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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Slow Power Mac G4
bedhead66 - Aug 25, 2005 - 4:21 am
I have an 867 MHz Power PC G4 with a 2 MB L3 cache and 1.5 GB of RAM. It's currently running OS 10.3.9.
For a while now it's been really sluggish running all sorts of applications, from RAM-heavy ones like Photoshop and Illustrator to Safari and Mac Mail. The colored wheel spins more often than it does on other computers, and it's almost impossible to even surf the web without long lag times featuring the spinning wheel.
In terms of the apps I usually have running, they are the following: Mac Mail, Safari, Real Player, MailCount X, Desktop Manager, WeatherDock, and sometimes a Solitaire game in OS 9.
I would appreciate any help you could give me. I use Virex everyday but I have yet to run any hardcore anti-virus or defragging software on my computer. Also, let me know if my computer is even worth saving, as it is almost 3 years old now.
Thanks.
For a while now it's been really sluggish running all sorts of applications, from RAM-heavy ones like Photoshop and Illustrator to Safari and Mac Mail. The colored wheel spins more often than it does on other computers, and it's almost impossible to even surf the web without long lag times featuring the spinning wheel.
In terms of the apps I usually have running, they are the following: Mac Mail, Safari, Real Player, MailCount X, Desktop Manager, WeatherDock, and sometimes a Solitaire game in OS 9.
I would appreciate any help you could give me. I use Virex everyday but I have yet to run any hardcore anti-virus or defragging software on my computer. Also, let me know if my computer is even worth saving, as it is almost 3 years old now.
Thanks.
Drumhum - Aug 25, 2005 - 8:46 am
Hi A,
I'm Tom and I shall be assisting you.
Firstly let me assure you that your problem will not be due to any virus. There are currently no viruses for the Mac. Although its wise for us mac users to remain vigilant, viruses are very much a windows worry and something we can (almost!) disregard.
There are various things you can do to your computer which keeps it in good order. See this as a sort of "housekeeping" or spring cleaning procedure.
I suggest you repair permissions if you have not done so. This is a procedure you should do every month or so and before (and after even!) any major software install. Do this by launching Diskutility found in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder. Select your system drive and click "repair permissions" button. And then let it do its thing.
Did you know that your mac sort of repairs itself at night? To do this it needs to be left switched on (not in sleep) and so if you typically switch off your mac these housekeeping procedures will not be carried out. You can get the computer to do this at your command if you know about UNIX but the easiest way is to use some software to do it for you! have a look here and consider downloading "macjanitor"...
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/10491
there is also more info on this here...
http://personalpages.tds.net/~brian_...acjanitor.html
Disk fragmentation is not much of an issue anymore unless you have very high demands on your disks such as high-end video work.
It may be wise to run disk-checking software which can result in speed increases. Such software looks at the invisable (to you) files on your disk and makes sure they are in order. The best software for this in my opinion is Diskwarrior (see www.alsoft.com). Its not free but worth every penny. It can rescue "lost" disks too. A very worthwhile software. TechTool pro is another example
If you don't have diskwarrior you could use diskUtilities again to check your disk. To do this though, you will have to start the computer up from your OSX install CD. insert the CD and restart the computer while holding down the 'c' key. Once up and running select diskutility from the Utilities menu, select your system drive and click repair disk.
Another thing to check that can slow your computer down is how much disk space you have left. You should be running a minimum of 10% free space on your system drive. I always allow 20GB free room on my 80GB system drive. OSX needs room to "breath" and running a system disk at nearly full can lead to big problems - even data loss!
Try disabling virex too. Often virus software "gets in the way". You really wont be risking much by not running it. You are probably just as safe by simply being careful with what you launch from the net. Do not run any software from the net or from email attachments if you don't know what it is. For the record, I do not use any virus software at all and never experienced a virus in ten years on the mac!
For web, email, word processing your computer should work just fine. Even for photoshop it should give you pretty decent performance - especially if you have lots of free disk space. If you regularly edit very large pictures or use very demanding plugins you would see benefits with a new dual G5. Having said that in my experience I find I get a good 4 to 5 years out of my macs - and I do pretty demanding work (audio and video). A friend of mine is happily running a 330Mhz g3 imac with 10.3.9 and its fine for web, email and letter writing. He sees no reason to buy new for what he does!
feel free to get back to me.
regards
tom
--------
You will be asked for feedback once this query is closed. All us techs love to get feedback:-) Thanks for using macosx.com
I'm Tom and I shall be assisting you.
Firstly let me assure you that your problem will not be due to any virus. There are currently no viruses for the Mac. Although its wise for us mac users to remain vigilant, viruses are very much a windows worry and something we can (almost!) disregard.
There are various things you can do to your computer which keeps it in good order. See this as a sort of "housekeeping" or spring cleaning procedure.
I suggest you repair permissions if you have not done so. This is a procedure you should do every month or so and before (and after even!) any major software install. Do this by launching Diskutility found in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder. Select your system drive and click "repair permissions" button. And then let it do its thing.
Did you know that your mac sort of repairs itself at night? To do this it needs to be left switched on (not in sleep) and so if you typically switch off your mac these housekeeping procedures will not be carried out. You can get the computer to do this at your command if you know about UNIX but the easiest way is to use some software to do it for you! have a look here and consider downloading "macjanitor"...
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/10491
there is also more info on this here...
http://personalpages.tds.net/~brian_...acjanitor.html
Disk fragmentation is not much of an issue anymore unless you have very high demands on your disks such as high-end video work.
It may be wise to run disk-checking software which can result in speed increases. Such software looks at the invisable (to you) files on your disk and makes sure they are in order. The best software for this in my opinion is Diskwarrior (see www.alsoft.com). Its not free but worth every penny. It can rescue "lost" disks too. A very worthwhile software. TechTool pro is another example
If you don't have diskwarrior you could use diskUtilities again to check your disk. To do this though, you will have to start the computer up from your OSX install CD. insert the CD and restart the computer while holding down the 'c' key. Once up and running select diskutility from the Utilities menu, select your system drive and click repair disk.
Another thing to check that can slow your computer down is how much disk space you have left. You should be running a minimum of 10% free space on your system drive. I always allow 20GB free room on my 80GB system drive. OSX needs room to "breath" and running a system disk at nearly full can lead to big problems - even data loss!
Try disabling virex too. Often virus software "gets in the way". You really wont be risking much by not running it. You are probably just as safe by simply being careful with what you launch from the net. Do not run any software from the net or from email attachments if you don't know what it is. For the record, I do not use any virus software at all and never experienced a virus in ten years on the mac!
For web, email, word processing your computer should work just fine. Even for photoshop it should give you pretty decent performance - especially if you have lots of free disk space. If you regularly edit very large pictures or use very demanding plugins you would see benefits with a new dual G5. Having said that in my experience I find I get a good 4 to 5 years out of my macs - and I do pretty demanding work (audio and video). A friend of mine is happily running a 330Mhz g3 imac with 10.3.9 and its fine for web, email and letter writing. He sees no reason to buy new for what he does!
feel free to get back to me.
regards
tom
--------
You will be asked for feedback once this query is closed. All us techs love to get feedback:-) Thanks for using macosx.com
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