How to fix iPad update error

Question: I recently upgraded my iPad (1st generation) to iOS 5. After the update the performance of the tablet has gone down with the navigation being a bit sluggish and apps often crashing. How can I fix this? 

- Hemant Sahni

There have been reports of the older generation iPod Touch and iPad slowing down after the iOS 5 upgrade. There are two ways to fix this issue. First, update to the latest iOS 5.0.1 via iTunes or over the air update on your device.

If this does not work, then do a backup and restore of the iPad by the following steps -Connect your iPad to the PC/Mac and launch iTunes. In iTunes, select the iPad in the left column and take a fresh backup of all your content.

Once the backup is finished, click on the restore button and wipe the iPad clean. Next, restore all your content using the backup file created. This should significantly improve the performance of your iPad.

Question: I bought an Apple iMac 3 months ago, but from the past few days it takes a lot of time to start up. Even after starting it runs slow and keeps freezing every now and then for a few seconds. Please help. 

- Pranav Ranawat

There can be multiple reasons for your iMac acting like this. For starters, go to Applications > Utilities and launch Activity monitor. It will show you all the apps running on your MAC with details on how much CPU and RAM is being consumed by each. Quit any app that you are not using and is heavy on resources.

Also, do keep in mind that OS X does not quit an application if you just click the cross button on top. You need to quit the program via the menu or by using the 'Command + Q' keyboard command. Too many files and folders on your desktop can also be a reason for your machine getting slow and. We suggest to move the data on desktop into a single folder.

Also check if there are too many program starting at login, widgets on dashboard and animated wallpapers also lead to slowdown. If this does not help, then download Onyx for Mac from www.onyxmac.com. It is a system maintenance application to optimize OS X.