[P1] new ibooks... any better re warping & screen marks??

[e.mkeene]

> Hmmm...you are using OS 9 because you noted that you increased the
> memory allocation. Increasing the memory of the computer means that
> your virtual memory allocation may have increased...how much unused
> hard drive space do you have? The only thing I can think of that would
> result in slower saves is that your drive space is getting limited and
> the space left is quite fragmented.

When you have lots of ram, you don't need lots of virtual memory. In OS 
9, the default minimum will be 1MB over your actual Ram amt, ie, if you 
have 640 MB RAM, the min. VM would be 641 MB. Check your Memory control 
panel and see what the actual VM setting is. If it is more than this, 
reset it. It's been a while since I used OS 9 and I don't remember RAM, 
you don't need it any more.

As David suggested, another problem may be your HD space or lack 
thereof. VM reserves its allocation on the HD and does not permit it to 
be used for data storage only for cache storage. In other words, if you 
have 641 MB of VM, 641 MB of HD space is permanently reserved for VM's 
use and is unavailable to you. If your HD says there is 1 GB of storage 
left, you actually have 383 MB os HD space useable. That could 
seriously affect your speed when accessing or saving data because it 
takes much longer to find empty nooks and crannies to stuff the new 
data into.

Some other factors to consider as relevant are how fragmented your 
drive is. If you have a disk optimization utility, run it to check for 
fragmentation. If your files are cut up into many fragments, there's 
your culprit, especially if you have lots of small files cut into 
pieces. If you have Disk Warrior, use it to check the condition of your 
HD directory. If that is out of sorts, it will slow down access time 
significantly.

Finally, you refer to *data heavy* apps. If you could give us more 
information about your specific computer, the OS, RAM, HD size and what 
apps you are referring to plus how large the files are, we could 
probably give you more specific information or suggestions.

When RAM is installed, if something is wrong with the installation, the 
new RAM won't show up in the "About this mac" window. If the 
installation is ok but the RAM is not correct or is defective, you will 
find problems in software behavior. Computer slowdown, especially in 
apps that use a lot of cache space will almost always be caused by 
directory or HD space issues. The fact thatyour problems began with the 
RAM addition lead me to suspect VM, HD space, HD fragmentation.

One suggestion  to help with large or complex file saving will help 
with data storage and directory problems also. When you have worked or 
re-worked a large file or any Adobe file instead of doing a simple 
"save", do a "save as" especially and always for the last save of the 
file. When you do simple saves, the data gets stored in the next 
available block. If it is too large, the remainder goes to the next 
available block, etc. until it is all saved. The NEXT AVAIL BLOCK IS 
NOT ALWAYS THE NEXT SEQUENTIAL BLOCK. The next avail block could be 
clear across the drive and it has to spin around to that place, deposit 
what it can and spin to the next avail block. When you then access the 
file the next tiime, it has to spin around finding all those pieces and 
putting the whole thing back together again. Computer slow down results.

However, if you do a save as, the processor will attempt to save the 
file in as large a single piece as possible which means it will look 
for the largest and most contiguous blocks to store the file in. Faster 
access, slower save in general and extremely slow if HD space is 
scarce. So once you get your HD and directory cleaned up, start 
practicing good storage habits to help keep it that way longer.

Buying a new drive to get more space will solve an immediate problem 
but will not solve the clutter problem on the scrambled drive. If money 
is short and you do not have access to the utility software apps, 
consider getting another HD, formatting it and then open each large 
file and do a "save as" to the new drive. Yes, it will be very time 
consuming but it is much cheaper than buying all the utilities now that 
the drives are so much cheaper. You can pace it a bit by simply doing a 
"save as" the first time you open a file with the new drive installed 
and doing the save as then. The only reason you would have to 
completely do all the save as at one time is if the speed factor was so 
distracting you simply couldn't get any profitable work done until it 
was resolved.

Once all the files are transferred to the new drive and verified, back 
up to CD also for security. Then erase and reformat the old drive and 
set it up as a Mirror back up site and schedule it to be done daily at 
the end of your work period.

To keep these suggestions in perspective, I am writing this from the 
experience of someone who is a total pack rat, has never taken my own 
advice and now am faced with a lot of extra large drives I really HAVE 
TO sit down and clean out. 8?)