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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Mac Mini is slow after idling
RobinS - Mar 24, 2006 - 11:30 am
Using a Mini with 1 gb of ram. First thing in the morning it seems to be awaking from sleep yet I have nothing enabled to sleep. Hard drives, computer, nothing. Is there something else that could be causing this? Its slow for a while (say 30 - 60 secons) then its fine.
Cheryl - Mar 26, 2006 - 10:18 pm
Robin,
When you go to the computer first thing in the morning - what does the screen show - your desktop or black? Is there any programs running then?
It is advised to at least have the screen go to sleep to lengthen the life of the monitor.
How do you have your mini set up? You must provide maximum airflow to the computer's vents around the rubber base. Don't put anything on top of your Mac mini or stack Mac minis on top of each other either. this can hamper the ventilation as well as bluetooth or wireless strength.
Cheryl
When you go to the computer first thing in the morning - what does the screen show - your desktop or black? Is there any programs running then?
It is advised to at least have the screen go to sleep to lengthen the life of the monitor.
How do you have your mini set up? You must provide maximum airflow to the computer's vents around the rubber base. Don't put anything on top of your Mac mini or stack Mac minis on top of each other either. this can hamper the ventilation as well as bluetooth or wireless strength.
Cheryl
RobinS - Mar 27, 2006 - 11:20 am
Screen is normal. Everything is normal. It just acts stunned. Its like talking to a brain damaged computer. It hears you, but doesn't process the information for a while.
The monitor turns off after a while. No worries about the monitor. Anyway, when I go to bed I turn off the monitor myself.
That's ironic that you mention airflow in the Mini. Thanks to the thoughtless design of Apple, things are crammed in their so tight and the airflow so restricted its a wonder the thing doesn't get red hot. My Mini has been totally ripped apart and presently I use it without any 2.5" or optical drive. I use an 2.5" to 3.5" IDE converter, with the hard drive in a cage seperate from the Mini. Same with the optical drive. I don't even use the plastic housing. I mounted the fan closer to the heatsink so it blows air into it better. I don't use Bluetooth or wireless so no worries about that. Ventilation goes out the back - so stacking stuff on top wouldn't influence the heat buildup - or only slightly. So its not a heat/hardware issue.
Its in OS X. Do you have any thoughts why OS X sometimes takes time to get going? Or is this normal? Perhaps things need to warm up? Yet there is nothing sleeping. Bizarre.
The monitor turns off after a while. No worries about the monitor. Anyway, when I go to bed I turn off the monitor myself.
That's ironic that you mention airflow in the Mini. Thanks to the thoughtless design of Apple, things are crammed in their so tight and the airflow so restricted its a wonder the thing doesn't get red hot. My Mini has been totally ripped apart and presently I use it without any 2.5" or optical drive. I use an 2.5" to 3.5" IDE converter, with the hard drive in a cage seperate from the Mini. Same with the optical drive. I don't even use the plastic housing. I mounted the fan closer to the heatsink so it blows air into it better. I don't use Bluetooth or wireless so no worries about that. Ventilation goes out the back - so stacking stuff on top wouldn't influence the heat buildup - or only slightly. So its not a heat/hardware issue.
Its in OS X. Do you have any thoughts why OS X sometimes takes time to get going? Or is this normal? Perhaps things need to warm up? Yet there is nothing sleeping. Bizarre.
Cheryl - Mar 27, 2006 - 10:29 pm
Robin,
Because you did your own hack with the hard drive, I can not guarantee that anything I suggest would help you. What did you do with the logic board? Is it with the hard drive? (you state you do not use the original housing).
You say you turn off the monitor when you are done. This could be the monitor waking up that prevents you from doing anything. The monitor has to talk to the logic board which then activates the hard drive to find and open what you want.
If the hard drive is constantly on the OS is not at fault with this.
May I ask why you took apart the mini?
Cheryl
Because you did your own hack with the hard drive, I can not guarantee that anything I suggest would help you. What did you do with the logic board? Is it with the hard drive? (you state you do not use the original housing).
You say you turn off the monitor when you are done. This could be the monitor waking up that prevents you from doing anything. The monitor has to talk to the logic board which then activates the hard drive to find and open what you want.
If the hard drive is constantly on the OS is not at fault with this.
May I ask why you took apart the mini?
Cheryl
RobinS - Mar 28, 2006 - 12:06 pm
Hack? What a typical Macuser response. Do you hack the electrical system in your house when you change a lightbulb? Please.
Logic board? What do you mean by the logic board? Is that the motherboard or the little vertical riser board that the stock notebook hard drive plugs into? (Is that sometimes referred to as a daughterboard? I'm not sure.) Anyway, I said the system works GREAT when its been on for a while - actually it sometimes wakes up right away - sorry to be so vague but its a vague, inconsistant problem. As I explained in the beginning, I use a 2.5" to 3.5" IDE adapter to run a 7200 rpm full size 8mb cache 250 gb or 120 gb or 80 gb hard drive. The notebook hard drive (to quote someone else) is slow as mollasses and is definitely the weakest link in the chain. And the silly notebook optical drive got tossed of course as well as the IDE channel supports 2 devices. Look at the economy:
Bought the 2.5">3.5" adapter for an enormous initial outlay of $18.
Sold the 40 gb stock hard drive for $60
Bought a 250 gb (much faster) hard drive for $75
Sold the optical drive (which didn't burn DVD's) for $60
Bought a (much faster) DVD burner for $20.
Plus the system runs far cooler thanks to open ventilation.
Now the weakest link is that tiny, noisey fan that tries to cool the CPU. I'd love to toss that and replace it with something normal. Of course its a non-standard size. Apple always makes things difficult...... A copper heatpipe heatsink could probably used fanless. There is so much potential for a dead quiet, competent computer here which Apple tossed aside because they wanted to make it cute.
My monitor fires up instantly. No problem there.
The hard drive ACTS like its asleep or dozing.....that's the dilemma. But I purposely don't ever have any energy saving settings activated except the one which turns the monitor off after 30 minutes. Once its back on, the system is fine. This is something else.
I took apart the Mini out of morbid curiousity. As soon as I saw the design and how poor it was for heat flow, I lost all respect for Apple hardware engineering. The more I took it apart the more dismayed I became as I realized how many compromises Apple made in this tragic design of a baseline computer which could have been so much more. Then I studied case design, seeing what works and what doesn't. (99% of designs commercially available are a joke since they ignore the heat rising principle so they have to force it by needless use of noisy fans.)
The G5 case is another example of a horribly compromised design (7 fans?). Air should move, as unimpeded as possible, from bottom to top. The one good thing about the Mini is the powerblock. Its external so it isn't one more heat generating device in a case, and utterly silent. That is a real groundbreaker of a design. Hopefully other designs will see the benefits of this. If case designers cooled their CPU's with outside air instead of warm inside air, the fans wouldn't have to run nearly as fast.
The only downside is that is pretty ugly....
And as for that, I couldn't care less. Pretty is an organized computer. THAT's pretty.
Logic board? What do you mean by the logic board? Is that the motherboard or the little vertical riser board that the stock notebook hard drive plugs into? (Is that sometimes referred to as a daughterboard? I'm not sure.) Anyway, I said the system works GREAT when its been on for a while - actually it sometimes wakes up right away - sorry to be so vague but its a vague, inconsistant problem. As I explained in the beginning, I use a 2.5" to 3.5" IDE adapter to run a 7200 rpm full size 8mb cache 250 gb or 120 gb or 80 gb hard drive. The notebook hard drive (to quote someone else) is slow as mollasses and is definitely the weakest link in the chain. And the silly notebook optical drive got tossed of course as well as the IDE channel supports 2 devices. Look at the economy:
Bought the 2.5">3.5" adapter for an enormous initial outlay of $18.
Sold the 40 gb stock hard drive for $60
Bought a 250 gb (much faster) hard drive for $75
Sold the optical drive (which didn't burn DVD's) for $60
Bought a (much faster) DVD burner for $20.
Plus the system runs far cooler thanks to open ventilation.
Now the weakest link is that tiny, noisey fan that tries to cool the CPU. I'd love to toss that and replace it with something normal. Of course its a non-standard size. Apple always makes things difficult...... A copper heatpipe heatsink could probably used fanless. There is so much potential for a dead quiet, competent computer here which Apple tossed aside because they wanted to make it cute.
My monitor fires up instantly. No problem there.
The hard drive ACTS like its asleep or dozing.....that's the dilemma. But I purposely don't ever have any energy saving settings activated except the one which turns the monitor off after 30 minutes. Once its back on, the system is fine. This is something else.
I took apart the Mini out of morbid curiousity. As soon as I saw the design and how poor it was for heat flow, I lost all respect for Apple hardware engineering. The more I took it apart the more dismayed I became as I realized how many compromises Apple made in this tragic design of a baseline computer which could have been so much more. Then I studied case design, seeing what works and what doesn't. (99% of designs commercially available are a joke since they ignore the heat rising principle so they have to force it by needless use of noisy fans.)
The G5 case is another example of a horribly compromised design (7 fans?). Air should move, as unimpeded as possible, from bottom to top. The one good thing about the Mini is the powerblock. Its external so it isn't one more heat generating device in a case, and utterly silent. That is a real groundbreaker of a design. Hopefully other designs will see the benefits of this. If case designers cooled their CPU's with outside air instead of warm inside air, the fans wouldn't have to run nearly as fast.
The only downside is that is pretty ugly....
And as for that, I couldn't care less. Pretty is an organized computer. THAT's pretty.
Cheryl - Mar 28, 2006 - 11:53 pm
Robin,
Have you run a disk utility on the drive recently? Since the problem is inconsistent, it is hard to pin point the problem.
What I suggest is to open Console (from the Utility folder) and allow it to stay open during the night. The next day, you can check out what it is reporting to find out what maybe causing the delay. You may need to do this for a couple of nights. If it does not report any problems (just normal tasks) then it could possibly be the hard drive itself.
This is something that a tech would need to see and monitor in person to pin point the exact cause.
Cheryl
Have you run a disk utility on the drive recently? Since the problem is inconsistent, it is hard to pin point the problem.
What I suggest is to open Console (from the Utility folder) and allow it to stay open during the night. The next day, you can check out what it is reporting to find out what maybe causing the delay. You may need to do this for a couple of nights. If it does not report any problems (just normal tasks) then it could possibly be the hard drive itself.
This is something that a tech would need to see and monitor in person to pin point the exact cause.
Cheryl
RobinS - Mar 29, 2006 - 12:26 pm
Repairing permissions constantly just shows that either my OSX is damaged or OSX itself is very flawed in this area. But that may be necessary. Its just such a hassle to restart with a DVD when I've got stuff coming down that can take days.
The console idea sounds like a good one. I'll try it. Of course I won't understand it, but its a start on my Unix education I suppose. May Apple will come out with another version of OS X that will have the caption:
"It just works - no, we really mean it this time. Promise."
The console idea sounds like a good one. I'll try it. Of course I won't understand it, but its a start on my Unix education I suppose. May Apple will come out with another version of OS X that will have the caption:
"It just works - no, we really mean it this time. Promise."
Cheryl - Mar 29, 2006 - 10:36 pm
Robin,
I have not had any problems with OS X. Let me know what Console says.
Cheryl
I have not had any problems with OS X. Let me know what Console says.
Cheryl
RobinS - Mar 30, 2006 - 5:58 pm
Let me state that again. If OS X constantly needs the permissions repaired, there's either something wrong with my install or OS X itself. Or it should be repairing these permissions itself whenever there's a need.
I'll try the Console idea though. Sounds interesting.
I'll try the Console idea though. Sounds interesting.
Cheryl - Mar 31, 2006 - 8:03 am
Robin,
You should not be repairing permissions constantly unless you are installing programs constantly.
It is most important to repair permissions after an OS update or when you have installed a major application. Periodically, you should run a disk utility to keep the hard drive in top working order. You can use Disk Utility on the OS CD, or a third party utility such as Disk Warrior or Tech Tool Pro.
Cheryl
You should not be repairing permissions constantly unless you are installing programs constantly.
It is most important to repair permissions after an OS update or when you have installed a major application. Periodically, you should run a disk utility to keep the hard drive in top working order. You can use Disk Utility on the OS CD, or a third party utility such as Disk Warrior or Tech Tool Pro.
Cheryl
RobinS - Mar 31, 2006 - 5:10 pm
Understood. I am installing stuff all the time; constantly trying new stuff. I'll just have to get in the habit of doing it more often. Its just such a hassle when doing it from the DVD because that means nothing else can run since the OS hasn't even loaded. And it can't be done automatically when I'm sleeping.
Thanks for all the tips.
Thanks for all the tips.
Cheryl - Apr 1, 2006 - 7:12 pm
Robin,
Repair permissions does not need to be done with Disk Utility from the DVD. You start up with the DVD to run Disk Utility to repair the drive.
Go to Applications>Utilities and start up Disk Utility. You can repair permissions from there.
Cheryl
Repair permissions does not need to be done with Disk Utility from the DVD. You start up with the DVD to run Disk Utility to repair the drive.
Go to Applications>Utilities and start up Disk Utility. You can repair permissions from there.
Cheryl
RobinS - Apr 2, 2006 - 2:58 pm
I thought it worked better if the OS hasn't started (run off the DVD before OS X starts).
Cheryl - Apr 2, 2006 - 3:53 pm
Robin,
It does work better - after you have used Disk Utility to repair the drive. When you are just installing a couple of programs, use the Disk Utility that is on your hard drive in the Utilities folder.
There is no need to start up with the DVD just to repair permissions.
Cheryl
It does work better - after you have used Disk Utility to repair the drive. When you are just installing a couple of programs, use the Disk Utility that is on your hard drive in the Utilities folder.
There is no need to start up with the DVD just to repair permissions.
Cheryl
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