Why is my macbook so slow?

[ggirl]

was fine until a few days ago
how can I help it

Is it suggesting some sort of update - mine does that periodically? Sorry, not very technical!

Have you upgraded the OS? Mine slowed down when I installed Lion and was a couple of weeks before it sped up again.

don't know what OS is
haven't changed anything recently
have just emptied cache (whatever that is)

is it slow on the web or slow at doing everythign?

Check for updates.

Check how much space you have on the startup disk.

Re-start.

asking because if it's on the web it's likely to be the browser going funky and will continue until you get an update to correct it. i have firefox and safari so that i can switch between the two when that happens - oh and also that some things just don't like one browser but work fine on the other.

Can you be a bit more specific as to what is slow? Opening files? Booting up? What exactly is slow?

it's slow loading pages
don't really do anything else on it but use the internet

sorry ,how do you check how much space you have on the start up disk?

Go to the apple in the left hand corner.

Go to 'go'

Select computer

Click on MacIntosh HD

Press command + i.

You should see a box come up. It will tell you the total capacity of your HD and how much space you have available.

Also try going to the apple, and click 'software update', this will update everything that needs updating.

Mine was really slow too, and 'grinding' away all the time. My lovely DP (total geek) sorted it out. Something to do with everything being indexed ?? Sorry, don't know what that means, even though he explained it to me. Also, some of the tabs I leave open constantly have stuff going on (e.g.: moving animation) and also it has something to do with this being a little bit old and programmes are newer than it is.

Sorry, not much help at all, am I, but just wanted to sympathise.

They're such good machines when they're working well.

right the software update only brought up itunes and printer stuff

found this - 1 GB
Type: DDR2 SDRAM
Speed: 667 MHz
Status: OK
Manufacturer: 0xCE00000000000000
Part Number: 0x4D342037305432393533455A332D43453620
Serial Number: 0x772C73C1

mean anything?

My guess would be that you need to see if there are any updates available. I had some software updated recently and it made all the difference.

Also, do you ever turn it off or just let it go to sleep? You need to turn it off once in a while.

How much space did it say you have on your startup disk?

Should look like this:

Version:
Format:
Capacity:
Available:

god I can't find that info

Capacity: 149.05 GB
Model: Hitachi HTS542516K9SA00
Revision: BBCAC3GP
Serial Number: 080229BB0310WCKK8HHA
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Mac OS 9 Drivers: No
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
Macintosh HD:
Capacity: 148.73 GB
Available: 111.53 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk0s2
Mount Point: /

How old is your macbook?

must be 5-6 yrs old now

is it slowly dieing

Yes I'm afraid so

damn

Macs should soldier on quite happily for a while...

Try repairing the permissions:
kb.iu.edu/data/aoxn.html

However as someone has already pointed out modern web pages can slow down older machines. So things like Facebook, web games and pages with lots of animation and adverts can be things that older machines just can't handle very well.

So it's not so much dying as just getting left behind...

My MacBook has slowed down just today, quite suddenly and is only a year old. Installing updates, but really fed up of it, and am on iPad now.

As above repair the permissions, it's a generic fix for when odd things seem to be happening to a Mac.

There are then some instructions on general Mac bloatyness here:
lifehacker.com/5252183/clean-up-and-revive-your-bloated-sluggish-mac

In particular check what you've got running when you start up and think if you really want those things to run. This page will also talk about Onyx... Mac's have scheduled house keeping tasks that are meant to run overnight and keep everything nice and tidy. If you don't leave your Mac sleeping overnight they don't run, but modern Macs are allegedly clever enough to spot this and run them anyway during the day. Onyx will let you fire up those house keeping jobs manually and make sure that they're all run. And that can be brilliant. But Onyx is very very powerful and it can do nasty things to Macs if you're not quite sure what you're doing. So keep it in your back pocket, try leaving the Mac on over a Friday night and see if all these other suggestions help sort things out.

You can also use Activity Monitor to see if anything in particular is slowing your machine down:
oreilly.com/pub/a/mac/2005/10/04/activity-monitor.html

just seen this badger
thanks
have repaired my disks now so will let you know if it improves things