PowerBook gets beachball often and I can't zap pram

[Riot_Mac]

I am running 10.4.4 on a PB 1.67ghz 512MB RAM (last revision)

I get the beachball of death once in a while when doing very simple tasks like opening a new tab in safari or starting a new ichat. The ball lasts for a while. Also once and a while when launch an app it bounces in the dock for a minute. I can force quit and launch again it will open right away.

I also cannot zap the PRAM or reset open firmware. When I boot holding command shift p and r the computer boots into safe boot mode??? Do you think that is a sign there is something wrong with my PB?

I have repaired permissions and also ran the apple hardware test. Nothing came up bad when i ran the test.
Any suggestions?? Thanks!

 

[Sogo]

its apple+optoin (alt button)+p+r not command shift+p+r....

 

[bigboy99]

I am running 10.4.4 on a PB 1.67ghz 512MB RAM (last revision)

I get the beachball of death once in a while when doing very simple tasks like opening a new tab in safari or starting a new ichat. The ball lasts for a while. Also once and a while when launch an app it bounces in the dock for a minute. I can force quit and launch again it will open right away.

I also cannot zap the PRAM or reset open firmware. When I boot holding command shift p and r the computer boots into safe boot mode??? Do you think that is a sign there is something wrong with my PB?

I have repaired permissions and also ran the apple hardware test. Nothing came up bad when i ran the test.
Any suggestions?? Thanks!

I sometimes get the wheel for a few seconds when opening a file in Excel. After the first file is opened it doesn't happen on other files.

What does zapping the PRAM/resetting open firmware do?

 

[me_94501]

http://guides.macrumors.com/PRAM sums up PRAM well.