[X-Newbies] How to address computer slowness

[Jamie Kahn Genet]

Ross Langmead <rlangmead at whitley.unimelb.edu.au> wrote:

> I'd appreciate advice on how to investigate and address a recent slowing
> down of my PowerBook G4 (15" 1.5GHz), which runs on OS 10.3.9.  For a month
> or so, most functions have become slow, e.g., five to ten seconds opening a
> Word document.
> 
> The only changes I can remember are the installation in March of Tech Tool
> Pro 4 (as a prevention for data loss), and updating Finale 2004 (music
> notation software) to 2005.  Surely TTP doesn't regularly slow things down
> this much.
> 
> My other programs have been there since the PowerBook was new in July 2004 -
> Office X, Endnote, Safari, Virex, Acrobat Reader.
> 
> I have one partition of 80GB, with 50GB still free.
> 
> Are there any other possible causes I can check?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Ross Langmead

I'm assuming since it's a PB, you don't keep it turned on 24/7? If so,
it could well be that OSX isn't having the opportunity to perform
daily/weekly/monthly maintenence. This can often seriously slow things
down after many missed maintenence tasks.

Follow the instructions in the AppleCareKnowledge Base document "Mac OS
X: How to Force Background Maintenance Tasks (Logs and Temporary Items)"
<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107388> to manually run
these maintenance scripts.

You might also check Activity Monitor to see if there's not some rogue
process unnecessarily draining CPU cycles.

Also go through the standard troubleshooting tasks - boot from the OSX
install disc, run Disk Utility to repair disks, repair permissions, then
run Techtool and/or DiskWarrior through it's paces.

As Techtool is still within it's support contract you might try seeing
what MicroMat has to say about this slowness. Some disk utilities
automatic tests running in the background can slow things down.

Regards,
 Jamie Kahn Genet
-- 
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.