Maintenance

[Claudia]

Hello Everyone!

I have had my iBook G4 for almost a full year now. I haven't run any maintenance programs on my computer except for MacJanitor. But now my computer is super slow, and i can never get rid of those damned beach balls, and many of my programs freeze. I was wondering what FREE maintenance programs are available for Mac OS X Tiger? I am also interested in hearing everybodys different techniques at keeping their Mac on a top notch level, so please share!

P.S
(I have AppleCare and TechToolDeluxe came with it however, all techtooldeluxe does is just make sure that things are running properly it doesnt defrag or anything of that nature).

 

[mad jew]

I don't use any maintenance programs. I just keep at least 8GB of free space on my start up drive and repair permissions every few months or so. In addition to that, I calibrate my iBook's battery once a month or so by letting it completely run flat and then charging it back up again.

That is literally all I do and both my Macs are running extremely well, have been for years, and hopefully will continue to do so for quite some time.

The increased beach ball problem you have could be related to one of three things IMO.

Firstly, how much RAM do you have and is it all being registered (check the About the Mac from the Apple menu)? It's unlikely this is your problem.

Secondly, how much free space does your hard drive have?

Thirdly, go to Activity Monitor and see if there's a single process using an abnormal amount of CPU or RAM.

 

[Claudia]

I don't use any maintenance programs. I just keep at least 8GB of free space on my start up drive and repair permissions every few months or so. In addition to that, I calibrate my iBook's battery once a month or so by letting it completely run flat and then charging it back up again.

That is literally all I do and both my Macs are running extremely well, have been for years, and hopefully will continue to do so for quite some time.

The increased beach ball problem you have could be related to one of three things IMO.

Firstly, how much RAM do you have and is it all being registered (check the About the Mac from the Apple menu)? It's unlikely this is your problem.

Secondly, how much free space does your hard drive have?

Thirdly, go to Activity Monitor and see if there's a single process using an abnormal amount of CPU or RAM.

In regards to RAM I have 1.25 GB DDR SDRAM and i'm running on a 1.33GHz iBook G4. I currently have 25 GB of free space! When I run the activity monitor it says the CPU system is taking up 70% and the user is taking up 20%. When I look in the column that displays the programs I have running, nothing looks like its abnormally taking alot of power, in fact most of it just says 0% and then the one I am using currently (Safari) says its taking 3-4%. So, I don't know why my Mac is running superslow...

I don't use any maintenance programs. I just keep at least 8GB of free space on my start up drive and repair permissions every few months or so. In addition to that, I calibrate my iBook's battery once a month or so by letting it completely run flat and then charging it back up again.

That is literally all I do and both my Macs are running extremely well, have been for years, and hopefully will continue to do so for quite some time.

The increased beach ball problem you have could be related to one of three things IMO.

Firstly, how much RAM do you have and is it all being registered (check the About the Mac from the Apple menu)? It's unlikely this is your problem.

Secondly, how much free space does your hard drive have?

Thirdly, go to Activity Monitor and see if there's a single process using an abnormal amount of CPU or RAM.

 

[JDOG_]

In regards to RAM I have 1.25 GB DDR SDRAM and i'm running on a 1.33GHz iBook G4. I currently have 25 GB of free space!

Sounds like your system is quite capable of most anything bar pro apps.

When I run the activity monitor it says the CPU system is taking up 70% and the user is taking up 20%. When I look in the column that displays the programs I have running, nothing looks like its abnormally taking alot of power, in fact most of it just says 0% and then the one I am using currently (Safari) says its taking 3-4%. So, I don't know why my Mac is running superslow...

That sounds quite unusual and is worth getting checked out by an Apple Genius or calling AppleCare. Anyone else think otherwise or have a better idea?

You dropped the cash on AppleCare, you might as well use it

 

[mad jew]

Claudia, that's not normal. I'd take JDOG_'s advice and get it checked out although they'll probably just tell you to reformat and install. I can't think what the problem would be, sorry.

 

[Heb1228]

In activity monitor, try switching views. Make sure the drop-dwn menu is showing "All Processes" and not just "My Processes." The click on the CPU tab so it sorts all the processes and orders them by CPU usage. You should be able to see which one is taking up your processor usage.

 

[Claudia]

In activity monitor, try switching views. Make sure the drop-dwn menu is showing "All Processes" and not just "My Processes." The click on the CPU tab so it sorts all the processes and orders them by CPU usage. You should be able to see which one is taking up your processor usage.

Vsheildcheck takes anwyhere from 37% to 52% (it fluctuates ALOT and quickly too) and that is followed by Kernel task 21% and everything else is 10% and below, should i turn off my virex? Instead of going to the apple store should i just back up my system and re-install everything? Becuase i have had HORRIBLE service with Apple Geniuses who just end up being uneducated a******es.

 

[~Shard~]

Vsheildcheck takes anwyhere from 37% to 52% (it fluctuates ALOT and quickly too)

I think that's your problem right there - that is definitely not good! Anyone know how to fix this though?

 

[jsw]

You're running Virex with Tiger?

If so, that is bad, bad, BAD. Virex is not compatible unless something has changed VERY recently. Remove it! It's a pain to get rid of, but you will see IMMEDIATE improvement once it's gone.

 

[mad jew]

Yeah, try turning off Virex and see if that helps. I can't think why it's gone bad though. I thought Apple had released a Tiger compatible update.

A clean install would probably fix your problems but hopefully there is an easier solution.

 

[~Shard~]

There you go then - remove Virex and hopefully your problems will be solved! Let us know if it works or not.

 

[Claudia]

There you go then - remove Virex and hopefully your problems will be solved! Let us know if it works or not.

Reporting back: I deleted Virex and there is a slight change but i still see beach balls all the time and there are still abnormally long response times to clicking a button, opening a program, etc. My applications still crash regularly So...should i do a clean install, i guess?

P.S

THANKS for all your help!

 

[~Shard~]

Reporting back: I deleted Virex and there is a slight change but i still see beach balls all the time and there are still abnormally long response times to clicking a button, opening a program, etc. My applications still crash regularly So...should i do a clean install, i guess?

P.S

THANKS for all your help!

Well, for what it's worth, after you uninstalled that program you should do a MacJanitor and Repair Permissions just to make sure. Do that, reboot, do it again, and then see. Don't know if it will help, but it might...

 

[link92]

and what's taking up the CPU in Activity Montior?

 

[Claudia]

and what's taking up the CPU in Activity Montior?

in order:
Window serve 1%-14% (flucates alot)
Activity monitor ~5%-8%
iTunes ~ 4.30%-5.80%

Well I did the macjanitor thing and there are improvements and are more livable than they were before. The lag time still exists when launching programs. Well its sometimes livable, other times it just takes an incredibly long time, however, its not all the time now...Today I have decided to purchase some DVD-Rs to make a backup of everything on my computer and do a nice complete clean install.