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Mar. 16th, 2012
I've read online that others are also having the problem of their Mac sometimes slowing hugely, despite quitting apps and closing files. Rebooting corrects the problem, but I found something less extreme.
I kept Activity Monitor open, sorted by Real Mem, and noticed that occasionally Dock would hog huge amounts of real RAM and processor cycles. (Sometimes even going a bit above 100% of the latter!)
I also noticed that this occurred when I won a game of Solitaire I have as a Dashboard Widget. It wouldn't happen when I played and lost; only a short time after I won.
Highlighting Dock and clicking on Quit Process (and then Quit when the confirmation window opened) I freed the memory and processor hogging. Dock shut down and immediately restarted, using the normal amount of both.
No idea why this happens, but there's the cure. Even it that's not why your Mac is running slow, check Activity Monitor for what the actual cause is.
I kept Activity Monitor open, sorted by Real Mem, and noticed that occasionally Dock would hog huge amounts of real RAM and processor cycles. (Sometimes even going a bit above 100% of the latter!)
I also noticed that this occurred when I won a game of Solitaire I have as a Dashboard Widget. It wouldn't happen when I played and lost; only a short time after I won.
Highlighting Dock and clicking on Quit Process (and then Quit when the confirmation window opened) I freed the memory and processor hogging. Dock shut down and immediately restarted, using the normal amount of both.
No idea why this happens, but there's the cure. Even it that's not why your Mac is running slow, check Activity Monitor for what the actual cause is.
