Hi everybody, my iMac which I have had since Sept 06, is having more and more problems, and I'm starting to consider a full re-install. I am outside my 90 day phone support with Apple (I know I should get Apple Care, but I'm not ready to get it just yet).
For one thing, the computer seems to make more noise than when I first got it, just in terms of the all-the-time humming. I could be wrong, but it seems slightly increased. The first software problem was that Safari started crashing a lot. And it still does. Now PhotoBooth crashes quite a bit, and when it does I cannot force quit it from its dock icon, from the Apple menu, or from the activity monitor--the only option is to log out and restart. And then a few days ago, mail started hanging, where when I quit it stayed open, I could go back into and open windows, use it like normally, but the quit option was grayed out, and going to the dock icon and hitting quit wouldn't work. It eventually will quit using the force quit from the apple menu.
Also, Web browsing is now impossibly slow. I've checked my connection speed, and it's fine, but opening web pages is about twice as slow as it was over dial up. This holds true for both Safari and FireFox. I tried entering the DNS numbers as is commonly reccomded here, with the same results.
The final thing is that in my users folder there are some really strange files. There is my home directory and various other users, but then there are files which are "mydirectoryname\System Requirements Lab\SRLProxyE.dll" (that's actually the file name, not a directory listing, the backward slash is in the actual name, and mydirectory name is actually my user name). There are three others which instead of E, end with F, G, and H. There is also an empty folder called "mydirectoryname\System Requirements Lab"
I have no idea what those are, but they sound like Windows files? I have never installed Windows on this computer though.
I have to wonder if it's possible to use a computer in such a way that you "junk" it up so much that it would start acting like this? It's complicated to explain, but I probably use the computer in ways that aren't typical. For instance, I have about 4,000 short quicktime audio recordings that I have made and store in one folder. I also have probably close to a thousand text-edit documents, and thousands of screen shots.....It's a long story to explain why I need to have those..but would storing so many files like that damage the hard disk? Like that the hard disk would have to write so many times each day each time I create an audio file or text-edit file and fragment the drive or strain the drive? I hope I have not damaged the hard disk through excessive use in that way.
I am thinking maybe I should back everything up and install fresh and only add back what I need on a day to day basis (which wouldn't be most of those files).
I much appreciate any insights anyone has.
EDIT: with other details, I have 33 gb free on a 160 gb hard disk, is that enough? Also web pages take up to 30 seconds to load.
For one thing, the computer seems to make more noise than when I first got it, just in terms of the all-the-time humming. I could be wrong, but it seems slightly increased. The first software problem was that Safari started crashing a lot. And it still does. Now PhotoBooth crashes quite a bit, and when it does I cannot force quit it from its dock icon, from the Apple menu, or from the activity monitor--the only option is to log out and restart. And then a few days ago, mail started hanging, where when I quit it stayed open, I could go back into and open windows, use it like normally, but the quit option was grayed out, and going to the dock icon and hitting quit wouldn't work. It eventually will quit using the force quit from the apple menu.
Also, Web browsing is now impossibly slow. I've checked my connection speed, and it's fine, but opening web pages is about twice as slow as it was over dial up. This holds true for both Safari and FireFox. I tried entering the DNS numbers as is commonly reccomded here, with the same results.
The final thing is that in my users folder there are some really strange files. There is my home directory and various other users, but then there are files which are "mydirectoryname\System Requirements Lab\SRLProxyE.dll" (that's actually the file name, not a directory listing, the backward slash is in the actual name, and mydirectory name is actually my user name). There are three others which instead of E, end with F, G, and H. There is also an empty folder called "mydirectoryname\System Requirements Lab"
I have no idea what those are, but they sound like Windows files? I have never installed Windows on this computer though.
I have to wonder if it's possible to use a computer in such a way that you "junk" it up so much that it would start acting like this? It's complicated to explain, but I probably use the computer in ways that aren't typical. For instance, I have about 4,000 short quicktime audio recordings that I have made and store in one folder. I also have probably close to a thousand text-edit documents, and thousands of screen shots.....It's a long story to explain why I need to have those..but would storing so many files like that damage the hard disk? Like that the hard disk would have to write so many times each day each time I create an audio file or text-edit file and fragment the drive or strain the drive? I hope I have not damaged the hard disk through excessive use in that way.
I am thinking maybe I should back everything up and install fresh and only add back what I need on a day to day basis (which wouldn't be most of those files).
I much appreciate any insights anyone has.
EDIT: with other details, I have 33 gb free on a 160 gb hard disk, is that enough? Also web pages take up to 30 seconds to load.
