Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

anim8ing · Mar 15, 2003, 09:04 AM

Hey there, I am wondering if it is just me, or is my 800 iMac running slow. I've got 1gb of ram in it, and it just feels sluggish at times. It could be the fact that it only has 32mb of vram, but I'm not doing anything that is too graphic intensive (web and such). Maybe Safari is just slow and I think that may be the problem with my web. Also, when I click on the speaker in the menu bar, and try to change the volume, it takes the machine a couple seconds for the slider to move. Does anyone else have this problem ?

Thanks,
Anim8r

HouseSold · Mar 15, 2003, 11:33 AM

Everytime mine (iMac 800) slows down somewhat noticeably (evident in iTunes running with the frame rate feature turned on) I restart and repair permissions and it increases about 20-25 per cent speedwise right away. Not sure why though.

Jerommeke · Mar 15, 2003, 12:18 PM

hey wait my config is slow

see sig

mbryda · Mar 15, 2003, 09:24 PM

How old is your iMac? I have one of the first ones (March 2002), and have upgraed to Jag once it came out. It has 512MB RAM , and seems to suck the ram down compared to my wife's Nov, '02 iBook (which came with Jag).

From a reboot, the Virtual memory will go right up to like 2GB as reported by Top. It's all uphill from there - with a couple apps (Mail, Mozilla, Excel, Word) open it's up over 3GB. I've seen it peak at ~5GB with a few more apps running.

At times it can get quite sluggish, and after doing some preliminary diagnosis, it appears as if something is sucking the RAM out of this computer like crazy. Usually a logout will help, other times a reboot is needed.

Also, I seem to have some weird instability issues that don't plague the wife's iBook - for example, sometimes on waking from sleep, the mouse/keyboard will lock up until you unplug and then replug them. Other times the stability isn't the greatest - the Wife gets ~ 20-30 days on her iBook before a reobot, while my average on the iMac is ~10 days....

I guess what I'm getting at here is that maybe early iMacs with 10.2.3 from the factory had a bad OS load (I think I read that somewhere) and that upgrading to Jag somehow didn't fix it or made it worse. I'm thinking of doing a format/reinstall to try to fix it, but cringe at the thought.

Maybe someone else with a similar config can chime in and give us a performance assessment?

dru · Mar 18, 2003, 10:06 AM

Also, I seem to have some weird instability issues that don't plague the wife's iBook - for example, sometimes on waking from sleep, the mouse/keyboard will lock up until you unplug and then replug them.

Early 800 here as well. I've seen the locked up mouse/keyboard too coming out of sleep. But I've not see plugging/replugging helping. I've had to hold down the powerbutton and do a very unpleasant hard restart. I've never noticed a pattern. I'm on X.2.4 now. FWIW, I use a USB Logitech optical plugged directly into the iMac (not via keyboard hub).

mbryda · Mar 18, 2003, 10:33 AM

Interesting. I called Apple about it a while ago and we did some things and it worked for a little bit and then nothing. The person I spoke with said if it kept going I could call back and get a new keyboard. Havn't had a chance to do that yet.

Question: Have you done the format/reinstall on your iMac to get to 10.2.4? Or did you upgrade?

Thanks!

JasonBourne · Mar 21, 2003, 12:09 AM

Originally posted by dru:
Early 800 here as well. I've seen the locked up mouse/keyboard too coming out of sleep. But I've not see plugging/replugging helping. I've had to hold down the powerbutton and do a very unpleasant hard restart. I've never noticed a pattern. I'm on X.2.4 now. FWIW, I use a USB Logitech optical plugged directly into the iMac (not via keyboard hub).

I also got the original 800 iMac. I notice same problem here. Mine got better after I uninstalled the Norton Internet Security and optical mouse from Microsoft. Sorry I havent notice any slowdown. If I'm running the konfabulator and open a lot of widget and I notice major slowdown.. thats it.

D'Espice · Mar 21, 2003, 05:59 AM

Originally posted by anim8ing:
Hey there, I am wondering if it is just me, or is my 800 iMac running slow. I've got 1gb of ram in it, and it just feels sluggish at times. It could be the fact that it only has 32mb of vram, but I'm not doing anything that is too graphic intensive (web and such). Maybe Safari is just slow and I think that may be the problem with my web. Also, when I click on the speaker in the menu bar, and try to change the volume, it takes the machine a couple seconds for the slider to move. Does anyone else have this problem ?

Thanks,
Anim8r

That's not normal. Maybe there's like some kinda of backup process causing a high CPU load, like Konfabulator or whatever. In order to determine which app that might be, open Terminal and run "top -u".

beb · Mar 23, 2003, 12:43 AM

Well, compared to the mirror doors dual G4 1Ghz at work -yeah it seems a tad on the slow side.

My iMac was made in April or May of last year. I don't know what that has to do with it.

I love the new 17'' iMac, I want it really badly but I'm going to wait for a 970 powered iMac.

I don't think that a 970 iMac with 10.3 will be slow. I just don't want to have to wait until 2008 to get it.

TomHMeredith · Mar 28, 2003, 05:48 AM

I have formatted my HD and reinstalled Jag, but ut made no difference, can go really slow sometimes.

The worst is minimising iTunes for some reason, can take up to 30sec.

Tom

Simon · Mar 28, 2003, 06:36 AM

Originally posted by TomHMeredith:
I have formatted my HD and reinstalled Jag, but ut made no difference, can go really slow sometimes.

The worst is minimising iTunes for some reason, can take up to 30sec.

Tom

That can't be normal.

Have you tried removing third-party RAM (if any)?

Simon · Mar 28, 2003, 06:41 AM

Originally posted by beb:
I love the new 17'' iMac,

Yep. I have had mine now for about two months and it is absolutely wonderful. It must be one of the best computers I've ever owned.

I want it really badly but I'm going to wait for a 970 powered iMac.

The moment a 970 iMac comes out, I'll buy it. I can't wait for the next large iMac leap. I remeber what a feeling it was when I saw the first 17" iMac.

I don't think that a 970 iMac with 10.3 will be slow. I just don't want to have to wait until 2008 to get it.

I can't imagine that it would be slow. Why should it? My 1GHz G4 iMac is already very fast running Jaguar. Unless Apple completely screws up 10.3 it should be very fast. And let's be honest, even is 10.0 was far from perfect and even if some people didn't like paying for $129 for Jaguar, Apple has definitely made every 10.x release a lot better and more efficient than it's predecessor.

I'd guess Apple will wait 6-12 months from the day they get the 970 in PowerMacs until they put it into the iMac. But that's just my vague guess.

TomHMeredith · Mar 28, 2003, 04:29 PM

Simon

No, I haven't tried removing m third party RAM, I normally find that logging out, then back in will solve the problem.

Tom.

Simon · Mar 28, 2003, 09:21 PM

Originally posted by TomHMeredith:
No, I haven't tried removing m third party RAM, I normally find that logging out, then back in will solve the problem.

Tom, now that sounds more like a wacko system. Have you repaired pemissions? Have you done a fsck?

If yes, I'd try doing this:

1. backup to an external disk
2. format and zero the internal disk
3. re-install a fresh jaguar from cd
4. cleanly re-install my apps and douments
5. slowly copy back files in ~/Library/Preferences/ from backup
6. as soon as it starts lagging you know what files are involved. Go back, get them out.

im_noahselby · Mar 30, 2003, 05:13 AM

Originally posted by anim8ing:
Hey there, I am wondering if it is just me, or is my 800 iMac running slow. I've got 1gb of ram in it, and it just feels sluggish at times. It could be the fact that it only has 32mb of vram, but I'm not doing anything that is too graphic intensive (web and such). Maybe Safari is just slow and I think that may be the problem with my web. Also, when I click on the speaker in the menu bar, and try to change the volume, it takes the machine a couple seconds for the slider to move. Does anyone else have this problem ?

Thanks,
Anim8r

I think the iMac 800 has held up remarkably well for a one year old computer. People screamed for a G4 when the iMacs were first introduced and Apple gave us one in the iMac at 800Mhz. I don't think we could have asked for any more. Apple pleasently surprised us all, and now we have a computer that should serve us all for many years to come.

I've found in the past that doing a clean OS install, restarting the computer on occasion and using more RAM generally imporves system wide performance dramatically.

Just my 2�

Noah

mbryda · Mar 30, 2003, 08:15 AM

Finally did it a couple days ago. Came home after work and the computer locked when exiting sleep. I'm talking HARD LOCK - had to reboot. Said "that's it, I'm formatting and reinstalling".

Well, it's the best thing I've ever done - the iMac now feels a ton faster (less RAM wasted), more stable (no locking mouse/KB after waking from sleep), and all around about a 1000x better computer. All around, probably the best thing I've done for my iMac. Now I'm hoping to have stability like my wife's iBook (30+ days)

For those having issues, I'd strongly reccomend biting the bullet (like me) and formatting/reinstall.

eddiecatflap · Apr 1, 2003, 03:04 AM

..or run macjanitor.

..i run it every nite before shutting down and my imac 800 runs very nice..

mbryda · Apr 1, 2003, 06:21 AM

Tried that and also left (and do leave) my iMac on 24/7 so the scripts should have been running as well.

Simon · Apr 1, 2003, 06:35 AM

Originally posted by mbryda:
Tried that and also left (and do leave) my iMac on 24/7 so the scripts should have been running as well.

JFYI if you have Jaguar and you don't run your Mac 24/7 you still don't need MacJanitor. Just open a terminal and do a:

% sudo periodic daily
% sudo periodic weekly
% sudo periodic monthly

to have the scripts done that would otherwise have been done in the middle of the night.

To see what has been done try a:

% more /var/log/daily.out
% more /var/log/weekly.out
% more /var/log/monthly.out

Also, to just check if the scripts have ran in the night check the time/date of the output files:

% ls -l /var/log/ | grep ly.out

or equivelently

% ls -l /var/log/*ly.out

or if you are minimalist:

% ls -l /var/log/ | grep ly.out | awk '{print $6,$7,$8,$9}'

HTH.

drcarl · Apr 2, 2003, 12:51 AM

Wow! I just checked when my iMac last ran its periodic scripts. The last daily was 3 weeks ago; last weekly was 4 months ago, last monthly was...never!

I leave my mac on 24-7. Evidently, the scripts don't run when the machine is sleeping and/or when no one is logged in (I always log-out). Personally haven't noticed a significant slow down on my 800 iMac. Ran all 3 scripts and we'll see if performance increases.

Simon · Apr 2, 2003, 02:57 AM

Originally posted by drcarl:
I leave my mac on 24-7. Evidently, the scripts don't run when the machine is sleeping and/or when no one is logged in (I always log-out). Personally haven't noticed a significant slow down on my 800 iMac. Ran all 3 scripts and we'll see if performance increases.

Well, the scripts (they are ran by root, not by a user) do indeed run if nobody is logged in (they ran this night on my home machine even though nobody was logged in - just checked that), but they don't run if your Mac is in deep sleep. Just keep in mind that even if you don't put it to deep sleep manually it could fall asleep by itself after enough idle time (check energy saver prefs).

HTH.

daimoni · 01:26 PM

.