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Gradual slow down of Mac

B

Breakwhore

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 11, 2012
3
0
I'd like to see if there's anything I can do to speed up my work Mac (other than buy hardware, as my company is waiting until a certain point to do this) . I'm running running on 10.4.11, have a 2.16Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and have 1GB 667Mhz DDR2 SDRAM.

The machine doesn't appear to be too cluttered and running Activity Monitor to look at processes doesn't seem to show anything that shouldn't be there (afaik).

It runs perfectly fine on startup, even when using lots of programs, but as the day goes on gets slower and slower until I have to restart. I generally run Word 2004, Thunderbird, Firefox and Photoshop CS3. Ideally, I need to have these running side by side all day.

Is there anything I can do?
 
Short answer is without spending money on what is now a pretty old machine, not a great deal...If the company would spring for some more RAM it would help you out, but the bottom line is that the Mac is just suffering from old age. PS etc. are hungry apps, even on a new Mac. Time to go cap in hand to the boss I think..:)
 
Breakwhore said:
I'd like to see if there's anything I can do to speed up my work Mac (other than buy hardware, as my company is waiting until a certain point to do this) . I'm running running on 10.4.11, have a 2.16Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and have 1GB 667Mhz DDR2 SDRAM.

The machine doesn't appear to be too cluttered and running Activity Monitor to look at processes doesn't seem to show anything that shouldn't be there (afaik).

It runs perfectly fine on startup, even when using lots of programs, but as the day goes on gets slower and slower until I have to restart. I generally run Word 2004, Thunderbird, Firefox and Photoshop CS3. Ideally, I need to have these running side by side all day.

Is there anything I can do?
Click to expand...

It would be hard without buying any new hardware, the problem here is 1 GB, I have a Powerbook G4 on Leopard 10.5.8 and 1 GB, one slot is not working so can not install more memory, it's OK in the beginning but when the physical memory is fully used it gets slower, needs to write to VM.
Especially when using Safari with many tabs open and the VM grows to 2 GB or more it gets terrible.
What you could do is to clean up, but probably won't make much difference.
Running DiskWarrior makes a bit of difference but you can not run it on the Volume you are starting from.
 
Cheers, I've actually requested more RAM but for some reason out IT company thinks it won't help out so they won't give me any.

I've already begged for a new machine but it's not happening.
 
Breakwhore said:
Cheers, I've actually requested more RAM but for some reason out IT company thinks it won't help out so they won't give me any.

I've already begged for a new machine but it's not happening.
Click to expand...

Well, I guess you could say to the manager "look, this is now having an adverse effect on my work, slowing me down etc" If they can be convinced that it's now 2012 and that you would be more productive with a new Mac, you might get lucky...The situation is hitting them where it hurts..In the wallet! You would be far more productive if you didn't have to nurse an old Mac that isn't up to the job any longer.
 
Macman45 said:
Well, I guess you could say to the manager "look, this is now having an adverse effect on my work, slowing me down etc" If they can be convinced that it's now 2012 and that you would be more productive with a new Mac, you might get lucky...The situation is hitting them where it hurts..In the wallet! You would be far more productive if you didn't have to nurse an old Mac that isn't up to the job any longer.
Click to expand...

He could also point the Manager to this thread, HEY BOSS/MANAGER, MORE RAM MAKES HIS WORK FASTER = LESS MONEY SPEND.

Edit: Ram is dirt cheap, 1 hours wage.
 
Macman45 said:
Well, I guess you could say to the manager "look, this is now having an adverse effect on my work, slowing me down etc" If they can be convinced that it's now 2012 and that you would be more productive with a new Mac, you might get lucky...The situation is hitting them where it hurts..In the wallet! You would be far more productive if you didn't have to nurse an old Mac that isn't up to the job any longer.
Click to expand...

Tried that one.
 
Breakwhore said:
Is there anything I can do?
Click to expand...
If you're having performance issues, this may help:

Follow every step of the following instructions precisely. Do not skip any steps.
  1. Launch Activity Monitor
  2. Change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes"
  3. Click on the "% CPU" column heading once or twice, so the arrow points downward (highest values on top).
    (If that column isn't visible, right-click on the column headings and check it, NOT "CPU Time")
  4. Click on the System Memory tab at the bottom.
  5. Take a screen shot of the entire Activity Monitor window, then scroll down to see the rest of the list, take another screen shot
  6. Post your screenshots.
 
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