[vtgts500kw]

lately the computer has started slowly dieing.

its a last revision G4 with 1.67ghz with 1.5GB ram.

programs take FOREVER to launch, and the whole sytem is blocked up and runs very slow. very very frustrating, especially after using my new iMac at work which is a 2.33ghz quad core, 2gb ram beast.

the powerbook is running at about 70GB capacity off a maximum 76GB

any ideas on what i can do? other than doing a complete re-install? i may do this after a few weeks as i will be on leave and wont be relying on the computer as much for my university work.

i repair permissions every few days.

thanks,
k

[roller]

A couple of things come to mind immediately:

Have you run fsck in single user mode? That could help. (See this: FSCK)
Try booting from your boot disc and running disc utility.
If you have (or have access to) DiskWarrior or Drive Genius, those can be helpful. I swear by DiskWarrior about once a month in my lab on all of my machines (see sig).
You are near capacity, so that can slow things down; although, with 1.5 gigs of RAM, depending on what you are doing, that shouldn't demand much from virtual memory, I wouldn't think.

In the end, back up and reinstall can revive a dying machine. I need to do this on my wife's old iMac, but, like you, dread the idea.

[roller]

Another thought: if you suspect your RAM, you can download a free program called Rember (I think) to test your DIMMs.

[peeb]

The problem is very clear - you do not have enough space free on your hd. Free up at least 15% - your system is having trouble keeping the swap files unfragmented.