single vocal audio file in the project that i am trying to clean up. cursor keeps spinning for 30 seconds or more if i move a clip around. saving is slow too, and zooming in makes everyting sluggish.
 
 
what do i need to change to get Sonar to behave properly?????

Could it be a very large project file maybe blown out by audio snap markers. If this is the case, try saving the project as a bundle then reopen the bundle. This will resize the project file and eliminate the audio snap markers.

never used bundles before. hasnt had any effect though. sluggish as ever. taking over a minute to move a clip

This probably isn't it, but if you're really low on RAM, Windows will swap to the hard drive and that slows things to a crawl. Make sure a lot of crap doesn't load into your computer on startup.

Yup system and software specs please (see my sig for example).
Thanks.

What if you just save and restart?
 
Also, are you using Melodyne on any of this?

Might want to volunteer some more information such as project sample rate and bit depth. Is this project on a internal or external drive? How large is the clip? How large is the project file? What else is running on the machine? Has the machine been recently rebooted?

quad core AMD, 4 gigs of RAM 64 bit w7- system can handle plenty.
 
checked the file size: 500mb, 16b 44.1 mono. 1h45 minutes in length. that is the only file in the session.
restarted and all that jazz.
 
 
on the plus side i have discovered you can press escape to cancel moving a clip if you are holding it!

Would be nice to have a lot more info (please see my sig) - for instance 64 bit Sonar? X3E? Audio Interface?
Anyway what Scook says.
Have you checked the process and memory usage in task manager? Also consider a disk defrag.

4GB RAM is pretty much just enough for a computer to wake up in the morning. I'm writing this on a 64-bit Vista laptop (uses less memory than W7) and 50% of the memory is being used just to run Chrome with a tab open to reply to your post. I have hardly any services that load on startup. So there's not much going on in the RAM...if I opened up Sonar with a 500MB file, it would probably bring this computer to its knees.