Slowing down

[LR827]

I bought this computer around 2004, and haven't had a problem with it. It seems to be slowing down somewhat. Should I be replacing the battery? Any generic advice?


  Machine Model:   PowerBook G4 15"
  CPU Type:   PowerPC G4  (3.3)
  Number Of CPUs:   1
  CPU Speed:   1 GHz
  L2 Cache (per CPU):   256 KB
  L3 Cache (per CPU):   1 MB
  Memory:   512 MB
  Bus Speed:   133 MHz
  Boot ROM Version:   4.5.3f2

[krissel]

Replace the battery when it doesn't hold enough of a charge to satisfy your needs. It shouldn't be responsible for the slowdown unless it is dropping the CPU usage within your energy settings to conserve power. Have you run it on AC and noticed any difference?

Some of the things you can do are:

Run maintenance programs like Onyx or Cocktail (this clears caches which often cause slowdowns)
Run permissions
Check/repair the hard disk
Turn off any anti-virus
Clean off your desktop

How full is the hard drive?  If you don't have a lot of extra space and swap files or virtual memory is affected it can slow things.

Turn on Activity monitor and under System Memory watch the pagein/outs during usage to see particularly how many pageouts you have. A large number may indicate you don't have enough RAM.
Also watch to see if any particular program is using too much memory.

A more drastic move would be to copy your drive to an external and then back again (using Copy Cloner or SuperDuper). This essentially defrags the disk.  EVen more extensive would be to do an Archive and Install to get a fresh system but I would leave that as a last resort.

[LR827]

Thanks, Krissy.

I mostly run the computer on AC all the time -- rarely use it on battery power alone.

I'll try to follow the steps you've listed, but I may have to check back to learn how to accomplish quite a few of them. I'm so un-knowledgeable in the true-tech areas.

I've gotten pretty facile with the graphics and layouts of book designing (which, along with writing, is what I spend most of my computer time on) (when I'm not working at my day job) and managing my own extremely simple websites.

But I should change my moniker to "Techie Neverbe"...

I'll be back!

Lorraine