Mini Mac, Maxi problems...

[LooLoo22]

Okay yeah I know it's old, but... my mac mini is from 2006, osX, version 10.4.11. For a while it had gotten really slow, the rainbow spinner was running all the time for everything I did (like typing a name in an email). Finally it crashed - I took it to local best buy who said it needed a new hard drive, which they installed (Seagate Momentus LP 2.5" notebook drive HD5400). So - brand new hard drive, haven't really put anything on it so far - just a couple of photos, so in theory it should be zippin' along fine, but it's not. I'm back to dealing with the damm rainbow spinner popping up and spinning for anywhere from 20-30 seconds to up to 5 minutes requiring total shutdown by unplugging from the wall. WTH? I'm not computer literate - I only use this thing for emails and surfing; at work the tech people take care of my computer so I don't need to know how to fix it. I'm a typical woman - don't know what's under the car's hood and don't WANT to know... is this something wrong w/ the new hard drive or other part of the computer? I'm hesitant to return it to Best Buy - last time they kept it about 2 weeks - thanks for any and all advice from those more knowledgeable than myself...

 

[iAppl3Fan]

They probably put the slowest spinning drive in there so everything you do is slow causing the rainbow wheel. A faster drive at 7200rpm or SSD drive should make it feel like a new computer.

 

[SEGeologist]

There are many aspects to Hard Drive speed other than the 5400 rpm.

You should however see at the moment a regularly running system. Did they explain what occurred with the older drive and why they said a Hard Drive was needed?

If you could locate the store item number that would help other determine if the drive is matched to your system.

 

[Nyy8]

Hmm.. I have to disagree with you there. I've used macs and PCs with 5400 RPM HDDs, and honestly they are NOT that slow where the beach ball would come up every 5 mins. I have to say, I would probably start with an OS upgrade, you said its a mac mini? Here is what the Minis can run as far as OSes go
G4's: 10.5.8
Core Duo's: 10.6
Core 2 duos: 10.7

I would for sure look into upgrading to 10.6 atleast

 

[LooLoo22]

b.t.w., I didn't say the rainbow spinner came up every five minutes, I meant it would SPIN for five minutes. Yes, that's how tied up it gets...

 

[Nyy8]

You said it was a 2006 mac mini? Could you go up to the at the top.. and hit "about this mac" and tell us your "processor" and "Memory".

Also, go to activity Monitor (search it in spotlight) and go to the "memory" tab and take a screenshot of it. (command, shift, 4, then select the area where the memory is and capture it) then upload it to the forums.

 

[LooLoo22]

1.66 GHz Intel Core Duo
Memory 512 MB 667 MHz DDR2

 

[Nyy8]

There's your Problem... You need a RAM Upgrade. 512MB is not enough to even do basic web internet stuff now adays.

Here is a link to the ram you will need:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/mac_mini/intel

Now I would say the most you can get afford get it. You will see a huge difference.

 

[philipma1957]

you need an ssd not more ram. best buy should have sold you an ssd. follow me on this. you have a machine that is really old it can use only 2gb ram without even more upgrades a new cpu. I wish you had asked us first the hdd upgrade that best buy did only helps with more storage. with the small amount of ram you have as soon as you run out of ram the mini goes to the hdd.

your hdd is like a person walking dow the street. ram is like a race car. an ssd is like a normal car.

when they put in the new hdd as soon as you go past the 512mb ram(race car speed) you switch to the hdd (person walking speed) many people say put in 2gb ram the max for your machine so you will stay at race car speed longer before switching to walking speed.

With a machine like yours a ssd of about 128gb size would have been a good choice. you most likely have a 60 or 80 gb drive so you would go up in drive size. you also would have not needed ram since the switch to ssd when you run out of the ram would not be so slow.

best buy tech kind of screwed up in your case. my guess is he did not have the correct ram on hand and jsut sold you an hdd instead. I don't know what to tell you except I owned that machine and even with 2gb ram it could be very slow. I got rid of it before ssds were mainstream.

I would go to best buy with a print out of this thread and ask them why did they not offer ram as an option. they really should have done this. if they say they no longer stock the ram then tell them you will buy the ram from owc and you want them to install it for free. worth a shot.

 

[alotlikehomer]

Even if you go with an SSD, you would still want the RAM upgrade. It is definitely important to have more RAM than that. RAM is so cheap, there is no reason not to max out your machine.