Mac mini performance issues

Commonly in Microsoft Word and sometimes in Safari, when I am typing it will just hang and not show the letters I typed on the screen, then after a second it will catch up. I use G4 iMac 1.25ghz at school and don't have this problem. Do you think it would be an issue with the low-rpm laptop hard drive? I have noticed it uses VM a lot. I watched the CPU usage, it never climbs that high. Are there any tweaks I need to be aware of?

If your virtual memory usage is high, I would suggest upgrading your system's RAM. You'll find a noticeable improvement in performance and overall "speediness" of the machine by upgrading to 512 MB.

I need to change my Mac Specs, I have 512mb now.

mynameis said:

Commonly in Microsoft Word and sometimes in Safari, when I am typing it will just hang and not show the letters I typed on the screen, then after a second it will catch up. I use G4 iMac 1.25ghz at school and don't have this problem. Do you think it would be an issue with the low-rpm laptop hard drive? I have noticed it uses VM a lot. I watched the CPU usage, it never climbs that high. Are there any tweaks I need to be aware of?

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Really should not have anything to do with ram and vm at all when your typing. A slow hard drive also wouldn't cause any pauses because you are not actually writing to the drive as you type. With 512 of ram the mini doesn't have to hit the swap hardly at all....unless you are running a bunch of different things at the same time, then it possibly is hitting the swap.

Does it have the lag when you type in the text editor? or is it just Word? and what else are you running at the same time? If it is actually hitting the vm a lot, then you have another problem as 512 should be enough. Did your mini come with 512 or did you add it? Could be possible there is something wrong with the ram and you really aren't getting 512.

James said:

Does it have the lag when you type in the text editor? or is it just Word? and what else are you running at the same time? If it is actually hitting the vm a lot, then you have another problem as 512 should be enough. Did your mini come with 512 or did you add it? Could be possible there is something wrong with the ram and you really aren't getting 512.

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Safari, Word, and iChat, the 512mb is aftermarket, but it registers as 512mb. I am not running alot at the same time, I usually have about 100mb ram free. I can hear the HD accessing alot even when I am not actually doing anything to write to it.

mynameis said:

Safari, Word, and iChat, the 512mb is aftermarket, but it registers as 512mb. I am not running alot at the same time, I usually have about 100mb ram free. I can hear the HD accessing alot even when I am not actually doing anything to write to it.

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what's the brand of the 512MB?

gdestiny said:

what's the brand of the 512MB?

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Samsung with Xerox chips.

I think I need a Dual G5...

I will not install Microsoft office anywhere near my Mini but tried MacWrite and Open Office. No jerks at all typing 60 WPM.

dtravis7 said:

I will not install Microsoft office anywhere near my Mini but tried MacWrite and Open Office. No jerks at all typing 60 WPM.

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Its not just word though, I am really starting to think it is a hard drive issue, I can hear the HD kick in everytime it happens.

mynameis said:

Its not just word though, I am really starting to think it is a hard drive issue, I can hear the HD kick in everytime it happens.

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Ok, One thing I have noticed is that by default Apple has it set to put the HDD to sleep very fast. When it wakes up there is a quick lag. Try the power properties and make sure that put the hard drive to sleep whenever possible is unchecked and see if that helps. I noticed it on my PowerMac G4 Sawtooth also.

dtravis7 said:

Ok, One thing I have noticed is that by default Apple has it set to put the HDD to sleep very fast. When it wakes up there is a quick lag. Try the power properties and make sure that put the hard drive to sleep whenever possible is unchecked and see if that helps. I noticed it on my PowerMac G4 Sawtooth also.

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I already turned that off, I am just going to not worry about it, it works well enough most of the time.

The emacs at my uni also have msword lag problems just like described above...

1ghz ...512 + 128mb of ram on them...

Word is laggy and very annoying

I get the typing lag in iChat also, it is pretty much anything with spellcheck. It doesn't bother me anymore though, I just keep tying and it catches up.

i have noticed the same problem with my mini when i am using either apple works or neo office. i can hear the hard drive kick up every time i get some lag in typing. its a little annoying, but i just try to ignore it...doesnt happen too often. neye:

a low rpm hd may be the reason, since i exchanged my powermac's hd with a 7200 rpm hd i had a noticable increase in performance overall