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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Desktops > G4 400 Running Slow

G4 400 Running Slow
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Chucktr
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Aug 9, 2009, 12:58 PM
 
My old G4 is starting to run at glacial speed. Zap PRAM?

Thanks!
     
Spheric Harlot
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Aug 9, 2009, 01:18 PM
 
Backup the hard drive.

Chances are very good it's dying.
     
Chucktr  (op)
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Aug 9, 2009, 01:28 PM
 
Uh oh. Thet drive is new (8-9 months). Bought it to replace the original which was too small. Not saying that a "new" drive can't fail, but is there another possibility?

Thanks!

BTW, running OS 10.4.11
     
reader50
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Aug 11, 2009, 02:57 AM
 
Open Activity Monitor, sort by CPU usage, tell us if something is hogging. It could be the drive too, like Spheric Harlot says - I've had that exact symptom caused by a dying HD myself.
     
Chucktr  (op)
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Aug 11, 2009, 08:34 AM
 
Will do -- in a few days. Gave up on the damn thing, concentrated on fixing motorcycle and now am 150 miles away and counting.

Thanks for advice!
     
cgc
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Aug 15, 2009, 10:57 AM
 
Same thing happened to my old Sawtooth G4 and it was the HDD. Have you checked your drives S.M.A.R.T. status? Onyx and SmartReporter both do that and are free...
     
Spheric Harlot
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Aug 15, 2009, 11:03 AM
 
So does Disk Utility, and that comes with every machine.
     
cgc
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Aug 15, 2009, 06:46 PM
 
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
So does Disk Utility, and that comes with every machine.
Oh yeah...good point.
     
carterx
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Aug 17, 2009, 09:55 AM
 
I would backup what you need to an external device or Dvd's, get another HD if you can and put that into your G4 then clone the drives or which would be best, just reinstall the OS on the new drive and then transfer over your needed files.

At the very least get your required files backed up.
     
anthology123
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Aug 17, 2009, 04:13 PM
 
try restarting, empty cache files also. Are you using any AV programs? are you getting delays or is everything slow? when waiting, do you hear the hard drive churning away?
     
bballe336
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Aug 17, 2009, 10:44 PM
 
Does it have to be failing hardware? It's a G4 400mhz, they've been slow for the past 5 years. Any sort of modern web browsing would really show the computer's age.
     
MTsett
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Aug 21, 2009, 11:17 PM
 
It could be a lot of things that are making it run slow.
Not necessarily a dying HD.
Yes, it's a very old G4, but there still could be hardware/software issues.
If there is less than 15-20% hard disk space left on your Mac, that could make your Mac run slow.
If you have any disk maintenance utilities on your Mac, you may need to run these if disk maintenance has been neglected. You could have a fragmented HD that needs repairs as the Mac has to spend a lot of time searching for pieces of data for a particular functions/files/applications that has to look all over your drive to piece back together in order for the function/file/app to be recognized and function properly. Making the operation of your Mac slower than molasses
If you do not have enough RAM memory in your Mac, that could make the computer slow.
You do not mention any of your Mac's specs or what OS is running on this Mac?.
OS X needs semi-periodic maintenance of the OS and the hard drive.
Each version of OS X use more and more resources than older versions of OS X, putting more and more strain on older Macs that have not been upgraded enough to handle all of the new OS X features, technologies and newer code.
If your G4 has suddenly been running slower than normal, these could be some of the reasons for the issue.
     
   
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