Processing slowing down

slow learner

Over the last month, I have noticed that the processing on my G4 has slowed considerably and the "spinning wheel of death" is appearing almost daily, although not for long. It happens more frequently when using the internet, but also happens when not logged on.



I have emptied the cache, cleaned out the icons, run ClamXAV with no spyware found. Does anyone have any suggestions?



Also, how do I determine what programs are running? How do I monitor this situation?



PS - I converted from PC two years ago and still haven't mastered what the Mac does and where it stores things.

fuzz_ball

Have you run any of the cleaning utilities? There's one called MacJanitor. Also, do you ever run the Disk Utility to Repair permissions after doing updates?

slow learner

Thanks for suggestion. I did run Disk Utility for permissions after reading about it in forum. I will give MacJanitor a try now.

reg

You can determine which programs are running by looking in the dock and seeing which icons have an arrow under them. The best way to see which ones are using the most CPU is by using Activity Monitor. App/Utilities/Activity Monitor This will show all the activity and %CPU each are using. I keep Activity Monitor in the dock for quick access. If you want a widget that will do the same thing iStat Pro does the same thing. Processes are off when you first download it so you will need to turn it on to see which programs are using the CPU.



I tend to have lots of windows open and Safari is the only one that seems to cause the system to slow down. If I only have a couple of safari windows open there is no problem. Fixing Permissions usually solves my problem. Good luck on solving yours.

fuzz_ball

btw, safari is a hog. If you leave safari running for days it seriously starts to bloat and occasionally pops up the BBOD.

slow learner

I think you're correct on Safari. When I look at the usage graph, doing anything in safari seems to require over 85% of CPU usage.

karelia

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slow Learner


I think you're correct on Safari. When I look at the usage graph, doing anything in safari seems to require over 85% of CPU usage.

Same thing happens at work on our cash register (an iMac G4). It has 768MB of RAM, and Safari, if left alone long enough, will eat up about 500 MB. Quitting and relaunching should clear it up for a while.

teedoff087

If Safari keeps giving you problems, try out Camino or Shiira. They're good, slim, alternative browsers made just for the Mac.

thehellgate911

Alert! Alert! Your computer is dying.



There's nothing you can do about it at this point. Buy a new computer.



The same thing happened to my dad's G4 Cube. Every hard drive he puts in it gets killed by the computer, and the spinning wheel of death comes on alot while surfing the internet. The computer chokes and dies. It's what I like to call "The Black Plague for the Macintosh."



I'm sorry about the bad news. But that's just how it is. Don't try getting new hard drives or anything. The same thing will happen with them.



Your computer is dying.

karelia

Quote:

Originally Posted by thehellgate911


Alert! Alert! Your computer is dying.



There's nothing you can do about it at this point. Buy a new computer.



The same thing happened to my dad's G4 Cube. Every hard drive he puts in it gets killed by the computer, and the spinning wheel of death comes on alot while surfing the internet. The computer chokes and dies. It's what I like to call "The Black Plague for the Macintosh."



I'm sorry about the bad news. But that's just how it is. Don't try getting new hard drives or anything. The same thing will happen with them.



Your computer is dying.

A G4 Cube is a little older than his PowerBook... I assume. Besides, I still have an old PowerBook 140 (16MHz CPU) that works and I keep just for novelty.