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Mac

Help, I have a slow Mac!

Martin Lévay
25

How to find out what slows down our computer and how to solve it effectively? Why do we see a rainbow wheel and how to get rid of it? What is the best diagnostic program for our Mac? If your Mac is really slow, it's best to run Activity Monitor and look at memory usage, CPU (processor) usage, and disk activity.

CPU, i.e. processor

First, let's look at the CPU tab. First, close all applications (using the CMD+Q keyboard shortcut). We start the Activity Monitor and let All Processes be displayed, we sort the display according to percentage load: then all processes should consume less than 5%, usually most processes are between 0 and 2% of processor power. If we look at idle processes and see mostly 95% and above, everything is fine. If the processor is loaded to tens or hundreds of percent, then you can easily find out the application by the name of the process in the upper part of the table. We can end that one. We let the "mds" and "mdworker" processes run, they are related to the indexing of the disk during backup, they will jump for a while, but after a while they will return to less than one percent. ¬When we have killed all applications, none of the processes should be using the CPU at more than 2% for more than 5-10 seconds except for the mentioned "mds" and "mdworker".

Let's launch the Activity Monitor app…

…I switch to All Processes.

When the computer is subjectively slow even with a small processor load, we look at the computer's memory and disk.

System memory - RAM

If we see the green inscription Free memory in hundreds of megabytes, it is fine, if this number falls below 300 MB, it is the right time to replenish the memory or close some applications. If even with relatively free memory (and this does not happen) the Mac is slow, the last option remains.

Even if I load the Mac and run dozens of applications simultaneously, the Mac can be used without any major problems. My RAM even fell below the critical 100 MB and yet the rainbow wheel does not appear. This is how a "healthy system" behaves.

Disk activity

Let's face it, Lion and Mountain Lion are optimized for use on SSDs in the MacBook Air and in the MacBook Pro with Retina display. With a healthy system, read and write data is around zero or those values ​​jump between zero and in the order of kB/s. If the disk activity is still on average in the order of MB, for example 2 to 6 MB/sec., it means that one of the applications is reading from or writing to the disk. It is usually one of the processes with higher CPU usage. Apple has its applications very well optimized, so most often "third-party" applications behave like this greedily. So it's not our fault, but the fault of the developers of such a greedy app. We have three defense options:

– turn off when not in use
– do not use
– or not to install it at all

Video conversion puts a full load on the processor. But it reaches the disk only minimally, only in the order of MB units out of the maximum 100 MB/sec that a regular mechanical disk can handle.

Deleting unnecessary files

The fact that we delete unnecessary files worked last on Windows 98. If a program creates its temporary files on the disk during installation or during its operation, it will most likely need them sooner or later. When we delete these "unnecessary" files, the program will create them again anyway, and our Mac will only slow down when creating them again. So we don't clean Mac (and preferably Windows) of unnecessary files, it's nonsense.

Programs that have Cleaner in their name and similar are just a trap for those who follow the lessons of the last millennium.

Disabling unused functions

So that's bullshit. Our computer has 4 GB of RAM and a two gigahertz processor. In normal computer use, 150 processes are running in the background at the same time, probably more. If we turn off 4 of them, we won't know. You can't help yourself by even one whole percentage of performance, if we have enough RAM, nothing will change. The video will export the same time and the game will show the same FPS. So we don't turn off anything on the Mac, we just add more RAM. This will significantly speed up switching between applications.

So how do you speed up your Mac? 4 GB of RAM? I'd rather have more

Mountain Lion manages less than 2 GB of RAM for basic work with the web and e-mails. So on older machines, if you add to 4GB, you can easily use iCloud on almost all Macs manufactured since 2007 with an Intel processor. And now seriously. If you want to have iPhoto (downloading photos from Fotostream) open all the time, Safari with ten tabs with Flash video, Photoshop or Paralells Deskotp, 8 GB of RAM is the minimum, and the 16 GB of RAM is quite a blast, you will use it. If, of course, the computer can use it.

How to REALLY speed up? Faster disk

The disk is the slowest part of our computer. She always was. The oldest MacBooks (white or black plastic) or aluminum use small disks. Smaller capacity 80, 160 to 320 GB drives are noticeably slower than the current 500-750 GB or any SSD. So if I mainly want to increase the capacity of my white MacBook, 500 GB for around 1500 CZK is an excellent choice. If we want to turn our favorite 4-year-old MacBook into a real cannon, we invest a few thousand in an SSD. For a price of around 4000 CZK, you can buy SSD disks, which noticeably speed up the entire computer. Attention, it will not increase performance, but it will increase the speed of starting applications and switching between applications. Together with 4 GB of RAM, we have a computer that can serve for the next few years, thanks to enough RAM and a fast disk, the computer behaves more quickly and we are not waiting for anything.

And how to speed up MacBook?

Practice has shown that a 4-5 year old MacBook with a Core 2 Duo processor from Intel still works, and the battery still offers several hours of work in the field. It follows that an investment of CZK 2000-6000 in a 2- to 4-year-old MacBook can help postpone the purchase of a new computer. Of course, it depends on the individual condition of the computer, but most of the MacBooks I've seen are beautiful, well-preserved pieces, where the one-time sum of around 5000 CZK is worth it.

And how to speed up iMac?

The iMac does not have screws on the back wall, so the only thing you can replace in it yourself is the RAM memory. There are faster 7200rpm drives in iMacs, but the reality is that you can definitely get some speedup by replacing the drive. To replace a disk in an iMac, you need to have enough information and certainly practice. If you do not have experience, it is better to entrust this operation to a service center or to someone who has done it before. There are video tutorials on Youtube on how to do it yourself, but if you make a mistake, you'll be looking for a broken cable for a few weeks. It's not worth it, experienced technicians will return your iMac with a new drive in a few days, and you don't have to waste time. I repeat: do not disassemble your iMac yourself. If you don't do it twice a week as a routine, don't even try. Cowards live longer.

Which disk to choose?

A mechanical one is cheaper, with a larger capacity you can also improve the speed of the disk. SSD is again more expensive, but the speed is usually several times compared to the original one. Today's SSD disks are no longer in their infancy and we can consider them a serious replacement for classic disks. Another advantage of SSD is lower energy consumption, but considering the total consumption of the computer, the difference is not significantly noticeable. If you choose a good SSD, the battery life can be extended by an hour, don't wait any longer. I didn't even notice the longer computer run thanks to the SSD in the MacBook Pro 17″.

Where's the hitch?

Let's start with the application. An application is a folder full of tiny kilobyte (kB) files scattered across many other folders. When we run the application, the system says: go to that file and load its contents. And in that content is another command: go to the other five files and load their content. If we searched for each of these six files for one second and fetched each of those files for another one second, then it would take (6×1)+(6×1)=12 seconds to load such six files. This is the case with a regular 5400 RPM mechanical disc. If we increase the rpm to 7200 per minute, we will find a file in less time and load it 30% faster, so our 6 files will be loaded by the faster disk in (6x0,7)+(6x0,7), that's it 4,2+4,2=8,4 seconds. This is true for a mechanical disk, but SSD technology has made searching for a file several times faster, let's say instead of the whole thing it will be one tenth of a second. Loading is also faster, instead of the 70 MB/s of mechanical disks, the SSD offers just 150 MB/s (for simplicity, we will calculate twice the speed, i.e. half the time). So if we factor in the reduced file search and load times, we get (6×0,1)+(6×0,5), i.e. 0,6+3, reducing the load time from 12 to just under 4 seconds. In reality, this means that larger programs like Photoshop, Aperture, Final Cut Pro, AfterEffects and others will start in 15 seconds instead of a minute, because they contain more small files inside, which the SSD can handle better. When using an SSD, we should really never see the rainbow wheel. When we catch a glimpse, something is wrong.

And how to speed up the graphics card?

No. The graphics card can only be replaced in the MacPro, which is almost no longer sold, and the new one has graphics that can handle three 4k displays, so there is nothing to replace. In iMac or MacBooks, the graphics chip is directly on the motherboard and cannot be replaced, even if you are very handy with solder, tin and rosin. Of course, there are professional graphics cards for professionals, but expect an investment of a few tens of thousands of crowns and it makes sense mainly for graphic and video studios, not for games. Of course, there are games for Mac, most of them work even on basic models, but the higher models of iMac or MacBook Pro have more powerful graphics for those users who demand performance. So one could answer that the performance of the graphics card can be increased only by replacing the computer with a higher model. And when the game jerks, I simply reduce the display of details.

And the software?

Software is another place to speed things up. But beware, this will not affect users, only programmers. Because programmers can optimize their software. Thanks to Activity Monitor, you can see how Apple's apps and others are doing. Versions for Mountain Lion are more or less fine, but three years ago, for example, Firefox or Skype in Snow Leopard used tens of percent of the computer during apparent inactivity. Perhaps those days are over.

Rainbow wheel

I click on a file or run an application. The computer shows a rainbow wheel and goes crazy on me. I hate the rainbow wheel. Crystal clear hatred. Anyone who has experienced the rainbow wheel on their Mac's display knows. A really frustrating experience. Let's try to explain the fact that there is no rainbow wheel on my computers, and you can see in the picture that I run over twenty applications with only 6 GB of RAM, while converting a video from MKV to MP4 using Handbrake, which uses the processor to full power. How is it possible to work on such a loaded computer without any problems? For two reasons. I have a good network set up and when I switched from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion I am installed Mountain Lion on a clean disk and the profile (only data without Applications) was imported into it from a Time Machine backup.

Dozens of applications running at once is a common feature of Mac OS X. With more RAM, switching between applications will be smoother.

Rainbow wheel because of the network?

What? Sew? Is it like my wifi is bad? Yes, it is a relatively common source of problems. But not the Wi-Fi router as such, but rather its settings, or location, or even a combination of both. What effect does it have? The network card sends a challenge to the network, to which another device should respond. It is expected to take a while, so the time is set for the computer to wait. And until our network card hears from the device in question, so what? Yes. That's how the rainbow wheel spins. Sure, not always, but when I've dealt with this problem, in half the cases it was a different router (or cable connection) and in the other half it was a system reinstall.

Rainbow Wheel: Hubero kororo!

The aim of the article is to give hope to the owners of older models of iMacs and MacBooks that it is not unrealistic to use a computer that has been used for a few years again without the daily frustrating wiggling of the rainbow wheel and to use iCloud and other conveniences of the latest Mac OS X Mountain Lion. And once again for those in the back rows: no super program can replace an experienced person. If you don't dare or don't have the time, ask someone serious for help. Most service centers or Apple Authorized Resellers (APR stores) should be able to help or refer you to a certified professional.

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