Slow iBook

[sethwerkheiser]

As you can see by my sig I've made the switch about a year ago. My wife and I love our iBook so much we're getting another one this weekend (G4 iBook... woowoo!).

But...

My wife was doing some school work. She had Preview, Apple Works, and Safari open and every now-and-again the computer would just slow to a crawl, to a point where my always-patient wife was like, "Sheesh, it's moving sooo slooow...."

I'm thinking it's because we only have 128meg installed. Any other ideas? Like I said, we're newbie switchers Our IT guy here at work, whenever the Gateway computers are having problems, he just says "run defrag." Is there something like that I should be doing? Hmmmmmmm...

 

[Mord]

the beach ball indicates all your ram is used up so it has to accsess the HD which is slow get some ram and it won't do that

 

[applejack]

Re: slow ibook

Not enough memory! I used my G3 ibook 500 for months with only 128 installed and got sloooow response and beach ball appearance all the time. As soon as I installed more memory (I bit the bullet and put in another 512), my ibook was zipping along like I had never seen before. (Of course now that I've played with my friend's G5, It seems slow again).

My understanding is that defragging is unnecessary (or at least of limited use) in OS X - the OS does this when it "optimizes performance" when you install software, plus it does maintenance overnight to keep the hard drive defragged. But maybe someone with a better understanding can clarify that.

 

[jxyama]

get a stick of 512 (~$140 max.)... it will make your iBook behave like a brand new computer. it'll be the best $140 you will spend...

i recommend: Crucial memory

and

Installation instructions from apple.com

 

[keysersoze]

get a stick of 512 (~$140 max.)... it will make your iBook behave like a brand new computer. it'll be the best $140 you will spend...

I recommend Other World Computing for RAM. Cheap, good customer service, I've never had a problem with their products. Cross check crucial prices with OWC. OWC is at:

www.macsales.com

I have a 512MB stick in my iBook and it was only $107.00