Is The Mac Mini Really This Slow??

[ufguy73]

So, I recently acquired a Mac Mini (the mid-tier model with 4G RAM). I had some questions previously (and graciously) answered by some here on download speeds.

I am encountering another issue, it is taking FOREVER for image-laden webpages to render their images. Or, for example, when I go to a web page that you click on the picture and it launches its own mini window of images - it takes a ridiculous amount of time when compared to my PC on the same network.

The PC is certainly nothings special, its just a mainline HP that doesnt have any upgrades or anything, so I can not believe the PC is so easily loading these pages and the Mac is taking forever. I also should note, i had tried the entry level iMac 27" before the Mac Mini (returned for other issues) and I did not notice this issue with images loading.

So, what is it that is limiting me here with the Mac Mini...is it the graphics card? i thought its the same card as in the iMac? is it the processor? what is it??? It can't be the same internet connection speed as my download issue because the time differential in loading these types of pages is too consistently drastic, over too long a period of time.

Would I have the same types of issues with the 15" Macbook? It has the same RAM and card so I would think im going to suffer with that too?

Im getting really frustrated. I love the 24" ACD but this Mac Mini......I mean, even my crappy work issued laptop is loading stuff faster than the Mini (and i guarantee there is no way the Firm sprang for upgraded cards and such).

Its almost to the point where im tempted to just get a mac pro and be done with it - a mac pro for web browsing and you tube

can anyone help me out?? thanks!

 

[spinnerlys]

Can you post some of the links to those slow loading websites, so maybe someone with the same Mac Mini as you could try them?

Have you taken a look at Activity Monitor while you load the pages?

Have you tried another browser?

 

[Gav2k]

No your issue is not normal! I would reload the os from scratch and apply all updates. After checking for the usual connection issues.

 

[Raima]

Sounds like mdworker is running rampant!!!

 

[ufguy73]

wow,
thanks for the quick replies guys...BUT i must confess i dont know what you guys are referring to..

- mdworker?
- activity monitor?
- reload the OS and uploads (how?)

here is an example web page i typically browse and just have significant delays on my Mini

http://www.marksguitarloft.com/catalog.php?cat=new

just click on some of the various guitar thumbnails - thats whats taking my mini forever to load

 

[spinnerlys]

mdworker is a process that runs in the background and works for the Spotlight indexing service. It can sometimes eat up CPU power.
found via http://www.google.com/search?client...oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&ei=6kqoS-yVBIii_Abd7cSGBA

Activity Monitor is like the Task Manager in Windows, you can monitor the activity on your Mac. It is located in Applications / Utilities / .
found via http://www.google.com/search?client...oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&ei=bkuoS4mfIMqa_QbSyujnAw

You can reinstall Mac OS X via those methods:
http://macs.about.com/od/snowleopardmacosx106/qt/cleaninstall_sl.htm - clean install
http://www.wikihow.com/Reinstall-Mac-OS-X - reinstall

The load time may be due to the size and the internet connection speed and the handling of big images.

As far as I remember, Windows browsers (?) loaded images in lower quality first, and during the loading the quality got better, thus it seemed faster.

The whole yellow page took less than 10 seconds to load on my MBP (2.8GHz) with a maximum download speed of 700KB/s on my side.

The images also took less than 10 seconds to load.

 

[ufguy73]

thank you spinner!

my mini was taking well over 10 seconds to load the popup boxes after cliking on the thumbnails....

but my home pc is loading those same pop up boxes full of images almost instantaneoulsy (at times, it may take 2-3 seconds)...but it is clearly loading them much faster it does not seem to be changing the pic quality over loadtime either (unless that is not discernible to the eye while it is happening)

 

[MacHamster68]

i guess you really got a serious problem ,even my eMac (g4 processor , 2gb ram) is opening these pictures and doesn't take long for it .
I mean pop and image is loading and appearing on screen (just about in the time it takes you to read this sentence here ) ..btw nice motorcycle behind the marshal amp
maybe repairing permissions might help , if not reinstalling OSX

 

[Stan Mikulenka]

Hi ufguy73,
I have the same Mini & those images take 5secs on my 1,5M connection.
By the way those pics are pretty big...

 

[greythorne]

Yup those images of the guitars and site itself loads pretty fast for me too.

Perhaps you can follow what others have suggested here.

 

[opeter]

These images on the website are not optimized.

 

[seveej]

here is an example web page i typically browse and just have significant delays on my Mini

http://www.marksguitarloft.com/catalog.php?cat=new

just click on some of the various guitar thumbnails - thats whats taking my mini forever to load

Firstly, those pictures are absurdly large for loading them (all) in a rather miniscule pop-up. Also, as someone else has noted the pictures are not really optimized for bandwidth.

Some background process (indexing, clean-up etc.) is the most usual reason for a mac to temporarily be sluggish, but if the problem is permanent then those reasons are out.

Check your connection speed on the Mini vs. the PC. Preferrably by using either a FTP or HTTP download of some (the same) large file of several megabytes. Is there a more-than-marginal difference? If so, something is awry with you mini's connection. Come back with more info (including browser and connection type specs)

Pekka

 

[ufguy73]

guys,

thanks again. once i get back home to the computer i will try installing OS X again.

One other thing i noticed while browsing the site i linked earlier, when i shut down safari (i.e. quit) and then reopen it, go to web page, and click on a couple thumbnails - the first couple of ones open quite quickly. I am closing each pop-up window before clicking on another thumbnail but by the time I am clicking on the 5th or 6th one it is taking a very long time to load....

is it possible that somehow (even though i have closed the previous pop-ups) that they are still taking up a lot of my RAM, resulting in future pop-ups taking a long time to load. I can not otherwise guess why when i completely exit safari and then launch it again, the initial pop-ups on the page load so quickly compared to subsequent windows in the same safari session.

also, generally, would the MBP and/or Mac Pro load images more quickly (and download more quickly) than the mini - assuming the same wireless network connection in the house?

 

[OrangeSVTguy]

I checked that site and everything loads up in 1-2 seconds for me and even when clicking on multiple thumbnails.

Is there a blinking dot in the middle of the magnifying glass in the top right corner? That's spotlight indexing your hard drive and that will drastically slow things down.

 

[seveej]

would the MBP and/or Mac Pro load images more quickly (and download more quickly) than the mini - assuming the same wireless network connection in the house?

Hardwarewise there's very little real difference between the mini and the MBP, same family processor, RAM and 2,5" HD , whereas the mac pro is on a different league. Eventhough, on a task as mundane as viewing the mentioned site there should not be a difference between a mini and a pro. I had no problem with the site on my macbook, which your mini should be able to best. To sum it up: either your connection sucks, you have a jammed process (which a reboot should clear up) or something more exotic. Before reinstalling you should bother to diagnose the problem (according to advice given in this thread).

Rgds,
Pekka

 

[seb-opp]

could it be that the website it just budget and slow?
Do you get these problems with all sites or just ones like the guitar site? I mean, that site doesn't seem very well designed

 

[ufguy73]

dont think it would be the connection speed, else the other computers in the house would be suffering from the same load time issues.

When i get home i will try loading the pages and check out the Activity Manager while it is doing it to see if i notice anything that might be running in the background.

assuming this checks out, would it then be time to try the reinstall?

 

[ufguy73]

could it be that the website it just budget and slow?
Do you get these problems with all sites or just ones like the guitar site? I mean, that site doesn't seem very well designed

it happens on some other sites too...but i guess my point is -

if it was a problem with the site (or of pics being too large, or non-optimized, or whatever) why would those issues only slow down my Mini and not the other computers i have been using.

I have been using a year-old PC, for example, on the same connection for over a year and never had these timing issues on the same site. When i first started experiencing the problem with the Mini last night, i went into the other room on the PC and loaded the pop-ups no problem.

thus, my frustration

 

[CubeHacker]

Sorry but I would have to say that something is very wrong with either your OSX installation or your internet connection. I tried that site of yours on my Mini, and the page and the images load in under a second each. Its actually faster than Firefox under windows!

 

[lostime]

I would say try Firefox or Chrome and/or repair disk permissions before re-installing anything.

Open disk utility: applications/utilities/disk utility and click the "first aid" tab and then "repair disk permissions."

 

[OSX-SUX]

Good advice lostime,

I don't think you should have to reinstall OSX, that should be a last resort. In my experience Safari is a resource hog like Firefox on the latest mini. Try the Google Chrome browser first.

My mini is painfully slow too with only 2GB Ram and I received feedback like "something is wrong with your system" and "that's what you get for buying a mini". This is a new mini, 5 months old, without a ton of use other than web surfing and a few programs installed. Of course you'd notice a speed increase on a clean install of the OS, but I thought OSX didn't require the periodic reinstall that Windows users were used to?

Contrary to what I was led to believe about Apple computers, I have experienced a lot of crashes on my mini, spinning beach ball, and the blue screen of death. If anyone needs a reinstall after 5 months it is me, I think you should try a different browser.

 

[srexy]

So you're using Safari right? - before you take another step try downloading a different browser and test again.

I ditched Safari a while ago because I hated the way it dealt with image heavy forums. I am now on Opera and much happier.

 

[Wheaty]

My mini is painfully slow too with only 2GB Ram and I received feedback like "something is wrong with your system" and "that's what you get for buying a mini". This is a new mini, 5 months old, without a ton of use other than web surfing and a few programs installed. Of course you'd notice a speed increase on a clean install of the OS, but I thought OSX didn't require the periodic reinstall that Windows users were used to?

Oh dear.... My little mini is quite happy. on its 2G Ram and 2GHz CPU.

The images take 2-3 seconds max to spring up for me. They are rather large and not particularly optimised as others have said.

I agree with the others that a repair permissions, and a peak in activity monitor would be a good idea.

Mac OSX I have found to be hugely good compared to MS XP at managing memory and resources. I occasionally get a beach ball for a second or two on first start up of programs after switch on, but its generally when everything tries to update/ scan/ run/ and load at once... so not a huge surprise really.

Wheaty

I've had my mini for 1 year now and still happy with it as day one.

 

[OSX-SUX]

Oh dear.... My little mini is quite happy. on its 2G Ram and 2GHz CPU.

The images take 2-3 seconds max to spring up for me. They are rather large and not particularly optimised as others have said.

I agree with the others that a repair permissions, and a peak in activity monitor would be a good idea.

Mac OSX I have found to be hugely good compared to MS XP at managing memory and resources. I occasionally get a beach ball for a second or two on first start up of programs after switch on, but its generally when everything tries to update/ scan/ run/ and load at once... so not a huge surprise really.

Wheaty

I've had my mini for 1 year now and still happy with it as day one.

Have you installed anything on it, beside Apple programs? Do you have any external HD's on USB? Are you using Time Machine?

I think some of my problems might be related to Safari and Time Machine, my Ext HD spins down when not in use but every now and then when I am surfing via Safari and I hit the back button, everything stops and has to wait for the Ext HD to spin up, then Safari goes back to the previous page. Quite annoying, and Time Machine isn't backing up, but that is what the Ext HD is used for.

I think the Mini has trouble with Ext HD's in general as occasionally I'd get the disc not properly ejected error on HD spin down.

 

[LucasLand]

Are you still using a dial-up internet connection? That is probably the problem.