Scrubbing, scrolling, click & drag all LAG terribly - what's wrong??

D

dreamrthts

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Lately I've noticed that scrubbing through video/audio, scrolling in web browsers and other applications, and clicking and dragging graphics in Adobe programs all lags terribly. This isn't just something slight...I literally have to wait several seconds for things to catch up, as I watch the scrollbar, graphic, etc. inch it's way across the screen.

Interestingly enough, it doesn't happen in Finder...only within applications. But it seems to be across the board with ANY application.

I can't put an exact date on when it started happening, but it may have been around the same time I installed a Wacom Intuos tablet. Could this have anything to do with it? I have plenty of hard drive space, so it's not a memory issue. Please help!
 
Sounds like a RAM issue. how much RAM is in the machine now? What version of OSX are you running? Do you check activity monitor to see how much RAM is actively being used when these hangups occur?
 
They occur even when I only have one simple web browser running or one small file open in an application, and all other applications closed. It seems to be independent of how much I have going on or how many programs are working. I'm on OS 10.5.8.
 
Okay you are running OS 10.5.8. How about the type of machine you have? For the second time how much RAM is installed? If you want help you need to work with us here..
 
I have a Mac Pro. Processor: 2 x 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon, Memory: 4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM. My hard drive says Capacity: 465.44 GB, Available: 90.6 GB.
 
If something is lagging on that machine there must be something strange happening. Watch activity monitor for processor usage and name of process hogging all of the CPUs when things lag. You can pin activity monitor to the dock to give you a small graphic of when the processors get utilized heavily, then just expand it open to get details like process name.
 
Click the word "CPU" in the CPU column to see what's hogging the processor. Could be Finder. MDS and MDSWorker are Spotlight, I believe, and some people have had problems with them using the disk excessively.

It is very strange that you'd have lag problems on a Mac Pro.
 
Here is a screen capture of my Activity Monitor. I'm not really sure how to read it, but it doesn't look like any sirens are going off. Yet I still get terrible lag. Any other theories?

Picture2.png
 
No CPU hogs based on that screen shot. How about disk activity? Can you click on the Disk Activity tab? My guess is that the disk is being thrashed (used heavily) by a malfunctioning process.

Here's another possibility: I'm not a huge expert with Adobe apps, but I believe you can give Photoshop a certain percentage of memory. If you give it too much, the system will start using virtual memory. Virtual memory is actually the hard drive, which is much, much slower than your RAM. The same may be true of Illustrator and other Adobe apps. (I have Photoshop Elements, that's about the extent of my experience in this area.)

Check your applications' preferences to see if too much memory is allocated. More than about 75% (3 gigs) to Photoshop is probably too much, for example. Maybe someone more knowledgeable can chime in here.
 
Check the memory usage in Activity Monitor for the number of page outs to see if virtual memory is being heavily utilized.
 
Sorry for the delayed response here. Here is a capture of the Disk Activity tab.
Picture1.png


My Adobe programs are set to use less than 70% of memory, but the problems arise even when ALL Adobe applications, and Final Cut Studio are closed. I can have only Safari open and the scrolling/dragging lag appears when I click and drag the scrollbar on the side of the browser window down. It takes a while for it to inch towards where i let up on my mouse. Like I mentioned, the only place this does not happen is in the Finder.

djackmac: The number of page outs currently says 584.82 MB.

What could possibly be wrong?!
 
Okay everyone, problem diagnosed...though not solved. I uninstalled my Intuos4 Wacom tablet, and once the computer was restarted all the problems were gone. Do I need to talk to the people at Intuos about this? Everything was installed according to the instructions. Could there be some driver problem? Why would it affect things only in programs and not in Finder?
 
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