[markwm]

This is a bit of rant I guess but lately my macs just aren't doing me any favours. I have a 2.16ghz iMac and a 2ghz macbook both running Leopard. I seem to be having problems/gripes on both machines on a daily basis:

iMac
--------
- Takes an absolute age to reboot, like 5 minutes sometimes
- Sometimes doesn't shut down properly
- Hangs when installing software update
- Takes about 2 mins to re-connect to my wifi network after waking from sleep
- Constantly running out of memory (Safari+Mail = slow mac)
- I have to force quit at least 1 app every single day
- Quitting an app often takes ages
- Opening Safari after a reboot takes like 3 minutes
- Sometimes just doesn't connect to my wifi network despite my macbook being connected fine

I have similar issues on my macbook, more so related to memory issues with Safari. I love Safari but it's just unusable after a while as it makes me machines just crawl. I have 2gb ram on both as well. Both machines need to be rebooted all the time to keep them running smoothly.

I'm just not digging Leopard at all. I don't use any of it's new features, and I'm starting to to 'hate' it. I'm so glad Apple have announced they are going to not add new features to 10.6 but instead to focus of bugs/performance.

[TETENAL]

Step 1.) Disk Utility->Repair Disk (not permissions!) until disk appears to be OK
Step 2.) Archive & Install
Step 3.) Happy Mac user

[markwm]

I've already tried disk repair.

I also have a clean install of tiger(brand new 10.4.11) on the same drive in the imac. I rebooted into it and airport doesn't find or connect to any network at all. My macbook in the same location finds 5.

[bearcatrp]

Go get disk warrior. Fixed my issues on my mac pro.

[ewiser]

Yes these are hard drive issues use disk warrior and Tech tool pro have fixed these issues with my Mac's over the years.
You have tiger and Leopard installed on the same hard drive? Not a good thing to do.

[Chuckit]

I do not believe you're seeing bugs in Leopard since nobody else experiences these problems even though they have identical hardware. The slowness and the trouble with Airport networks is probably unrelated. Airport is often sketchy — on every computer I've used, the number of networks it sees in an area can fluctuate wildly.

As for the slowness, do you have any third-party products running? Are there any messages in Console that might offer a clue?

[chris v]

Originally Posted by markwm 

I've already tried disk repair.

I also have a clean install of tiger(brand new 10.4.11) on the same drive in the imac.

I presume it's on a separate partition? This could be the root of your machine's confusion, if not. I'm not sure how one would have two versions of OS X installed on the same partition at all -- didn't think it was possible.

[TheoCryst]

It also sounds like you may not have much hard drive space left. If you're drive is more than ~80% full, you're going to see some erratic behaviors, including some of the ones you've mentioned.

[ctw]

I have had the slow restart problem (5 minutes or more!) on my 20" aluminum iMac. This has helped get it back to normal:

When you're in the Finder, disconnect all USB devices (except your keyboard/mouse). Restart in verbose mode (command+v). After you get to your desktop, restart in verbose mode again. Once back in the Finder, reconnect all USB devices and restart normally.

This worked for me; your mileage may vary.

Good luck.

[AKcrab]

Originally Posted by ctw 

When you're in the Finder, disconnect all USB devices (except your keyboard/mouse). Restart in verbose mode (command+v). After you get to your desktop, restart in verbose mode again. Once back in the Finder, reconnect all USB devices and restart normally.

This sounds like a bunch of voodoo. I can't think of any reason that this would "fix" anything. Maybe someone else will have an explanation of why this might "do something".

That said.. My mom had an issue with the finder not loading completely, or it was sproding upon login. I tried some remote assistance with no improvement, so she called AppleCare. They had her boot off the install CD.

That's it. She claims no repair permissions, no repair hard drive, no archive and install; simply boot from the CD. When she restarted back off the hard drive, everything was peachy.

Now why would simply booting from the install disk and then rebooting fix anything?

[Thinine]

Backup your important files and do a reformat and reinstall of Leopard on both machine. Immediately update using Software Update. Notice the speed. Start adding back your files and add on programs until you notice it performing like before.

Of course, that assumes you aren't having hardware problems with your Macs or wireless network.

You could also try getting more RAM, that's always good.

[@pplejaxkz]

Originally Posted by TheoCryst 

It also sounds like you may not have much hard drive space left. If you're drive is more than ~80% full, you're going to see some erratic behaviors, including some of the ones you've mentioned.

I agree with TheoCryst. When my Macbook gets down to under a certain amount of hard drive space, I notice things start to crawl. Especially Safari, iTunes and Finder. I would try and look through your files and see what you could back up to another hard drive or even on to DVDs. Free up another 10 Gigs if you can and try and compare performance. This usually helps with my situation. Good luck!