Mac os system optimization. Disable FileVault disk encryption. Clearing the boot cache

WITH long loading time OS X systems and decreased performance may be experienced not only by Hackintosh users, but also by the original Apple technology. This problem most often it does not appear immediately. Just at first OS X practically crashes (so to speak), and after some time, the duration of this period may vary depending on what specific tasks your PC performs in everyday work. There can be many reasons for this, and we will try to analyze some of them in this article.

The computer works for a long time without turning off and rebooting

Many users practically do not turn off the PC, trying to speed up the login to OS X. But as practice shows, this very fact can increase the boot and shutdown time of the PC, but in addition to this, it can significantly reduce the performance of the computer.

This is due to the fact that the system, in parallel with constantly running programs and applications, caches files for more comfortable and productive work. But when the computer does not restart and works long time The cache takes up a significant amount of memory, which results in longer file processing times and increased resource consumption on your PC.

This may manifest itself in a slowdown in the processing of elementary operations, be it receiving a new Mail letters or selecting an instrument in any program. When performing this operation, the program window may freeze and not respond for some time, in the worst case, it may simply crash.

Also, this fact can increase the shutdown time and subsequent Mac downloads OS X when turned on.

To avoid the above problems, you should simply periodically turn off your computer for a short time. It only takes a few minutes for your computer to clear its memory of files that are no longer needed. If the computer is working, then periodically rebooting the OS X system will help.

OS X system disk is full

The second reason long switch-on and performance degradation OS X is a crowded partition hard drive With installed system. Most often, owners of laptops with hard drives not of a large volume, who do not consider it advisable to split such a small volume into two or more sections, but also other users who, out of ignorance or for other reasons, save everything on system partition. Over time, the system partition becomes clogged and leaves less and less memory for system operations.

For example: When preparing a relatively small file for printing in Photoshop, the amount of memory required can be up to 40 GB, and video processing and editing programs create the required cache, which starts from 12 GB in size.

Placing large files on the system hard drive can also cause slowdowns when turning on.

To minimize the impact on the startup speed and performance of OS X, just follow a few simple rules:

• If possible, split the disk into two or more partitions to avoid cluttering the system partition of the disk.
• Try to place files of a certain format in one place. If the video files are located in separate folder from pictures - this will greatly simplify the task of the system being launched when searching for the files it needs. It is clear that we cannot completely follow this rule, but you must agree that it is within our power to partially organize the files.
• When you finish working on a project in video, photo and other editors, clear the cache using utilities. I previously used CCleaner, you can download it from the manufacturer’s website. Unfortunately in Lately I began to notice interruptions in his work. It doesn’t clean it up, but sometimes, on the contrary, it destroys a lot of what is needed and you have to restore it from . An excellent option would be to use CleanMyMac 3, in latest version a lot added useful functions, which allow you to do not only automatic cleaning, but also selectively in various software. Added: Mail Cleaner, iTunes, Photos and much more. You can read more about the new functionality in our article
• Make it a rule to periodically clean the system manually or using utilities. You can read more about cleaning the system from cache and other garbage.
• If possible, move the downloads and caching folder third party programs to another disk partition. You can easily move the downloads folder to another partition using the terminal utility, detailed instructions be in this. You can transfer the chat download folder or editor cache through the program settings.

Removing programs from Mac OS X startup

The next factor that directly affects the boot time of Mac OS is the number of programs in startup. A large number of programs that start their work immediately after OS X is launched can significantly increase the time until the system is fully operational - this is manifested by long system loading and long startup programs after the desktop appears.

1. Open your Mac's settings by clicking the apple on the left of top panel, and open the menu item “ System Settings».

2. In the computer settings window, find and open the “Users and Groups” item.

3. In the window that opens, select the “Login Objects” tab at the top; this is the simple name in Mac OS for startup programs.

4. To remove a program from startup, select it in the list and click “minus” - the program will be removed from the list of startup programs.

5. You can also silently download some programs, the window of which you do not need to see immediately after logging in, but they will work in the background. This option is useful, for example, for Skype. To do this, simply check the box next to the program name in the “Hide” column.

But some applications, such as browser and application updates, Adobe creative cloud and many others may not be accessible through “Login Objects” and to exclude them from autorun you cannot do without third party utilities. If you use CCleaner it looks like this:

Clover bootloader is slow to load

The following information will be useful to users who prefer Hackintosh, this bootloader is on Apple computers absent. As you know, running Mac OS X on a PC requires a bootloader - I use Clover, like many other users. The bootloader starts immediately after the BIOS, even if you set the OS X system to boot without waiting and selecting, it has a direct impact on the boot time, since it loads in any case with or without a window.

To speed up its loading of the Clover bootloader, you need to follow some rules:

1. The /EFI/CLOVER/drivers64*/ folder should contain only those drivers that are needed to boot the system, all unnecessary drivers must be removed from the folder. According to this rule, there is no unambiguous list, since computer assemblies can differ significantly, so you will have to independently select those that are not needed by experience. I strongly recommend starting this action only if you have at hand bootable flash drive with the Clover bootloader installed, the config.plist of which will specify the window timeout to be able to start your OS X system, so that you can always start the system to make changes.
2. In the /EFI/CLOVER/kexts/ folder, delete all unused system version packs. Leave only the folder with your version (let's say 10.12, but it depends on what version you have on your PC) and Other. These folders should contain kexts without which the system will not start. FakeSMC.kext is required and perhaps to run video graphics or something else. Kexts for USB launcher, display hard sections disk, network ones are recommended to be installed directly in OS X using the kext utility.
3. Slow HFS+ driver.
   The official Clover package comes with the VboxHFS.efi driver, which is licensed and understands links, but works slower than Apple’s HFSplus.efi. Download fast driver HFSplus.efi and put it in the /EFI/CLOVER/drivers64*/ folder. This applies equally to legacy and UEFI downloads.
4. Chosen monstrously beautiful theme registration
   The richer the theme is in colors and animation, the longer it takes to load. Choose the built-in theme, it's the fastest GUI Theme embedded
5. Use the newest Clover. No matter what good advisers whisper, but a new version It's better than the old one, and it fixes bugs, in particular, those that caused Clover to freeze. And starting with revision 3063, messages appeared directly on the screen about the loading process.
6. Select SMBIOS in config. plist, which will best match the configuration of your PC.
   

   Each model of any Mac has a special identifier ( iMac9,1, MacBookPro5,2 and so on.). Each identifier has its own, unique settings hardware, on the basis of which the interaction of Mac OS X with hardware is based.

   The Mac model should not be specified at your behest, but based on a comparison of your processor with the processors of real Macs. The closer your processor's specs are to those of a Mac, the healthier and more fun your hackintosh will be. In this regard, the owners are relatively lucky Intel Core 2 Duo, but especially lucky are the owners of Core i5 and Core i7 (here there is a complete coincidence of the processor). But Intel Core 2 Quad has never been in any Mac, so we have to pass it off as quad-core Xeon with varying degrees of success

   For example, due to a mismatch with the SMBIOS version on my PC, the shutdown time was twice as long as starting OS X; when I changed the version, the shutdown time dropped to a few seconds.

All these rules will help your computers boot as quickly as possible and make performance as comfortable as possible. But if you want to radically change the loading speed and performance, only SSD drive. You can find out how to choose the right SSD drive

Users of family operating systems Microsoft Windows are very familiar with the problem of system slowdown. This occurs as a result of the fact that Windows OS records all data on changes in the system, for example, registry, temporary files of Internet browsers, installation of programs, as well as their removal, writing and deleting files on hard drives etc. All these operations require additional costs random access memory and with an increase in its volume for implementation unnecessary processes, computer performance decreases. In most cases, users solve this issue by reinstalling operating system, but with Mac OS X you don't have to. Speeding up and optimizing Mac OS X is an easier task.

Speeding up and optimizing Mac OS X

Let's start optimizing your computer with hardware:

1. HDD. If possible, replace the regular hard drive with a solid state drive (SSD), this will give a significant increase in speed. If you install an SSD on your Mac, then you don’t have to do the rest of this article!
2. RAM. If your Mac model allows you to increase the amount of RAM, then this should definitely be done, especially if you work with photo or video processing programs.

Optimization software:

1. Clearing memory. I already wrote about this procedure once, so briefly: open the Terminal and type purge , or simply restart the computer.
2. Swap file. Swap file is one of the mechanisms virtual memory, in which individual pieces of memory (usually inactive) are moved from RAM to the hard disk, freeing RAM to load other active pieces of memory. This is accompanied by read-write calls to hard drive, which works much slower than RAM. This is where strong brakes arise when switching between programs and the operation of the system as a whole. In Mac OS X, the paging file for some reason begins to be used before the free memory runs out. It seems that there is still a lot of RAM, but the system begins to slow down. Installation additional modules memory will not solve the problem - swap continues to be used anyway. Disable it in the terminal:
   sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.dynamic_pager.plist sudo rm /private/var/vm/swapfile*
   Include:
   sudo launchctl load -wF /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.dynamic_pager.plist
   In theory, when the memory runs out, Mac OS X, like other Unix systems, will simply freeze. But this didn’t happen to me, even when there were about 10 megabytes left free.
3. Disable unnecessary things:
   • Removing programs from startup: System Settings / Accounts/ Login objects. You need to not only uncheck the boxes, but also remove all objects from there.
   • Disable unused system services: Uncheck: System Preferences / Sharing.
   • Disable Spotlight: you can disable it if your system is slow, you don't use search, or if you have an ssd installed. To disable spotlight, open System Preferences / Spotlight. In “Search Results”, uncheck all the boxes, and in “Confidentiality” add (plus sign at the bottom) those drives that you want to exclude from the search.
   • Dashboard Dashboard is a great thing if you use it. If you don't use this service, then it is wasting your resources. Disable it in the terminal: defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES . Enable: defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean NO .
4. Close applications. Simple but effective advice. It's easy to run many applications at once on a Mac. You may have launched more than you need. Look in Doc. If you see a lot running applications(a blue dot is lit under the icons), turn them off if you do not plan to use them in the near future. This will free up unnecessary resources and make your Mac OS X run faster.
Do you remember the last time you rebooted your Mac? No? Then reboot! Will help!
5. CleanMyMac. Download, install, launch, remove unnecessary things. Voila!

Well, that seems to be all. Finally, I would like to note that the most effective, but expensive way to speed up your Mac is to replace the hard drive with an SSD and install additional RAM. Good luck!

Mac is great computer. But after several years of use, its performance may no longer seem sufficient. In this case, there is no need to buy new model. You can modernize your machine, saving a significant amount of money.

Replace your hard drive with an SSD

Unlike a traditional PC, where many components can be easily replaced, the Mac is designed without special problems upgrade only some components. Replacing the hard disk on an SSD allows you to get a significant performance increase. To make your Mac radically faster, just install an SSD. The 256 GB model will cost only $110.

Get rid of unnecessary programs in startup

If you actively install applications and then forget about them, we recommend going to the Group Users -> Login Objects section. Many programs try to put themselves in startup to save time the next time you access them. If you don't run these programs that often, all it does is increase your computer's boot time and slow down performance.

Increase the amount of RAM

Increasing the amount of RAM allows you to increase the speed of information processing and the performance of the computer with a large number of simultaneously open tasks. Please note that not all Mac models can be upgraded this way. The fact is that Apple practices limiting the ability to update components in order to reduce the cost of production. For example, RAM cannot be replaced in all laptop models MacBook Air, y and Mac mini.

Close resource-intensive applications

Each running program takes up part of the RAM, so a large number of active tasks can greatly slow down Mac work. A running program can be identified by a black dot under the icon in the Dock. Right click Click on the icon of the running program and select Quit. You can also use System Monitoring for these purposes.

Perform an OS cleanup

By using third party applications you can effectively clean the operating system from temporary and unnecessary files. DaisyDisk and OmniDiskSweeper allow you to find out which files take up the most disk space. AppCleaner, MacKeeper and CleanMyMac are useful for cleaning the OS. The latter in addition to automatic detection files that can be deleted without consequences, makes it possible to reduce the size of iPhoto libraries, find and delete large files that have not been opened for a long time, manage installed applications etc.

Limit the number of tabs open at once

Not long ago, experts conducted a study on the impact that the browser, in particular the tabs open in the program, has on the operation of the laptop. The correlation between the number of web pages running and the performance and battery life of a Mac may not be obvious, but there is a correlation. In particular, if you open 100 tabs, in addition to negative effect on performance, this will affect autonomy: the MacBook will live on average 1 hour less. xTab extension for Google Chrome allows you to limit maximum amount simultaneously open tabs.

Update your software

Mac Store App Store provides access to operational add-ons and makes it easier to update your computer. It can be used to select updates for the operating system, as well as third-party applications installed from the store. Updates and files appear here regularly. To maintain your computer's performance, you should install the latest updates and patches to protect and improve your Mac.

Free up RAM

When working for a long time big amount programs and files, sooner or later there will be a noticeable drop in the speed of the computer. The fact is that fragments of code from programs that you worked with before remain in RAM. OS X, in turn, begins to increase the page file, which is stored on the drive. RAM faster SSD and hard drive, therefore, in order to maintain performance, you should organize cleaning of the computer’s RAM. Do it in automatic mode you can use the free Memory utilities Clean.

Relatively recently, Macs began to be produced (mainly in mobile version) using SSD drives instead of regular HDD. Advantages solid state drives(this is how the abbreviation SSD can be translated into Russian) is quite a lot, but at the same time, there are also disadvantages that can and should be dealt with in order to extend the life of the drive. Completely remove the shortcomings that SSD drives have due to existing technology, we will not be able to, but we are quite capable of optimizing the operating system in order to minimize the negative consequences. Actually, this is what we will do in the current article.

First, a little history. Back in 1978, StorageTek developed the first semiconductor drive based on RAM memory. RAM drives are drives that use volatile memory, similar to that used in computer RAM. The main advantages of RAM drives are ultra-fast reading, writing and searching for information, but the disadvantage is their very high cost (from $80 per 1GB). In 1995, M-Systems introduced the first semiconductor storage device based on Flash memory. Flash (NAND) drives are drives based on non-volatile memory, it is this type of drive that is used for installation in mobile computers from Apple. These drives differ from conventional ones, first of all, high speed searching for information (comparable to the speed of searching in the Mac's RAM). Read/write speed indicators have recently become comparable to those of traditional hard drives, and in some cases significantly exceed them. As for the cost of NAND drives, it is significantly lower than the cost of RAM drives (from $2 per 1GB). Modern SSD drives installed in desktops and laptops belong to this type of memory.

Other advantages of SSD drives over traditional HDD drives include the following:

• No moving parts
• Wide operating temperature range
• Complete absence of noise due to no moving parts
• Read and write speeds are mainly limited only throughput interface used (for example, SATA III - up to 6 GB/s)
• Low power consumption
• High mechanical resistance

The most important and, perhaps, the most critical disadvantage of SSD drives is limited number of rewrite cycles(depends on the type of flash memory used). Thus, SSD drives using MLC flash memory allow approximately 10 thousand rewrite cycles data, and disks based on more expensive SLC flash memory are significantly larger - more than 100 thousand cycles. In principle, it will take a lot of time until the SSD drive exhausts its resource, but you always want this to happen as late as possible. The first disadvantage is closely intertwined with the second, which is the problem of compatibility. existing SSD drives with many operating systems, including Mac OS X. The problem is that many existing operating systems do not take into account the specifics of SSDs and additionally wear them out (swap files, various caches, etc.).

If the first drawback cannot be solved yet - technology is technology, then the second one can be overcome.

The most important thing for an SSD drive in Mac OS X is the activation of TRIM technology. On native SSDs in Mac OS X 10.6.8 and older, this technology will work initially, but for non-native ones it is needed. We have already written about TRIM before, let us only remind you that the use of this technology allows you to avoid slowdown SSD operation due to clogged memory cells.

The rest of the tips are:

1. DISABLE CACCHING IN THE WEB BROWSER

Typically, any web browser uses a certain part disk space for caching temporary files when browsing the web and other operations. Accordingly, the more the user visits web pages and other web services, the more active the cache in the web browser is, which will adversely affect the life of the SSD drive. Therefore, in order to neutralize the negative consequences of web surfing, go to the settings of the default web browser in the system and disable caching. As an example, we will tell you how to disable the cache in Safari web browser 5.0.5.

• Turn on additional section Development in the program menu. To do this in the menu Safari settings go to the tab Add-ons and mark the item there Show Develop menu in menu bar.

Go to the section that appears Development and mark the menu item Disable caches. Safari will now load graphics, pages, and other resources from the web in real time, instead of using cached resources.

2. DISABLE HIBERNATION MODE

Hibernation mode allows you to write the entire contents of RAM to the computer when you turn off the computer. HDD, and then, when you turn on the computer again, continue the interrupted work as if no shutdown had ever happened. IN MacBook given mode in mandatory Used when running on battery power to avoid data loss when the battery runs out of power. Undoubtedly, this is very convenient, but the whole point is that when active mode hibernation, a file is always created on the MacBook’s disk equal to the amount of RAM installed in the computer. Considering that the volumes of existing SSD drives are not so large and in order to save money you have to fight for every megabyte, losing at least 2 GB of disk space would be an unaffordable luxury.

To carry out the operation, launch the Terminal and enter three simple commands.

• Checking current mode hibernation:

sudo pmset -g | grep hibernatemode > ~/Desktop/current_mode.txt

The necessary numbers will be saved to a file on the Desktop (it is these numbers that will need to be used if necessary to restore the disabled mode). Also don't forget that when executing a command starting with sudo, you will be required to blindly enter your account password).

• Disable hibernation:

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0

Re-enabling the mode is carried out by re-entering the command with replacing the number «0» on "3" or at "7" (when using protected virtual memory).

• We delete the file remaining after turning off the mode:

sudo rm /private/var/vm/sleepimage

After completing all operations, reboot the MacBook.

3. DISABLE SPOTLIGHT

Great feature system search, which is key technology Mac OS X, in its operation, actively uses data caching for indexing disk contents and is therefore the next candidate for disabling. To disable caching, go to System Preferences/Spotlight/Privacy and add the SSD disk or partitions on it to the exclusion list.

4. DISABLE PUTTING THE SSD DRIVE INTO SLEEP MODE

This mode serves to save energy and puts the hard drive into sleep mode when idle for a certain time. When using an SSD with its low power consumption, the benefits of using this mode questionable. To disable putting the disk into sleep mode, go to System Settings/Energy Saving uncheck the item If possible, put the drive(s) into sleep mode.

5. DISABLE THE FUNCTION OF FIXING LAST ACCESS TO A FILE

Abbreviated this function called noatime. Every time the system accesses a file on the disk, this function also writes to the disk. To avoid reducing the use of rewrite cycles to the SSD, the function noatime can be turned off, especially since this does not threaten any serious consequences.

In order to disable this function, create a file called com.my.noatime.plist and put it in a folder /Library/LaunchDaemons. The contents of the file should be as follows:

"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

Label
com.nullvision.noatime
ProgramArguments

mount
-vuwo
noatime
/

RunAtLoad

Then enter the following commands in the Terminal window:

cd ~/desktop
sudo chown root:wheel com.my.noatime.plist
sudo mv com.my.noatime.plist /Library/LaunchDaemons/
sudo shutdown -r now

Reboot the computer.

6. DISABLE THE SWAP FILE (SWAP FILE)

A feature of Mac OS X (and many other operating systems) is that if there is not enough free RAM, it begins to dump some of the data from it onto the hard drive, into the so-called paging file. This allows you to free up the necessary amount of memory for more important purposes than storing unused data, but the most interesting thing is that Mac OS X begins to think that there is no longer enough memory even when in fact free memory still quite enough. If, during work, the user wants to return to the data that the system has already dumped onto the hard drive, then the system may begin to “freeze” for some time, while access to the hard drive increases noticeably. Needless to say, access speeds to RAM and storage differ by hundreds or even thousands of times, and the user, when active use The paging file noticeably reduces the speed of the Mac. Therefore, if you have a sufficiently large amount of RAM (from 4 GB and above), it makes sense to disable the page file, thereby benefiting from overall speed system operation, and in the case of using an SSD drive, reducing the resource of the latter’s rewrite cycles. In order to completely disable the use of the paging file, open Terminal and enter the following command:

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.dynamic_pager.plist

Then we delete the existing swap files (usually there are several of them):

sudo rm /private/var/vm/swapfile*

In order to return everything back, use the following command:

sudo launchctl load -wF /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.dynamic_pager.plist

NOT RECOMMENDED disabling the paging file for those users who have less than 4GB installed on their computer or if they are working in resource-intensive applications (for example, Adobe Photoshop process images of several tens of megapixels in size). Determine the amount of memory sufficient for comfortable work user is quite simple - you just need to run the utility System monitoring and, having loaded the computer with the applications most often used at work, look at the value of the parameter Using swap. If there is a number there «0» , then you can safely disable the paging file, otherwise if there is not enough memory, the system may simply freeze.

7. CLEAR THE BOOT CACHE

Another small advantage of SSD drives is fast reboot (about 15 seconds). If this is not observed on your MacBook with the remaining SSD drive, then perhaps you just need to clear the boot cache. To do this, open the Terminal and enter the following commands:

sudo chown root:admin
sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel
sudo kextcache -system-caches

Well, in the most advanced way SSD protection from writing various temporary files is to create a virtual dedicated disk ( RAM Disk) in RAM and transferring folders of temporary files and caches to it. We will talk about this method in the near future.

Is your Mac running slower than usual? Long term use may lead to the appearance additional files and many settings that will slow down your computer. Follow this guide to discover a wide variety different methods that can speed up your computer, including deleting unnecessary files, updating hardware, defragmentation of hard disk and reinstall your Mac copies OS X

Steps

Cleaning Your Desktop

Update your system. Keeping your programs and operating system up to date will give you confidence that your system is secure and working at one hundred percent of its capabilities. Often, after updating the software, its performance increases. Keeping the system updated and safe condition can also prevent your computer from slowing down due to malicious files.

• Click on apple menu and select Software Update. The program will search the Internet for available updates for your installed programs and the operating system itself.
• Install the desired updates. In general, it is recommended to install everything available updates so that you have everything last changes and security fixes.
• You can check for updates for your installed programs using App store Store by simply opening the App Store and selecting the Updates tab. OS X Mountain Lion and later operating systems include App updates Store in the main Program Update program. Older versions of OS X will have to update Apps Store using this store's interface.

1. Remove old programs. Even though you don't actively use them, they take up disk storage space. If you run out of hard drive space, this can cause problems because there is not enough free place may reduce performance.

   • To remove applications, simply drag them to the Trash. This will remove old files and settings, but some may remain on your system. For complete removal programs, try using an uninstaller program. There are several such paid and free programs available on the App Store.

2. Clear your desktop of unnecessary icons. Availability too large quantity icons on your screen can negatively impact your computer's performance. The reason is that Mac OS X treats each icon as a separate window. The impact may be small, but it increases significantly if you have big number icons

   Disable widgets. If you use the Dashboard and widgets, they eat up some of your system's memory. Widgets are mini-programs that constantly run in background. Because of this, they are a small but constant drain on your system's resources.

   • If you're using OS X 10.5 or earlier, you can launch the Widget Manager from the Dashboard. Click the (+) icon in the Dashboard to open the Widget Browser. Select the Widgets icon on the left side of the icon bar. In this list, uncheck those widgets that you do not want to use.
   • If you're using OS X 10.4, you'll have to manually remove widgets. Open Finder and click on the Go menu. From the drop down list select Home Folder. Open the Libraries folder and then find the Widgets folder. Drag the widgets you want to delete to the Trash.
   • If you don't use widgets at all, you can disable Dashboard entirely. Open the Applications folder and then the Utilities folder. Select Terminal. In Terminal, run the following commands:

     Defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled –boolean YES
     killall Dock

     To bring back the Dashboard, enter the same commands, but change YES to NO.

Hard Drive Defragmentation

Adding RAM

Buy more RAM. Depending on your system, you may be able to add more RAM (Random Access Storage). RAM allows programs to store information in memory with very fast time access, which increases the speed of programs.

1. Determine how much memory is already installed. U various systems The types of RAM required may vary. MacBooks do not use the same type of RAM as desktop computer Mac, and various models can also use different speeds. First, find out what type of RAM you need to purchase for your model and whether you can add it at all.

   • To determine how much memory you have installed and its speed, click the Apple menu and select About This Mac computer. A window will open with information about the version of the OS X operating system installed, your processor, and your memory.
   • This screen does not tell you what maximum amount of RAM your system supports. Typically you can install up to 4GB, although there are a few MacBook laptop models that can only install up to 2GB. Be sure to check the documentation for the maximum amount of memory you can install.
   • If you have 2GB installed and you want to install another 2GB, it is not necessary that you just buy one stick with 2GB of memory and insert it. Chances are that you only have two RAM slots, and each of them already has a stick with 1GB of memory installed. Therefore, to increase the volume to 4GB, you will have to buy two 2GB sticks.

2. Open your computer. If you are installing memory in a MacBook, you will have to remove back cases from a laptop. Note the position of the screws in relation to the holes, as some screws may vary in size. If you are installing memory into a desktop computer, you may have to remove the case to access the components.

   • Before working with components inside the computer, discharge static electricity by touching a metal part of the laptop.