[thwangy]

I am a Powerbook G4 500mhz 20gig 512 user running a Basically new install of OSX with all of updates within the last month. The following programs open but Run very poorly.

Garage Band:
Initializes and Opens fine but upon playing a single loop I get this warning:"This song has too many tracks, effects, or notes to be played in real-time. To optimize performance, see the 'Optimizing GarageBand performance' page in GarageBand Help"(I am running No programs in the back, and I have tried all optimizing tricks)

iTunes:
Also Running Alone, Songs literally skip, for no apparent reason.

Quicktime:
Plays All codecs poorly, AVI, MPEG's, all stuttered slightly.

DVD Player:
Plays All DVD's with slight stuttering but so very annoying.

Here is the kicker, my brother bought a 400mhz G4 Ti-Book with 512 and all of his apps I named above run like butter.

I alse use an iBreeze Cooling pad to keep the heat down.

Please Someone help me to find out my problem, what a waste of money, this beauty should be running like Smarty Jones.

Once They Go Mac They Never Go Back!

[cmoney]

sounds like there's something running in the background taking up lots of cycles. i've got a 450Mhz cube that can play dvds and mp3s fine. i wouldn't expect garageband to work well though.

try running top from a terminal window and see if anything is hogging cpu time.

[thwangy]

My Brother is running a 400mhz G4 with 512 I am a 500mhz G4 with 512 And he runs Garage Band Beautifully, not to mention the other symptoms I am showing which he has none of. My Activity Monitor looks like a strobe light, showing less process' and than more, so the system is doing a whole bunch of stuff. I am wondering if if is a hardware issue. I'm am pretty ticked. Let Me Know!

Once You Go MAC you Never Go Back

[Mafia]

in activity monitor it should show what is taking up the processor

[Voch]

Check your Energy Saver preference's Options tab and see if you're set to Reduced Processor Performance.

[cmoney]

take your brother's powerbook, put it in firewire target mode and boot up your powerbook from his hard drive. that will let you see if it's a software problem.

if your activity monitor is spiking like you say it is, that correlates with my hypothesis that something is running in the background that's taking up processor cycles. in activity monitor, you can sort the process list by who's taking up more processor cycles. that should give you a hint as to what's going on.

to see if it's a hardware problem, boot up with the hardware test disc and see if anything is wrong.

[thwangy]

Hey Guys you'll never guess what it was that was makin' my 'puter slower than Sandra Dee. APC Powerchute personal addition is the software that is used to help you battery backup, it was messin' up sector permissions on my G3 blue and white until it was un-usable, and I just realized that. I had it installed on my laptop and everything, I just used the original disc to Uninstall it and BAM, DVD Player Is Perfect, Garage Band is Fantastic, iTunes is Godly once again, everything is faster even my wireless network. I would say spread the word, that is one crappy crappy piece of programing. Thanks For All You Input. I am now in a blissful state and will be until the apocalypse.

Once They Go Mac They Never Go Back!

Smileys Are Fun!!

[Mafia]

good to hear.

ya that happened to me once with some crappy software that messes up the system. ended up doing a complete reinstall and fixed. but ya i'd be careful with system affecting software. either way congrats.