Questions dealing with performance of Apple hardware or software, especially about troubleshooting or improving poor performance.
2
votes
2answers
16 views
MBP w/ OS X 10.8.3 Performing Quite Slowly Lately
My MBP (2.66 GHz i7, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD) is about two or so years old. It's been running like a champ for most of its life. However, within the past few months, I've noticed a considerable degradation ...
6
votes
4answers
16k views
What is the fastest iOS version for the iPhone 3GS?
I upgraded my wife's iPhone 3GS to iOS 5.0.1 and now basic tasks like opening apps like Texts/Phone dialer are now slower than before. I understand the 3GS is 2 years old, but just being able to type ...
0
votes
2answers
25 views
2010 Mac Pro beachballing/freezing
My machine is a 2010 Mac Pro 2 x 2.66 6-core intel xeon with 32 GBs of ram running Mac OS X 10.8.3. Just the other day it started to beach ball after about an hour of use. It doesn't make any ...
2
votes
4answers
682 views
Retina Macbook Pro now has faster battery drain
I have disabled Hibernation mode and Deep Sleep mode, I also keep the charger plugged in about a week before removing it if I want to go somewhere with the laptop.
I don't know if this is normal, but ...
1
vote
1answer
2k views
How to troubleshoot stuttering iTunes video playback while downloading on Mac OS X 10.7.2?
Observations: Recently, not sure when it happened, with upgrade to Lion or before, but I have not been able to cleanly watch a video of any type in iTunes while something [movie, tv show, app, ...
0
votes
2answers
74 views
OS X unusably unresponsive after upgrading 10.6 to 10.8
Every other click and keystroke seems to cause my MacBook to just freeze for minutes at a time.
(I saw How to fix OS X Lion being unresponsive? but I'm not seeing much swap activity nor is my RAM ...
0
votes
4answers
766 views
I run out of RAM on a 8GB MacBook Pro 15"
I'm a designer using Snow Leopard on a MacBook Pro 15" (i7) with 8GB Ram, 500GB (180GB free) (2010 model).
I usually use Chrome (4/5 tabs), Firefox (1/2 tabs), Skype, VM Ware Fusion (with Win XP, ...
2
votes
1answer
23 views
Is there a guideline for the max number of active fonts
I manage my fonts through FontExplorer X. Today I noticed that I have 770 fonts activated. All legitimately licensed, by the way. The Adobe CS family installs a bunch, I've purchased and have received ...
1
vote
1answer
20 views
Hot File Clustering with multiple partitions
I'm planning a performance-oriented clean install of OS X 10.6 and I was wondering if the hot file clustering feature will exists only on the boot partition or if there will be one for each partition ...
0
votes
0answers
68 views
Mac Mini has slowed to an unbearable crawl!
I've read a lot of other questions about speed, but my question does not seem to be answered anywhere. My Mac Mini is running so slow that I cannot see what I am typing. It takes up to 15 seconds to ...
0
votes
1answer
1k views
Can imagent in OS X Mountain Lion be made to consume fewer resources?
imagent is constantly consuming CPU cycles and a couple of GBs of "real memory" on my wife's MacBook Air since upgrading to OS X Mountain Lion. I believe this is part of the Messages app.
Is there ...
1
vote
2answers
1k views
Can I improve network speed with VirtualBox between host and guest?
I use a VirtualBox machine with Arch Linux as development web server. I want to improve rsync transfer speed via smb://. What kind of configuration is best to improve file transfer/synchronization?
...
-1
votes
0answers
62 views
Is the rMBP 13" (i7 at 3GHz) fit for web development work? [closed]
I'm considering to buy the new, Early 2013, MacBook Pro 13" with Retina display and with the i7 Dual-core 3GHz processor upgrade. Nonetheless, I'm not sure if the missing dedicated graphics will make ...
0
votes
2answers
174 views
Spotlight on mid-2012 MacBook Pro with Mountain Lion Constantly Re-Indexing
On my 4-month old mid-2012 MacBook Pro I observe that Spotlight seems to want to ALWAYS re-index. I frequently notice that the performance will get unbearably slow and I can hear the hard drive ...
1
vote
1answer
382 views
Why does Reminders seem to be syncing with the network, even though I have reminders turned off in iCloud settings?
I started using Reminders.app as soon as I got iOS 5.0, and for me it mostly works very well. As soon as I got an iCloud account, of course I turned reminder syncing on there as well.
However I soon ...
0
votes
4answers
1k views
OWC SSD freezes regularly
I installed a new 115GB SSD with a clean lion install in my MacBook pro (2010) with the data doubler containing my old seagate hdd.
The install took over five hours, which made me pretty suspicious ...
0
votes
0answers
182 views
Cursor stuttering: “IOHIDSystem cursor update overdue. Resending.”
My 2011 iMac running Lion recently developed a new problem; the mouse cursor stutters. At random intervals when I move the mouse it lags, then jumps, like it missed a couple of frames. Ordinarily I'd ...
-1
votes
0answers
37 views
Should old replace new? [closed]
I'm trying to decide if I should turn in my 2011 Macbook Pro for a mid 2012 MacBook Air. I'm not very good at determining (from the hardware) which would better fit me.
I'm a CS major, a decently ...
3
votes
1answer
2k views
Why might my mac be running extremely slowly at times?
This sounds like a pretty open, multi-possibility question, but I'm at a loss. I continually experience my mac falling behind by several words or characters. I mainly notice it in chrome and adium, ...
3
votes
2answers
2k views
Using memory with a higher MHz rating?
Can MacBook Pro's successfully support and fully exploit RAM of a higher MHz rating than that which they ship with?
For example, take my 15" MacBook Pro (Late 2011) that ships with 4GB of 1333MHz ...
0
votes
1answer
53 views
What's the noticeable speed difference between these two Mac computers? [closed]
Someone wants to trade his new iPhone 5, his 20" iMac, and some cash for my 15" Macbook Pro. Here are the specs for my MBP and his iMac:
My Early 2011 15in Macbook Pro
2.2GHz i7
4GB Ram
AMD Radeon ...
0
votes
1answer
64 views
Time machine backup is very slow (new TM drive and large amount of data)
I have data (mostly photos) on an external WD 2Tb drive (about 930gb)
I have just installed a 3Tb Lacie drive and want to use it as the TM drive to back up the external WD drive and the Mac HD (very ...
1
vote
1answer
58 views
/usr/bin/nice and Handbrake
This is really two questions... If a process is run with nice (/usr/bin/nice in the default OS X Mountain Lion installation) will it run processes in equivalent time compared to that process being run ...
5
votes
3answers
3k views
How can I speed up SD card writing speed (using /dev/disk*) on a MacBook Pro?
I've been installing some linux distributions onto an SD card from my MacBook, although they take over an hour to transfer a few hundred MB (using dd and /dev/disk1).
If you look at the above ...
0
votes
1answer
198 views
iPad Mini vs iPhone 5 browser speed
Is typical browsing speed on iPad Mini noticeably slower than iPhone 5?
This is assuming I don't have any other apps in RAM, and I'm not loading any extremely difficult sites. And for the purpose of ...
1
vote
2answers
57 views
How accurate is System Report on RAM speed?
I have successfully replaced 2 * 4GB DDR3 1333 MHz RAM (Samsung) with 2 * 8GB DDR3 1600 MHz RAM (CnMemory). Everything runs fine and System Report is displaying the RAM is running at 1600 MHz.
Now I ...
2
votes
2answers
520 views
16, 32, 64 GB iPhone / iPod touch: are there any negative effects of size?
I am debating between purchasing the 32 vs. 64 GB iPod touch.
I would lean toward a smaller hard drive if there is an effect of size on speed or battery life. Aside from cost, are there any reasons ...
0
votes
0answers
30 views
Performance monitoring tools for connected devices
I am looking for something on a Mac OS using which I can monitor the performance of upto 8-10 devices connected to a MacBook using the Hot-Spot or directly via USB, etc.
Is there any single/multiple ...
1
vote
1answer
241 views
How to check if MacBook battery is genuine?
My white MacBook's battery has completely died, so I'm looking for a replacement.
It costs $150 from Apple, or about $70 for allegedly genuine Apple batteries on eBay:
I'm leaning toward this ...
6
votes
3answers
7k views
Are the Retina MacBook Pro 15" suitable for PC (Windows) gaming?
I want to buy a MacBook Pro Retina 15" and install Windows 7 or 8 (boot camp) to play games.
Obviously games aren't ready for this 2880x1800 resolution, so I hope I can set the games to run at ...
1
vote
1answer
342 views
What is the normal fan speed for the 15'' Retina Macbook Pro?
What is the typical fan speed for a 15'' Retina Macbook Pro ?
I would like to compare it with mine using istatpro
1
vote
2answers
683 views
Apple Mail vs Thunderbird performance
I'm running Apple Mail 5.3 and Thunderbird 17.0.4 on Mac OS Lion 10.7.5. The system I'm running those apps it's an iMac with 3Gb of RAM and 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.
I run both applications at the ...
3
votes
1answer
85 views
Sublime Text 2 input laggy
I use Sublime Text 2 (ST2) both on Linux & OS X Lion. When entering text, interacting with menus etc, ST2 is very laggy - I can type a few sentences very quickly, then take my hands of the ...
1
vote
1answer
95 views
Error while Compressing the Mail DB: file is encrypted or is not a database
I am trying to compress the Mail database by running the sqlite3 vacuum command. But I get the following error:
SQL Error: file is encrypted or is not a database
I was running Mac OS 10.6 and I ...
28
votes
12answers
17k views
Why would I disable swap file in Mac OS X?
I came across a thread about installing an SSD drive in MacBook Pro.
Someone in the comments also recommended to disable the swap file but didn't say why:
sudo launchctl unload -w ...
0
votes
0answers
89 views
Is it just me or do iOS device get slower with each update? [closed]
When I got my iPod Touch 4, it was the fastest device. All menus/applications open smoothly. Same is the case with my iPhone 4.
But now even opening built-in apps feels like it takes longer as time ...
3
votes
1answer
4k views
How can I control (start/stop) applications and services that start up after reboot?
I have a Mac that is slow when using the internet, but other PCs on the same connection aren't as slow.
I suspect there are too many AV scanners running concurrently, or there is some process that ...
23
votes
5answers
946 views
Is there any way to speed up my iPhone 3G since upgrading to iOS4
I have recently upgraded my iPhone 3G to iOS4 and there is some noticeable performance issues will some of the basic tasks (text messaging, loading application, etc.)
I have restarted my iPhone and ...
2
votes
0answers
121 views
How do I troubleshoot appalling write performance on DIY Fusion Drive?
I recently bought a 120 GB OCZ Vertex 3 and stuck in my 2009 Macbook White, together with a optibay-adapter for the old 500 GB HDD and configured them as a corestorage "fusion drive" by using the ...
4
votes
2answers
717 views
Bootcamp: is there an advantage of 64-bit vs 32-bit Windows?
I've got the new MabookPro retina. I want to install a dual boot Windows OS.
I have the option from MSDN to either install a 64-bit or a 32-bit. Is there a performance advantage? Other advantages?
8
votes
3answers
10k views
Can the iPad / iPad 2 handle iOS 6?
I've heard anecdotal evidence of iOS 6 seriously impairing the performance of the iPhone 4 (and had a poor personal experience with it on iOS 5). I was wondering if anyone has had any problems ...
0
votes
0answers
312 views
How to troubleshoot slow-as-molasses Safari 6?
When I upgraded to Lion, Safari 6 came along, and I find it so slow that it's almost unusable.
The problem is most pronounced when first fetching pages, especially in the first few minutes after it ...
2
votes
1answer
2k views
Mountain Lion boot time extremely slow!
After I upgraded to Mountain Lion my MBP (late 2008) started to boot extremely slow. Last time it took 2 hours 46 minutes to boot, now it's already booting for 40 minutes.
I've tried cmd+r (just ...
0
votes
2answers
278 views
iPod Nano 2G audio started skipping during music playback - what causes this?
My 5 year old iPod Nano "2G" 8GB has recently began skipping during song playback. It sounds like when a CD skips, a kind of digital glitching sound. But lately it's gotten really bad, where it will ...
1
vote
1answer
54 views
Slow in opening videos on iPod Touch
I have an iPod Touch 3G 64GB with 4.3.3, and, with just 5 videos loaded i get a problem with this symptoms:
When I tap Videos, it takes ages to load, crashes, then I can load again, still slow
Every ...
2
votes
2answers
287 views
Would Upgrading to 16GB RAM be Beneficial?
I'm running on an i3 processor, 2010 model, 3.06 GHz.
I'm currently have 4GB of RAM, but if I were to upgrade to 16GB, would:
Applications open quicker?
FPS increase in game?
Overall performance ...
1
vote
2answers
170 views
Factory Settings to Speed Up Mac?
My iMac (2010, i3, 3.06 GHz, 4GB RAM) has been getting a little slower. My research shows memory can cause a slow performance, so I looked and most of the time, my RAM is allocated like this:
.
...
1
vote
0answers
94 views
Why are disk images on AFP shares being disconnected?
I have a FreeNAS File Server which provides AFP shares to my Mac OS X clients. I'm seeing some strange performance issues between OS X 10.7.5 clients and the FreeNAS server.
My goal is to use the ...
1
vote
2answers
1k views
Why is application switching slow on Late 2013 Mac Mini compared to early 2008 Macbook Pro?
I recently purchased a Late 2013 Mac Mini Quad Core i7 2.6Ghz with 4gb DDR3 ram, 1TB 5400 rpm drive model APPLE HDD HTS541010A9E662 running OSX 10.8.2
I used Migration Assistant to migrate apps and ...
2
votes
1answer
346 views
Selecting a SSD for Fusion Drive
My aging Early 2009 Macbook White is getting a bit long in the tooth, so after learning about Fusion Drive, I'm considering combining the existing 500GB HDD with a budget-to-medium-class SSD drive, ...
