[iBook] Extremely Sluggish iBook 700

[Jim Scott]

On Aug 9, 2008, at 8:34 AM, James Phillip wrote:

> Greetings,
>
> I'm trying to help a friend make useful an iBook 700mHz (640MB RAM)  
> G3, but it is just slower than molasses, doing anything. Start-up  
> will take 10 or more minutes, launching any app will take minutes.  
> I've done several clean installs, both 10.3.9 and 10.4.11, but  
> nothing seems to help. I haven't added any additional apps, just  
> trying to get the base machine with only Apple apps to perform  
> reasonably for now. I've switched out RAM with new RAM from OWC.  
> Disk repair shows No Problems, Tech Tool Deluxe and Disk Warrior  
> find no problems. I've reset the nvram, but I'm stymied. Any ideas  
> or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
>
> TIA,
>
> Jim Lubek
> Helena, MT

Here's a bunch of ideas, in no particular order:

Download Applejack (make sure you install the Memtest option), then  
run Applejack and Memtest.

If your friend has the original install disks, run Apple Hardware Test  
for iBook (1.2.3 or 1.2.4).

Also boot from an OS 9.1 or 9.2 disk and use Disk Utility to check for  
bad sectors. I suspect your slowness can be attributed to the hard  
drive, especially if the iBook runs acceptably off the optical drive.  
It's a lot of work, but a newer 5400 rpm hard drive can make a world  
of difference.

If none of the above helps, try booting and running off an external  
hard drive and/or external optical drive via firewire.

Will it run OK in Safe Mode?

Any hints from the screen when you boot using Verbose Mode?

Any video chip issues in the machine's past that may have been  
"solved" by someone trying to reflow the ball grid array and  
inadvertently nuking something else on the logic board?

HTH,

Jim Scott