Slow G4

zeke_mo

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My dad has a powerbook G4 15" screen, with the newest OS updates, and it is really slow when booting and while running applications, he has 1GB of RAM in it, the hard drive is a 60 GB and have only 6 GB left, so would a cleanup help it or could it be something else?

Thank for the help
 
this is impossible??! its a Mac, nothing slows those down! but yeah i would try a cleanup and maybe a norton check up is in order
 
Quite a few things can slow them down actually, and Norton? really?

Zeke, a clean-up will likely help a bit, can you give more information on what's being slow?

I recently had a problem where the machine would boot fast as usual, but take about 2 minutes to actually provide me with any icons or finder windows, this was caused by the 2005-001 security update, a re-install cured it. I'd make sure that:

1. There aren't any unnecessary applications launching at boot time.
2. The o/s is completely up to date.

also repairing the drive permissions (Via /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app) and running Onyx to clear caches/optimise etc, can never really harm.

Like I say though, a bit more info would help pin-point the problem.
 
Like you said, when it boots it just sits there and loads. I look in the startup folder and had no idea what anything was(im a PC guy) so i didnt touch anything. Ill try out onyx and see how that goes. Thanks
 
Run a simple:

ps auxwww

in Terminal and paste the output in a [ code ] [ / code ] box here, and i can take a look at it. Also, in Terminal, type:

top

followed by "q", then grab the top part of the thing, which should include the vmsize.
 
X-Istence said:
Run a simple:

ps auxwww

in Terminal and paste the output in a [ code ] [ / code ] box here, and i can take a look at it. Also, in Terminal, type:

top

followed by "q", then grab the top part of the thing, which should include the vmsize.


Ah wha?
 
Macintosh HD -> Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal

This should open something that looks like a command prompt on Windows.

type in:

ps auxwww

then, scroll up, and select, then hit Apple + c to copy, then paste it into the quick-reply box, and put the code tags around it.

Then in that same window, type:

top

then once top has started, you should see a ton of interesting numbers, compare it to windows's task manager. Now drag the area you want, which is the first line of top, to the line that says VM: as the beginning word.

Copy and paste into the quick-reply box, and then put code tags around that as well.
 
Code:
USER     PID %CPU %MEM      VSZ    RSS  TT  STAT STARTED      TIME COMMAND
hersey   415   8.3  4.6   390308  48060  ??  S     8:38PM   4:57.16 /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin -psn_0_3801089
hersey   274   0.4  0.2   134156   2128  ??  S     8:05PM   0:27.95 /Library/CFMSupport/MFSButton Monitor /Library/CFMSupport/MFSButton Monitor -psn_0_917505
root      81   0.0  0.0    18092    212  ??  Ss    8:05PM   0:00.07 /usr/sbin/syslogd -s -m 0
root      87   0.0  0.2    28992   1944  ??  Ss    8:05PM   0:05.67 kextd
root      90   0.0  0.1    27888    972  ??  Ss    8:05PM   0:00.46 /usr/sbin/diskarbitrationd
root      95   0.0  0.0    18676    264  ??  Ss    8:05PM   0:00.15 /usr/sbin/notifyd
root     119   0.0  0.0    27480    348  ??  Ss    8:05PM   0:00.37 netinfod -s local
root     121   0.0  0.0    18056    124  ??  Ss    8:05PM   0:01.65 update
root     125   0.0  0.0    18080    132  ??  Ss    8:05PM   0:00.00 dynamic_pager -F /private/var/vm/swapfile
root     128   0.0  0.2    54300   1976  ??  S     8:05PM   0:00.48 /usr/sbin/blued
root     148   0.0  1.3    50784  13460  ??  Ss    8:05PM   0:01.70 /System/Library/CoreServices/coreservicesd
root     152   0.0  0.1    27752    692  ??  Ss    8:05PM   0:00.50 /usr/sbin/distnoted
root     167   0.0  0.1    28900   1240  ??  Ss    8:05PM   0:00.25 /System/Library/CoreServices/SecurityServer -X
nobody   171   0.0  0.1    27968    816  ??  Ss    8:05PM   0:00.05 /usr/sbin/mDNSResponder
root     173   0.0  0.0    27612    188  ??  Ss    8:05PM   0:00.03 cron
root     175   0.0  0.0    28288    432  ??  Ss    8:05PM   0:00.01 /usr/sbin/KernelEventAgent
hersey   182   0.0  2.3   195260  24152  ??  Ss    8:05PM   1:51.89 /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Frameworks/CoreGraphics.framework/Resources/WindowServer -daemon
daemon   183   0.0  0.6   103280   6556  ??  Ss    8:05PM   0:02.79 /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Frameworks/ATS.framework/Support/ATSServer
root     184   0.0  0.0    27336    396  ??  S     8:05PM   0:00.02 /usr/libexec/ioupsd
hersey   188   0.0  0.5   150080   5536  ??  Ss    8:05PM   0:02.00 /System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app/Contents/MacOS/loginwindow console
root     192   0.0  0.2    31292   2412  ??  Ss    8:05PM   0:00.42 /usr/sbin/DirectoryService
root     195   0.0  0.2   135308   2312  ??  S     8:05PM   0:00.34 /Library/StartupItems/Tablet/TabletDriver.app/Contents/MacOS/TabletDriver -psn_0_262145
root     197   0.0  0.2    29944   2088  ??  Ss    8:05PM   0:00.92 /usr/sbin/configd
root     198   0.0  0.2    54280   1912  ??  S     8:05PM   0:00.16 /usr/sbin/blued
hersey   208   0.0  0.2    46368   1728  ??  Ss    8:05PM   0:00.31 /System/Library/CoreServices/pbs
hersey   212   0.0  0.3   142108   3044  ??  S     8:05PM   0:03.58 /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/MacOS/Dock -psn_0_524289
hersey   213   0.0  0.6   165008   6420  ??  S     8:05PM   0:02.33 /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemUIServer.app/Contents/MacOS/SystemUIServer -psn_0_655361
hersey   214   0.0  1.8   194900  18736  ??  S     8:05PM   0:48.11 /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/Finder -psn_0_786433
root     238   0.0  0.0    20120    164  ??  Ss    8:05PM   0:00.01 nfsiod -n 4
root     247   0.0  0.0    18120    148  ??  Ss    8:05PM   0:00.00 rpc.lockd -w
root     250   0.0  0.1    28976    956  ??  Ss    8:05PM   0:00.00 /usr/sbin/automount -f -m /Network -nsl
root     253   0.0  0.1    28976    928  ??  Ss    8:05PM   0:00.02 /usr/sbin/automount -f -m /automount/Servers -fstab -mnt /private/Network/Servers -m /automount/static -static -mnt /private/automount
root     258   0.0  0.1    29184   1300  ??  Ss    8:05PM   0:00.54 /usr/sbin/lookupd
hersey   275   0.0  0.3   140792   2844  ??  S     8:05PM   0:00.49 /System/Library/CoreServices/System Events.app/Contents/MacOS/System Events -psn_0_1048577
hersey   276   0.0  0.2   135468   2108  ??  S     8:05PM   0:00.09 /Applications/iCal.app/Contents/Resources/iCalAlarmScheduler.app/Contents/MacOS/iCalAlarmScheduler -psn_0_1179649
hersey   278   0.0  0.1   132400   1304  ??  S     8:05PM   0:00.14 /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/Resources/iTunesHelper.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper -psn_0_1441793
hersey   280   0.0  0.4   139316   4596  ??  S     8:05PM   0:03.19 /Library/Printers/hp/HP Communications.app/Contents/MacOS/HP Communications /Library/Printers/hp/HP Communications.app/Contents/MacOS/HP Communications -psn_0_1703937
hersey   285   0.0  0.0    27352    120  ??  Ss    8:05PM   0:00.00 /Library/Printers/hp/pipedaemon.app/Contents/MacOS/pipedaemon -psn_0_1835009
root     309   0.0  0.0    27332    184  ??  Ss    8:06PM   0:00.01 /usr/libexec/crashreporterd
root     331   0.0  0.0    18056    132  ??  Ss    8:06PM   0:00.00 /usr/sbin/postfix-watch
root     332   0.0  0.2    30060   2392  ??  Ss    8:06PM   0:01.10 /usr/sbin/cupsd
hersey   380   0.0  0.2    37176   1800  ??  S     8:12PM   0:00.08 /System/Library/Services/AppleSpell.service/Contents/MacOS/AppleSpell -psn_0_2752513
hersey   446   0.0  0.5   150776   5272  ??  S     9:20PM   0:00.42 /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app/Contents/MacOS/Terminal -psn_0_5373953
root     447   0.0  0.0    27540    496 std  Ss    9:20PM   0:00.04 login -pf hersey
hersey   448   0.0  0.1    18644    748 std  S     9:20PM   0:00.03 -bash
root     449   0.0  0.0    18104    340 std  R+    9:20PM   0:00.00 ps auxwww
root       1   0.0  0.0    18072    304  ??  Ss    8:04PM   0:00.04 /sbin/init 
root       2   0.0  0.0    18608    212  ??  Ss    8:04PM   0:00.34 /sbin/mach_init

Code:
 Processes:  50 total, 2 running, 48 sleeping... 129 threads            21:36:00
Load Avg:  0.67, 0.73, 0.60     CPU usage:  3.6% user, 6.4% sys, 90.0% idle
SharedLibs: num =  120, resident = 36.5M code, 3.23M data, 11.7M LinkEdit
MemRegions: num =  6230, resident = 86.3M + 11.3M private,  101M shared
PhysMem:  86.6M wired,  161M active,  321M inactive,  569M used,  454M free
VM: 4.12G + 81.9M   41998(0) pageins, 1(0) pageouts

PID COMMAND      %CPU   TIME   #TH #PRTS #MREGS RPRVT  RSHRD  RSIZE  VSIZE
  456 firefox-bi   2.7%  4:42.29  10   193   329  29.1M  42.9M  52.0M   367M 
  454 AbiWord      0.0%  0:20.90   1    64   207  7.46M  25.3M  31.4M   192M 
  451 top          9.0%  1:32.92   1    18    26   280K   492K  2.12M  27.1M 
  448 bash         0.0%  0:00.04   1    12    16   148K   948K   748K  18.2M
  447 login        0.0%  0:00.04   1    13    38   124K   500K   496K  26.9M
  446 Terminal     0.9%  0:25.86   3    62   119  3.27M  14.7M  8.49M   151M 
  380 AppleSpell   0.0%  0:00.47   1    25    37   712K  1.71M  1.95M  36.3M
  332 cupsd        0.0%  0:01.16   1    11    32  1.74M  1.09M  2.34M  29.4M
  331 postfix-wa   0.0%  0:00.00   1     9    16    52K   404K   132K  17.6M
  309 crashrepor   0.0%  0:00.01   1    35    21    92K   416K   224K  27.2M 
  285 pipedaemon   0.0%  0:00.00   1     9    18   100K   432K   120K  26.7M
  280 HP Communi   0.0%  0:04.23   4    92    98   996K  7.05M  4.49M   136M
  278 iTunesHelp   0.0%  0:00.14   1    49    49   364K  3.06M  1.27M   129M
  276 iCalAlarmS   0.0%  0:00.09   1    59    53   580K  1.62M  2.06M   132M
  275 System Eve   0.0%  0:00.51   1    57    68  1.01M  3.58M  2.78M   137M
  274 MFSButton    0.0%  0:35.36   1    50    77   804K  3.94M  2.13M   131M
 
netRyder: There are a ton of differences though.

There is no /home or /usr/home but rather there is /Users/ also everything seems to be missing under /var, and that is also a symlink elsewhere. Subtle differences, but still a BSD core underneath which makes it a pleasure to use.
 
In System Prefs --> Energy Saver --> Options

Is is set to High or Low performance? :lick:
 
X-Istence said:
netRyder: There are a ton of differences though.

There is no /home or /usr/home but rather there is /Users/ also everything seems to be missing under /var, and that is also a symlink elsewhere. Subtle differences, but still a BSD core underneath which makes it a pleasure to use.

Did i post everything that you needed?
 
Scooter said:
In System Prefs --> Energy Saver --> Options

Is is set to High or Low performance? :lick:

Heh, yeah its set to highest. Any other ideas?
 
I guess as an extreme-ish /simple solution, backup all your data onto DVD/CD/whatever then wipe your hard drive and reinstall OSX.

It may just be that your hard drive has become full of files, caches etc that aren't needed anymore and that wiping the HD is all it needs.

Note : While it is fairly easy to do this with Macs, don't unless you totally know what you are doing!! I'm not going to take any blame for you wiping your HD and loosing valuable work :p
 
If you purchased iDisk, use the iBackup utility, or otherwise burn your entire home dir to a CD, and unpack it later, which is also quite viable.
 

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