iTunes performance

riluveriluve
Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
I have an iMAC G4 700mghz with 256k RAM running OS 10.1.5. Basically, I use it just to play iTunes all day and virtually nothing else runs on it.



Some days it runs without a hitch, other days randomly it will pause for 2-3 seconds in the middle of a song.



Is there a way to tweak the performance to avoid this issue - or buy some hardware to make it go away?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 9
    buonrottobuonrotto Posts: 6,368member
    Try observing your system through the Activity Monitor [edit: or whatever it's called in 10.1, process viewer, or something] application, or run "top" from the terminal. It might show some other processes going on that take enough resources to causes some pauses.
  • Reply 2 of 9
    merovingianmerovingian Posts: 436member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Riluve

    I have an iMAC G4 700mghz with 256k RAM running OS 10.1.5.



    With 256k of RAM, no wonder you're having problems. m.
  • Reply 3 of 9
    riluveriluve Posts: 4member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Merovingian

    With 256k of RAM, no wonder you're having problems. m.



    Oh Dude - I guess I was harking back to the old days when 256k meant something. But I mis-typed that - in fact, I have 256M of RAM.
  • Reply 4 of 9
    ipodandimacipodandimac Posts: 3,273member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Riluve

    Oh Dude - I guess I was harking back to the old days when 256k meant something. But I mis-typed that - in fact, I have 256M of RAM.



    MB or KB, thats still not very much
  • Reply 5 of 9
    riluveriluve Posts: 4member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ipodandimac

    MB or KB, thats still not very much





    Really? You are honestly telling me that 256Meg of memory is insufficient to properly run a simple buffer streaming program without process delays?



    This honestly seems irrational considering that, as I mentioned, it is the only process that runs on the entire machine. - If a CD is 700M, then with 256M of system memory, I should be able to buffer nearly 1/3 of the CD at any time - which would give the system about 20 minutes to load the next 4-5 minutes of playback.



    256M seems more than reasonable. The iTunes process should run flawlessly even with 1 or 2 meg of allocated memory.



    To add to my dismay - I am running the music from the hard drive which actually can run 100 times faster than a CD ROM. Go figure.
  • Reply 6 of 9
    wrong robotwrong robot Posts: 3,907member
    ya, my iMac 500 mhz. runs iTunes nearly flawlessly, with 256 RAM



    OS 10.2.8



    I think perhaps you should look into upgrading your OS, jaguar is a huge improvement over 10.1.x and from what I have used so far, panther is a HUGE improvement over jaguar, speedwise of course.
  • Reply 7 of 9
    riluveriluve Posts: 4member
    [
  • Reply 8 of 9
    aquaticaquatic Posts: 5,602member
    10.1.5 is shady but so is 10.2.8. Either get Panther or 10.2.6. iTunes likes to skip in 10.2.8 for no damn reason and I have almost a gig of RAM.



    256 is barely enough to run just OS X, you really NEED 512 with OS X. Seriously. It's 20 or 30 bucks just get some at www.dealram.com
  • Reply 9 of 9
    dmband0026dmband0026 Posts: 2,345member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Aquatic

    10.1.5 is shady but so is 10.2.8. Either get Panther or 10.2.6. iTunes likes to skip in 10.2.8 for no damn reason and I have almost a gig of RAM.



    256 is barely enough to run just OS X, you really NEED 512 with OS X. Seriously. It's 20 or 30 bucks just get some at www.dealram.com



    I'm only running 384mb of ram with OS 10.3.1 and it runs like a dream. I do photoshop, FCP, browsing, e mail, and other things...all at the same time. You do not need 512mb of ram to run OS X. It's just not true. I never had problems with 10.2.8 and skipping audio, unless I was playing a CD. Get Panther. Thats what you need, not more ram, although it wouldn't hurt.
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