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HOW TO: optimize OS X?

kingjr3 said:
bearbo,

I'll ask again. Do you reboot that often that this is an issue? If so, why? In most cases sleep mode is sufficient.

The number of applications you have installed isn't going to affect performance, the biggest culprit will be the Startup Items, Launch Services, Launch Daemons, kernel extensions, etc...

Have you tried using verbose mode or single user mode to see whats going on?

The problem is that you are asking us to diagnose a "problem" without providing any history of what you know or have tried and from the looks of it, you aren't too familiar with the underlying OS functionality.
Click to expand...

sorry about the lack of details.

i haven't installed (not knowingly anyway) the startup item and stuff... i did the verbose mode, there's nothing indicating that there's too many startup stuff...

here are the stuff i've tried.

repaired permission (nothing was wrong)
repaired disk (nothing wrong)
empty cache of different sorts (with mainmenu), didn't do anything
try to understand the system log (assuming that's what's generated by verbose mode), didn't see anything obvious that's indicating problem.
my account's startup item are : ical schedul alarm, itunes helper (whatever is that?), Logitech control center daemon.

i've heard too many font may be a problem, so i opened font book, disabled the korean and japanese fonts (i was prompted those are system fonts, but i was thinking to myself, i dont use those languages, so it shouldn't matter if i disable it)

i've heard that parallel intalls a kernel extension that slows the startup down, but i don't have parallel.

what else should i try?

you are probably right about i'm not familiar with the underlying OS functionality, which is why i'm asking for help.
 
yellow said:
Your boot time indicator should be from a "cold" boot, not choosing restart from the menu. Of course it takes a long time to restart. The OS has to preen on the way out first. And if the spokey part of the boot is the longest, then it's likely you need to do some disk maintenance (either fsck, Disk Utility booted from installer CD, or DiskWarrior/TechToolPro).. which would also attribute to a longer than average preen time on outtro.
Click to expand...

is "cold" boot a shut down, and boot up? can you explain to me why does it matter if i count from when i heard the chime until when the desktop is loaded? when i say it takes longer than a min, that time didn't include the press restart, until the chime.

when i tried to repair disk, from OS or installer dvd, it says it has passed every... tests, i suppose.

what's fsck, does it do the same thing as repair disk (is repair disk even the thing?).. and does diskwarrior and techtoolpro do the samething?

thanks :)
 
yellow said:
Well, not really 3 layers. Disk Utility.app is just a GUIfied frontend for the "diskutil" binary living in /usr/sbin/. The "repairdisk" portion of it is pretty much the same thing as fsck.

More like:

Disk Utility -> /usr/sbin/diskutil repairdrive /

/usr/sbin/diskutil repairdrive / ~= /sbin/fsck
Click to expand...

so does that mean since i did repair disk, and that yield nothing, i dont need to do fsck?
 
Code: 
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: hi mem tramps at 0xffe00000
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: PAE enabled
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: 64 bit mode enabled
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: standard timeslicing quantum is 10000 us
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: vm_page_bootstrap: 512829 free pages
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: mig_table_max_displ = 71
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: Enabling XMM register save/restore and SSE/SSE2 opcodes
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: 90 prelinked modules
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: ACPI CA 20060421
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement: ready
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: AppleACPICPU: ProcessorApicId=0 LocalApicId=0 Enabled
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: AppleACPICPU: ProcessorApicId=1 LocalApicId=1 Enabled
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: using 10485 buffer headers and 4096 cluster IO buffer headers
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: Enabling XMM register save/restore and SSE/SSE2 opcodes
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: Started CPU 01
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: IOAPIC: Version 0x20 Vectors 64:87
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: ACPI: System State [S0 S3 S4 S5] (S3)
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: Security auditing service present
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: BSM auditing present
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: disabled
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: rooting via boot-uuid from /chosen: DEB21B8B-343B-4B80-9149-F5BE49B1627D
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: Waiting on <dict ID="0"><key>IOProviderClass</key><string ID="1">IOResources</string><key>IOResourceMatch</key><string ID="2">boot-uuid-media</string></dict>
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: AppleYukon: 00000000,e00002bc PwrSavingsEED - failed to get EDGP
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: USB caused wake event (EHCI)
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: FireWire (OHCI) TI ID 8025 built-in now active, GUID 0019e3fffe690c84; max speed s800.
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: Got boot device = IOService:/AppleACPIPlatformExpert/PCI0@0/AppleACPIPCI/SATA@1F,2/AppleAHCI/PRT2@2/IOAHCIDevice@0/AppleAHCIDiskDriver/IOAHCIBlockStorageDevice/IOBlockStorageDriver/FUJITSU MHW2120BH Media/IOGUIDPartitionScheme/Customer@2
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: BSD root: disk0s2, major 14, minor 2
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: CSRHIDTransitionDriver::probe: 
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: CSRHIDTransitionDriver::start before command
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: CSRHIDTransitionDriver::stop
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: IOBluetoothHCIController::start Idle Timer Stopped
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: Jettisoning kernel linker.
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: Resetting IOCatalogue.
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: display: family specific matching fails
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: Matching service count = 0
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: Matching service count = 1
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: Matching service count = 1
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: Matching service count = 1
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: Matching service count = 1
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: Matching service count = 1
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: display: family specific matching fails
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: ath_attach: devid 0x24
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: Previous Shutdown Cause: 5
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: Override HT40 CTL Powers. EEPROM Version is 14.4, Device Type 5
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: mac 12.10 phy 8.1 radio 12.0
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost kernel[0]: IPv6 packet filtering initialized, default to accept, logging disabled
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost mDNSResponder-108.2 (Aug 20 2006 04: 04:10)[44]: starting
Feb  2 18:19:21 localhost memberd[51]: memberd starting up
Feb  2 18:19:23 localhost lookupd[60]: lookupd (version 369.6) starting - Fri Feb  2 18:19:23 2007
Feb  2 18:19:25 localhost DirectoryService[61]: Launched version 2.1 (v353.5)
Feb  2 18:19:26 localhost kextd[29]: kextd_watch_volumes: couldn't set up diskarb sessions
Feb  2 18:19:26 localhost kextd[29]: diskarb isn't ready yet; we'll try again soon
Feb  2 18:19:27 localhost kernel[0]: yukonosx: Ethernet address 00:17:f2:cd:d8:af
Feb  2 18:19:27 localhost kernel[0]: AirPort_Athr5424: Ethernet address 00:19:e3:08:1a:5a
Feb  2 18:19:27 localhost diskarbitrationd[50]: disk0s2    hfs      48AB8E46-84E8-3ECA-9E9D-CEF61EB84ACE Macintosh HD            /
Feb  2 18:19:27 localhost diskarbitrationd[50]: disk1s2    hfs      02A978EC-3C0C-3A00-85B3-87C5E7AE897F Backup                  [not mounted]
Feb  2 18:19:27 localhost diskarbitrationd[50]: disk1s3    msdos    00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 WINDOWS                 [not mounted]
Feb  2 18:19:27 localhost diskarbitrationd[50]: disk1s4    hfs      6BF4B29A-A2F9-3766-9AE1-A9513C2A03AA PolarBear               [not mounted]
Feb  2 18:19:30 localhost mDNSResponder: Couldn't read user-specified Computer Name; using default “Macintosh-0017F2CDD8AF” instead
Feb  2 18:19:30 localhost mDNSResponder: Couldn't read user-specified local hostname; using default “Macintosh-0017F2CDD8AF.local” instead
Feb  2 18:19:31 localhost mDNSResponder: Adding browse domain local.
Feb  2 18:19:35 localhost kernel[0]: Registering For 802.11 Events
Feb  2 18:19:35 localhost kernel[0]: [HCIController][setupHardware] AFH Is Supported
Feb  2 18:19:35 localhost lookupd[87]: lookupd (version 369.6) starting - Fri Feb  2 18:19:35 2007
Feb  2 18:19:36 wapple-computer configd[48]: setting hostname to "wapple-computer.local"
Feb  2 18:19:37 wapple-computer kernel[0]: AppleYukon - en0 link active, 100-Mbit, full duplex, symmetric flow control enabled
Feb  2 18:19:37 wapple-computer /System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app/Contents/MacOS/loginwindow: Login Window Application Started
Feb  2 18:19:39 wapple-computer loginwindow[88]: Login Window Started Security Agent
Feb  2 18:19:40 wapple-computer configd[48]: executing /System/Library/SystemConfiguration/Kicker.bundle/Contents/Resources/enable-network
Feb  2 18:19:40 wapple-computer configd[48]: posting notification com.apple.system.config.network_change
Feb  2 18:19:40 wapple-computer lookupd[97]: lookupd (version 369.6) starting - Fri Feb  2 18:19:40 2007
Feb  2 18:19:42 wapple-computer configd[48]:   target=enable-network: disabled
Feb  2 18:20:04 wapple-computer diskarbitrationd[50]: disk1s4    hfs      6BF4B29A-A2F9-3766-9AE1-A9513C2A03AA PolarBear               /Volumes/PolarBear
Feb  2 18:20:05 wapple-computer kernel[0]: jnl: flushing fs disk buffer returned 0x5
Feb  2 18:20:07 wapple-computer kernel[0]: jnl: flushing fs disk buffer returned 0x5
Feb  2 18:20:15 wapple-computer kernel[0]: jnl: flushing fs disk buffer returned 0x5

so this time, i shut it down, wait about 20 seconds, and turned it on
i timed from the moment i pushed the power button til the moment i see the clock (the clock shows 18:20:13)... it took 1:20...

which means i pushed the button at around 18:18:55... can someone explain to me what was the computer doing between 18:18:55 and 18:19:21?

the spoke part took 24 seconds, about 11 seconds after i pushed the power button (so about 18:19:06)... which means the first 15 seconds of that was not even recorded.

i admit i dont know what these mean, but i'm sure someone here does.

thanks in advance.
 
Blubbert said:
When i installed the Logitech Control Center, i noticed my MBP to be slower, and my dock would not zoom properly. It would get stuck when i would mouse over it.
Click to expand...

I think I'm having this problem on my TiPB ... did you find that performance improved when you uninstalled the Logitech Control Center?
 
Optimize OS X

I would also recommend disabling dashboard to free up memory. Additionally, Defragging about every 6 months helps, I know OS X supposedly "doesn't fragment", but trust me it does help to defragment if you move a lot of files around. Also, it helps if you disable all of the unneeded start up items. I have a couple more tips on how to optimize Mac OS X at my website if anybody is interested.
 
jonfleck88 said:
I would also recommend disabling dashboard to free up memory. Additionally, Defragging about every 6 months helps, I know OS X supposedly "doesn't fragment", but trust me it does help to defragment if you move a lot of files around. Also, it helps if you disable all of the unneeded start up items. I have a couple more tips on how to optimize Mac OS X at my website if anybody is interested.
Click to expand...

If you're moving a lot of small files around, I wouldn't worry about it. The Darwin kernel since around 7.0 (roughly 10.3) will automatically defragment highly fragmented files 20MB and under (IIRC, the source defines highly fragmented as 8+ fragments)
 
some people

yellow said:
He highlighted both "launchd" and "automagically". Launchd is not a misspelling, and automagically is a colloquialism of computer people, clearly a replacement for automatically + magic, which as far as most people know about computers might as well be how they operate. Clear enough now?
Click to expand...

Thats EXACTLY what I wanted to say to that guy ... WoW, some people ... you go to a FREE forum to examine your problem then get snippy over the way people SPELL ?? GAWD those people need a life dont they? BTW, I dont use ' when i type dont cant wont isnt didnt etc. so I wonder if Im going to get flamed. MWAHAHAHA :p

Ive upgraded my G4 to OS 10.4.11 and Java to the latest and now I want to throw it out a window! I cant upgrade to OS 10.5 [probly because its older G4 tower]. Could the new Java be a problem?? Is OS 10.4.11 FINALLY obsolete for online transfers?? Everything but more RAM ive tried and nothing.

OnyX didnt do anything for me. :(
 
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