OS and Software > All Things Macintosh > [OS X] How to get rid of Slow Mac Lion Slow Mac OS X 10.7

[OS X] How to get rid of Slow Mac Lion Slow Mac OS X 10.7

What are your specs? What exactly do you mean by slow mac? You mean slot boot? Beaching balling Safari? Have you booted into recovery and used disk utility to 'repair disk' and 'repair permissions'? Have you reset your PRAM and SMC?

Do those things outlined above, it might take care of Slow Mac.
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If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. - Albert Einstein

+1....I agree with J E F F 100%. I saw an increase in speed when I upgraded to Lion. If I seem to slow down, I run Disk Utility and repair permissions. When I make major changes to the OS, I run OnyX. at »www.macupdate.com/app/mac/11582/onyx That always seems to help. That is my opinion.

If all else fails, I would do a fresh install of Lion. There are a few ways to do it by searching this forum. Of course if you chose this route, back everything up first. But I'm sure you know that.
--
Obama in 2012.....No More TeaBaggers!

reply to J E F F
Thanks JEFF

My Mac has 320 GB HD, 2 GB RAM, 2.4 GHz Intel Core2Duo Processor. Yes, I have tried your suggestions but these didn't work.

Actually I work with media files and need to handle large files, play audio/ Video, modify them randomly and save them at different locations. My Mac Lion takes too much of time to start my applications.

I think I have made all the things clear. Your opinion please....

The RAM is going to kill it. Upgrade to at least 4GB, if not 8GB (if your Mac can support it - might max out at 4 or 6 GB).

I've noticed Lion on my MacBook Pro C2D handles multiple apps much worse than Snow Leopard (it "feels" a lot slower). I have 3GB of RAM.
--
University of Southern California - Fight On!

reply to stevenros
I booted into Safe mode by holding the shift key on startup then rebooting normally. That has helped. I just did this yesterday.

I would also rebuild your spotlight index. I did this via the Settings. I added my hard drive to the exclude list. Closed the settings. then went back in and removed the exclusion.

I have a MacBook 5,1 late 2008 Aluminum 2.0Ghz with 4GB or memory and 320GB 7200 RPM WD Hard Drive.

reply to stevenros
Well, several things.

1. Thinkdiff has a good idea about upgrading RAM.

Here are some other thoughts:

2. Disable the local time machine backups (also called snapshots). Lion saves any file changes to your local drive so you can use Time Machine even if your external drive isn't connected. While they claim it doesn't slow things down, it might very well, especially when working on a large file. To disable local backups, do this:

sudo tmutil disablelocal

3. Secondly, if you feel comfortable about it, you could also disable the sleep image. (Sleep image is needed for when your battery goes dead)

I do get the feeling that both those things go bog the machine down a little, especially when working on large files.

4. You may also want to check your activity monitor for any rogue program that might be taking up too much CPU usage. I had an issue with a program once that basically was running a background service that added 10℃ to my system temp and spinning the HD constantly. Promptly removed, issue solved.
--
If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. - Albert Einstein

reply to stevenros
Please note that immediately after the Lion install the system will do indexing and all kinds of other fun stuff that sap your computer's power and make it seem like it is slow.

Just let it do its thing for a few hours and it will get better.

reply to stevenros
My problem is usually Safari based (yeah, I know, use Firefox...I used it for years, but, I want to use Safari).
It hangs (beachball) usually when Facebook/Scrabble (Flash, yes, it's up to date) is loaded, but it hung with gmail yesterday, so it's not specific to one site, nor is it always problematic.
I usually fire up Activity Monitor and try to see what's overloading the system, but it doesn't specify anything specific, beyond Safari.
I have 2.5GB on a late 2008 Macbook and don't have a lot of intensive programs (Virtual Box with Windows) running when not needed.

reply to J E F F
May be u are right. But if u look at »www.apple.com/macosx/specs.html its recommended by Apple it self that 2GB RAM is sufficient for Mac Lion.

Do you have any other solution please. Please mind the investment part of suggestion

reply to stevenros
Im shocked that with 2gig of Ram that any version of OS X was not slow. Apples minimum spec is 2Gb.. that is for the OS to run. Ad in your large media files and the software you are editing with and all of a sudden that 2Gb is not enough. My MBP is maxed out with Ram for the sake of the only apps i really use on it are Final Cut/After Effects/Photoshop. Seriously buy more ram.
Also repair your permissions and follow the other advice Jeff offered.

reply to stevenros

Re: [OS X] How to get rid of Slow Mac Lion Slow Mac OS X 10.7

reply to stevenros
I made my post early on in the game, thinking it was a software issue, before I knew your Mac specs. It would seem that you have the minimum requirements just to RUN Lion. To have it run well, I would put the maximum amount of RAM in your Machine (as was stated above, either 6 or 8 GB).

I have 2 iMacs running Lion, both maxed out with RAM for better performance.
--
Obama in 2012.....No More TeaBaggers!

reply to stevenros
It maxes out at 4GB and I'd recommend it, even more (and first) I'd recommend changing HD to SSD - you can find ok prices on 60GB if you look for (frequent) price drops.
MacBook Pro 15" with original 120GB HD 5400 rpm HD was booting 70 to 75 seconds, now with SSD its under 25 seconds and apps are launching fast, nevermind its shockproof and uses less power (longer battery lifetime...) The SSD gave the macbook new lease on life really.

Also to offset the investment you can get some cheap external HD enclosure and use your orig HD for DATA (also keep your old data on it in the first place while you install clean Lion on the new HD - 9.99 GB fresh install which means you could get away with even 30 or 40 GB SSD to make it really cheap but still very much worthwhile)

reply to lordpuffer
Thanks for reply,

From the above discussions it seems that I need to go for RAM upgrade (may be 8 GB). But from learnings I also knew that while dealing with large files we create so much of temp data which eats too much of free space in HD. Timely removal of such useless data can save free space for applications and ultimately help to enhance Mac speed. These files can be removed with crap remover.

Now, I have two options to resolve the issue. Let me see which one is feasible and affordable..

Will be back soon.....

Free disk space has a minimal impact on performance unless you're extremely low on space (less than 10% of total size). RAM plays a much larger role.
--
University of Southern California - Fight On!

reply to stevenros
I will with qualification agree with the more RAM advice. I say qualification because there is no GUARANTEE that your problem is solely RAM and perhaps part of the problem lies in some of the other areas. But I am confident in saying that in general for all Macs OS X Lion 2 GB may be "sufficient" but its not "adequate or acceptable." RAM is HP and you are short on HP at 2 GB IMO.

Thanks for reply ,

Ok, now I understand that upgrading RAM is a solution. But, can u please help me to save some dollars.

Mac defragmentation can help me synchronize my large files and thus lower down the read/write time for OS. I think it may be a solution. Whats your opinion ?