# Technical Help? Any suggestions?



## belfastboy (Aug 3, 2012)

Guys, my MAC is starting to run slowly, beach-balling, stuttering when I try and scroll up and down. I'm using firefox, after I left safari cos it was worse with that. I don't have a lot of pages (or Tabs) open at one time. When I move between YouTube and this site, the videos start coughing and spluttering a little as they start playing. Starting to worry. I have a high internet provider level... Any thoughts? 

On-line suggestion: Increase RAM, the only part of that sentence that makes sense to me is "increase"! 

Would be grateful for any tips? 

Mac OS X version 10.5.8

processor: 2.66 GHz Inter core 2 duo
Memory: @ GB 1067 MHz DDR3

Seán.


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## jttoft (Apr 23, 2012)

You don't need more RAM (If you meant to write 2 GB), although it wouldn't hurt. The problems you describe cannot be caused by insufficient RAM alone, although you might want to check Activity Monitor to see your RAM usage. Start Activity Monitor (located in Applications -> Utilities) and click on System memory in the bottom of the window. What numbers do you see? Check especially "page outs" on the right.

Run an Apple Hardware Test to rule out hardware problems. See this: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509

If your computer passes the extended test, you have a problem with your software, and I would suggest performing a clean install of Mac OS X.

By the way: What are you still doing on Leopard?


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## Philip (Mar 22, 2011)

Get Chrome and more importantly get the new version of flash player, especially if you have version 1.3 which is extremely buggy. No hate against Firefox but if your computer can't handle it, Chrome is a bit faster.

Upgrading 2GB of RAM to 4GB costs less than $25 (USD) (i'm not american) if you do it yourself, don't pay more than that.

Reinstalling the OS is always a speed boost.

However the biggest boost you will get is from buying an SSD, although it's $200+ for a good size, again iif DYI. I *do not* recommend this option until you've solved the stuttering issue.


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