any Safari Extensions installed? I run Safari with Extensions turned completely off.

Firefox would have its own set of cookies/cache. Not sure how to clear it, as I don't use it. I am sure you can find the steps via Google.

No problem on reply time...it took me a while to respond last time as well.

C

-- Re deleting MacInformer; I want to make sure I understand. To delete, I highlight it and click on the on-screen "Minus" button. Correct?

-- I made a big error in my 60 GB, it was actually 126 GB. I reported to you earlier that I had 118 GB available; I now have 244 available. There were in excess of 1100 cookies in Safari & I have no idea re the size of the cache I deleted. Incidentally I note that I am now back up to 97 cookies. There are probably at least that many cookies in Firefox; I'll try to google that.

-- Yes, Safari is set to block third parties and advertisers. Are the extensions the things in the line immediately below the address bar? If so, then yes, I do have 5 extensions and two more "News" and "Popular" that each contain quite a few.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Yes, in the Login Items window, highlight MacInformer, then click the minus button. Make sure the lock in the bottom left of the window is "open". If it's not, click it and enter your user password, then do the above steps.

That's an insane amount of cookies. My main MacBook Pro has less than 5 MB or so, for around 5,000 cookies. I think this may be the majority of your issue. We need to determine what is causing the abnormal amount to be generated.

No, those are bookmarks below the address bar in Safari. The extensions I am referring to are in Safari > Preferences > Extensions. Let me know if there are any listed there...we'll probably want to disable them/turn them off.

C

 

[DougStocks]

Yes, in the Login Items window, highlight MacInformer, then click the minus button. Make sure the lock in the bottom left of the window is "open". If it's not, click it and enter your user password, then do the above steps.

That's an insane amount of cookies. My main MacBook Pro has less than 5 MB or so, for around 5,000 cookies. I think this may be the majority of your issue. We need to determine what is causing the abnormal amount to be generated.

No, those are bookmarks below the address bar in Safari. The extensions I am referring to are in Safari > Preferences > Extensions. Let me know if there are any listed there...we'll probably want to disable them/turn them off.

C

-- OK, I have deleted Mac Informer. Interestingly (or not), I have no recollection of "unlocking" it when I deleted those other three items.

-- I agree re space for those cookies. I just cleared my entire history from Firefox (I suspect there were more items there than on Safari) and that freed up about 2 GB. Even though I triple checked it, I am now wondering if I misread that 118 and it was actually 218. Or, shudder, perhaps I inadvertently deleted some program.

-- The extension page seems to be totally empty (or did not load in the time I looked at it).

 

[DougStocks]

Yes, in the Login Items window, highlight MacInformer, then click the minus button. Make sure the lock in the bottom left of the window is "open". If it's not, click it and enter your user password, then do the above steps.

That's an insane amount of cookies. My main MacBook Pro has less than 5 MB or so, for around 5,000 cookies. I think this may be the majority of your issue. We need to determine what is causing the abnormal amount to be generated.

No, those are bookmarks below the address bar in Safari. The extensions I am referring to are in Safari > Preferences > Extensions. Let me know if there are any listed there...we'll probably want to disable them/turn them off.

C

Cory,
An update. As I've said before my Mac mini seems to be behaving better (running faster) but sometime it is as slow as ever. However during a brief (about 10 minutes) window today, it was operating at "lightening" speed. TeX processing that generally required 15 to 30 seconds were processing in less than 1 second. Experiencing something like that makes me even more disgruntled when it reverts back to being so slow.

One thing that I think really has an adverse effect is having Safari open. I think I'm going to go back to Firefox and just keep Safari closed. I'll give you another update in a day or two.

Cheers,
Doug

 

[Cory Cooper]

I assume you mean TeX the typesetting system?

Good that we are making some progress at least. I will be interested to see if keeping Safari closed has any benefit.

C