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Question

why is my mac is spacing out?

May 24, 2011 8:28PM PDT

Recently i have noticed my imac has been soo slow when responding to actions when i try to navigate around. It's like it has a mind of its own. I will click on something once and nothing will happen and i would have to keep clicking untill it gives in like 10 clicks later(its like my comp is daydreaming).

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
Are you one of those people who use the
May 25, 2011 9:23AM PDT

little red button at the top left of the window to close applications?

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Answer
We need a bit more information.
May 25, 2011 5:09AM PDT

Please tell us what OS version you are using, the amount of RAM you have installed. Both of these can be found by accessing the About this Mac from your Apple menu.

Also, are you running other programs while this is happening?

It maybe that you need to repair permissions and delete caches. You can download Onyx and do it through that program.

As a temporary workaround, I'd select a group of items by click and drag, and then copying them to the external drive.

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Answer
Another thought on the problem.
May 25, 2011 5:16AM PDT

Do you have a lot of files on the desktop? That will also eat up memory and slow your computer down. If you do, move all the files, and folders to your Documents folder on your harddrive.

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Answer
Try Restarting
May 27, 2011 7:16PM PDT

I find that my machine (incidentally, a 1974 G5 on OS 10.5.8, son to be replaced by the new iMac) goes slightly crazy now and then if it has been running (including sleeping) for about a 1 1/2 or 2 days. Eg., the optical disc drive re-closes immediately, applications respond in an odd way, a file does not appear on the Desktop despite being saved there, the spinning beachball goes on for ever.) I restart and all is well. This has been a feature of my Mac experience since 1995 with several macs. With the Classic OS (predecessor of OS X) an American Apple tech guru at a Mac World conference advised restarting a Mac every 5 or so hours, but Classic was a notoriously unreliable OS. I suspect that (even OS X) collects gunge after a day or so which needs clearing out. That may be one of the reasons that servers (always on) need a server version of the OS.

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Hopefully that 1974 date is a typo
May 27, 2011 10:54PM PDT

either that or you are friends with Dr. Emmett Brown. Grin

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Answer
OS version etc..
May 30, 2011 6:18PM PDT

Sorry for the delay im not sure how to use this site just yet haha

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Mouse
Jun 6, 2011 4:18PM PDT

Should we assume that you've ruled out the mouse itself as an issue? Mice do go bad. Especialy buttons and scrollwheels.

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=/
Jun 7, 2011 2:10PM PDT

ruling out the mouse..idk. I dont have another mouse to compare too see if its thats the real problem. The batteries are still good. I highly doubt it is the mouse. The response time is just so horrible sometimes.