Beach Head

Joined
Feb 24, 2006
Messages
73
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Your Mac's Specs
G4 + Mac Pro 8-core 6Gb
Leopard was spending far too much time on beachballs on my 2008 Mac Pro 2.8GHz 8-core, 6BGb, with 100Gb free on the boot disk. Things are a lot worse since being Snowed-up. Booting used to be < 1 min, and ready for use.

Now on 10.6.7, arriving at the lovely blue screen gets the beachball spinning before the before menubar appears. Long wait to be used. Always 100Gb free.

1. iTunes - in days of G3, I've never known a machine that can't play a tune. I get more than 50% pausing, like a scratched CD. That is frustrating. I use it constantly

2. Finder does tend to spend a good time on 50-99%. Dock (WindowServer) gets stuck frozen (maginfied 100% at full size). From 2 seconds to several minutes to respond.

3. Safari seems better since resetting. I wish the Top Sites preview fetcher could be disabled. How about the option, Apple? Flash can be disabled by disabling plug-ins. I spend too long switching this on/off per site.

The boot disk makes a lot of grinding noise, now that iTunes is silent. I'm sure it was the same noise when iTunes was always working, when I never heard it. Verifying the disk comes up trumps all green. Repairing permissions is regular for me, with no benefit.

I ain't reinstalling the OS. I want to address in within first. The only CPU usage anywhere close to 80% is when using Handbrake and running SQL Server 2008 in VMWare WinXP. The beachballs prevent me from clicking for 10 minutes+ when the max CPU activity is 2%. In this state, when I get a second to click on a non-running dock item, it does bounce for 10, 20, 30 minutes. Sometimes no bounce - just ignoring me.

My standby G4 gives no beachballs, ever; used as a file server. When busy transferring files, and screen sharing, at 100% CPU, nothing stalls. It didn't have to reboot for 8 months at a stretch :p
 
Joined
Sep 9, 2009
Messages
5,473
Reaction score
201
Points
63
Location
Down Under :D
Your Mac's Specs
Back to my old 2.2GHz C2D MB after selling my MBP and wondering what my next Mac will be :)
Even though 'verifying the disk comes up trumps all green', it just sounds like a bad HD.
The grinding noise from your boot disk isn't a positive!
 
OP
twitchymike@mac
Joined
Feb 24, 2006
Messages
73
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Your Mac's Specs
G4 + Mac Pro 8-core 6Gb
It's the grinding noise you get from a Mac when you get the packaging out of the way and start it up, in a quiet room
 
Joined
Jun 13, 2010
Messages
217
Reaction score
8
Points
18
Location
England
Your Mac's Specs
rMBP 13 2.5GHz 121GB SSD
Exactly, I've never heard any grinding noises from mine.
 
OP
twitchymike@mac
Joined
Feb 24, 2006
Messages
73
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Your Mac's Specs
G4 + Mac Pro 8-core 6Gb
Smart shows FAILING. I have 73Gb of difference backup since the last one in April, so kicking this off... It's gonna take days. That grinder is in it's last throes. I'm leaving it by itself to do that, using my pad to send this.
 
OP
twitchymike@mac
Joined
Feb 24, 2006
Messages
73
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Your Mac's Specs
G4 + Mac Pro 8-core 6Gb
The grinding noise sounds like a very busy wood pigeon, especially when booting and, now, when backing up.
 
OP
twitchymike@mac
Joined
Feb 24, 2006
Messages
73
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Your Mac's Specs
G4 + Mac Pro 8-core 6Gb
Is it Ok to restore to the original 320Gb disk? Will the FAILING status go away? It's less than 2 years old! All my G4's four disks are perfect after 11 years - no beachballs there!
 

cwa107


Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
27,042
Reaction score
812
Points
113
Location
Lake Mary, Florida
Your Mac's Specs
14" MacBook Pro M1 Pro, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
Is it Ok to restore to the original 320Gb disk? Will the FAILING status go away?

I don't have a clear understanding of how your disks are configured, but the "FAILED" status is unique to the specific drive you scanned with the SMART utility. So, yes, if you're changing out that drive, the replacement won't read the same status (assuming it itself is a good drive).


It's less than 2 years old! All my G4's four disks are perfect after 11 years - no beachballs there!

Hard drives are mechanical in nature, and as with all devices with moving parts, it's not a question of "if" it's going to fail, but "when". I'd say you've been really lucky that you haven't experienced a failed mech in your older machine (yet).
 
OP
twitchymike@mac
Joined
Feb 24, 2006
Messages
73
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Your Mac's Specs
G4 + Mac Pro 8-core 6Gb
The 320gb was the one included with the Pro. I reckon that's terrible to fail by now. Would you try a clean Snow install on the clean disk, all the upgrades and then the backup restored, and see how long it lasts, or would you dispose of it immewdiately, with the mechanical failure making it untrustworthy? I think all the freezes and almost unusable status is all down to that disk.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top