With the in the past year my mother purchased a used Powerbook G4. At first, the computer was exactly what she needed but slowly it started to decline into a nuisance. I am a Windows guy, so I dont know anything about Macs except for the fact that they are completely different. I guess Im just seeking help on how to do general maintenance. If I recall correctly, Macs do not require De-fragmentation but would a program like CCleaner be an advantage? Is there such a thing as a registry that needs repaired? The previous owner downloaded Torrents, could that be a danger to the system? How do I clean that up? I do not know the depths of her problems but here are some symptoms: During audio playback, through iTunes, the sound will cut out entirely or sound as if it is a skipping CD. Sometimes things will be randomly selected without interaction with the track pad. Example: If she is on youtube, or iPhoto, it could potentially pull up a different photo or youtube video entirely without even touching the track pad. She has difficulty with video playback through Youtube and even actual video files on her computer. It runs at snail speed; it is so slow it is obvious there is a problem. It has difficulty scrolling down web pages. Loading web pages can be very difficult
As far as Im aware these are just some of her symptoms. Well, what can I do to diagnose the problem? I feel like it could be hardware related. I do not know where to begin other than to format the drive and then reinstall OSX. Also I have the upmost patience so if youre willing to hold my hand and walk me through the scary times of working with a Mac, Im willing to learn.
Thanks guys for your time.
First off, not so scary, so don't worry. You just don't know. I come from a PC background so I get it.
First off, just a major detail to understand. In 2006, Apple switch to Intel processors. Your mom's PB uses a PowerPC processor. That means that the programs you need to find, you need to find PowerPC versions. Her PowerBook is incapable of running Intel versions of apps and that in all probability means she will be unable to use the latest versions. Most OSX developers dropped PowerPC support long ago.
You'll also need to know what version of OSX she is using. You can find that out quite easily by going to the Finder (it'll say Finder in the top left corner when you are on her desktop). In the Apple menu (the logo next to the word Finder) click on that and click on "About this Mac." It will tell you the OSX version she is using.
This is important because you need to know what versions of apps to download.
Next, some general maintenance. Find a copy of Onyx and download the version appropriate to the version of OSX she is using. Using Onyx, run the Daily, Weekly and Monthly scripts. Clean up caches, in general run most of the maintenance/cleanup items Onyx gives you. You'll have to reboot on some of them.
When all that is done, boot off the OSX install disk. If you don't have one, you'll need to find one. Depending on the processor speed of the PowerBook the max OS that can be run will be either Tiger (10.4) or Leopard (10.5).
If you don't have an install disk or can't get one easily, then ignore this part for the moment.
But if you do, boot off the disk by inserting it in the drive and restarting the Mac. Hold down the C key (for CD/DVD) to boot off the disk. Once you get to the install menu, find the menu in the menubar that says Tools (or Utilities, or something to that effect). You want to open Disk Utility. Click on the hard drive, then click on the button that says "Repair Disk." Let that run. If it says the drive is fine, no problem. Next click on the button that says "Repair Permissions." This is likely to take a while so you may want to go get a cup of coffee (or a seven course meal, depending).
Reboot. This should resolve general issues. If you do not have an install disk, then go to Macintosh HD>Applications>Utilities and open the Disk Utility tab. Select the drive and click the button that says "Repair Permissions." Wait. When it's done you should be good for general issues.
Some things to note. Remember I mentioned the Intel/PowerPC thing. Well, this means your mother is limited in her browsing choices. I am assuming she uses the default browser, which is Safari. Safari has not been updated for PowerPC Macs. The PowerPC Mac has a lot of workarounds for unupdated browsers. For Safari, there is Leopard Webkit (requires Leopard) and looks like Safari. There is TenFourFox/Aurorafox to replace Firefox. Firefox 3.6 something is the last version capable of running on PowerPC Mac. Hence, TenFourFox and Aurorafox. There's also a bunch of other browsers out there.
Your mother should also realize that because Apple has left the PowerPC Mac behind Youtube is going to be increasingly slow and choppy. PowerPC Macs just cannot handle the intensity of Flash. There are apps that work around this (such as MacTubes).
As to the trackpad issue. That sounds hardware related. But lets see what happens after you get things cleaned up.
One final note. I would highly recommend DiskWarrior to you. The basics I described above can all be done using freebie tools (Disk Utility is part of the OS though). DW is not free, but it's a powerful disk recovery tool that can save/repair your hard drive. It's heavy duty compared to Disk Utility.
Hope some of that helps.
