Hi Lloyd, Your computer is unwell. It should never be that slow, regardless of OS. You have the option of starting up in Safe Mode which is quite limited but turns of any optional plug-ins. <http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1455> <http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1564> At the end of this e-mail, can I suggest that you unplug as many USB accessories as possible, then boot into Safe Mode?
Just to be clear with the Activity Monitor: do the 'disk', 'cpu' and 'network' summaries show relatively zero activity? Problems are generally-speaking due to a bottleneck in disk (low disk space - not in your case; or bad blocks), RAM (run-away programme consuming memory and causing virtual memory to be used), network (uncontactable DNS server; or remote attacker flooding the computer), wifi/bluetooth (similar to network), CPU (rogue process), or due to corruption of files, drivers or filesystem. What's critical is what's going on *while* the delay is occurring, not what's happening You've mentioned that "everything" is slow, but your only examples were starting up and opening disks for the first time. Can you test these tasks before booting into Safe Mode, and then test them again in Safe Mode (if it lets you): - Disk: Try copying a very large file (one that takes at least 10 seconds). Does it start pretty quickly and proceed evenly toward the end, or does it sit idle? - CPU: Try running the 'visualiser' in iTunes. Do you get a reasonably smooth frame rate, or does it take forever to load and then perform jerkily? - Network: If you visit <http://www.google.com.au> does it take a lot longer than <http://66.102.11.99/>? James On 03/01/2010, Lloyd White <lloydwh...@iinet.net.au> wrote: > > Hi Ronnie, > > Thanks for your continued support. > > iMac > HD 500 GB -388 available. > 4 Gb memory (2+2) > OS 10.6.2 > I don't think Rosetta is installed - can't find it. No programs have asked > for it. > The Console shows hundreds of messages in the last few days. All sorts of > errors and failures to do with Internet Clean-up menu, iTunes, Osacript, > Software update check, system U1 Server and a host of others. Not sure what > they mean but it does not look good ! > > Nothing in the System Startup items folder. > > Font book has reported some duplicates but nothing corrupted. > > I did a Snow Leopard upgrade. Perhaps I should bite the bullet and do a > complete CLEAN install of Snow Leopard. I have the bootable backup on my > ext hard disk, plus my Time Machine backup on another ext disk. > > Lloyd > > > > > >> >> Hi Lloyd, >> >> What are the specifications of your Mac? >> How full is the hard drive? >> How much memory is installed? >> Are you running OSX programs or those that require the use of Rosetta? >> >> 1. The most obvious is check Activity Monitor for signs of applications or >> utilities that may be chewing up CPU time under Snow Leopard. >> >> 2. You should also check your system.log (viewable via >> Applications->Utilities->Console) to make sure something isn't logging >> continuous errors, also slowing down your machine. >> >> 3. Look in Library > StartupItems and in System > Library > StartupItems. >> Move >> whatever you find in them to the desktop to see if your problem is >> resolved. >> You can move whatever you want back one at a time to test which, if any, >> is >> your problem. >> >> 4. Use Font Book to eliminate all bad and duplicate fonts. >> >> Cheers, >> Ronni >> >> On 03/01/2010, at 4:31 PM, Lloyd White wrote: >> >> > > > > > -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- > Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> > Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> > Unsubscribe - <mailto:wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au> > > -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Unsubscribe - <mailto:wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au>
