tiger running SO SLOW on G4 powebook

jennie333 · #1 January 18th, 2007, 12:30 PM

I am going crazy! Ok, so I am not exactly an early adopter, but I just updated my g4 powerbook from panther (10.3.9) to Tiger. And, it so much slower, i can't stand it. everything is slower, all my applications are incredibly slow to load (sometime over 60 sec), switching between apps is slow (30 sec +) and often when switching one or the other app will hang and never recover. it is really bad. I am going to have to switch back for now, but i would like to be able to run tiger if I can figure this out!

my computer: 1.33 GHz PowerPC G4 17" with 1.5 GB memory,80 GB drive with 16 GB free. 1 user, i am (obviously) the admin. I updated it using Tiger 10.4.6 using clean install, then used migration assistant to migrate my user files from a backup. Then updated to 10.4.8.

I repaired permissions, I ran macjanitor. i checked to see that all my memory is showing up (it is) i even tried setting up a second user, and working on some of my graphics files from that user account--no better.

Any suggestions? I don't know what the problem is!

Lt Major Burns · #2 January 18th, 2007, 02:16 PM

open Activity Monitor. sort by CPU, or memory, is MDimport taking up a lot?

mdimport is the Spotlight index. it runs in the background updating metadata to spotlight. on first run (like upgrading to Tiger), MDimport needs to index the whole hard drive. you can confirm this by clicking on the spotlight icon in the menu bar. it'll be 'in progress, with an estimated time.

once it's complete, Tiger is fast. faster than panther for many things.

jennie333 · #3 January 18th, 2007, 03:09 PM

No, it is currently taking 00.00% with 4 threads. I am 100% sure that spotlight is done. I have been running Tiger for days now, because I am too busy to restore Panther!

That is part of what is weird--nothing is hitting the cpu hard all the time. it seems that switching, from photoshop to freehand, for example, causes the app I am switching to to take up the rest of the available cpu; 30%, 60%....and then it stays like that for a long time. 30 seconds. a minute. more...or it hangs and never recovers.

My internet (with no change to settings, or setup) is also slower. Even a simple act like "new email" or "paste" or "new browser window" is slower.

I should also mention the main software I am using: macromedia freehand mx, photoshop 7, acrobat pro, microsoft word and excel 2004, firefox, eudora (for email), and palm desktop. I use quicksilver, which kind of runs in the background, and also a program called earthdesk, a screen saver. Turning off any/all programs and then running just the main ones (photoshop, freehand, eudora) did not help. I don't see anything strange in the activity monitor...i don't know what all the processes are, but i don't see anything hogging a lot of cpu space continuously. The Window Server seems to be taking up more than it used to, but only 6-12%

i should also mention that i first installed tiger as an update, but when that was so slow, I tried the clean install, which, as i mentioned, did not help. And I ran the 10.4.8 combo update.

also, in the console log, I am getting some "The function CGSReadObjectFromCString is obsolete. Use of this function may cause an overall degradation in the performance of this application, or of the system as a whole." There are a bunch of these with different functions. And I also was getting "Attempt to release a printing object without first doing a retain!!!"

I just had photoshop freeze on me, while attempting to stroke a path in a ery simple file...this never used to happen to me in panther!

thanks, jennie

Lt Major Burns · #4 January 18th, 2007, 03:38 PM

what version of iPhoto do you have?

CGSReadObjectFromCString is to do with iPhoto version 1 and 2. for some reason, this causes some problems with tiger. try removing iPhoto (just trash the application, not the iPhoto library), then restart...

here's detailed information on the possible cause
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...50629000756524

and here's the download link for iPhoto 2 should you want it.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120188

jennie333 · #5 January 18th, 2007, 03:44 PM

5.0.4. I don't use it, though. I assume it got updated with the clean install and the 10.4.8 combo update?

I checked out your website, by the way. cool t-shirts.

jennie

Lt Major Burns · #6 January 18th, 2007, 03:57 PM

he he, thanks.

damn, i really thought i'd be that. can you try reinstalling iLife?

also, try restarting the computer while holding shift as it boots. it'll take forever to start up, but it'd be in Safe Mode. if it runs fine in safe mode then we could see what else we can do

Flying Meat · #7 January 18th, 2007, 04:34 PM

Launch /Applications/Utilities/Console.app and look through the logs to see if there isn't something constantly throwing error messages.

How is the available drive space? When space get tight nearly all processes suffer.

jennie333 · #8 January 18th, 2007, 05:05 PM

I have almost 12GB free on a "80" (really 74) GB hardrive (the original). enough?

yeah i have been leaving the console log up and looking at it while i work.

Quote:

in the console log, I am getting some "The function CGSReadObjectFromCString is obsolete. Use of this function may cause an overall degradation in the performance of this application, or of the system as a whole." There are a bunch of these with different functions. And I also was getting "Attempt to release a printing object without first doing a retain!!!"