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wobbly · Jun 10, 2009, 11:15 PM

Been running 10.5.6 on an iMac 2.4 Ghz, core duo with 2 Gb ram. Everything has worked great since I purchased it last summer.

Since installing boot camp, however, when I boot back into OS X I've found that performance is really sluggish. Applications that used to take 1- 2 seconds now take 1 - 2 minutes to load! I've uninstalled/deleted Macfusion/NTFS preferences from the system preferences as I've heard these can cause huge slow downs. I've verified and repaired permissions, restarted multiple times, reset PRAM, etc. Ran all the maintenance lists on Onyx, but the system is so slow. I created a second account and the problems persist. I've also rebuilt the spotlight directory in case it got corrupted.

I searched and couldn't find anything about this. Anyone have similar problem or solution? It is driving me crazy. thanks

Big Mac · Jun 11, 2009, 12:00 AM

You've done a lot of good troubleshooting. Have you tried taking out third party RAM? What about trying a different hard drive (or doing an Erase and Install)? It sounds like either RAM or hard drive at fault.

wobbly · Jun 11, 2009, 12:51 PM

Originally Posted by Big Mac

You've done a lot of good troubleshooting. Have you tried taking out third party RAM? What about trying a different hard drive (or doing an Erase and Install)? It sounds like either RAM or hard drive at fault.

No, the RAM is original from Apple, not third party. But I haven't checked it. It was 1Gb not 2, my mistake.

Haven't tried a different hard drive.

Further observation of the symptoms/history:

Installed boot camp strictly to play games. The decrease in OS X 10.5.6 performance gradually started to appear after a few weeks playing games/booting back and forth. What is interesting is that when I boot back into OS X the system is very sluggish, but after an hour or so it is mostly normal. When I first start firefox after reboot it takes maybe 2 minutes of bouncing before starting, then if I quit and reload it seems faster. Every application is like this, so that after say the 3rd or 4th time quitting it will load mostly normal (almost same time to load as before I started using boot camp). Weird.

TheoCryst · Jun 11, 2009, 03:50 PM

Here's an interesting one: how much free space is there on your Mac partition? If you're running dangerously low (less than a few gigs), the disk might be thrashing extra hard. OS X needs breathing room to cache memory to disk, and if there's very little space available, the OS will have to search to find any empty blocks.

wobbly · Jun 11, 2009, 04:22 PM

Originally Posted by TheoCryst

Here's an interesting one: how much free space is there on your Mac partition? If you're running dangerously low (less than a few gigs), the disk might be thrashing extra hard. OS X needs breathing room to cache memory to disk, and if there's very little space available, the OS will have to search to find any empty blocks.

I have about 150 Gb free on OS X partition, 32 Gb devoted to windows, and roughly 45 Gb being used by OS X-related stuff. I don't think it is space.

Big Mac · Jun 11, 2009, 08:27 PM

Try an external startup drive.

ibook_steve · Jun 12, 2009, 12:41 PM

Better recommendation: get more RAM. Only 1 GB? I'm surprised you ever had any decent performance. I don't know how the BC install could possibly affect OS X performance, but 1GB is basically useless and will pull everything else down as virtual memory needs to be used more and more.

Steve

wobbly · Jun 15, 2009, 09:36 PM

Originally Posted by ibook_steve

Better recommendation: get more RAM. Only 1 GB? I'm surprised you ever had any decent performance. I don't know how the BC install could possibly affect OS X performance, but 1GB is basically useless and will pull everything else down as virtual memory needs to be used more and more.

Steve

1 GB isn't useless. As I said, the system ran fine before and now it doesn't.

wobbly · Jun 15, 2009, 09:42 PM

Originally Posted by Big Mac

Try an external startup drive.

Good suggestion! Running from external drive it runs fine. I ran disk utility from install disc and repaired the HD, it said there were a few errors regarding nodes etc. Apparently the disc is fine now as it passes "disk verify".

So I uninstalled Boot Camp but still no luck.

I zeroed the HD/erased it after that. And then cloned the system from a previous backup from an external HD (which runs fine if I boot from the ext. HD). But after all this: erasing/zeroing HD, repairing disk, repair permissions, and cloning a system that runs great on an external HD it still runs very slow! Damn.

Doesn't make sense. Is the HD F-D? If so why does it show S.M.A.R.T. status as ok and also passes disk verification, etc. Thanks again for the suggestions and help!

sek929 · Jun 15, 2009, 10:08 PM

Originally Posted by wobbly

1 GB isn't useless. As I said, the system ran fine before and now it doesn't.

RAM is insanely cheap, and your 2.4 iMac begs for it.

wobbly · Jun 15, 2009, 10:42 PM

Originally Posted by sek929

RAM is insanely cheap, and your 2.4 iMac begs for it.

I agree it is cheap, and thanks for the suggestion I'll consider that. But my computer runs fine off of an external HD so I don't think it's the RAM.

Big Mac · Jun 16, 2009, 11:38 AM

Do you see any odd Console errors, btw?

ibook_steve · Jun 16, 2009, 01:39 PM

Originally Posted by wobbly

I agree it is cheap, and thanks for the suggestion I'll consider that. But my computer runs fine off of an external HD so I don't think it's the RAM.

Just because it ran fine before and now doesn't does not take the RAM out of the equation. You are basically starving the machine by limiting it to only 1 GB of RAM. To run anything, it's going to have to use the hard drive as virtual memory, which is inherently slower than RAM.

As mentioned, you've already done a ton of troubleshooting and not figured out the problem from that troubleshooting. Adding RAM is a simple, affordable solution that should work and solve your problems.

Steve

wobbly · Jun 16, 2009, 08:40 PM

Originally Posted by Big Mac

Do you see any odd Console errors, btw?

no console errors,

started up in verbose mode, looked normal although took forever?

wobbly · Jun 16, 2009, 08:50 PM

Originally Posted by ibook_steve

Just because it ran fine before and now doesn't does not take the RAM out of the equation. You are basically starving the machine by limiting it to only 1 GB of RAM. To run anything, it's going to have to use the hard drive as virtual memory, which is inherently slower than RAM.

As mentioned, you've already done a ton of troubleshooting and not figured out the problem from that troubleshooting. Adding RAM is a simple, affordable solution that should work and solve your problems.

Steve

Sorry, I guess I am not being clear. Running from internal drive = very slow, running from external drive = normal. To me that does not suggest a RAM issue. I disagree that in this case adding RAM is an affordable solution. The system right now runs perfectly fine from an external drive (cloned from the slow internal drive). If the system were starved of RAM then running from the external drive should also be slow but it is not. But I appreciate the advice.

In fact booting from the external HD that runs fast (again running on a clone of the slow internal drive) and then using Disk Warrior, the program found that the internal drive is beyond repair and there are a number of mechanical problems with the disk . The "smart" status still says it's fine. Anyway i guess that was the problem and it makes a bit more sense. Disk warrior couldn't rebuild certain parts of the directories/structures etc. due to mechanical problems with the disk. Back to apple to get them to replace it, fortunately it's under warranty.

The puzzling part of this is the symptoms started only after using Boot Camp to play games and I thought the two were related. I'm still not convinced it's not, but in any case I think a bad HD makes sense with the symptoms.