strange, erratic behavior...

hi everyone !
my computing knowledge is VERY basic & i only get anywhere through stubbornness, endless nagging of others in forums & googling stuff up…
my ''set-up'' : 2 year old alu Intel iMac - 2.66Ghz C2Duo, 4GB of RAM, Snow Leopard/all updates, it's on 24/7 & i didn't have my ADSL modem's firewall on but have corrected this recently…ooops !
on the 1st USB port of the iMac, through a self powered Logitech USB hub, are two 1TB + two 2TB W.Digital My Book USB drives : 1TB for Time Machine + 1TB video + 2TB iTunes + 2TB iTunes back up…
on the 2nd USB port i have an HP all in one C6180 printer
on the 3rd USB port & another powered Logitech hub : my iPhone 3GS + a Cambridge Audio DacMagic
EVERYTHING is plugged to an APC ups unit with enough power & that works flawlessly. finally i have a mini-port to HDMI cable feeding my 42'' plasma
i run a full Onix clean up routine twice a month but, something has crept up even before i got the firewall on :
symptom 1 - i'm in safari, 3, 4, 5 or + pages opened & suddenly everything but the mouse's cursor freezes. sometimes when over the dock to open another app, icons magnified & all….can't ''click back'' to Finder, dialog box for Force Quit doesn't open, nothing ! ½ minute/1 minute later it goes back to normal without me doing anything..
symptom 2 - i click to open Dictionary , it starts going through the motions yet it's window only opens MANY seconds later, AFTER the four USB drives start to spin !?…
symptom 3 - i open Dashboard, it comes up quickly but w/ blank widgets - they display info only MANY seconds later…
symptom 4 - every so often the ''beach ball of death'' comes up, regardless of app & what i'm doing in it, usually after 15 to 25 seconds all goes back to normal !!…
symptom 5 - i open iPhoto, open an event & when scrolling through, i see pics from other events which then change into the correct ones as i scroll
symptom 6 - in any app, when i click command+s to save something, the word ''File'' lights up in blue in the bar above & it takes quite a while for the save dialog box to open…
to add insult to injury, all this happens erratically which despite being apparently minor inconveniences, is driving me nuts !!...
softwares i have & how often i use them:
Firefox, Max, EasyWMA, RadioShift, Xilisoft DVD Copy, LogMeIn ( iPhone + other computers.. ), RealPlayer, RadioShift - little use
PhoneView, RealPlayer Downloader, AppZapper, Vuze, SpeedDownload, Transmission - sometimes
VLC, QuickTime Player 7 ( ex Pro ?.. ), Sutffit Expander , UnRarX, Home Design Studio Pro - regularly
DragThing - always on
then i have Perian, Flip4Mac, PowerChute ( APC ups unit's app… ) & SMC Fan Control - all are ALWAYS updated.
the iMac's drive is a 320GB w/ 255.3GB left in it, i've tried to eject all USB drives & even disconnected them to no avail, i have run Disk Utility on all drives, verified disks, repaired permissions & all that comes up is this from the iMac's own :
''….The volume iMac HD appears to be OK.
Repairing permissions for “iMac HD”
Permissions differ on "usr/share/derby", should be drwxr-xr-x , they are lrwxr-xr-x .
Repaired "usr/share/derby".
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAgent" has been modified and will not be repaired.
Permissions repair complete…''
can anyone tell me what's causing these ''stutterings'' ? point me in a general direction of plausible causes ? sorry for this post's length but i felt the more info i could provide, the easier it would be to assess what's up. any suggestions ? thank you VERY much

Your post is very hard to read. You need to get your Shift and Return keys fixed as soon as possible!!!

When it's formatted better, despite it's length, I'll try to slog through it.

thanks...

i read it again & besides lots of info + it's length, i couldn't really find anything out of the ordinary or wrong w/ it !?...maybe if i write it in my native language i'll manage to format it better ? perhaps but, would you be able to read it ?
thanks for the effort though & please don't inconvenience yourself any further - i'd hate to make you slog through anything, after all even computing is supposed to be fun, foibles & all
cheers
Nuno

It's very difficult to read your post. You have everything gathered together as in one large paragraph. Most folks don't have the time or desire to sort and wade through all of it.

It's best to break everything down in small chunks and only provide enough information that is germane to the problem.

OK.... I suggest you run the Apple Hardware Test on your machine and also a FSCK using Disk Utility. You need to do that when booted from your install DVD, not while the system is running from the hard drive.

I'm not sure what's causing the stuttering or freezing. It could be software related or a hardware problem. Stuttering or freezing can be caused by a bad graphics chipset, or memory. And as I said, software.

Regards.

chscag said:

It's very difficult to read your post.

Click to expand...

Um, yeah, it is.

Sorry if I was obtuse. Use capital letters and spaces between paragraphs. I see you posted this (at least) twice, and got a similar response.

A Wall of Text is something that is frowned upon in most, actually virtually all Internet societies, including forums, chat boards, and Uncyclopedia. You should not make walls of text because it can get you banned anywhere unless it is a place that encourages walls of text. I highly doubt any place does support something so irritating and annoying, but anything can exist, but not really because unless you are in heaven then that can happen. But no one actually knows that was just a hypothesis, a lame one that is. Actually not really lame. You can create a wall of text supporting site, but you would be hated if you do that, so do not. But you can if you like, but I discourage that. Now on to the actual information of walls of texts. The wall of text was invented when the Internet was invented, but actually it was slow at that time. So whenever it became fast. But there would need to be some free or not free community for people, and that community would be able to have walls of text. But that community probably wouldn't have actually invented the wall of text. So basically, no one except God knows when or where or how the wall of text existed/was invented. Noobs probably invented, but probably not. Who knows. Walls of texts are usually filled with a lot of useless information and junk. Information and junk can be the same, but only if the information is junk or the junk is information. But who cares. The information/junk inside a wall of text are usually related to whatever the wall of text is located, but the best walls of text, which are actually the most irritating, most eye-bleeding ones, are completely random. Walls of text usually make the reader asplode or have their eyes bleed and fall out of their sockets. A number of people can stand it, but not read them. Actually some people can stand and read them. Those people do not have short attention spans. These are boring and patient people who have no life or have all the time in their hands, which are the same, but not really. The punishment of what making walls of text varies of the strictness of the community. But it doesn't really matter. Nobody cares. Walls of texts should be free of links, different font colors, strange characters, which are those other symbols used in society, and capital letters because it ruins the whole purpose of the infamy of walls of texts. It makes them look dumb and weird. Walls of texts are obviously free of huge spaces and outstanding things like capital letters. Of course, paragraphs should never be in a wall of text. Walls of text are known to create nausea, confusion, head explosion, and others. The others being something I can not think of either because I am lazy or if I do not feel like it or I can not actually think of anything. Like what the ? That was a rhetorical question right there. What the ? You are actually not requesting a satisfactory answer, you just say that because you try to be funny or you feel like it or if you are off. You must get a proper slapping to stop making walls of text, but if you are weird then that doesn't apply to you. Walls of text are defeated by deleting them or splitting them into paragraphs. Or some other things that would work but will take hours to think of. People are considered a nuisance if they create walls of text. This might be the end. If you hope this is the end, I am not sure. But if I was not sure then I wouldn't be talking. I should know. Or should I? The best way to make a better and good wall of text is to copy and paste what you previously typed or write. Hey, that reminds me. Walls of text aren't always on the internet! They could be anywhere that is able to produce symbols. D'oh. A wall of text is something that is frowned upon in most, actually virtually all Internet societies, including forums, chat boards, and Uncyclopedia. You should not make walls of text because it can get you banned anywhere unless it is a place that encourages walls of text. I highly doubt any place does support something so irritating and annoying, but anything can exist, but not really because unless you are in heaven then that can happen. But no one actually knows that was just a hypothesis, a lame one that is. Actually not really lame. You can created a wall of text supporting site, but you would be hated if you do that, so do not. But you can if you like, but I discourage that. Now on to the actual information of walls of texts. The wall of text was invented when the Internet was invented, but actually it was slow at that time. So whenever it became fast. But there would need to be some free or not free community for people, and that community would be able to have walls of text. But that community probably wouldn't have actually invented the wall of text. So basically, no one except God knows when or where or how the wall of text existed/was invented. Noobs probably invented, but probably not. Who knows. Walls of texts are usually filled with a lot of useless information and junk. Information and junk can be the same, but only if the information is junk or the junk is information. But who cares. The information/junk inside a wall of text are usually related to whatever the wall of text is located, but the best walls of text, which are actually the most irritating, most eye-bleeding ones, are completely random. Walls of text usually make the reader asplode or have their eyes bleed and fall out of their sockets. A number of people can stand it, but not read them. Actually some people can stand and read them. Those people do not have short attention spans. These are boring and patient people who have no life or have all the time in their hands, which are the same, but not really. The punishment of what making walls of text varies of the strictness of the community. But it doesn't really matter. Nobody cares. Walls of texts should be free of links, different font colors, strange characters, which are those other symbols used in society, and capital letters because it ruins the whole purpose of the infamy of walls of texts. It makes them look dumb and weird and dumb. Walls of texts are obviously free of huge spaces and outstanding things like capital letters. Of course, paragraphs should never be in a wall of text. Walls of text are known to create nausea, confusion, head explosion, and others. The others being something I can not think of either because I am lazy or if I do not feel like it or I can not actually think of anything. Like what the ? That was a rhetorical question right there. What the ? You are actually not requesting a satisfactory answer, you just say that because you try to be funny or you feel like it or if you are mad. Now I just copied and pasted part of this huge wall of text, which is actually not. Wait what? Nice right? Ba boom a rhetorical question right there. Is this the end for the sanity of your eyes? What the did you actually read up to here? Or did you skip to near the end and read this? Either way, you fail in life. Just kidding. Or was I? Oh well. Congratualtions, or not, actually not. Get a life right now. I found a cheap life on eBay, but cheap lives are rare. Well, good luck in finding one. Not! Okay go kill yourself, but I wasn't meaning that. So go sit in the corner in your house. I do not care which, just stay there and rot. If you are not in a place with a corner, then lucky you. Find one if you can. There is no other option because I said so. Now if you pity yourself for reading this like most do, then do something productive and useful to the environment. My goodness.So SAD SO SADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!Walls of text often go on for how ever long a person is willing to read. Just about now, you should be getting fed up, or you have a "thing" and can't keep reading. go on, I understand. She's blond, isn't she. Thought so. Just, just, just leave, OK? make it easier on the both of us. Some people refer to Walls of Text as text walls but that's a grammatically incorrect and has no actually to real walls. Typically a text wall will be well over 400 words but it need not be significantly so. Anything shorter than 200 words cannot be called a text wall since it's not longer than the average person can read without having to blink, though most people will have blinked at least once prior to this.

Copied from here: http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Wall_of_Text

Note: Merged Duplicate Threads

Just an FYI: That's known as Crossposting.

And in case you don't know, no one here makes a dime. They do it because they like to. When you make even reading through the post a chore, it becomes more like a job... one for which you're not getting paid.

You might try breaking this all down into digestible chunks and try tackling things one or two at a time.

What Bob said . . .

Actually, I started reading your reply and said, "What in the heck is he doing/smoking?"
But, after wading through about 10 lines I realized this was probably the best demonstration of why not to do this I have ever seen.

Good post!

properly ?...

Hi Guys

SO sorry i struck a nerve there, I didn't mean to !

Hope all those answers didn't take too much of your time. Next time i post, i promise i won't be so naive to think the more info one has about something, the better one is prepared to deal with it, but being a newb, how can i tell what info is relevant to the issue at hand & what's not & can be left out ?...humm... food for thought !

Bobtomay : sorry for double posting ! i was only trying to reach as many people as possible not realizing everyone reads everything that gets posted, my mistake !!

Meanwhile you'll be happy to know that from the other 7 Mac Forums where i posted this exact same text, many helpful suggestions came - one which i actually believe solved the problems i was experiencing !! If so, i'll make sure to keep you posted....

Thank you so much for your help

Regards


Nuno

nuno1959 said:

Hi Guys
.... from the other 7 Mac Forums where i posted this exact same text, many helpful suggestions came - one which i actually believe solved the problems i was experiencing !! If so, i'll make sure to keep you posted....

Click to expand...

I saw it on MacRumors also. I note that, at this hour, about 12 hours after it was posted, there are zero replies.

But, glad to hear you found a solution. Curious whether you are just waiting to confirm it works before "keeping (us) posted".

No nerve struck. You can take the advice on forum posting etiquette or not. It's totally up to you.

But, I do see you got the one response at apple's forums telling you the same thing we have.

Or the great response you got at the Cnet forum.

Not even a single response to the question at Mac Rumors.

Or maybe your last post at iLounge where they just said you should call Apple.

You haven't posted it at macosxhints, although you're a member there also.

You're a member at a lot of forums... 2 posts here, 5 posts there... You have been around enough to have picked up some forum etiquette.

Bottom line, you've gotten one response that was of no help from the other three forums you've posted this question. At least here, you've had some willing to provide you with some info about posting. Take it or leave it. It really is up to you.

You'll not make anyone here feel guilty.