Pentium III 1Ghz 512 MB RAM beats new Mac G5 2.7 dual CPU 512 MB RAM

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Joe Feldman

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I noticed that when I clicked (just click, not double click) on a 24 GB Avi file that my Mac G5 takes FOREVER to load it in the finder. When I double click to play it back it stutters and the audio breaks up.

I also have a 1 GHZ Pentium III in which explorer immediately plays the file and plays it back flawlessly.

What gives? The Pentium III was purchased around 6 years ago and has the same amount of RAM that the Dual 2.7 Ghz CPU G5 has!!!

I've had finder crash on me several times too. This is depressing, I finally listened to all of you Mac heads and spent 3 times more than I would on a PC only to experience this!!

:(

Please tell me there is a way out of this. Can I return it within a certain timeframe for any refund??

-Joe
 
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M

menace3054

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its definately the 512mb ram thats killing you, thats nowhere near enough ram for a machine like that, put atleast 2gb in and youll see the results your looking for. tiger and most apple programs are more memory hungry than you might be used to, a little extra ram goes a lot way when it comes to apple. also, .avi's aren't that extremely compatabile with mac, try a .mpeg and it should be a lot faster
 
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Under what circumstances is Finder crashing? I've had my Powerbook for about 9 months now and Finder has crashed precisely once, even though the system gets heavy daily use.
 
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Yeah, try some more RAM. Macs are more RAM intensive, but they respond EXTREMELY well to upgrades. 512 MB is never enough, you need at least 1 gig.

Give her a chance!
 
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I don't know what it is, but I'm pretty sure you've got a problem here. I only have really old mac equipment and they all play avi files just fine. If you provide some more specific info on what app your trying to use, the size of the file, etc. probably the good folks here can help you out.
 
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I think its crap and he is trolling. what are you using to play it? Nothing will play it right off if its a divx or something.
 
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Acill said:
I think its crap and he is trolling.

I agree...unless his mac has a serious problem, there's no way it wouldn't play the file smoothly. And 512MB is plenty for that...It's just for playback, not editing.

And a 24GB AVI file (must be uncompressed, looking the size) will never ever load fast on a 1GHz PIII...actually, not even on the fastest PIV or Athlon or dual Xeon, as loading it is just a matter of disk speed, and has nothing to do with the CPU. That is a very huge file...
 

dtravis7


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Either he is trolling or that file has some codec connected with it that Stock OSX does not like.

If this is for real and not a post to bash Macs and the people here on this Forum, What player are you using to play back that AVI? I have an over 20GB movie here in AVI before it got converted to for burning with IDVD, and it played fine on my old G4 500Mhz Sawtooth! It was a 2 hour movie I had converted on my Intel box from a Video Tape that I wanted on DVD for safe keeping. The AVI played just fine. There is either something very wrong or this is a troll. I hate to accuse people but there is so much of it going around these days.

If this is a for real post, please tell us more and what player you are using.
 
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Please don't feed the trolls, guys :black:
 
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D

dlisle20

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KEEP FEEDING, this is amusing seeing how much you guys care, its just a bloody computer
 
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dlisle20 said:
KEEP FEEDING, this is amusing seeing how much you guys care, its just a bloody computer

you must care too, racking up 80 posts in less than four months.......
 
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I wish i had that Pentium III... my old Pentium III got stucked everytime i tried to play AVIs from CD...
 
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zap2

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512?? come on with a pm like that u should at least have a 1gb. My iMac has 1gb and its fine. Get more RAM.
 
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J

Joe Feldman

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Reboot fixes problem

This was not a fake post as some have thought.

I was seriously worried that I had a lemon of G5.

I was having trouble even opening a 85 MB .mov file and yes finder was crashing.

I spoke with a manager at the Apple store where I purchased the G5 and he told me to bring my Mac in to see if it had the same problems at the store. Then I thought to myself before I go shlepping this monster of a computer to the Apple store, "I'd better reboot this thing just in case...."

Like magic, everything was back to normal; files opened quickly finder wasn't crashing anymore.

I feel more at home now too, with my Windows PC I'd often reboot to fix problems, but I wasn't expecting this from my Mac. Funny thing, I was seriously loving this Mac before this happened.

I also should know better, I should not buy a bleeding edge computer with a bleeding edge OS and think everything is going to be perfect!!!

I'm sure I was experiencing some Tiger OS bug that hasn't been reported yet.

My apologies for sounding like this G5 was a hunk of junk, but I was seriously scared that I just plopped down over $3000 for something that didn't work. I'm now loving my Mac again.

Thanks for all of your replies,

(including the mean ones too!)

:)
 

dtravis7


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Sorry If I came off doubting in any way, but we get so many here that come just to attack Macs to see what we will do. Glad you got it figured out, but do not know what happened that caused your problem in the first place. Something must of glitched somewhere. So far with Tiger I have not had problems like you experienced. If it happens again let us know. I am curious just what happened. It might never happen again. who knows! If anyone here can help in any way in the future, let us know.
 
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zap2

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i have to say i thought it was fake just becasue there are those people who do do that type oof thing
 
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Joe Feldman said:
This was not a fake post as some have thought.

I was seriously worried that I had a lemon of G5.

I was having trouble even opening a 85 MB .mov file and yes finder was crashing.

I spoke with a manager at the Apple store where I purchased the G5 and he told me to bring my Mac in to see if it had the same problems at the store. Then I thought to myself before I go shlepping this monster of a computer to the Apple store, "I'd better reboot this thing just in case...."

Like magic, everything was back to normal; files opened quickly finder wasn't crashing anymore.

I feel more at home now too, with my Windows PC I'd often reboot to fix problems, but I wasn't expecting this from my Mac. Funny thing, I was seriously loving this Mac before this happened.

I also should know better, I should not buy a bleeding edge computer with a bleeding edge OS and think everything is going to be perfect!!!

I'm sure I was experiencing some Tiger OS bug that hasn't been reported yet.

My apologies for sounding like this G5 was a hunk of junk, but I was seriously scared that I just plopped down over $3000 for something that didn't work. I'm now loving my Mac again.

Thanks for all of your replies,

(including the mean ones too!)

:)

Sorry for suspecting you being a troll...and glad your Mac works fine again :cool:
Just a little hint: Even a Mac is only a computer, and no, OS X is not perfect, and has bugs just like every other system has...
Therefore, some of the old Windows fix tricks (like rebooting) can have a "healing" effect. Actually, even with Linux it happens sometimes that rebooting fixes some weird issues.

It doesn't matter if a computer costs $500,- or $5000,- it's always just a computer, and works as such, including flaws, bugs and other annoying stuff. If the Mac and OS X were perfect, there would be no need for this forum, as there wouldn't be any questions... :)
 
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J

Joe Feldman

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Thanks

I appreciate all the replies, it's nice to see that you guys are passionate about your Macs.

My first computer was an Apple IIe and I remember it fondly!

I know in time I will be a Mac fan once again.
 
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S

spong

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Joe Feldman said:
This was not a fake post as some have thought.

I was seriously worried that I had a lemon of G5.

I was having trouble even opening a 85 MB .mov file and yes finder was crashing.

I spoke with a manager at the Apple store where I purchased the G5 and he told me to bring my Mac in to see if it had the same problems at the store. Then I thought to myself before I go shlepping this monster of a computer to the Apple store, "I'd better reboot this thing just in case...."

Like magic, everything was back to normal; files opened quickly finder wasn't crashing anymore.

I feel more at home now too, with my Windows PC I'd often reboot to fix problems, but I wasn't expecting this from my Mac. Funny thing, I was seriously loving this Mac before this happened.

I also should know better, I should not buy a bleeding edge computer with a bleeding edge OS and think everything is going to be perfect!!!

I'm sure I was experiencing some Tiger OS bug that hasn't been reported yet.

My apologies for sounding like this G5 was a hunk of junk, but I was seriously scared that I just plopped down over $3000 for something that didn't work. I'm now loving my Mac again.

Thanks for all of your replies,

(including the mean ones too!)

:)

FWIW, I'd still say you're a bit short of RAM.

That's a beast of a computer you've got, it would be well worth the $100 or so to pop some more RAM in.

Both my Macs were pretty crappy with the standard config (128 on a G3 500, and 256 on a G5 1.8). Upgrading the G3 to 384, and the G5 to 1.25 made a big difference to both - particularly stability.
 

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