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How To Fix A Slow or Unresponsive Mac

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23 views12 pages

How To Fix A Slow or Unresponsive Mac

Uploaded by

George Ayanjompe
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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How to Fix a Slow or

Unresponsive Mac

Tim Brookes

©2019 by LifeSavvy Media. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means without
permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may
quote brief passages in a review.

Cover Photo by Omar Tursic/Shutterstock


Contents
How to Diagnose a Sluggish Mac ...................................................................... 1
App Crashes: How Software Can Slow Down Your Mac ................................... 2
Disk Space: Your Mac Needs Room to Breathe ................................................ 3
System Resources: Are You Pushing Your Mac Too Far? .................................. 4
Hardware Issues: Problems Under the Hood.................................................... 5
Apple Diagnostics .......................................................................................... 5
Memory......................................................................................................... 5
Storage .......................................................................................................... 6
CPU & GPU .................................................................................................... 7
Decline with Age: Is Your Mac Just Old? ........................................................... 8
When Should You Buy a New Mac? .................................................................. 9
How to Diagnose a Sluggish Mac
There are many reasons why your Mac might have performance issues.
If you can figure out what's wrong, you can take steps to rectify it. You
can fix most common causes of a slow Mac yourself, and relatively
easily. Here are some of the easier tips you can try to speed up your
Mac.

Hardware issues, though, are the exception. If your Mac has a problem
with a particular component, the fix becomes more complicated. Even
desktop computers like the iMac are notoriously difficult to repair
yourself---Apple uses heavy amounts of glue and solder in its
manufacturing process.

In a worst-case scenario, you can always ask Apple to take a look. If


you book a free Genius appointment at an Apple Store, they run a full
set of diagnostics on your machine. From there, they should be able to
recommend a fix for the problem. If you want Apple to repair your
machine, you have to pay out of pocket if the warranty's expired,
unless you have AppleCare.

Remember, it's free to book an appointment at an Apple Store, find out


what's wrong with your machine, and how much it will cost to fix. The
company only charges you for repairs after it has your consent to make
them.

© LifeSavvy Media. All rights reserved ® 1|Page


App Crashes: How Software Can Slow Down
Your Mac
When software isn't working correctly, it can make your machine seem
unresponsive. Sometimes, just the app that's crashed exhibits this
behavior; other times, misbehaving software might attempt to take your
whole machine down with it.

If you suspect an app crashed, right-click its icon in the Dock, hold
the Option key on your keyboard, and then click Force Quit. You can
also use the keyboard shortcut Command+Option+Esc to force quit the
current app.

If you're not sure which app has crashed, or you think one crashed in
the background, launch Activity Monitor. Click the "CPU" tab and
view the "% CPU" column in descending order. This way, the apps
using the most processing power appear at the top. If you spot anything
using more than its fair share, click it, and then click the "X" to kill the
process.

Sometimes, performance issues are caused by memory leaks, where a


particular task or process eats up all the available memory. To see the
memory, click the "Memory" tab, and reorder the "Memory" column in
descending to see similar results. You can kill processes the same way
you would an app that's crashed.

Processes that have completely crashed appear in red with the words
"Not responding" next to them under Activity Monitor. You can kill
these and restart them. If you encounter repeated issues with the same
apps, you might want to consider using something else (or drop the
developer an email).

© LifeSavvy Media. All rights reserved ® 2|Page


Disk Space: Your Mac Needs Room to Breathe
Low disk space is another common cause of macOS slowdown.
Without enough free space on your startup disk, macOS is unable to
run maintenance scripts and background processes that keep your
computer ticking along. Unfortunately, Apple doesn't specify exactly
how much free space is required to keep your Mac happy.

A general rule of thumb is to keep 15 percent of your startup disk free


at all times. This figure applies mostly to laptops with small drives. An
iMac with a 3 TB drive requires a much smaller percentage to satisfy
macOS requirements. But it's also much harder to fill up a 3 TB iMac
than a 128 GB MacBook Air.

If you work with large files or create lots of temporary files (like for
video or photo editing), you should keep as much free space on your
drive as the total size of those temporary files.

To see how much free space you have on your Mac, click the Apple
icon in the top-left corner, and then click About This Mac. Click the
"Storage" tab to see a breakdown of your current disk usage. You can
then free up space on your Mac.

© LifeSavvy Media. All rights reserved ® 3|Page


System Resources: Are You Pushing Your Mac
Too Far?
Your Mac has a finite number of resources available, limited by factors
like processor cores, available RAM, and the presence of a dedicated
graphics card. If you know how far you can push your Mac, it will help
you avoid performance issues in the future.

Some common tasks that might push your Mac over the edge are:

• Too many open tabs in your web browser.


• Hungry software, like Photoshop, open in the background.
• Playing graphically-intensive 3D games.
• Working with huge video and photo files or rendering video.
• Doing two or more of the above (or similarly intensive processes)
simultaneously.

If you have hundreds of tabs open in a browser like Chrome, don't be


surprised if you encounter memory issues. If you switch to a Mac-
optimized browser like Safari, it will help, but you still might need to
curb your tab addiction.

Browsers, in general, can be a source of poor performance. Too many


extensions and plugins negatively affect your browser's responsiveness.
And some web apps can tax your machine just as much as native ones.
One example of this would be if you use a web-based spreadsheet tool,
like Google Sheets, to crunch a lot of data.

To find out how your system is faring at any point, open Activity
Monitor and check the "CPU Load" and "Memory Pressure" graphs on
the CPU and Memory tabs, respectively.

© LifeSavvy Media. All rights reserved ® 4|Page


Hardware Issues: Problems Under the Hood
Few computers hold resale value like a Mac. They're built to last, and I
can say that because I'm typing this on 2012 MacBook Pro. But
problems can arise---particularly if your machine is showing its age.
But there are some things you can check yourself.

Apple Diagnostics

Your Mac includes a basic diagnostic tool you can run yourself. Follow
these steps to do so:

1. Shut down your Mac.


2. Press the power button to turn on your Mac, and then immediately
press and hold D on the keyboard.
3. When you see the screen that asks you to select a language, release
the D key.
4. Select a language, and then wait for the diagnostic tool to run.

Note: If Apple Diagnostics doesn't start, try holding Option+D instead.


You need an internet connection to do this because your Mac
downloads Apple Diagnostics before it runs it.

Apple Diagnostics can only tell you so much in the form of a reference
code. You can then check the reference code in Apple's database, but
don't expect to learn too much. For example, you might discover there's
a problem the computer's memory, but you won't know which stick of
RAM is faulty or what's wrong with it.

This tool is useful to rule out hardware issues, but it's pretty useless for
troubleshooting purposes. For a more detailed report, you're better off
booking a free appointment at the Genius bar. Of course, you won't get
detailed feedback about how to fix your Mac there, either.

Memory

You can check some components manually with the right tools. For
example, MemTest86 is a free tool you can use to check your
computer's memory. Install it on a USB stick, start your Mac, and then
run it. When you use a USB stick as the storage medium, you can test
the RAM properly without the macOS overhead.

© LifeSavvy Media. All rights reserved ® 5|Page


Storage

A failing drive can also cause issues. Most Macs have solid-state
drives. These aren't prone to failing abruptly the way standard hard disk
drives are. Solid-state drives generally only fail after some advance
warning. And when they do eventually die, data recovery is impossible.
Follow the steps below to check the health of your SSD:

1. Click the Apple logo in the top-right corner, and then choose About
This Mac.
2. Click System Report, and then choose Storage.
3. Select your main drive (likely labeled "Macintosh HD").
4. Scroll down to "S.M.A.R.T. Status" and see what is written alongside
it. If it says "Verified," your drive is performing normally, with no
issues. If it says "Failing," this could be the source of your problems.
Eventually, the drive will become "Fatal," and you'll have to replace
it or your Mac.

For a more detailed look at your drives, download DriveDx (it's free to
try). This utility should give you more information than Apple claims it
will.

For ultimate peace of mind, be sure to back up your Mac with


regularly Time Machine.

© LifeSavvy Media. All rights reserved ® 6|Page


CPU & GPU

The CPU is the brain of your computer. There's not a lot you can do to
test it, though. If it's not functioning correctly, you might encounter
slowdowns, freezes, and sudden shutdowns. One way to glean more
information is to benchmark it with an app like Geekbench. You can
then use the Mac benchmark charts to see how it stacks up.

If your Mac has a dedicated GPU, you can test it with tools like Heaven
or Cinebench. If your GPU has issues, you might notice unsatisfactory
performance in 3D applications, onscreen artifacts and glitches, system
freezes, or sudden shutdowns.

Unfortunately, there's not a lot you can do to fix issues with the CPU or
GPU. Any problems that arise there will likely require that you replace
your Mac's logic board. It usually makes more financial sense to just
buy a new Mac rather than pay the premium to fix your old one.

© LifeSavvy Media. All rights reserved ® 7|Page


Decline with Age: Is Your Mac Just Old?
Sometimes, performance issues have a very simple cause: age. As your
Mac ages, expect its performance to decline. New software requires
better hardware, while the hardware inside your Mac stays the same.

Most Mac owners shouldn't encounter too many performance issues


over the first three years or so of use. After that, things start to go
downhill. Once you pass the five- or six-year mark, you're going to
have to consistently think about whether the software you run gets the
most out of your machine.

If you have an old Mac and you'd like to squeeze as much life out of it
as possible, here are a few things you can try:

• Switch to a lightweight browser. Safari is optimized for Mac, and it


tends to offer better performance and lower energy usage than its
rivals.
• Favor Apple's first-party apps. Like Safari, many Apple apps are
optimized for macOS and Apple hardware. One striking example of
this is Final Cut Pro, which drastically outperforms Adobe Premiere
on older machines. You could also ditch Pages for Word, Lightroom
for Aperture, or Evernote for Notes.
• Be mindful of multitasking. Avoid overstressing the CPU or GPU
unnecessarily. If you're rendering a video, go make a cup of coffee
until it's done. If you have 100 tabs open, close 50.
• Beware of outdated or sluggish software. Outdated apps might
perform worse on modern macOS systems because they lack
optimization. Avoid using Java-based apps that require the Java
Runtime Environment, as it can tax the performance of your
machine.

© LifeSavvy Media. All rights reserved ® 8|Page


• Keep macOS updated. Whenever possible, make sure your Mac is
running the latest version of macOS. Apple focused on improving
macOS performance over the last few iterations of its desktop and
mobile operating systems. If your system isn't up-to-date, you might
be missing tweaks that could improve your experience.

When Should You Buy a New Mac?


The right time to buy a new computer is when you need one. If you're
encountering performance bottlenecks that prevent you from doing
your job or doing the things you need a computer for, it's time to
upgrade.

If your machine constantly crashes or is sluggish due to a failing


hardware component, it's time to consider purchasing a new one. If
you're sick of juggling files and apps because your startup disk is too
small, you might want to stop by the Apple Store.

Remember, your old Mac might still hold good resale value. Even
ancient machines with problems fetch more money than you would
expect. If you're thinking about selling your old Mac, here are some
tips to help you out.

© LifeSavvy Media. All rights reserved ® 9|Page

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