Free Ram?

anotsostealth · Aug 12, 2008

Ok so I've already posted this in the switchers section and still need more help.

Hey guys. So i decided to pull an "all nighter" and really get to know my Mac.

I bought my FIRST black MackBook back in the summer of 06. I had been using PC's my whole life and well, you know the drill. Im some-what computer savy but I know theirs a big part im missing.

My stats:
2GHz Intel Core Duo
512MB
OS X 10.4.11
When i open the finder it says 17 items 32.44 GB available.

And so here are the problems..
-My computer seems like its always slow compared to friends macs with similar specs. Sometimes its rediculous. Like go do something else for a while and then come back....slow. I dont have any over sized programs. I don't play any games or any of that stuff. I do have got close to 5,000 pictures on iphoto, which may be the only thing out of the norm...but that shouldn't make a difference, because thats memory right? And that and RAM are separate. Ive already shut down most of my dashboard and know to close programs when im not using them. But even with just iphoto open, it takes a solid 4-5 minutes to finally load and you can't do a thing else, but wait. Ive heard of things like "free RAM" but am sketched out about stuff like that. So, what are some ways of making my Mac, well...normal??

Secondly, Im getting the "application not responding" EVERYWHERE. At least once a day with foxfire and it seems like any time i open any other app. Whats the deal? Is there some sort of "cleaner" out there?

And lastly(for now..) i have a good feeling my battery is going bad. Its the same one that came with it and the computer will just completely shut off out of nowhere at random times. Is there a way to actually check the status of my battery. Other than the little icon at the top?

Thanks so much for any help/information you can provide. I really want to learn more about this and I apologize ahead of time for any "noob" events.

Since the post, I've DL'd ClamXav and am running test on certain files. I have also DL"d and installed OnyX and fixed everything i could.

It doesnt seem faster....but its only been a few hours.

Im just wondering if there is any thing I'm missing. Whats next? Any other SAFE ways to bring er back to life? When I toke the computer to the apple store, all the clerk could tell me was that the updates my computer had installed caused it to run so slowy...Um is that correct?

Any info at all would be greatly appreciated!!!!!!!

anotsostealth · Aug 12, 2008

Ok so now im getting this little guy

Went there and was stumped.

I already repaired disk permissions but thats as far as i can go.

What does it mean "my volume needs to be repaired"?

cwa107 · Aug 12, 2008

anotsostealth said:
Ok so now im getting this little guy

Went there and was stumped.

I already repaired disk permissions but thats as far as i can go.

What does it mean "my volume needs to be repaired"?

You need to click Verify disk (to the right side of the window you gave us a screen shot of), when finished, click repair disk, just underneath that.

I think the majority of your issues are related to inadequate memory. OS X 10.4 (Tiger) likes at least 1GB to run comfortably.

anotsostealth · Aug 12, 2008

Ok so now im getting this..

What does that mean????

side note....are the screen shots helpful or annoying?

cwa107 · Aug 12, 2008

anotsostealth said:
What does that mean????

side note....are the screen shots helpful or annoying?

Helpful, definitely. Sounds like you may have a gradually failing hard drive. If you don't already have a good backup, now would be the time!

My next step would be to run a filesystem check. This can be done by taking the following steps:

DB's Basic OS X Troubleshooting said:
File System Check - When booting up your computer hold down the Apple Key & the S key and it will boot into single user mode. When the text is done loading on the screen type in /sbin/fsck -f and hit enter.
When that is done if it fixed things then do the check again to make sure it is cleared
When finished with that type in exit and it will start the computer in normal mode

Note: Excerpted from the Basic OS X Troubleshooting guide.

anotsostealth · Aug 12, 2008

ok so i think i got the green light

Now...if you have a spare second, would someone explain why?? Even though it was repaired, I assume I'm still in danger of a crash. Right? But why? I know thats a big question and im sure the answer will be "those things just go bad...". But I thought I'd give it a shot anyways.

cwa107 · Aug 12, 2008

anotsostealth said:
ok so i think i got the green light

Now...if you have a spare second, would someone explain why?? Even though it was repaired, I assume I'm still in danger of a crash. Right? But why? I know thats a big question and im sure the answer will be "those things just go bad...". But I thought I'd give it a shot anyways.

Hard drives are the most common point of failure in computers these days. Unlike other components, hard drives are mechanical devices. And just like the engine in a car will only keep running for so long before it fails, so too will your hard drive.

Now, laptop drives are doubly-cursed because now you're subjecting it to a variety of thermal conditions and exerting forces upon it that are not typical of a standard desktop PC.

This is why it's important to have a backup drive, particularly so with a laptop. Truly, there are only 2 types of people in this world - those who have lost data and those who will.

Glad to hear that you're back up and running, but now it's time to go shopping. Your first purchase should be an external hard drive that is equal to or larger than the hard drive in your machine. Once you get that, you'll want a program like SuperDuper! to do regular backups of your Mac's hard drive out onto the external.

I would also strongly recommend a memory upgrade to 1GB. My preferred vendor is Crucial.com. If you use their memory selector, it will walk you through the process of choosing the right memory type.

anotsostealth · Aug 12, 2008

Ahh thanks a lot cwa107.

Ok well my b-day is just 12 days away and i now know what to put on it!

But twos things first.

What kind of external hard drive would you recommend? Ill worry about the size.

and what about RAM?

cwa107 · Aug 12, 2008

anotsostealth said:
Ahh thanks a lot cwa107.

Ok well my b-day is just 12 days away and i now know what to put on it!

But twos things first.

What kind of external hard drive would you recommend? Ill worry about the size.

I like Seagate drives. Some may argue a more "Mac friendly" brand, but Seagate drives always carry a 5 year warranty - and that's the most important thing with a hard drive. Speed is not a huge consideration with external hard drives because the bus is a limiting factor.

and what about RAM?

Go out to http://www.Crucial.com - use this to determine what kind of memory you need and get a price: