Permissions?

[lowercaseperson]

Hi,

A few months ago my HD crashed (Powerbook G4 OSX 10.4.8), it all started with the computer running slow on the internet, and then spread and finally I couldn't do anything and had to restore the HD. I have absolutely no idea what happened, my room mates little brother got on the computer and downloaded a bunch of stuff...I guess that's where it started. Anyways, my computer is starting to run slow on the net again, which is just bringing back bad and scary memories, especially since I just finally got everything straightened back out. When I was working with Apple before the HD completely crashed and I realized there was a problem they had be reset my permissions. So, I don't remember how to do that. If some one could run me through that it would be nice, but also I was wondering exactly what that does/means/when I know I need to do it. Also, if you have anyother ideas of why it may be acting weird as such...that would be nice. Thanks!

 

[rtdgoldfish]

To repair your permissions, simply open up the Disk Utility. Its in the Utilities folder in your Applications folder by default. Click on your hard drive on the left side of the Disk Utility program and then click repair disk permissions in the right side of the window. It will do its thing and tell you what it fixed.

 

[plinden]

Repairing permissions won't help, but it won't do any harm. The following questions/suggestions aren't in any particular order.

The main thing to do is to try to find out why your computer is slowing down. Open Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor and sort the list on the %CPU column. Is there anything there taking up high CPU?

From Disk Utility select "verify disk" to see if your HD needs repair. If it reports that it does, reboot from your OS X install disk, run Disk Utility (DON'T INSTALL THE OS) and repair the HD from there. This won't damage any data.

Do you have lot of files on your desktop? In OS X, each file on the Desktop takes up the same resources as a single Finder window. Reorganize the files into a small number of directories if you do.

Create a new account and use it for a while. Does it show the same slow downs?

How many Login items do you have? See this from System Preferences/Accounts/Login Item. How many Startup items do you have? See this from a Finder window - click on your HD icon and go to /Library/StartupItems.

How much RAM do you have?

How much free HD space do you have? If you don't have a couple of GB free, it won't be able to swap RAM to HD.

You could also try running the Hardware Test from the OS X install disk. I know how to start it on the Intel Macs but not PowerBooks. You'll need to check support.apple.com for that.

 

[lowercaseperson]

Thanks. I repaired the permissions. And it actually seems to be a little better. And thanks for the other suggestions as well, most of them I've covered or will try soon!

 

[jeremy.king]

http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs2/english/onyx.html