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kill bill · Sep 7, 2007, 04:03 PM

So my 2 year old Powerbook is finally doing that slow down thing that computers eventually do. It went strong and hard for 2 years and I'm wondering if there is anything I can do to speed her back up and optimize performance?

I've got about 14gb of free space (I'm not certain about how to check my RAM). What can I do? Is there a defrag or something I can run?

chris v · Sep 7, 2007, 04:22 PM

14 gb should be enough to get by on, but it wouldn't hurt to clear a little drive space. If your virtual memory swap files are getting fragmented, that could slow things down.

How much RAM do you have? Apple menu> About This Mac will bring up a little window with the basic specs of your machine.

mduell · Sep 7, 2007, 04:47 PM

Wipe your hard drive and reinstall the OS and/or buy more RAM.

gangaspeed · Sep 7, 2007, 06:21 PM

"Buying more ram" is contingent on how much ram he has atm.

jamil5454 · Sep 7, 2007, 09:17 PM

An OS wipe and reinstall will make your computer like new again.

kill bill · Sep 8, 2007, 10:55 AM

Originally Posted by jamil5454

An OS wipe and reinstall will make your computer like new again.

will do. How long should something like that take?

EndlessMac · Sep 8, 2007, 11:50 AM

Originally Posted by jamil5454

An OS wipe and reinstall will make your computer like new again.

If his PowerBook is slow because he is using new programs that require a faster processor or more RAM then no a reinstall probably won't help him. Reinstalling the OS can't hurt but I think we need more information before we can give a good recommendation. Reinstalling or freeing up more hard drive space are free solutions so you can definitely give them a try first.

Kill bill go up to the blue apple icon in the top left corner in the menu bar and select 'about this mac' to tell us the specifications of your PowerBook. If your PowerBook is like mine then you'll probably only have 512mb of RAM. More RAM might help especially if your computer is using a lot of virtual memory (your hard drive). What programs do you use mostly? Is your computer slow because of a new program or having you been using the same programs for awhile and your computer has become slow over time?

kill bill · Sep 9, 2007, 01:28 AM

Mmm, ok. Here's my info

OS X Version: 10.4.10
Processor: 1.67 GHz PowerPC G4
Memory: 512 MB DDR SDRAM
Startup Disk: Hard Drive

and my comp has just been generally slowing down as of late. I mainly use Adium, Firefox, Opera, iTunes, VLC, Dashboard, and Mail (seldom ever more than 2 or 3 at a time. I don't think any of those are RAM guzzlers, but I could be wrong.

mfbernstein · Sep 9, 2007, 03:45 AM

'RAM-guzzler' is relative. 512MB _should_ be enough for that set of apps, but Firefox, Dashboard and Mail all can grab large chunks of RAM, depending how long they're open and what they're doing.

Open Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor, and have a look at the Memory section. If the number of page-ins is a substantial percentage of the number of page-outs, it means you don't have enough RAM and are relying on virtual memory to a significant degree.

Regardless, OS X generally does better with more RAM, and 1GB modules are pretty cheap.

Gamoe · Sep 9, 2007, 10:12 PM

I suggest you bump your PowerBook's RAM up to 1 GB at least, but maxing it out wouldn't hurt either. As far as RAM goes, the more the merrier. I always max out the RAM of my main Mac.

kill bill · Sep 9, 2007, 10:46 PM

my page-in/page-out ratio is 68,565/34,833. I suppose that means I have 2x as many and I'd imagine that is substantial, but idk about that stuff.

how do I add more ram? Is there a card bus thing to get or what??

and on a slightly unrelated matter, what's the difference between emptying the trash and secure emptying the trash?

peeb · Sep 9, 2007, 11:12 PM

There is no way that 512 is enough in that machine. I have the same model, it cam with 512, and the first week I got it I put another gig in. Transformed it. First thing to do, put in more ram. It's easy. Get a small crosspoint screwdriver, open a back panel. Very, very easy. iFixit has instructions. Do this right now. Your machine has more life in it for the tasks you are talking about.

Emptying the trash removes the references from the filesystem, secure empty overwrites it with zeros.

peeb · Sep 9, 2007, 11:15 PM

PC2-4200 1 GB RAM Chip (661-3808) - iFixit

This is what you want.

PowerBook G4 Al 15" 1.5/1.67 BT 2.0 LR Disassembly: Installing RAM - PowerBook Parts

These are the instructions for installing.
It will give your machine a new lease of life.

newpwrbook15 · Sep 10, 2007, 12:14 AM

Kill Bill- not trying to hijack your thread. Just have a question similar to yours, because I'm experiencing similar problems...I hope any responses would be helpful to us both...
so my question to the experts...
If Kill Bill were to "wipe" his drive and do a clean install, would he not have to deal with downloading all of his aftermarket apps again, losing all his contacts in address book, ical events, mail, bookmarks, etc etc?
Does reinstalling from a cloned back up obviate these problems? Would potential bugs (like fragmented virtual memory, bad blocks, etc) be recopied back to the virgin OS from the clone? I've been using super duper's smart update for over a year now, and sometimes i wonder if I'm not "gunking up" the clone with copies of a "gunked up" drive...
I'm intrigued by jamil5454's comment An OS wipe and reinstall will make your computer like new again That's what I want!!! But not if I have to re-enter all my address book contacts, etc. etc.
I've read that erasing the hd and restoring from backup is as effective as using a disk optimizer...is this true? Does that mean my clone isn't "gunked" as well?
TidBITS : Optimizing Disks Is a Waste of Time

pb 15" 1.5gHz/1.5gb ram/74gb hd (34gb free)

peeb · Sep 10, 2007, 12:54 AM

Right.
To 'wipe' your system:
1. get a firewire external drive as big as or bigger than your internal.
2. Use SuperDuper to clone your internal drive.
3. Test it, by booting from the external drive.
4. Use your system restore disc to format and reinstall OSX on the internal drive.
5. Use Migration Assistant to restore the things you want (don't select the crap you don't want.
6. ???
7. Profit!

kill bill · Sep 10, 2007, 10:21 PM

Originally Posted by peeb

PC2-4200 1 GB RAM Chip (661-3808) - iFixit

This is what you want.

PowerBook G4 Al 15" 1.5/1.67 BT 2.0 LR Disassembly: Installing RAM - PowerBook Parts

These are the instructions for installing.
It will give your machine a new lease of life.

Wow, that's way easier than I would have imagined. Thanks

gangaspeed · Sep 12, 2007, 10:30 PM

Originally Posted by Gamoe

I suggest you bump your PowerBook's RAM up to 1 GB at least, but maxing it out wouldn't hurt either. As far as RAM goes, the more the merrier. I always max out the RAM of my main Mac.

I may be wrong but, the max amount of RAM possible on a PB is 1GB, anybody else know otherwise?

peeb · Sep 13, 2007, 01:02 AM

It's 2gb on the model the OP has. Earlier models had lower limits.

mduell · Sep 13, 2007, 02:56 AM

All 15" and 17" aluminum PowerBooks (except the first 1.0Ghz 17") support 2GB RAM.

OreoCookie · Sep 13, 2007, 03:23 AM

I wouldn't wipe the machine just yet, especially if you have only 512 MB -- the bare minimum these days. Add the RAM and see if that helps.

gangaspeed · Sep 13, 2007, 10:32 AM

Good thing I left that open lol.

Kyros · Sep 13, 2007, 07:05 PM

Just for reference, my 12" 1.5Ghz PB gained a substantial boost in going from 768 to 1.25 GB ram. The main thing I saw was that having 10 tabs open in Safari didn't make it beachball anymore.

Tipo · Sep 16, 2007, 01:32 PM

I would try putting a little more RAM in... Although it costs money (vs wiping the drive), I think that after you wipe the drive, you might even want to add more RAM anyways, so I'd give it a shot. I've got a 1.5 GHz 15" powerbook that I've had for about three years now; It's got 1 gig of RAM and I haven't noticed any slowdowns at all (and I run most of the same apps the OP mentioned, 2 or 3 at a time, it even runs Photoshop CS2 nicely...)