<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; ">Ralph,<DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>I would check the logs in Console.app and see if there are any�repetitive�calls being made related to USB devices. This will usually be in the System.log if I remember correctly.� If you DO see that, try disconnecting the offending USB peripheral and see if that fixes the sluggishness problem.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>I had a scanner once that went flaky.� The symptoms were nearly as you described... sluggish behavior� with no apparent reason.� Looking in the logs showed connection errors for this device occurring every second, constantly.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Michael</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR><DIV><DIV>On May 7, 2007, at 1:35 PM, Ralph wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">I have a "dome base" iMac that's developed a bad case of beach balls. The cursor appears most often when I choose Print... from almost any application. It also often comes up when I choose File > Open... In addition, the machine seems sluggish generally. Here's the configuration:</FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">iMac G4 800 MHz</FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">768 MB RAM (maxed out)</FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">18.24 GB free on 60 GB hard drive</FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">OS X 10.4.9 with latest update</FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Disk Utility sees no problems. Suggestions?</FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Ralph Jones</FONT></DIV> </BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>