Performance Issues

M

Mac :)

Registered
Hi,

On my MacBook (Snow Leopard 10.6.2), the performance is worse (i.e jittery graphics when loading the dashboard or viewing stacks) when running just off of battery power but everything is much snappier and smoother when plugged in to power. Is this normal or what can i do to help it?

Thanks

(MacBook 13-inch, Aluminum, Late 2008)
 
Open the "Energy Saver" panel of the System Preferences window and check to see if the same options are checked for when the machines is running on Battery power as when running with the Power Adapter. If not, that could be a source of the difference in performance.

Also worth trying: Start up the Mac as usual. Select "Log Out" from the bottom of the Apple menu on the top left corner of the menu bar. Click your name on the login screen, enter your password (if any) and then HOLD DOWN THE SHIFT KEY while you click on the "Login" button. Keep holding that shift key down until graphics stop changing on the screen. This will start up your login session without running any of the applications listed in the login items list that you can see in the User Accounts pane of the System Preferences window.

Now check and see if there's still a difference in performance when running with battery vs with power adapter. If so, one of the applications listed in the login items list is a likely culprit that matters in some way.

Similarly you can eliminate the possibility of it being some user-install system startup code (as opposed to user login code that you just checked) by restarting your computer and holding down the shift key until the login pane comes up or until you are automatically logged in.

If the performance difference persists after trying all of the above, then next best bet may be to start monitoring the performance of everything running to figure out which programs are running differently in the two power cases. A good place to start is by sorting running processes in the "Activity Monitor" Utility by the CPU usage column...

...or check back here and we'll put on our extra special thinking caps.
 
Hi roph

Thanks for the reply. Tried everything you said and still no difference. This is really starting to bug me now because i cant see what it could possibly be. Everything is the same in Energy Saver and there are no login items loading and the graphics are still jittery on battery power.

I cant recall having this problem on Leopard and this has only began to happen recently :confused:

Mac :)
 
So we've got a true mystery here, eh?

What I'd do at this point is to use a process monitor to figure out where the processor time is being spent in the two cases. As I mentioned, the process monitoring in Activity Monitor is a good place to start. A much better tool for this is a little utility named "Peek-a-Boo". Among it's other interesting features, it allows you to create little mini-windows showing separate processor usage graphs for selected applications. I expect you should be able to setup a configuration that shows where changes are occurring when you plug/unplug the power adapter using a tool such as this.

Nothing else comes to mind at the moment.
 
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