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A lot of weird things happen around Halloween. And not just your pumpkins disappearing or fresh eggs magically appearing splattered on your front door. Weird things can happen to *gasp* \u2026 your computer. We know, we know\u2026 weird things can happen to your computer anytime<\/i>, but it\u2019s just so easy this time of year to blame it on disturbing Halloween \u201coccurrences\u201d.<\/p>\n
Well, we have good news. We\u2019ve got remedies for some of the common demons that can possess your computer and make it scarily slow. And luckily, these solutions are easier than performing a messy exorcism.<\/strong><\/p>\n As you browse your way around the Internet, your computer remembers where you go as history … sort of like the ghost of your Internet past<\/strong>. If you also save your passwords and usernames for easy access to all of your accounts online, then the computer remembers these as well. All of the files that accumulate while you browse the Internet slowly build up. Your computer then has to search through all of this information in order to find the correct information, thus slowing down your browsing speeds to a zombie-like crawl<\/strong>. Here is a great way to keep these files to a minimum:<\/p>\n 1)\u00a0\u00a0 With Safari open, click \u201cSafari\u201d next to the Apple Icon<\/p>\n 2)\u00a0\u00a0 In the drop down menu, click \u201cReset Safari\u201d<\/p>\n 3)\u00a0\u00a0 In the pop up window, make sure everything is checked, then click \u201cReset\u201d<\/p>\n *NOTE: This will also reset your save usernames and passwords. If you don\u2019t want these removed, then unclick the check box for this line \u201cRemove saved names and passwords\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The dreaded and mysterious \u201cOther\u201d folder<\/strong> shows Gigabytes of storage being used, and you don\u2019t know what or where this folder is. In short, this folder contains a lot of information, including (but not limited to): System Files, Items in each User\u2019s home folder, Time Machine backup files, Cache Files, old iOS backups, etc. In the end, this \u201cOther\u201d folder isn\u2019t something to stress about because the majority of it is the files used to make your machine go. But it can be slimmed down a bit to help free up some space.<\/p>\n Some things to clean this up a bit:<\/p>\n 1)\u00a0\u00a0 Empty trash<\/p>\n 2)\u00a0\u00a0 Restart your mac<\/p>\n 3)\u00a0\u00a0 Clear large Log Files<\/p>\n 4)\u00a0\u00a0 Verify your internal Hard Drive<\/p>\n 5)\u00a0\u00a0 Clear your Mobile Device Backups (*Make sure you don\u2019t need anything in the backup before clearing it)<\/p>\n To clear the Mobile Device Backups, navigate in finder to: \/Library\/Application Support\/MobileSync\/Backup<\/p>\n Ultimately, the best solution to avoid deleting incorrect items would be a disk cleanup utility.<\/p>\n Beach balls normally aren’t scary. Unless you’re using your Mac. Then, as we all know, it can be a terrifying sight<\/strong>. The simple loading icon that Apple had originally intended to let it\u2019s users know that the computer was loading, similar to Windows\u2019 Hour Glass icon, has been renamed by mac users around the world as the \u201cDreaded Beach Ball\u201d\u00a0 (Or Rainbow Wheel). This is usually a sign that your machine isn\u2019t running as fast as it could be running. Some things that can cause this would be bad RAM, a bad hard drive, not enough RAM, too many applications running, corrupt applications trying to run among many other possibilities. Because so many things could be causing this, \u201cfixing\u201d this issue can take some time and effort on your part to perform. Here\u2019s a list of items to try and diagnose this issue to narrow it down to what\u2019s the cause.<\/p>\n 1) Search in Finder and Check \u201cActivity Monitor\u201d\u00a0 (\/Applications\/Utilities\/Activity Monitor).\u00a0This shows all active Applications.<\/p>\n *NOTE: If you have an application open without saved files, this will close the application without saving your files. Make sure to save often incase you need to perform this<\/em><\/p>\n **NOTE: If you can\u2019t get Activity Monitor to open, then you will need to try a \u201cForce Quit\u201d (Command + Option + ESC)<\/em><\/p>\n 2) Check \u201cActivity Monitor\u201d to see how much free memory you have on your machine. If it\u2019s small (1GB or less) and you have already closed all of the unnecessary running applications, then you may want to consider purchasing more memory for your machine<\/a>.<\/p>\n 3) Open your download folder and delete all of the files you no longer need\u00a0(Users>Your Account>Downloads)<\/p>\n 4) Perform a SMC and PRAM Reset:<\/p>\n SMC reset<\/b>: support.apple.com\/kb\/HT1411<\/a><\/p>\n PRAM Reset<\/b>:<\/p>\n 5) Run a memory-testing program such as Rember: www.kelleycomputing.net\/Rember\/<\/a><\/p>\n 6) If your memory tests in working condition, then the next step would be to test other components of your machine. Easier said than done however. Apple has this nice utility called \u201cApple Hardware Test\u201d that will test the different components of your machine.\u00a0 support.apple.com\/kb\/ht1509<\/a><\/p>\n How you run this test is based on your version of OS X. If you do not know what version of OS X you have, or are unsure, then follow these steps:<\/p>\n Once you have your version, you can proceed with the Apple Support page on how to run Apple Hardware Test.<\/p>\n Apple Hardware Test<\/b><\/p>\n **NOTE: You can check the box for the extended test if you\u2019d like, this will provide more accurate results, but isn\u2019t 100% necessary in all situations.<\/em><\/p>\n Once the test is completed, you will get an error code similar to the following:<\/p>\n This code isn\u2019t as hard to read as it seems. The \u201c4SNS\u201d section of the code at the beginning is what we want to look at. Take those first four characters and compare them to the list below to figure out what might be going wrong with your machine:<\/p>\n In the event of a Sensor error (4SNS), then we will want to look at the next part of the code which will be either an \u201cI\u201d for current, \u201cT\u201d for temperature, or \u201cV\u201d for voltage. Next, you will take the second letter and reference it to the following list:<\/p>\n Using the steps above, we can decipher that the error code: TL0P-130 indicates a Temperature sensor (T) in the LCD panel (L) that is indicating a bad test result.<\/p>\n **Note: If you don\u2019t feel comfortable with deciphering these error codes, you can always write down the error codes that you receive and take them to Apple and see what they say.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n If the error code 4HDD comes up, Then the Hard Drive is most likely the cause of your persistent beach ball.<\/p>\n Ultimately, if you have maxed out your RAM and it tests fine, and Apple Hardware Test returns no issues, then it may be time to either wipe the computer and reinstall OS X, or purchase a SSD for your boot drive<\/a> to make things speed up.<\/p>\n Slow Web Browsing<\/b><\/h1>\n
Filled ‘Other’ Folder<\/b><\/h1>\n
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<\/b><\/p>\nPersistent Beach Ball<\/b><\/h1>\n
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We\u2019re here to help!<\/b><\/h1>\n