I find at times my browser will pause or stall while typing or be unresponsive to mouse clicks. Is there a malware that could be causing this? Remedies?
Anyone else experience this?
Running
OS 10.7.4
2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB ram
on a Macbook

Low memory on your hard drive? That'll do it for me nine times out of ten.

Low memory on your hard drive? That'll do it for me nine times out of ten.
Running a 320GB HD with 61GB left. Time to clear some stuff out?

61 GBs should be plenty. (At this very minute, I'm down to 2.99 GB. That's definitely time to clear stuff out!)

Are there particular times (specific apps running, particular activities that trigger the problem, etc.) when the problem is worse than others? You might try running Activity Monitor and see which apps are hogging all your resources (CPU or RAM) when things slow down.

Im having a similar problem on a 2.4ghz Early-08 MacBook.

160gb hd
3gb ram.

Just happens randomly. Doesn't happen in Snow Leopard for me.

Thanks Digitdog, I'll try the activity monitor next time it starts to sloth out again.

Activity Monitor is an excellent tool to see what the Mac is up to and what processes are running, memory usage and CPU load etc.

I keep it in my Dock and probably open it up at least six times a day just to see what's happening.

A marvellous helpful tool to use.

And maybe add Console to the dock as well, and see what or any surplus logs for some things that can get out of control with excessive entries.

Activity Monitor is an excellent tool to see what the Mac is up to and what processes are running, memory usage and CPU load etc.

I keep it in my Dock and probably open it up at least six times a day just to see what's happening.

A marvellous helpful tool to use.

And maybe add Console to the dock as well, and see what or any surplus logs for some things that can get out of control with excessive entries.

I too put Activity Monitor in the dock. So far nothing seems to be raping my memory. Going to try Console next

I guess I need to know how to read the Console messages
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8166/7223429932_d7a0edde2a_b.jpg
Its all greek geek to me:yikes:

To answer the first question, it is very unlikely to be malware on your Mac.
Check this article for info on the current malware that is out there, and checking / removal instructions
“Flashback”, Java trojans, “SabPub”, “LuckyCat” and “Tibet” Microsoft Office trojans target Mac OSX | CanadaRAM: Memory and Computer Q&A (http://www.computer-answers.ca/2012/computer-questions/macintosh-questions/microsoft-office-bourne-trojan-horse-for-mac/)

I guess I need to know how to read the Console messages
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8166/7223429932_d7a0edde2a_b.jpg
Its all greek geek to me:yikes:

It looks like those QuickLookUIHelper errors should fill up your Console log pretty fast!!

If you open Activity, you should see QuickLookUIHelper listed, select it and select the "Inspect" icon -> Open Files and Ports tab and have a look as to what it and any associated stuff is doing if it makes any sense.

And you have the option in AM to Quit and/or possibly Force Quit the process.

Or maybe just try doing a shutdown of the Mac and boot up again and have a look.

I seems to be a Lion 10.7.x only thing and couldn't find much info on it and/or what it's supposed to be doing.

But your's is definitely goofed up it seems.

Im having a similar problem on a 2.4ghz Early-08 MacBook.

160gb hd
3gb ram.

Just happens randomly. Doesn't happen in Snow Leopard for me.

Lots of other threads here and elsewhere saying that 4Gb is more or less minimum for decent performance with Lion. Seems a likely culprit as you say Snow Leopard is fine.

Lots of other threads here and elsewhere saying that 4Gb is more or less minimum for decent performance with Lion. Seems a likely culprit as you say Snow Leopard is fine.

Again as I said previously, Activity Monitor is an excellent tool to see what the Mac is up to and what processes are running, memory usage and CPU load etc.

Keeping an occasional eye on its "System Memory" tab is a good place to see if extra RAM is needed and often depends on what the user does on their Mac.

I've also noticed that Safari often keeps gobbling up memory and doesn't release it properly until its quit and restarted, and sometimes a full Mac restart is sometimes required to get all memory stuff back to normal.

I've also just recently being trying out the free "FreeMemory" which seems to be working fairly well, but not as thorough as a full Mac restart.

icemakk, Does the error message you saw in the Console appear more often when things slow down?

Quick Look is a preview feature that's built into Finder. (It let's you preview files without opening the associated app.) Is it possible that you use this feature and that previewing a particular type of file type is causing your system problems?

Safari, I've found, works best when it is actually quit (not just closed) every now and again. It could possibly be that the OP is just closing Safari and not quitting it until he gets the beachballs. That would also explain the behaviour.

+1 I have found the same thing and I couldn't agree more, even with just a few pages open.