Running slow?

R

Redbull

Guest
I've noticed recently that my G4 17'' 1.67 PB, bought back in March last year has been running mortally slow. For example, it took 21 bounces to open up Google Earth, 8 bounces for pages and the general opening of applications. Where as before, all used to open within 5 bounces.

I've tried repair permissions and an Onyx clean out, but no avail. I still have 87 GB left and running 1 GB of RAM.

Any suggestions as it is becoming rather annoying?

Many thanks
 
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menace3054

Guest
try running disk repair.. put in the osx start up disk, hold down c and then go to utilities disk repair (or something along those lines) there might be an error on the physical disk

i use Micromat techtool 4 Pro (www.micromat.com) it does defragmentation and system optimization, ive noticed that when my system slows down, that helps
 
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R

Redbull

Guest
menace3054 said:
try running disk repair.. put in the osx start up disk, hold down c and then go to utilities disk repair (or something along those lines) there might be an error on the physical disk

i use Micromat techtool 4 Pro (www.micromat.com) it does defragmentation and system optimization, ive noticed that when my system slows down, that helps

Thanks, I did a disk repair via the OSX start up disk and a few permissions were repaired, associated with the Library files apparently.

It's a bit faster, not as much as I hoped. Unfortunately, I am not in the position to pay $98 for Mircomat, but is there a free trial I could download? Or can you recommend any free?

BTW, if you have google earth downloaded, how many bounces does it take yours before it opens?
 
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menace3054

Guest
just downloaded google earth, it loaded in 9 bounces. i have 2 GB of ram and a 1.67 GHZ g4.


also, you should go to activity monitor under utilities and see how much ram and cpu is in use, there may be a program hogging it. also, how many widgets do you keep open?
 
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14 bounces here, faster machine & different architecture though...

I'd try doing an archive & install if you're feeling brave. You'll probably loose some settings, but all your data & apps should still be there.

That way you'll have a "fresh" system again.

If you have a backup drive, clone your system's drive first, then do an archive and install and see if it runs better.
 
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Redbull

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menace3054 said:
just downloaded google earth, it loaded in 9 bounces. i have 2 GB of ram and a 1.67 GHZ g4.

That's surprisingly fast compared to mine. That's with the latest Google Earth right? Mine now loads within 14 bounces, and that's with all apps closed. I can remember, about 6 months ago when I first downloaded Google Earth, it used to load within 10 bounces. But now, it's 100% slower. What's really going on?



menace3054 said:
also, you should go to activity monitor under utilities and see how much ram and cpu is in use, there may be a program hogging it. also, how many widgets do you keep open?

I had 14 widgets open. As part of the experiment, I close most them, with just three basic widgets open. And I've also disabled the animated dock.

Then restarted the machine. Result? Earth Loaded in 24 bounces.
 
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Redbull

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Aptmunich said:
14 bounces here, faster machine & different architecture though...

I'd try doing an archive & install if you're feeling brave. You'll probably loose some settings, but all your data & apps should still be there.

That way you'll have a "fresh" system again.

If you have a backup drive, clone your system's drive first, then do an archive and install and see if it runs better.

By cowardice prevents me from doing an archive & install. I can't see how it would improve the CPU. Nor do I have a back-up drive either.

Actually, I have changed a lot of my icons around my computer and replaced it with a couple of fantasy ones, could that slow down the CPU?
 
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menace3054

Guest
did you check activity monitor? see how much ram you have free, when i first got os 10.4 i would have like 20 widgets running and wouldnt close them when i was done, that really eats performance. doing an archive and install is pretty safe, it backs up your files for you, and only re-installs the system software.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
Powerbook G4 1.67 MHz
I have a 15 inch PowerBook G4 1.67 GHz and it loaded in 9-11 bounces. I have 1.5 Gigs of RAM.

I got my laptop in August 05 and I can honestly say I have not noticed any slow down.
 
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menace3054

Guest
when i used to own a winblows computer back in the day, id do a reformat every year or so to clean things out. if all of these things are failing, id almost recommend that for you. do you have a superdrive? if you do, you can easily back up your important files onto a dvd before you format..
 
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R

Redbull

Guest
Just checked Activity monitor. Here's a picture below:

capturedata7556053.png


If I decide to re-format, do I still keep my modified icons, pictures and all important files? Yes, I have superdrive and might back-up the most important files.
 
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R

Redbull

Guest
menace3054 said:
what did it say for system memory?

Wired: 95.01 MB
Active: 129.99 MB
Inactive 183.86 MB
Used: 407.45 MB
Free: 616.62
VM size: 4.08 GB

Yours looks more consistently used and still, performs much faster.
 
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menace3054

Guest
yea so if you have 616mb free it shoudlnt be slow, the reformat should fix things up for you
 
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R

Redbull

Guest
menace3054 said:
yea so if you have 616mb free it shoudlnt be slow, the reformat should fix things up for you

Right. Just to make things clear before I commit myself. Do I retain all my photos, documents, emails, modified icons, all relevant software updates and iTunes album?

Just to say, what else do I lose from reformat?
 
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menace3054

Guest
from a complete reformat, you lose everything. from an archive and install, i dont think you lose anything. if your doing a complete reformat, save your entire documents folder, your iphoto library, your itunes library, and any favorites that you might have on safari/firefox. if you use offce/entourage, save the microsoft user data folder under documents, this will save all your emails
 
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R

Redbull

Guest
menace3054 said:
from a complete reformat, you lose everything. from an archive and install, i dont think you lose anything. if your doing a complete reformat, save your entire documents folder, your iphoto library, your itunes library, and any favorites that you might have on safari/firefox. if you use offce/entourage, save the microsoft user data folder under documents, this will save all your emails

Unfortunately, I am not going to risk a complete reformat. I shall try an archive and install. Hopefully, with any luck, it should resolve my problem.

BTW: Just added you a reputation comment.
 
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menace3054

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Redbull said:
Unfortunately, I am not going to risk a complete reformat. I shall try an archive and install. Hopefully, with any luck, it should resolve my problem.

BTW: Just added you a reputation comment.


thanks dude! good luck, archive and installs have helped me in the past
 
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Your Mac's Specs
17" G4 Powerbook, 1.33/1g/80g
mine loaded in about 14 bounces, that's with photoshop CS open, Adium, Firefox, and I only have a 1.33ghz/512mb setup.

is that good?
 

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