Yarp
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Road Warrior
|
When I first got my Powerbook, it was *fast*, everything about it was totally snappy, and it was awesome. But, as with every computer I've used, after times, things start to get bogged down, and today, my powerbook, while still very snappy, is quite as fast as it used to be.
So what is it that slows things down? I was thinking it was a combination of the hard drive, the RAM, and caching, but I don't know really WHY it would be those things, they just seemed to make sense. or does your computer not really slow down at all, and it's all a perception based thing? |
quote |
Member
Join Date: May 2004
|
Clear the application caches? (Why/how do they get to needing cleared in the first place? )
|
quote |
25 chars of wasted space.
|
Yeah, after a clean install, it's fast again! Heck, even using a different account you might notice a speed difference.
|
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Chicago
|
Yeah, just what ast3r3x said. A clean install will fix up any problems you might have. Once it starts to slow down, backup and clean install and it'll be like brand new again
Come waste your time with me |
quote |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Chicago
|
Aren't there utilities to clean some of that gunk up? I think one is called Cocktail, but it's been a while. And I think there are others, too.
|
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Chicago
|
Here is a great link with some maintenance stuff you can do. But if you're really noticing that much of a lag, update prebinding, or just do a clean install. You'll be really surprised at how much faster things are.
Come waste your time with me |
quote |
Yarp
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Road Warrior
|
yeah, I know that clean install will speed up a computer, that's not my question though. What exactly happens over the course of general computer use that causes it to slow down in the first place.
edit: after reading through DM's link, I'm still left wonder a bit. So basically most of the typical slow down is caused by inferior application installers that don't play nice with the rest of the computer? Last edited by Wrao : 2004-08-06 at 19:07. |
quote |
25 chars of wasted space.
|
Where is Brad when you need him?
|
quote |
Selfish Heathen
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
|
Quote:
I had started typing up a response, but then I saw that DMB's link covers exactly my points. Basically, don't waste your money on Cocktail when there are free utilities both from Apple and third parties that'll "clean up" just the same. The quality of this board depends on the quality of the posts. The only way to guarantee thoughtful, informative discussion is to write thoughtful, informative posts. AppleNova is not a real-time chat forum. You have time to compose messages and edit them before and after posting. |
|
quote |
Subdued and Medicated
|
I actually wish Apple would have a "reinstall OS" option that would restore only apple software. (not the archive/install option) I would love to erase/reinstall the OS but it would take too much time to reinstall my apps too. Not that I have any problems now, but when I did, I would have used it. I know it is like a necessary evil, but I don't know what apps installed things into the system and which didn't.
|
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
|
Quote:
|
|
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Promise Land of Trustafarians
|
I use MacJanitor . Its from the same guy who brought us Brickhouse. Its free, and seems to work.
Which reminds me... Last edited by Ryan : 2004-08-06 at 20:31. Reason: added something |
quote |
Subdued and Medicated
|
Quote:
|
|
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
|
Er... so what you want is a fresh OS, with zero Apple supplied apps, since those may add things to /System/Library?
Hmmm. I guess your wanting to have it install 'only Apple software' had me confused. |
quote |
25 chars of wasted space.
|
I ran daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. Updated pre-binding. Repaired Permissions. Updated pre-binding. Deleted Caches. Restarted and ran fsck. And now I'm here. It does seem a bit faster. There were 21 things I couldn't update pre-binding for. Maybe I'll try it again next time in single user mode, incase there were dependancies or something of something running...although that doesn't make much sense to me if I understand pre-binding, which I don't really.
Kick, explain that to me. |
quote |
Antimatter Man
Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
|
Some of the things you couldn't update pre-binding for might have been because it was the active startup volume. Same thing used to limit repair under prior OS's. Boot from CD or another FW device and run the utilities on the non-boot volume 'remotely'.
|
quote |
Antimatter Man
Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
|
I went hunting and cleaning one day (primarily to reclaim drivespace, but also as housekeeping) and discovered I'd added dozens of screensavers and found crap in the library from demos I'd deleted long ago. At one point after rebooting into OS 9, I discovered another load of leftovers that had .filenames or .foldernames which were invisible in OS X.
If your drive is nearly full it might account for performance slowdown. Figures vary by drive capacity, but IIRC, if you have less than 15% or <800MB free space, virtual memory will sometimes fail to dynamically clear built up cache from apps, eventually slowing down the machine as it pages and swaps itself into a low disk space warning. |
quote |
Subdued and Medicated
|
Quote:
Third ones a charm. Sorry to hijack the thread. |
|
quote |
Unique Like Everyone Else
|
Quote:
|
|
quote |
Posting Rules | Navigation |
|
Thread Tools | |
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Do you shut down your computer or do you put your computer to sleep? | Quagmire | General Discussion | 47 | 2005-01-09 19:30 |
Girlfriend's new computer | DMBand0026 | General Discussion | 18 | 2004-07-31 09:20 |
Sony announces ultra portable computer. | Quagmire | General Discussion | 7 | 2004-07-09 23:24 |
Converting Hi8 to Computer | Cam'Ron | General Discussion | 1 | 2004-06-17 14:17 |
Patent on computer dating! | staph | AppleOutsider | 10 | 2004-06-01 20:15 |