HELP HELP HELP!!!!! My powerbook is dying and I don't know why

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Hello I'm looking for some Powerbook experts....

I've had my lovely G4 OSX Powerbook since 2004 and has always run without any problems. (i'm not sure what OS it is... it made me select one so I just went with the first one)

Up until about April we used one internet provider and then changed to sky broadband, which I connect to using a cable.

(Please excuse my lack of technical speak, by the way... I'm not very clued up on that side of things...)

Since the changeover my computer has been running a LOT slower than it ever did before, and it has now reached the point where it takes over 10 mins to start up, does the multicoloured spinny thing EVERYTIME I CLICK ON ANYTHING, and also it will not shutdown on it's own... the only way to switch it off is to hold down the start button till it switches off. It takes over five minutes to load up any programmes (if they choose to start at all) and makes a clicky noise from the base of the computer all the while. i am at my wit's end with it, cause I can't think of anything else that would cause it to start running slowly.

I don't download anything, I don't leave it on for long periods of time, visit any strange sites... All i literally use it for is checking my e-mail, bluetoothing photos from my phone, burning music cds, editing pictures in photoshop etc etc... not very much at all!

If you have ANY advice I would be grateful.. For the past three moths I've barely used it because it frustrates me so much, and have now put pretty much everything onto an external harddrive for fears of it falling apart completely. (by doing this, I have created loads of free space on the harddrive - i have over 25GB of space so I'm sure that cannot be an issue for it's slow running...) Oh and I've pulled the internet plug out for fears this was also causing more harm than good, but it's made not a blind bit of difference.

Thanks for listening, sorry for the ramble. hope you can help!

Katie
 
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Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini Core i7 2012 | White 2009 MacBook 2 Ghz | 733 Mhz G4 Quicksilver
firstly download Main Menu and run its various clean-up, permissions repair features

Santa Software | MainMenu

Secondly go to the  menu and selct About this mac and tell us wich version of OS X you have
 
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Hey,

First of all, Don't worry. This issue can be fixed. Try the steps that I suggest you.
DISK UTILITY

• Insert the Mac OS X Install disc that came with your computer, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
• When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
• Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.
• Click the First Aid tab.
• Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
• Select your Mac OS X volume(Macintosh HD).
• Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk.

SAFE MODE

• To start up into Safe Mode (to "Safe Boot"), do this:
• Be sure the computer is shut down.
• Press the power button.
• Immediately after you hear the startup tone, press and hold the Shift key.
• Tip: The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone but not before.
• Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple and progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).
• Note: Safe Boot Takes Longer Than Normal Startup
• From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences.
• Choose Accounts then click Login Items.
• Select all the login items and click Remove (Click the Minus(-)Sign to remove).
• From the Apple menu, choose Restart.

These steps should resolve the issue.

Good Luck :)

Have a good one.
 

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