[servo]

My system seems to be really slow lately. Even after a fresh reboot after I open a few apps things just seem to lag.
I've got a 12" PB G4 867 MHz. with 768 MB RAM.

There do not seem to be any rogue processes or anything running. Repairing disk permissions does not help. Can anyone recommend any applications that may help me figure out what the problem is and/or optimize my drive?

[drainyoo]

Run DIsk Utility from the OSX disc and repair the drive.

Then Download an app called MacJanitor and run it ever few days.

Heres some info one it.

http://personalpages.tds.net/~brian_...acjanitor.html


Also, how much RAM are you running?

[whop]

wow, i was having the same problem, i have a 15" pb with 867, and 1ghz of ram, it doesnt seem to have the "pep" it used to. i do run disk utility all the time...but i will give this janitor thing a try.

[jocker]

I found that my powerbook 17" was so slow I had stuck it on ebay in order to buy an imac g5. Running top on the terminal didn't give anything away. Just as bidding began I did the following just 'to see'

I Opened Utilities... Activity Monitor to see if there was any process which was constantly hogging my CPU.

I found that the Finder on my Powerbook 17" was constantly using 70% of CPU, despite restarting etc!! Granted I had installed a lot of apps, additions, extensions etc.

Anyway, after a re-install, and only installing the apps I truly needed (rather than everything i could get my hands on) the system is once again lightning fast.

Granted it took a few hours to backup, re-install and get back to where I was, but it was a lot cheaper than a new mac.

Give that a whirl, in addition to all the disk utility stuff mentioned above.

[siflippant]

I've found Diskwarrior to be really useful for opimisation too... combined with repairing permissions, Macjanitor and Diskwarrior my 15" Powerbook DOES run as fast as a fresh install... (I've reinstalled a couple of times in the 2 years that I've had it to know it is AS fast, but for those people who don't think so, fair enough)...

[jocker]

Hey I wasn't intimating that doing a fresh install was necessary!! Perhaps I was misunderstood.

I was suggesting open Activity Monitor, and just see if any process if hogging up your CPU. Installing haxies and the like will often bloat the Finder, causing it to hog CPU. If this is the case, running a disk utility tool will not work as it is some of kind of haxie/extension which is consuming CPU, not the fact that your drive is fragmented etc.

If everything seems normal, then go ahead and do some disk utility tools. However, Panther has built in defragmentation anyway when idle, so surely you should never need to defrag your drive - in theory

Also - I installed a 7200rpm Hitachi Travelstar 7K60 last week, that made a massive difference!

[Randman]

Cleaning out Safari's cache (or better yet, deactivating it) and trimming down the autofill info also does wonders for the entire system, if you use it.
Running MacJanitor on a regular basis is good, then Cocktail (especially repairing permissions about every week to 10 days). Then using DiskWarrior on the system once it gets past 35% is my setup.

Oh, and just restarting seems to do the trick every now and then. If all that fails, consider more ram.

[drainyoo]

Originally posted by Randman:
Cleaning out Safari's cache (or better yet, deactivating it) and trimming down the autofill info also does wonders for the entire system, if you use it.
Running MacJanitor on a regular basis is good, then Cocktail (especially repairing permissions about every week to 10 days). Then using DiskWarrior on the system once it gets past 35% is my setup.

Oh, and just restarting seems to do the trick every now and then. If all that fails, consider more ram.

I never used Cocktail before. Does it do that same thing as MacJanitor?

[Fredo]

http://www.macosxcocktail.com/

[drainyoo]

Originally posted by Fredo:
http://www.macosxcocktail.com/

I know what Cocktail does but what I mean is do they both run the same system tasks?

[Randman]

It does more.

[drainyoo]

Originally posted by Randman:
It does more.

So can I replace Cocktail with Macjanitor?

I like all the extra stuff Cocktail has but what I want to know is are the cron scripts that each app runs, the same?

[Randman]

Yes, the cron scripts are the same, though Cocktail offers you a few more options. But for a quick cleanup before tackling any intensive work, MacJanitor works like a champ.

[drainyoo]

Thanks man.