07-05-2006, 08:10 PM

I've noticed recently that my G4 17'' 1.67 PB, bought back in March last year has been running mortally slow. For example, it took 21 bounces to open up Google Earth, 8 bounces for pages and the general opening of applications. Where as before, all used to open within 5 bounces.

I've tried repair permissions and an Onyx clean out, but no avail. I still have 87 GB left and running 1 GB of RAM.

Any suggestions as it is becoming rather annoying?

Many thanks

07-05-2006, 09:34 PM

try running disk repair.. put in the osx start up disk, hold down c and then go to utilities disk repair (or something along those lines) there might be an error on the physical disk

i use Micromat techtool 4 Pro (www.micromat.com) it does defragmentation and system optimization, ive noticed that when my system slows down, that helps

07-06-2006, 04:23 PM

Originally Posted by menace3054

try running disk repair.. put in the osx start up disk, hold down c and then go to utilities disk repair (or something along those lines) there might be an error on the physical disk

i use Micromat techtool 4 Pro (www.micromat.com) it does defragmentation and system optimization, ive noticed that when my system slows down, that helps

Thanks, I did a disk repair via the OSX start up disk and a few permissions were repaired, associated with the Library files apparently.

It's a bit faster, not as much as I hoped. Unfortunately, I am not in the position to pay $98 for Mircomat, but is there a free trial I could download? Or can you recommend any free?

BTW, if you have google earth downloaded, how many bounces does it take yours before it opens?

07-06-2006, 04:37 PM

just downloaded google earth, it loaded in 9 bounces. i have 2 GB of ram and a 1.67 GHZ g4.


also, you should go to activity monitor under utilities and see how much ram and cpu is in use, there may be a program hogging it. also, how many widgets do you keep open?

07-06-2006, 04:40 PM

14 bounces here, faster machine & different architecture though...

I'd try doing an archive & install if you're feeling brave. You'll probably loose some settings, but all your data & apps should still be there.

That way you'll have a "fresh" system again.

If you have a backup drive, clone your system's drive first, then do an archive and install and see if it runs better.

07-06-2006, 06:45 PM

Originally Posted by menace3054

just downloaded google earth, it loaded in 9 bounces. i have 2 GB of ram and a 1.67 GHZ g4.

That's surprisingly fast compared to mine. That's with the latest Google Earth right? Mine now loads within 14 bounces, and that's with all apps closed. I can remember, about 6 months ago when I first downloaded Google Earth, it used to load within 10 bounces. But now, it's 100% slower. What's really going on?

Originally Posted by menace3054

also, you should go to activity monitor under utilities and see how much ram and cpu is in use, there may be a program hogging it. also, how many widgets do you keep open?

I had 14 widgets open. As part of the experiment, I close most them, with just three basic widgets open. And I've also disabled the animated dock.

Then restarted the machine. Result? Earth Loaded in 24 bounces.

07-06-2006, 06:48 PM

Originally Posted by Aptmunich

14 bounces here, faster machine & different architecture though...

I'd try doing an archive & install if you're feeling brave. You'll probably loose some settings, but all your data & apps should still be there.

That way you'll have a "fresh" system again.

If you have a backup drive, clone your system's drive first, then do an archive and install and see if it runs better.

By cowardice prevents me from doing an archive & install. I can't see how it would improve the CPU. Nor do I have a back-up drive either.

Actually, I have changed a lot of my icons around my computer and replaced it with a couple of fantasy ones, could that slow down the CPU?

07-06-2006, 07:16 PM

did you check activity monitor? see how much ram you have free, when i first got os 10.4 i would have like 20 widgets running and wouldnt close them when i was done, that really eats performance. doing an archive and install is pretty safe, it backs up your files for you, and only re-installs the system software.

07-06-2006, 07:16 PM

I have a 15 inch PowerBook G4 1.67 GHz and it loaded in 9-11 bounces. I have 1.5 Gigs of RAM.

I got my laptop in August 05 and I can honestly say I have not noticed any slow down.

07-06-2006, 07:20 PM

when i used to own a winblows computer back in the day, id do a reformat every year or so to clean things out. if all of these things are failing, id almost recommend that for you. do you have a superdrive? if you do, you can easily back up your important files onto a dvd before you format..

07-06-2006, 07:26 PM

Just checked Activity monitor. Here's a picture below:



If I decide to re-format, do I still keep my modified icons, pictures and all important files? Yes, I have superdrive and might back-up the most important files.

07-06-2006, 07:28 PM

what did it say for system memory?

heres what mine looks like

07-06-2006, 07:30 PM

Originally Posted by menace3054

what did it say for system memory?

Wired: 95.01 MB
Active: 129.99 MB
Inactive 183.86 MB
Used: 407.45 MB
Free: 616.62
VM size: 4.08 GB

Yours looks more consistently used and still, performs much faster.

07-06-2006, 07:32 PM

yea so if you have 616mb free it shoudlnt be slow, the reformat should fix things up for you

07-06-2006, 07:35 PM

Originally Posted by menace3054

yea so if you have 616mb free it shoudlnt be slow, the reformat should fix things up for you

Right. Just to make things clear before I commit myself. Do I retain all my photos, documents, emails, modified icons, all relevant software updates and iTunes album?

Just to say, what else do I lose from reformat?