What's strange about this problem is that it's the second time that it's happened to me (once a few months ago). I've got an iBook G4 from a few years ago, never had a problem, but out of the blue today my computer took about 15 minutes to get to the main loading screen. Everything is slowed down immensely, so I'm not really sure what to do. I checked the activity monitor and it seems okay, although it spikes on the disk activity screen randomly even if I am not running any other programs for both data read and data written.
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iBook G4 Severe Slow Down
- Thread starter MarkZX6R
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right now I am trying to repair permissions on the hard drive to see if it improves, but does this sound like something where I would need to reinstall Mac OS X? If so, I need to be able to save the files on my computer (I know this is possible because I've done it before, I just don't remember how).
Yeah, its really easy to keep the stuff on your Hard Drive, on one of the boxes that you are going through when reinstalling there should be one with options, just click that and make sure archive and install is checked (I think it is by default, but not sure.
I don't think this will need a reinstall just yet.
How much space do you have? There's an OSX bug that increases some log files to the extent that they fill your drive and slow your computer to molasses-pace. Check that you have at least 8GB of free space on your boot drive.
Also, open Activity Monitor and see if there's anything taking up a lot of your resources. Make sure to check All Processes and not just My Processes.
How much space do you have? There's an OSX bug that increases some log files to the extent that they fill your drive and slow your computer to molasses-pace. Check that you have at least 8GB of free space on your boot drive.
Also, open Activity Monitor and see if there's anything taking up a lot of your resources. Make sure to check All Processes and not just My Processes.
Ok, I have checked the activity monitor and there is almost nothing running. CPU is using like 6-8% tops. I have about 13 GB free on the hard drive, but that virus sounds like something that could be the problem considering it happened before and then was for some reason randomly fixed.
MarkZX6R said:
Not a virus, there aren't any.
Sounds similar to when my HDD died, everything slowed to a crawl and then Pfffttt.... gone.
I'd be backing up everything while you can and investigating other possibilities to a HDD failure - cover your bases.
Yeah my disk activity monitor is what spikes like crazy when I have the data tab open -- sound like what you had?
By the way, when the computer is running this slow, what's the best way to get all my data off of it? I've got another computer to put it on ...
By the way, when the computer is running this slow, what's the best way to get all my data off of it? I've got another computer to put it on ...
I"m basically at the assumption now that the HDD is dying. I'm going to take it in to the Apple Store over the weekend and see what they can do. GOnna try and back it up with another HD first though so I can at least keep all of my music/photos/documents.
Having this G4 for 3 or 4 years really makes me want to get a MacBook or a Pro...
Having this G4 for 3 or 4 years really makes me want to get a MacBook or a Pro...
