MacBook Running Slow? Here Are Some Tips To Speed Em Up!

The pre Core-2-Duo MacBooks are suffering from some serious lag, and most users don’t know how to speed their machine up. I’ve pulled in some useful tips to help the old girl run faster.

I have here with me the 1st generation MacBook, which is running on an Intel 2.0Ghz Core Duo Processor, 80GB HDD and 512 MB of RAM. With Mac OSX Tiger pouncing, everything seems perfectly fine (when it’s new, and with zero applications). After adding in a few essential software e.g. Microsoft Office (word, PowerPoint, Excel), Windows Live Messenger, Adobe Photoshop, Mozilla Firefox and of course iLife, the whole system simply bogs down and the volleyball starts running, even when there is only one application that is running (run /Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor).

I knew that 512 MB of RAM isn’t going to help the baby Mac, so I simply got myself some extra RAM to play with. That said, 512 MB of RAM is enough to run the operating system, but not any extra applications. Note, the ready slotted RAM in the MacBooks with 512MB of RAM comes in the form of 2 sticks of 256 MB RAM.

I could have gotten myself 2 sticks of 1GB of RAM, but it was kind of pricey then. I settled with 1.256 GB of RAM. I would say, right after the RAM upgrade, my MacBook was performing impressively, no more volleyballs. So yes, point 1, upgrade our RAM.

Next, I am sure you peeps have heard of Rosetta, it’s basically a platform that allows pre-Intel applications to run natively on both Intel- and PowerPC-based Mac computers. Having Rosetta running will of course cause applications to run slower, always remember to get the latest software copies that is made for the new Intel Based Mac’s.

With all the temporary files and clutters over time, cleaning them will take a whole lot of time, and most people would rather do a backup and a fresh Operating System installation. That’s not the solution, doing a fresh installation every time a computer runs slow is like changing a new engine in a car when all it needs is a good service. The solution to this? Cocktail. It clean, repair and optimize the whole system, all at one go. See? All it needs is a proper service.

With these unnecessary clutters gone, we should also be updating the prebindings (applicable for Mac OS 10.1 and before). How is this done?

1. Go to Utilities and select Terminal

2. Write this in the Terminal “sudo update_prebinding -root /” (without the quotes)

3. You will then be prompt to key in your password

4. Voila

More about pre-bindings, Click Here.

Oh yes, do remember, clicking on the red ball on top of an application doesn’t mean that the application is terminated; all it does is hiding it in the background. To quit an application, simply click on the key on your keyboard that’s got an Apple logo, and together with the letter “Q”. That should do the trick.

I am currently running on Leopard, and yes, it works like a charm, prettier of course. But, the new 3D effects are seriously bogging down the system. Gah, all in all, get a new machine!