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You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > macOS > Snow Leopard Hanging-Running VERY SLOW

Snow Leopard Hanging-Running VERY SLOW
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markw10
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May 3, 2010, 03:43 PM
 
I am having a problem with running Snow Leopard on my MBP. It's running extremely slow and beachballing a lot. Here is the issue.

The computer is almost 3 years old to the day and is a Core 2 Duo MBP and has 4GB of memory. I upgraded to Snow Leopard a few months ago and am running the newest update.
About 6 months ago I experienced a video problem and the Apple Store replaced it with a new logic board. A few days later I experienced networking issues. it would connect to Wi-Fi but would not get any internet. The Apple store tried a few things to fix corrupt files and was unable to fix it. They suggested a reinstall of Leopard which is what I was running at that time but instead I did an upgrade to Snow Leopard. It immediately fixed the problem and my computer was running fast. I left this out but as part of the Snow Leopard upgrade I upgraded the hard drive to a 640GB drive.

Then a few days ago it began running slow. It seems to start slow so I thought it was just too many programs running and my computer was showing it's age. Yet it has gotten far worse and I know it may be a deeper issue.

I have questioned if it could be an issue with memory. Would this slow it down?
I tend to think its' software related, not hardware.

The question: How do I troubleshoot something like this? It happens as soon as I boot it up, I don't even have to start any programs. I have looked at my login items in accounts and see a few things like growl and a scanner application. The only other thing I see is I noticed there is 4 items relating to SOHO Organizer. I don't believe these should be slowing it down.

As an example when I boot it and log on at that point, it can beachball for 10 minutes before I get into the screen with the dock, etc. Dashboard won't even work. When I click on dashboard it brings up the calculator, weather, etc. but nothing opens up. i simply see the blank calculator but nothing is lighting up to type on it, no weather details, etc. and this is after bootup or using it.

When I try to close an application it can take a minute, it can take a minute to switch, it. My computer is nearly unusable.

If necessary I'll go to the Apple store but it just left the warranty period and I'm convinced its' simply something software related, maybe something that's hanging it. Any ideas of what could be wrong or how to troubleshoot to find out?

Thank you in advance for your help.
     
ibook_steve
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May 3, 2010, 04:11 PM
 
Things to try:

Boot up holding the shift key to start in safe mode, which disables startup items. I like Growl as well, but it was killing my performance, so it's gone.

Try a different user account. Just create a test account and see if that fixes it.

Check Activity Monitor (click %CPU to organize by CPU usage) and see if anything is hogging the processors.

If the slowness is after the gray apple, then it's most likely a runaway startup item like Growl.

Steve
Celebrating 10 years and 4000 posts on MacNN!
     
markw10  (op)
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May 4, 2010, 01:34 AM
 
I did some work this evening. For some reason I was unable to get into safe mode and I pressed and held the Shift key hoping to go into safe mode.

After that I tried the option of a hardware test by inserting the #1 CD that came with the MBP and booting up using D. I ran the extensive hardware test and it found no errors.

Yet I have even pulled the power cord and battery and did a restart and am having the same problem. I even had a few times it would not even boot. It would get to the grey apple with the progress indicator below and would be like that for 15-20 mins, never going further so I may have even deeper issues.

Fortunately I had been doing hard drive backups using Super Duper so I connected that drive and did a boot from it. I was excited since it seemed to boot at first and then was very slow and appeared to freeze as the icons were appearing on the desktop. I have only tried this once but since that's the case I didn't think it was the internal hard drive that was the issue.

Then I decided to hook the external back up drive to the other MBP our family has. I then booted up and was shocked how well it ran. It was running on USB but I got straight into the OS and opened a few documents, programs, etc. and had absolutely no problems.

What would this mean?
I originally though after it didn't work on the MBP that maybe it was indeed a problem with the internal hard drive and there were likely corrupted files or so that then got backed up onto this backup drive when I did the last backup a couple weeks ago. Yet it works fine on the other MBP.

I actually did the hardware test after I attempted the boot from the hard drive on the MBP so can try another boot later in case something just went wrong that time but since it boots fine on another MBP I tend to think the hard drive is not the issue. The good news is maybe I won't have to do a complete clean install of Snow Leopard and then all data, etc.

Could it be some type of hardware problem with the MBP? The hardware test found nothing but could it be a memory problem or would it have caught a memory problem or a hard drive problem? I had to have the Apple Store put a new logic board in this computer about 6 months ago. It was a video problem and the computer had no video at all. Would a more serious problem relating to the logic board or something on it cause a problem like this?

Once the hardware test is done I will try to boot again from this hard drive. I was ready to check into replacing through warranty the new hard drive I put in but I'm not sure if that is the problem now.
     
markw10  (op)
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May 4, 2010, 01:43 PM
 
I tried a PRAM reset but unfortunately that didn't help so it seems like I'll be going by Apple.
I purchased the AppleCare for 2 additional years but it just expired in April. I had a logic board replaced in this MBP less than 6 months ago. Since this may be a problem with the logic board would Apple cover it or is all coverage over since the AppleCare expired? Unfortunately since I'm probably just a couple weeks past AppleCare being over I'm hoping there's some type of chance of coverage.
     
besson3c
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May 4, 2010, 02:09 PM
 
I echo ibook_steve's suggestions, let us know when you have tried them
     
bishopazrael
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May 5, 2010, 01:37 PM
 
I've been having the very same problems. I've tried new ram and a new hdd. I'm still having issues. I'm going to try another account first, but man I've done a clean install and at first it seems fine but then the issues do come in. I DO have growl installed. I think I might just go ahead and remove it to see how things work afterwards.
Backups are like guns and condoms. It's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
     
bishopazrael
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May 5, 2010, 05:31 PM
 
Thus far i've disabled growl totally. Not removed just removed from start up and running. I'm still getting wierd hang ups.
Backups are like guns and condoms. It's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
     
   
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