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Powermac sloow....

pianodude123

pianodude123

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 1, 2005
698
0
in the internet
I have tried everything from appzapper to deleting cache files, however my powermac G5 is still laggy.

What are some other things I can do to speed up my system?

If all else fails, will I be able to do an archive and install and have that solve all of my problems?
 
mad jew

mad jew

Moderator emeritus
Apr 3, 2004
32,191
9
Adelaide, Australia
Okay, well that's promising. General slowness is a pretty difficult problem to remedy until we can work out what's causing this. I wouldn't bother with a reinstall just yet because we don't know for sure if it'll help and you might lose data, settings or whatever.


  • Do you have plenty of free space on the internal boot drive?
  • Do you have any third party peripherals installed?
  • What apps are you running?
  • Do you notice the slowdown correlates with anything you do or change?
  • If you open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder, is there any process that's using up a lot of your resources (CPU and RAM)?
  • Still in Activity Monitor, do you have plenty of Free RAM + Inactive RAM?
  • If you restart your machine and then check Activity Monitor in an hour, how many page ins and page outs do you have?


That's really all I can think of for now. Sorry for all the questions but hopefully something in there will help us work out the source of your problem. :)
 
I

imacintel

macrumors 68000
Mar 12, 2006
1,581
0
mad jew said:
Okay, well that's promising. General slowness is a pretty difficult problem to remedy until we can work out what's causing this. I wouldn't bother with a reinstall just yet because we don't know for sure if it'll help and you might lose data, settings or whatever.


  • Do you have plenty of free space on the internal boot drive?
  • Do you have any third party peripherals installed?
  • What apps are you running?
  • Do you notice the slowdown correlates with anything you do or change?
  • If you open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder, is there any process that's using up a lot of your resources (CPU and RAM)?
  • Still in Activity Monitor, do you have plenty of Free RAM + Inactive RAM?
  • If you restart your machine and then check Activity Monitor in an hour, how many page ins and page outs do you have?


That's really all I can think of for now. Sorry for all the questions but hopefully something in there will help us work out the source of your problem. :)
Click to expand...

MJ is probably right....oh...and don't forget to drag com.apple.finder.plist to the Trash and restart.... It may help...

Yes, I said that just to annoy MJ. He loves to say that...
 
pianodude123

pianodude123

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 1, 2005
698
0
in the internet
mad jew said:
Okay, well that's promising. General slowness is a pretty difficult problem to remedy until we can work out what's causing this. I wouldn't bother with a reinstall just yet because we don't know for sure if it'll help and you might lose data, settings or whatever.


  • Do you have plenty of free space on the internal boot drive?
  • Do you have any third party peripherals installed?
  • What apps are you running?
  • Do you notice the slowdown correlates with anything you do or change?
  • If you open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder, is there any process that's using up a lot of your resources (CPU and RAM)?
  • Still in Activity Monitor, do you have plenty of Free RAM + Inactive RAM?
  • If you restart your machine and then check Activity Monitor in an hour, how many page ins and page outs do you have?


That's really all I can think of for now. Sorry for all the questions but hopefully something in there will help us work out the source of your problem. :)
Click to expand...

I have about 130 GB of free space, however I just deleted files from when I previously had 20 GB free space so maybe I should use DU and click "erase free space?"

No 3rd party peripherals...that are on right now...and usually...

Apps running constantly: Quicksilver..., dashboard...about 8 widgets, Folding@Home....(hahaha just kidding.)

As far as act.monitor goes..Kernal Task is taking up 45 threads and about 3% CPU...

I have about four gigabytes of ram with 2.34 currently free and 500 mb inactive...
 
mad jew

mad jew

Moderator emeritus
Apr 3, 2004
32,191
9
Adelaide, Australia
pianodude123 said:
I have about 130 GB of free space, however I just deleted files from when I previously had 20 GB free space so maybe I should use DU and click "erase free space?"
Click to expand...


20GB would have been fine. Erasing the free space won't help and will just waste a bit of time.


pianodude123 said:
No 3rd party peripherals...that are on right now...and usually...
Click to expand...


Excellent. That's not the problem then. :)


pianodude123 said:
Apps running constantly: Quicksilver..., dashboard...about 8 widgets, Folding@Home....(hahaha just kidding.)
Click to expand...


That seems fine, even if you were running Folding@Home.


pianodude123 said:
As far as act.monitor goes..Kernal Task is taking up 45 threads and about 3% CPU...
Click to expand...


That's normal.


pianodude123 said:
I have about four gigabytes of ram with 2.34 currently free and 500 mb inactive...
Click to expand...


That's plenty.

Okay, verify your hard drive in Disk Utility. I don't mean verify the hard drive's permissions though, I mean actually verify the hard drive. It's quite easy to do, but it'll take a little while and may freeze up your system momentarily.

Also, does it speed up if you disconnect from your network? :)



*Pats imacintel on the head*

There there. :)
 
I

imacintel

macrumors 68000
Mar 12, 2006
1,581
0
Thank you, lol.

t'would be nice if my ask for your iBook went through...but sadly enough, it didn't.
 
N

Neonguy

macrumors 6502
Sep 10, 2006
275
0
I think it may be your Hard Drive. Try Drive Genius to fix permission on disk and optimize it.
 
pianodude123

pianodude123

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 1, 2005
698
0
in the internet
I just ran verification...and it passed....OFffff... course... ugh. And the problem is...I know it is the drive.

My drive scores a 30 in xbench when other people with the same model score in the 80s and 90s...


HOw can I convince apple that my drive is faulty, but it works...yet not to the speed it was guaranteed at?
 
mad jew

mad jew

Moderator emeritus
Apr 3, 2004
32,191
9
Adelaide, Australia
Dunno that I can help you on that one mate, sorry. Just for fun, I'd check the connection to the drive to make sure it's not slightly loose. Also, if you have a good backup then reformatting it in Disk Utility might help. Is this your only internal drive? Is it your boot drive? :)
 
N

Neonguy

macrumors 6502
Sep 10, 2006
275
0
pianodude123 said:
Anyone have any suggestions for proving to applecare that my drive is faulty?
Click to expand...

It's not really worth it to prove to them to give you a brand new hard drive. Apple Hard Drive as a matter of fact it's slower then today Seagate. Apple Hard Drive speed are only average. Unless your is 500GB+ it's a lot better to backup all your data and buy a newer and bigger Hard Drive that is faster then Apple. Newegg 320GB Seagate is less then $100 and is faster then Apple one.
 
N

Neonguy

macrumors 6502
Sep 10, 2006
275
0
pianodude123,

Try this. Your Hard Drive may have permission problem or directory error causing it to slow down. Put in your Mac OS X install CD that come with your Computer. Press "C" to boot from CD. Select "Ultility" from menu and choose Disk Ulitility. Do a Permission Repair and Repair Disk. I did this on mine and notice my Hard Drive respond a lot faster now. My drive have a minor directory error that I don't even know and it fix it for me.

Goodluck!
 
pianodude123

pianodude123

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 1, 2005
698
0
in the internet
About to give up with macintosh.

Okay,

I am sick and tired of this.

From the time I started this thread to about now, I have been dealing with apple support and wasting a whole bunch of time on the phone and lugging this brick into stores.

Heres what I've done so far:

Troubleshooted (shot?) with Ramshidad on the phone for about a total of 20 hours to no avail

We ended up clearing caches, running diags, Archive and install, I replaced the Apple hard drive after they sent me a new one, I've done about 3-4 erase and installs, (one of which I went 1 week without third party software)

Finally I spoke to a manager and he recommended I bring the machine into an Apple authorized service center. I toted the big mammoth through the mall to my nearest Genius Bar (not as easy as you think) spoke with the genius and I was unable to replicate the issues which always happen to me

(Applications unexpectedly quit, I have about a 35% success rate with authoring DVDs without something freezing or an error occurring, applications bounce on their dock for days, I loose work due to things freezing beachballing and quitting, ITS JUST A PAIN!)

So he was unable to see what has been happening so he just told them to run a diagnostic test on it, which happened to take them 5 days!

This is a hassle, and I can stand it no longer. I am at the point where I utterly hate this computer and I want it out of my hands. I would like Apple to replace it with something else. I have spent enough time wasted troubleshooting this and loosing data and I am sick of it.

My final plea here is to ask for people obliging advice as to how I should go about getting this machine replaced.

I can mention that I am fed up with them, and I am in the market for a new laptop, but I need some suggestions.
 
pianodude123

pianodude123

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 1, 2005
698
0
in the internet
Some help would be greatly appreciated. I'd also like to add that when the machine came back, it was all scuffed and scratched up.

Also...My Bluetooth keyboard and mouse are having more problems than ever.
 
M

mac000

macrumors 6502a
Sep 6, 2005
679
0
yesterday someone told me to snap the app called "Main Menu" - personally i like it better than anything else i've ever used. (onyx, janitor, cocktail)
 
pianodude123

pianodude123

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 1, 2005
698
0
in the internet
Now the computer keeps on going out of sleep mode for NO ****ing REASON AT ALL AND I AM PISSED AS HELL AND CANNOT STAND THIS ANY LONGER.


Has anyone been successful with getting apple to replace their computer
 
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