Hi

Since coming into work this morning, my iMac (10.6.8, 2.3ghz, Core 13, 4gb RAM) has been acting strangely - started by noticing apps not opening, leading to finder crashing etc... did the usual permissions fixes, cleaning out files, deleted a couple of seemingly corrupt pref files, restarts, but still it would do the same.

Then tried to use the 'test' account, which seemed to work okay, but took AGES to get into and was very slow. Restarted again, but my account still affected.

Next step was to disconnect drives, ipod, server etc. Bingo. All okay. In fact, quicker than it's ever been. Ps and Ai opening far quicker than they have previously. So what on earth could be on the server that it causing sluggishness and apps to freeze? It's always been connected, but today only has seen the freezes. Ps and Ai etc have always been slow to open, but assumed it was the wealth of fonts I have installed causing the slow speed.

I'm checking with out outside computer peeps to see if they've updated anything on our server, but not heard yet.

Anyone have any suggestions to maybe fix this or why this might be happening? I think the sudden speed up when disconnected is the weird thing for me which I'd like to investigate! I do have anti-virus running.... could that be it?! (I don't think it's running 'constantly'!?)

Thanks!

No idea of a fix but I can confirm that in the past I've seen Macs leak RAM and therefore slow down due to having a network drive connected. There's a process (whose name I can't remember unfortunately) that seems to balloon RAM requirements the longer you leave the drive connected - we're talking days rather than minutes here. If you call up activity viewer and sort the processes by RAM usage, what's near the top?

Jon

I’ve not been in a position to see memory leaks from network mounted drives. However, there are times when my Macs like to spin up drives that have been parked. I have a few connected, so the process can take a while. If I have my Mac downstairs connected over the network, it has to wait for that to spin up before sending whatever “ready” signal is needed for the Mac to continue. It sounds as if Adobe’s apps need disks mounted and available, perhaps for their own memory management needs (scratch disks and the like)?

Do you need the network drive connected all the time? Would it be better to only connect it if needed, and unmount it when it’s not required?

Yes, unfortunately I do need it - it the central store for images, and to access folders to share work... we ran out of room on the main server so they moved the image files to a networked USB. But even when unmounted, but cable still in it's causing problems.

Activity monitor not showing anything too weird - from top: Photoshop 390mb, Safari 386mb, Safari Web Content, 308mb, Illustrator 216mb..... 1.2gb FREE

I have removed the anti-virus to eliminate that. *Think* it's quicker without, but could be coincidence as it's still slowing/crashing at times. As soon as that ethernet cable comes out - POP - all back to life and speeds up... even when put back in, but not 'connected' to server Safari etc loads pages faster, apps open faster, but intermittently

I just can't pinpoint what it is!

Our outside-computer bods confirmed no server updates.... have rebooted server now in case that was problem. Will restart and see how it runs now.

Restarted... automatically connects to server... aaaaaaannnnddddd - the same. Dock/finder unresponsive.... disconnect the ethernet cable, and BOOM. All back to life.

I'm really startled just how much quicker it is without the server mounted.... as far as I know, nothing I 'work' from or 'use' (except image files) are linked to it... I save work locally. I'd always just assumed my fonts were to blame!

This problem is bizarre! Was on phone with Apple support yesterday afternoon, and they seemed a bit bemused by it. Safe Booted and cleared a boatload of cache files - thought this has fixed it, until I selected the server, then it all slowed/crashed again. And now restarts go to blue screen for ages.... (but guess maybe it needs to be used a bit to get all files back in place again...)

Tried deleting server info, removing server from log-in items... again, seemed to have fixed it until restart when it was back to being unresponsive.... unplug ethernet, and then all is well.

Anyone got any other ideas or things I could try?? Think Apple's next step is to re-install system, but at the mo I can't do that, as at the moment I have no drive large enough to back-up to (which, yes, I know is bad....). Until then I can't do a system install...

What I'm finding really strange is that when I plug ethernet back in (making sure server hasn't mounted), it'll work for a while, but THEN slow up... i.e. I can browse a few pages on Safari, but then it hangs....

Could it be worth installing a piece of software like Little Snitch in order to monitor what outgoing network connections are being made. Could help troubleshooting.
Or maybe some of the log files might point to something unusual?

That's a good shout - will do that now and see if it show's anything weird.

Been on again to server support and they're adamant it's not the server, and must be the Mac. One thing they did suggest was a faulty network card, so I'll cart the iMac home tonight to test there. If it works fine there that should eliminate that. If it is still faulty I may be able to get to an Apple Store to get them to check it over.

LS doesn't seem to be showing anything untoward.... think I'll just unplug for the rest of the day and then take home to test.

My guess would be that it's somehow managed to point a support file for either the OS or a particular application at the server. Does it only slow down through use? If you just leave it idle for an hour or two (with all the relevant apps open but not any files) is it already slow when you come to use it?

TBH If this was my Mac (or one I was responsible for at work) I would have wiped it and re-installed everything from scratch my now.

Think that's possibly the next step. No issues at all at home, so it's definitely not liking something on the server, or with the network connection.

My issue at the moment is that I don't have a drive large enough to back up with to wipe and reinstall. May be able to get one tomorrow (need to get one anyway as HD for personal bits full up), but until then I'll have to wait.

Surely if you are using a server there shouldn't be any important data on the Mac itself?

I save a lot of stuff locally (additional photos from shoots, experimental work, some current jobs), as the server capacity is pretty small. It's old, Windows 2003. Yes, I know....

Also keep some personal stuff to as a back up to my own home files there. It's a 1tb drive, with about 750 filled...

Oh, and to answer an earlier question, I can only seem to open apps when disconnected. Otherwise they seem to hang on start up.