11-27-2005, 01:25 PM

hi

i have had my powerbook for over 13 months now and recently its bn slowing down . i have alot of software on it such as quarkxpress6.5 adobe creative suitecs2 macromedia mx package and microsoft office 2004. when i first got it i gave it a memory upgrade of 512mb boosting it to 768mb but now it seems to be slow when i run 4 or more programmes . i ve tried to clear my hd of all my work by backin them up on dvds but even with 25gb hd space it seems slow.

i was wondering if gettin the 1 gb memory upgrade is worth it as i m looking at doin that.

11-27-2005, 01:42 PM

I think the thing to ask is have you had this software since you got it and has it always been 'slow'?

If not - then something maybe a amiss.

The memory upgrade would of course help so there is no denying that.

Is there anything you installed recently, and since then it has got slower?

And also consider running Activity Monitor (/Applications/Utilties) and selecting CPU and sorting descending the list to see what is taking the most CPU cycles. That may give you a hint. Also make sure in Power settings that the system is set to Better Performance.

But for sure the memory upgrade would help, but it's be nice to also know what has caused the slowdown as such.

I have the same model PBook as you but the 1.5GHz model with 768MB, Tiger - and it runs absolutely fine and use similar apps so I can vouch that such slowness shouldn't occur as such.

Vicky

11-27-2005, 02:12 PM

This'll speed you back up. Install by dragging into your utilities folder or app folder. Run it then restart. You should notice a big difference.
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/10491

11-27-2005, 05:28 PM

You could just have a bunch of crap on your drive that you dont' know about (temporary files, etc.) plus unrepaired disk permissions, which can slow you down a lot. MacJanitor, which the last poster recommended, should take care of most of that. I use AppleJack and PseudoAnacron instead, which I find is a better solution--AppleJack does a better job ferreting out serious problems with the hard drive, and PseudoAnacron checks your system to make sure it runs its daily, weekly, and monthly scripts (very important if you leave your Powerbook in sleep a lot and rarely turn it off.)

I'm on a 1Ghz PB with 768MB of RAM and I keep a million programs open with no speed decrease, so I'm guessing that you don't have a RAM problem. Unless your RAM just isn't being recognized--you can find that out by going to "About this Mac." It's vaguely possible that your RAM has gone bad or needs to be reseated.

11-27-2005, 05:38 PM

when i first got my mac i set it up to best performance as for software the only software i have installed is the updates apple send

11-27-2005, 05:49 PM

nah it reads the memory i checked that when i first installed it which was a bout 13 months ago and i always use the repair disk function. my mac really takes a while to do big jobs like in illustrator when rendering layers to 3d it takes like 5 mins and in the past it would only take a mere few secs.

11-27-2005, 05:53 PM

Like I say, check what Activity Monitor says as regards to the highest consumer of CPU cycles, may show up something tou are not aware of.

Vicky