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SLiMeX · Jun 20, 2006, 02:10 PM

I was forced to do an archive and install, then an erase and install by the geniouses at the local Apple Store. Today, while I am putting all of my programs back onto my MacBook, it doesn't seem as fast as it was before. Camino is slower and when I click on Applications, for example, it takes a good second before all Applications load. Does anyone else encounter this on thier MacBook (or any other Mac?) and is there a way to get it back to its fast-ness? Please let me know, I'm used to t being faster than I am experiencing.

Star-Fire · Jun 20, 2006, 03:45 PM

It might be spotlight indexing the drive.

brokenjago · Jun 20, 2006, 08:32 PM

^^ Agreed. Give it a good day or two before you make your final determination.

Skywalkers new Hand · Jun 20, 2006, 09:02 PM

How much RAM you got?

SLiMeX · Jun 20, 2006, 09:11 PM

Originally Posted by Skywalkers new Hand

How much RAM you got?

It's in my signature, but i have 1 gig of RAM.

SLiMeX · Jun 20, 2006, 09:12 PM

Originally Posted by Star-Fire

It might be spotlight indexing the drive.

Is there any way to make it not do this? I haven't heard of this before...

rhashem · Jun 20, 2006, 09:51 PM

Originally Posted by SLiMeX

Is there any way to make it not do this? I haven't heard of this before...

You really shouldn't, if you want to use Spotlight. You see, Spotlight works by keeping an index of every file on disk. When you first install the machine, it indexes the disk in the background. After the index is set up, its updated incrementally, so you won't notice a slowdown. The initial indexing, however, will slow down the machine until it finishes.

SLiMeX · Jun 20, 2006, 09:53 PM

Ah. So it's just a waiting game? (Few days, like BrokenJago said?)

jaydon34 · Jun 20, 2006, 10:44 PM

Originally Posted by SLiMeX

Ah. So it's just a waiting game? (Few days, like BrokenJago said?)

You could always donate it to me. Id be happy to have a slow blackbook

TheoCryst · Jun 21, 2006, 02:31 AM

Originally Posted by SLiMeX

Ah. So it's just a waiting game? (Few days, like BrokenJago said?)

To see how far it's got left, click the Spotlight icon on your menu bar. If it says something along the lines of "Spotlight is indexing" or something, then you found your culprit. It will also give an estimated time remaining. If, however, clicking the icon brings up the standard Spotlight search bar, then something else is causing your slowdown.

SLiMeX · Jun 21, 2006, 05:48 PM

Since yesterday now, my MacBook has had programs "unexpectedly quit" - anything from Word to Adium to Camino. When I check the rror report, it mentions Kernels. I don't want my MacBook to go down the Kernel Panic drain. Help anyone?

Tomchu · Jun 21, 2006, 06:14 PM

The initial indexing of a freshly-installed Mac takes two minutes.

You said you did an archive-and-install -- if you've installed OS X on top of that, then the second installation *will* be a bit slower, because it is not written near the outermost edge of the disk. The outermost edge is the fastest when it comes to read/writing files. Things get increasingly slower as you go in towards the end.

SLiMeX · Jun 21, 2006, 06:28 PM

So, what can I do to make it "normal" again?

Tomchu · Jun 21, 2006, 06:55 PM

I suppose you could re-install OS X on a completely fresh drive, or use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the MacBook's disk on to another Mac (via. Firewire Target Mode), then clone back only the system stuff -- that way you'll ensure that OS X is more or less at the beginning of the drive.

Before doing any of that, though ... I'd recommend doing a deep cleaning of all caches, temporary files, and logs, followed by a PMU and PRAM reset. Give it a completely fresh start, reboot a few times to rebuild all of the caches, then see whether your performance concerns are alleviated.

SLiMeX · 08:00 PM

Tomchu, you are a very excellent source of information, thank you for helping me. But, do you know where I could find how to do all of those things?

EDIT: Found (wth the help of Apple's support site) how to do everything. BUT! It does so that they do not recommend randomly doing a PMU reset unless your computer is severely acting up. Is it really ok to just do it? Or will there be any damage?

SLiMeX · Jun 22, 2006, 01:28 PM

C'mon...anyone?

This is starting to bother me, it's just not running slow anymore... it now spins the pinwheel a lot, too.

Tomchu · Jun 22, 2006, 02:11 PM

You'll want to delete all of the files in the following directories:
/System/Library/Caches
/Library/Caches
/Users/[You]/Library/Caches

As well as the following two files:
/System/Library/Extensions.kextcache
/System/Library/Extensions.mkext

And yeah, it's okay to do a PMU reset. For the MBP, you just unplug it from power, take the battery out, and then press and hold the power button for 5-6 seconds. For the PRAM reset, when you see the screen light up, press and hold Command-Option-P-R until you hear the chime a second time.

Maybe repair your disk permissions with Disk Utility after you're done all of that.

Reboot a few times to rebuild caches (as the first few boots will be slow). Every subsequent boot re-optimizes the layout of the system files on your disk.

Mac Man · Jun 23, 2006, 01:29 PM

You should upgrade your Ram to 2GB

powerbook867 · Jun 23, 2006, 02:22 PM

How may apps do you have running when you are seeing the pinwheel? If you feel comfortable w/ terminal, launch a session and issue a

top -u

and see how much free ram you have available. While a gig of ram does sound like a lot, I feel 2 gig is the sweet spot....

Arju · Jun 24, 2006, 10:59 AM

2GB worked for me after using 512MB for a few days...