Why has my new iBook slowed down?

[sjcaguy]

I've had my new G4 iBook for a few weeks now, and I just noticed that it has slowed down in terms of its ability to render graphics in a game.

The first night I had the computer, I played Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 for a while and the graphics were remarkably smooth and didn't hitch at all. Tonight I opened the game for the first time in a while and noticed that the graphics don't display as smoothly and there are occasional hitches.

I repair permissions after each software install and run MacJanitor.

What happened?

 

[mrjamin]

too much other stuff running in the background? APE? Widgets?

 

[sjcaguy]

Originally posted by mrjamin
APE? Widgets?

???

how do i know if stuff is running in the background?

i tried doing a restart and closing other open apps, if that's what you're asking about.

 

[OutThere]

There are a few things that you can do to clean up your system. Do the periodical maintenance from the terminal:
type in and press enter, then wait:

periodic monthly

(wait until you get a new prompt)

periodic weekly

(wait until new prompt)

periodic daily

(wait until new prompt)

after this you will have cleaned up a lot of stuff. Quit all the applications that you have running, then go into the activity monitor (Applications -> Utilities -> Activity Monitor) and sort the list of processes by how much processor use they are using. Then see if there is anything using lot's of CPU power.

The top few items should include (in no specific order):

The Dock
Activity Monitor
kernel task
System UI server
Window Server

if there is anything that isn't on this list that is using a lot of CPU power then you have found your culprit. If it doesn't have an icon in the far left column then don't touch it, otherwise, if you recognize it's name then feel free to stop the process from the button at the top of the window. Chances are you are running some process that is watching for something to happen, such as an antivirus program, or a disk utility. Whenever this app is watching what is going on, it uses some CPU power. Report back if you have any luck! Hope this helped.