12-02-2007, 03:39 AM

Greetings Mac people. Just got an Imac today after years of frustration with PC repairs and viruses. It was an impulse buy because I'm just fed up with endless PC breakdowns and the thought of buying a new PC with Vista is chilling given how many problems people are having with it. So instead of trying to get a machine with XP and having a potentially limited time before they stop supporting that, I turned to Mac.

I've been working on getting up and running all evening and I've got some concerns that I'm hoping you all can help me with.

The pain of transitioning from 2 decades of PC to this Mac interface is one thing. It's hard and I have no idea why this mouse behaves the way it does and why windows keep jumping around and going gray or in and out of focus, etc... But I'm sure I will eventually tame the interface and probably come to prefer it. But that's not why I'm coming to you.

My issue is simple: performance speed. I got the imac with the 20 in screen and it seemed like a really decent machine. But so far, everything it's done has been incredibly slow. As soon as I logged and got set up for the first time I went to the apple site and tried to watch a video about Leopard. I have DSL but was unable to view either the small, medium or large version of the video without experiencing incredible choppiness. The large version was totally impossible, and I eventually had to give up on even the small version. I clicked the download link for the 379mb file, but it said it would take several hours to load. I can't remember anything taking several hours to download other than a full-length feature film. I'm used to fast and seamless video on my crappy toshiba laptop with this exact same internet connection. So that was a frustrating and confusing first experience with the imac.

Next, an update window poppped up telling me that there was a big list of updates available for various programs etc. I started the downloads and was amazed at the slow download speeds. Small updates of 15 meg or so were taking MINUTES and MINUTES to download. About 20 minutes into the updates I finally had to quit because I started the process of upgrading to Leopard and had to restart.

So, I insert the Leopard disc and the first thing that happens is that a message appears saying the Imac needed to check the leopard DVD for consistency. The little progress bar appeared and I waited... and waited. It took more than 30 minutes for the machine to "check the consistency" of the Leopard DVD, whatever that means. Finally, the disc started loading. The progress bar appeared and said it was "calculating" the remaining load time. It took about 10 full minutes to calculate the loading time and then I was appalled to see that the load time was nearly TWO HOURS!! So I left and came back an hour later... sure enough, still loading. I left again and by the time I came back another hour later, it was finally done.

So now I've got my leopard going and I figured I'd try the internet and see if I can manage the browser interface. I noticed immediately that webpage loading took much longer than I'm used to. checking hotmail and gmail was annoyingly slow. Once you're used to a certain speed, it's very hard to go adjust to slower stuff.

I'm worried and frustrated. I didn't really pay attention to the fact that this machine has 2.4 ghz and my old Toshiba Laptop has 3.3ghz becuase I thought the fact that the Imac has duo core processing would make up for the difference. Apparently I was wrong. So I'm wondering what to do... I don't think I can go back to the days where downloading programs, songs, files, etc takes hours and opening simple applications and Word documents requires me staring at an hourglass or some spinning icon.

Even though my PC is 3 years old (and it was a nearly discontinued floor model when I bought it, so it's even older), and is total piece of junk in terms of reliability (i'm on my 5th motherboard), so far it's light years faster than this Imac. I'm sort of stunned because everything about this imac seems so state of the art.

Did I get a lemon or does being a mac user just mean tolerating slow processing speeds?

Apologies for the long first post. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Best,

Bloozmain

12-02-2007, 03:46 AM

Most of what you said sounds like there is something wrong.

I am curious of one thing at this point, how is the iMac connected to your DSL? Hardwired to the router or by WiFi?

I am trying to figure out why your internet speed is so slow.

I am on an Older iMac G5 and every video on Apples site plays fine, even the large one's and I am on 3Meg DSL. Your machine should be a lot better. Even my Intel Mini is much faster than this G5 iMac.

12-02-2007, 03:54 AM

thanks for the reply. I've got the DSL jacked right in the back.... haven't messed with the wifi yet.

12-02-2007, 05:11 AM

Then that makes no sense. I just clicked the 379 Meg Video and it was less than 30 Minutes here with the same KB/Sec I get on any system in the house, whether it be PC or Mac. It's the limit of my DSL here 6 miles from the Central Office.

If you plug a PC into that same Cat-5 cable and go for the same download, what happens? Do you still have your PC? Your Mac should download just as fast as a PC on the same Site/Connection.

Is the DSL straight from the DSL Modem or from a router?

12-02-2007, 07:51 AM

That "check DVD for consistency" thing did take a while but that was a one time thing. All your other issues seem to be Internet connection issues.

Let me ask you this. Do you use a router or just the modem? If just the modem, try reseting it.

12-02-2007, 09:59 AM

i think its connection issues rather than issues with the mac itself.

12-02-2007, 10:32 AM

Are all of the slow things internet related? If so, then that's obviously your answer.

I hate seeing people with these issues having ordered but not received a nice new imac. :-) On Tuesday, I'll let you know how things go! :p

12-02-2007, 02:48 PM

I would check your DSL connection. Find a website that will test your broadband speed.
As for the disc taking 30 minutes to inspect, that is normal. It takes that long for it to verify my disc. It's quicker to flip over the disc and inspect it your self for scratches and smudges, that's all your computer is doing. It it's clean, the Leopard disc will work perfectly.
It takes Toast, a popular DVD/CD burning application about 30 minutes to verify a disc once the burn is complete. I don't ever let it verify; I've never had a disc go bad.
Leopard taking 2 hrs to install is a little outragous. It only took 15 mins on my computer. It took less than an hour on my cousins 1.25GHz eMac. Do you have any other problems if you try watching a movie or listening to a CD?

12-02-2007, 02:54 PM

That is another good idea. Open Safari and go to http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest and see how fast your connection on your Mac is going. If you have a PC there try it on that plugged into the same Cat-5 Cable your Mac is plugged into.

12-02-2007, 03:06 PM

I smell a rotten egg. Dude. Get your iMac checked or something. I've installed Leopard on much slower machines really really fast. Mac OS X is anything but slow. Honestly speaking (iMac Core Duo 2Ghz here)

12-03-2007, 07:47 AM

The pain of transitioning from 2 decades of PC to this Mac interface is one thing. It's hard and I have no idea why this mouse behaves the way it does and why windows keep jumping around and going gray or in and out of focus, etc... But I'm sure I will eventually tame the interface and probably come to prefer it. But that's not why I'm coming to you.

Think of the OS like a big desk with all your windows laid out on it. You pull the window you want to use in front of you. Try looking at the settings in system preferences > Expose & Spaces. I've set it so my right mouse button takes me to the desktop, the side buttons show the windows in my application and the middle button shows all Windows.

It'll become easier with time.

Remember that this isn't Windows and there are fair few different ways of doing things. Windows is more like a flip pad and you just have one thing in front of you at any one time. OS X has always had designers in mind, who need to look at loads of things at once and flick constantly between 3 or 4 open applications.

About your internet problem - let us know the brand of router you're using. You might need to update the firmware on it. And what internet settings are you using for everything in system prefs?

12-03-2007, 07:52 AM

I have an iMac 2.3 at home and an iMac 2.4 at work. They are both at least as fast muscle-wise, and much faster getting-things-done-wise, than the 'faster' PCs I've been using.
How much ram do you have?