[zgall1]

I have a PowerBook G4 that I recently updated to Mac OS 10.5.6. After installing that update, I had 7 additional updates waiting for me in Software Update. I decided to install them all at once (and unfortunately, I do not know what updates they were though I do know that one was a security update). Everything seemed to go smoothly but after restarting, I noticed that my computer took significantly longer to start up. When the system did load, the computer had become essentially unusable. For instance, if I tried to drop down a menu in the Finder, it would take 3 seconds to drop down. Safari took about 30 seconds to load and another 30 seconds to render a page. iTunes just took about 5 minutes to open. When I open Activity Monitor, I see nothing unusual in terms of CPU or memory usage. Has anybody seen this before or does anyone have any troubleshooting steps for me? Thanks.

[Merkava_4]

I'm amazed your G4 will run on 10.5.6. My G4 overheats on 10.4 and in doing so, causes the fans to run all the time. I had to wipe the drive and go back to 10.3.9. The slower processor can't handle that big OS.

[AKcrab]

Originally Posted by Merkava_4 

I'm amazed your G4 will run on 10.5.6. My G4 overheats on 10.4 and in doing so, causes the fans to run all the time. I had to wipe the drive and go back to 10.3.9. The slower processor can't handle that big OS.

Something is wrong with your machine. Not enough RAM, full hard drive, some sort of hardware problem. PowerBook G4's can run 10.5 and 10.4 just fine.

[ibook_steve]

Did you try simply rebooting again? Does the behavior persist?

Steve

[Merkava_4]

Originally Posted by AKcrab 

Something is wrong with your machine. Not enough RAM, full hard drive, some sort of hardware problem. PowerBook G4's can run 10.5 and 10.4 just fine.

Hardware Overview:

Machine Model: PowerBook G4
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (2.1)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 800 MHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB
L3 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB
Memory: 512 MB
Bus Speed: 133 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.3.7f3
Serial Number: QT2241HLLP5

Mount Point : / Capacity : 74.4 GB (79,891,202,048 Bytes)
Format : Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Available : 64.9 GB (69,681,180,672 Bytes)

[Big Mac]

I saw that behavior from my clamshell iBook when its RAM suddenly went bad.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by Merkava_4 

Hardware Overview:

Machine Model: PowerBook G4
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (2.1)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 800 MHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB
L3 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB
Memory: 512 MB
Bus Speed: 133 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.3.7f3
Serial Number: QT2241HLLP5

Mount Point : / Capacity : 74.4 GB (79,891,202,048 Bytes)
Format : Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Available : 64.9 GB (69,681,180,672 Bytes)

Not enough RAM.

10.5, btw, would not install on your machine without some hacking (867 MHz minimum).

[zgall1]

Originally Posted by ibook_steve 

Did you try simply rebooting again? Does the behavior persist?

Steve

I did and the problem persists.

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

I saw that behavior from my clamshell iBook when its RAM suddenly went bad.

This sounds like a possibility. I guess I will try and run the hardware test from the install DVD.

[zgall1]

I forgot to add that it is 1.67 GHz and has 1 GB of RAM.

[paul_edmo]

I have also noticed a significant speed decrease since the 10.5.6 download on my PowerBook G4.

I have got the 1.67ghz PPCG4 with 2GB of ram and the 100GB 7200rpm hard drive, so it isnt exactly the slowest PowerBook in the world

It seems to take a lot longer to boot up than usual, at first I thought it was the new ram (I previously had the Apple 1gb ram in) but after reading this post then possibly not

Once booted it seems to hang for a period of time waiting for the finder and dock to load.

Is this similar to the problems other people are experiencing?

[zgall1]

Originally Posted by paul_edmo 

I have also noticed a significant speed decrease since the 10.5.6 download on my PowerBook G4.

I have got the 1.67ghz PPCG4 with 2GB of ram and the 100GB 7200rpm hard drive, so it isnt exactly the slowest PowerBook in the world

It seems to take a lot longer to boot up than usual, at first I thought it was the new ram (I previously had the Apple 1gb ram in) but after reading this post then possibly not

Once booted it seems to hang for a period of time waiting for the finder and dock to load.

Is this similar to the problems other people are experiencing?

I too have non-Apple RAM but it does not seem that our problems are identical. I can't tell for sure from your post but it seems that you can still use your computer once it starts. Mine is literally 10x slower than it was prior to the update which obviously makes it unusable.

I did manage to track down a Mac OS 10.5 install DVD because I thought it had a hardware test on it (it does not). However, I noticed that when booting from the DVD, there was no slowness. For instance, I can drop down menus and move left to right across them with no slowdown. Does this suggest the problem is not with RAM?

As well, since I have the DVD, I can perform a clean install and archive my old settings. I was just curious though what I will lose if I do this since I can't remember if all settings or just most of them are preserved.

Thanks again for the help so far.

[paul_edmo]

I too have non-Apple RAM but it does not seem that our problems are identical. I can't tell for sure from your post but it seems that you can still use your computer once it starts.

yeh i can still use my computer once it has started up, but it is incredibly slow to do anything.

I have gone from a 53 second start up with 1gb of ram to almost 2 minutes to start up with 1gb ram after this update. it takes 1:38 to boot with 2gb of ram.

Maybe Apple have made 10.5.6 quite hefty and these older machines cannot cope with it?

The quest for answers shall continue. I have emailed Apple asking them if there is a problem with PowerPc Hardware and this latest update. I will post as soon as I hear anything.

[paul_edmo]

I too have non-Apple RAM but it does not seem that our problems are identical. I can't tell for sure from your post but it seems that you can still use your computer once it starts.

yeh i can still use my computer once it has started up, but it is incredibly slow to do anything.

I have gone from a 53 second start up with 1gb of ram to almost 2 minutes to start up with 1gb ram after this update. it takes 1:38 to boot with 2gb of ram.

Maybe Apple have made 10.5.6 quite hefty and these older machines cannot cope with it?

The quest for answers shall continue. I have emailed Apple asking them if there is a problem with PowerPc Hardware and this latest update. I will post as soon as I hear anything.

[zgall1]

Originally Posted by paul_edmo 

Maybe Apple have made 10.5.6 quite hefty and these older machines cannot cope with it?

That doesn't sound right to me. There must be something else wrong. I am going to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store tomorrow and I will let you know what they say.

[amazing]

Here's what you do: Create another plain-vanilla admin user, with no startup items. Login as the user: how long does it take to startup? How does the OS handle? Still beach-balling? How much empty HD space are you allowing? How many gigabytes of icons and files are you keeping on your desktop?

If the above problems go away or get appreciably better, then you know what the problem is.

Also, on my 12" AlPB, I used Onyx to disable dashboard, and also used flash-blockers in all the various browsers. That made everything hugely more enjoyable.

[gentryfunk]

Howdy,

My PB is running fine with a slight slowdown from the previous build (about 3 seconds longer boot time). I do not find any other anomalies.

As an aside, I do like the new Safaria beta; very quick and it has only crashed once! The tab thing is fine with me, although I understand folks complaining about the UI violations!

Thanks,

GF

[DCJ001]

Try disconnecting all peripherals, then reboot. I started having long boot times - five minutes or more on a 2007 MacBook, 4GB RAM. I disconnected all peripherals and my thirty to forty second boot time was restored. When I connected my external hard drive, CD burner, scanner, one at a time, I found that my scanner that was eight years old was beginning to have problems, caused the long boot times.

[bikeboy]

Originally Posted by AKcrab 

Something is wrong with your machine. Not enough RAM, full hard drive, some sort of hardware problem. PowerBook G4's can run 10.5 and 10.4 just fine.

Have to agree. My 12" PB 1.33GHz, 1.25GB RAM runs 10.4 just fine. Great in fact.

[amazing]

My 12" AlPB runs 10.5.6 just fine, about the same as 10.4 (maybe even a tad snappier.)

Here's a link to an article on resolving slow startup: It's still accessible today--

http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?...60131080021235

[zgall1]

Went to the Genius Bar today. They did an Archive and Install of the OS and that fixed the problem. I then installed 10.5.6 but I am hesistant to install the remaining updates as it is likely one of them that caused the problem in the first place.

[paul_edmo]

my powerbook has now become unusable.

trying to type on it today was awful, i would type and then it would type about 1 minute later. it took 5 minutes to launch word 2008 this morning.

I am going to have to go back to tiger, i have to do this anyway as my leopard is an upgrade disk.

i did however get an email back from apple who said they were looking into it as they have had several reports of the same kind of problem.

[paul_edmo]

well after downgrading back to tiger my machine was still awfully slow - not as slow as leopard i might add.

removed the new 2gb ram and put back the original 1gb hynix ram, works a treat! back to a 36 second boot time under tiger.

obviously crucial value ram is not the best choice for powerbook g4 laptops!

good luck to everyone still trying to sort out their laptops!

[amazing]

Thanks for reporting back about the actual problem: bad RAM can happen to any laptop. RAM in my MBP went bad only after a couple months of flawless performance.

Call Crucial and get an exchange--odds are the new RAM will work perfectly.

[bindigok]

Originally Posted by zgall1 

Went to the Genius Bar today. They did an Archive and Install of the OS and that fixed the problem. I then installed 10.5.6 but I am hesistant to install the remaining updates as it is likely one of them that caused the problem in the first place.

For me it was the Quicktime, iLife Media Browser, and other update that came out at the same time. I installed all 3 and my PB G4 crawled. I used Time machine to restore my system to just before the update, and it worked fine. I then waited, and did one of those installs at a time - with a few days between. It seemed to work, I installed all of the updates and my computer runs perfectly - albeit hot. I still don't understand why those updates installed together caused this to happen. Apple has no answer, yet they did chang the updates slightly???

I learned an important lesson, alway force a Time Machine backup before installing any updates.

--bindigok

[Dinan]

Originally Posted by paul_edmo 

I have also noticed a significant speed decrease since the 10.5.6 download on my PowerBook G4.

I have got the 1.67ghz PPCG4 with 2GB of ram and the 100GB 7200rpm hard drive, so it isnt exactly the slowest PowerBook in the world

It seems to take a lot longer to boot up than usual, at first I thought it was the new ram (I previously had the Apple 1gb ram in) but after reading this post then possibly not

Once booted it seems to hang for a period of time waiting for the finder and dock to load.

Is this similar to the problems other people are experiencing?

Did you do a full install or just an upgrade?

I reformatted and did a full install, and 10.5 runs fine on my 1.67ghz, 2gb ram PB G4.