slowed iBook

[Steadmuffin]

Hey guys (and ladies),

I bought my iBook G4 about a year ago. Since then, I find that the performance has slowed quite a bit. I thought Macs weren't supposed to slow down and die over time like all the PCs I've had before it, but this thing is really starting to get sluggish. I have the base 512 megs of ram. So my question is, how do I improve the performance and speed of my iBook? Do I need to "defragment the hard drive" or re-install the operating system (things I always did with slow P.O.S. PCs in the past), or do I simply need more ram?

FYI, I don't think my hard drive is the issue. I've got a 60 gig hard drvie with 18 gigs left.

Thanks a million for any advice you may have, I really appreciate it.

 

[mad jew]

You could upgrade the RAM. Also, open up Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder to see if there's a process or application using a lot of your CPU cycles or RAM. OSX defrags the drive on the run and a reinstall shouldn't be necessary at this point.

 

[2nyRiggz]

Indeed...check to see whats running and what you have installed...get more RAM.


Bless

 

[Steadmuffin]

Yeah I think the problem is limewire. Whenever it's open I can't do much else, it eats up memory like nothing else. I think the best solution will be more ram.

Thanks a lot for your help guys

 

[ITASOR]

Yeah I think the problem is limewire. Whenever it's open I can't do much else, it eats up memory like nothing else. I think the best solution will be more ram.

Thanks a lot for your help guys

Yes, Limewire is a real RAM hog.

 

[mad jew]

LimeWire was invented by the Devil as a form of temptation that will appear to work harmoniously and beneficially, but is secretly trying to ruin your life and destroy your soul.

Yeah, it uses up a lot of resources.

 

[thechris69]

Personally, I go to disk utility and verify and repair disk permissions, followed by a restart... it cleans up the harddrive a little bit and should speed things up just a bit... as well get more ram!

 

[dmw007]

A little bit of extra RAM should do wonders for you Steadmuffin.