G5 running VERY SLOW... no freezing, just SLOW

[jgarza2213]

Hello all,
I recently acquired a PowerMac G5. To be honest, I wasnt even sure what it was, it was given to me, and I popped off the side panel and saw that is says G5. Anyway, it is used, but was given to me by a family member who runs an IT department. anyway,
here is my issue.
This thing is VERY VERY SLOW. It boots up fine, in what I would call a normal speed, but as soon as everything appears to be ready, if I click on anything, I just get a beachball. My first assumption was that it was the hard drive, as I could hear a clicking/ticking sound, so I popped off the side panel and the sound is coming from the hard drive. I have read through alot of threads, and it seems that the general consensus is that if it is in fact the hard drive, then it would not boot up. The other thing that I read is that it could possibly be the logic board. Where exactly is the logic board located at?

Is there anything I can do to diagnose the problem?

Again, it boots up fine, has never froze, but just runs VERY SLOW. and when I say slow, I mean SLOW.

 

[zmttoxics]

A harddrive can be on its way out and still work. I would look at replacing it and doing a fresh install.

 

[max¥¥]

how much ram do you have? some pmg5's came with only 512mb and you really need more

 

[OrangeSVTguy]

Go up to the top left corner where the Apple is and click on it and then click on "About this Mac". Let us know what what G5 is it and processor/memory it has. Sounds like it only has the stock memory in it

 

[CubeHacker]

A hard drive can boot up just fine and still be "on the way out". The slow performance and clicking sounds are a tell tale sign of a dying hard drive. You can always try to reformat the Hard drive and see if that helps just to rule out some kind of bizarre software issue.

 

[VanneDC]

either that or the Hard Drive is chockers full.. see how much free space you have...

 

[leekohler]

I agree with everyone else here. The hard drive is to blame.