Disable unnecisary services?

[projectle]

Is there a way to disable unused components, services, or other aspects of OS X that are in no way used?

For example, under Linux, there is the Runlevel Editor which allows for deactivating services that are not used.

In my case, I have a system that is running far to slow for my taste. (Think of 30-45 sec to find something through spotlight).

The computer is a final generation Powerbook 17" (1.67 GHz w/ 2GB DDR2)
So I would assume that everything should be running just fine speed wise, however that does not appear to be the case.

I am not really able to re-install right now as I need this computer every day for work.

If I can do something to speed this computer up, then I am all for it.

 

[mad jew]

I wouldn't start quitting processes just yet. Do you have at least 8GB of free space available? Have you rebooted recently? If you open up Activity Monitor, are there any processes using up a lot of your CPU cycles or your RAM?

 

[projectle]

41.4 GB free space
Window Server taking up 44.50% of CPU
Only thing taking significant real memory is the Kernel at 170.79 MB
Window server at 93.42 MB
It all goes down hill from there to 20 MB or less.

I have tried keeping running for months on end and I have also tried turning off every night (right now, I am at the off at night point).

I have nothing sitting on my dashboard, no animated backgrounds, no magnifying dock, and just scaling effects enabled (as I could not see a way to disable entirely) because my own common sense would dictate that scaling without distortion would take less resources than warping them and scaling.

Any ideas?

In the big scheme of things, I would be happy if there were no effects at all if it meant that I could shave a couple minutes off of a compile or two.

 

[jsw]

Window Server taking up 44.50% of CPU

Is that a relatively constant number? Mine settles to ~1% pretty quickly.

In the big scheme of things, I would be happy if there were no effects at all if it meant that I could shave a couple minutes off of a compile or two.

The effects aren't going to do anything to your compile times unless you're actively using them; I don't see why disabling services would have any noticeable effect on your performance. When not doing anything, your CPU should be well over 90% idle; if not, something's wrong.

 

[projectle]

It is pretty constant.

I guess it is just time to reinstall everything on this computer.

I have been using the crap out of it all day, every day for the past 9 months strait.

Thanks for your help though.

 

[yellow]

Ah no.. it's time to log in as another user and see if WindowServer is going crazy there as well.

 

[Applespider]

Incidentally, if you do have to reinstall, don't do a clean one.

Try an Archive and Install (Options in the bottom left corner at one of the install screens) which preserves your apps and settings and just re-installs the system files.