Running out of RAM on Yosemite

If you notice that you're running out of RAM on OSX Yosimite...

First, open you Activity Monitor, click the [Memory] tab and sort by "Memory"

If WindowServer is hogging your RAM then resetting you mac's PRAM might fix things.

Reset your mac's PRAM

• Close all open apps
• Press CMD + Option + ESC (***)
• Put your mac to Sleep
• Wake you mac
• Restart your mac
• Press CMD + Option + P + R (keep it down until you hear at least 2 chimes)

(***) Here's where you force quit anything left open. It's okay to leave Finder open

Notes

If you also have excessive CPU utilization, you may want to Repair Disk Permissions, which adds a step to the above process:

Reset Disk Permissions and your mac's PRAM

• Close all open apps
• Press CMD + Option + ESC (***)
• Put your mac to Sleep
• Wake you mac
• Restart your mac
• click “Repair disk permissions”
• Restart your mac
• Press CMD + Option + P + R (keep it down until you hear at least 2 chimes)

References

http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201560
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6623697

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