Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

my Intel iMac is slow after being idle (VIDEO INCLUDED)

M. Malone

M. Malone

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 11, 2004
677
2
EDIT: I MAY HAVE FIXED IT, look at my bottom post

ok, I have a 20" intel iMac, 2 Gigs of Ram, 256 Video, but when I leave it idle for 10 minutes or so then come back to use it, it lags for a bit, is this normal? look at the video, you'll hear me say "click" so you know exactly when I asked it to open iChat.

http://web.mac.com/shehabm
 
Have you tried running the Disk Utility and Verify/Repair Disk and Disk Permissions? Do this before you reload as I have the same setup and ichat runs flawless and I also have photoshop running, ftp client, editor, adium, mail, terminal (monitoring server via top) and widgets. I can close ichat now with everything loaded and semi active and it will load ichat way faster then your video.
 
I was joking about the reinstall, people always offer that as the first thing to do around here...

take ^ above's advice, btw, how many bounces for itunes? should be one or so depending on your config.
 
Jericho2550 said:
ok, I have a 20" intel iMac, 2 Gigs of Ram, 256 Video, but when I leave it idle for 10 minutes or so then come back to use it, it lags for a bit, is this normal? look at the video, you'll hear me say "click" so you know exactly when I asked it to open iChat.

http://web.mac.com/shehabm
Click to expand...

Completely normal. I hate to break it to you, but your new computer is not as fast as steve jobs makes it out to be. And while it is a powerfull machine, it is still just a computer, and stuff like that can happen. Close it, and open it again. You'll see what i'm talking about.

The first time you open it... it's probably waking up some part of the computer.. maybe the hard drive is spinning up.. etc. There are so many factors that could cause it. Just quit the application, and open it up again, it'll be instant. If you have any other complains ask steve jobs. He's the one who said they're 2x as fast as the G5 iMacs.
 
Jericho2550 said:
I did a clean install yesterday, so you think is is weird?
Click to expand...

Try the repair/verify, also open "Activity Monitor" and under "My Processes" make sure no PPC software is running (widgets, ect..) Also, what all have you installed since the reload? If nothing, then you have bad hardware and you need to take it down to your local apple retail center for repairs or give them a call and they will send a shipping label to return it to them for repairs or replacment. (make sure you have your box your imac came in or you will need to drop it off at the apple store)
 
I wonder if iChat waits until it logs into the AIM service before displaying the buddy list. It could be that the AIM service is taking it's good old time to log you in, instead of being the program taking a while to load up
 
oh yea, I forgot to mention, the comp is FASSSST! but it does that with all the Apps if I leave it idle, and walk away then come back, most of the Universal Apps open in less than one complete bounce, but when in Idle, and I try to use it, that's what happens
 
macgeek2005 said:
Completely normal. I hate to break it to you, but your new computer is not as fast as steve jobs makes it out to be. And while it is a powerfull machine, it is still just a computer, and stuff like that can happen. Close it, and open it again. You'll see what i'm talking about.

The first time you open it... it's probably waking up some part of the computer.. maybe the hard drive is spinning up.. etc. There are so many factors that could cause it. Just quit the application, and open it up again, it'll be instant. If you have any other complains ask steve jobs. He's the one who said they're 2x as fast as the G5 iMacs.
Click to expand...


The Intel Macs are 2x+ faster then the G5's, let's leave it at that. Quit being a mac hater and learn how to use a real computer, elementary schools are...
 
SC68Cal said:
I wonder if iChat waits until it logs into the AIM service before displaying the buddy list. It could be that the AIM service is taking it's good old time to log you in, instead of being the program taking a while to load up
Click to expand...


Yes,

If you are using aim, this could be one of the reasons. AIM is a bit slow when connecting to there *free servers* ::hint hint:: You should try using adium for aim/icq/msn/yahoo. It's fast loading for myself, I use ichat for @mac.com users.

The AIM server should not be that slow (unless they are having issues) which I have had no problems at all since I have used my imac intel with aim or anything. iChat does not get updated as much as Adium, do when AIM tries and stops these 3rd party programs from connections to there server, they find the new faster connection to keep your service running flawless. iChat is not updated that much, not as much as Adium so I would give them a try.
 
Jericho2550 said:
oh yea, I forgot to mention, the comp is FASSSST! but it does that with all the Apps if I leave it idle, and walk away then come back, most of the Universal Apps open in less than one complete bounce, but when in Idle, and I try to use it, that's what happens
Click to expand...

but, my PowerBook never does that, it's always ready for action
 
truz said:
Yes,

If you are using aim, this could be one of the reasons. AIM is a bit slow when connecting to there *free servers* ::hint hint:: You should try using adium for aim/icq/msn/yahoo. It's fast loading for myself, I use ichat for @mac.com users.
Click to expand...

I use @mac as well, and this lag happens with all apps after coming back from idle

Edit: I have done all of the utility repairs and what not, even with the install disk when I restart and hold C, nothing seems to work
 
Jericho2550 said:
I use @mac as well, and this lag happens with all apps after coming back from idle
Click to expand...

Sounds like it may be your hard disk spinning back up. Do you have the little box checked in Preferences-Energy Saver to make your hard drive go to sleep when idle?
 
What's your system stats?

Processor load, ram usage, etc...

Do you have something running in the background that takes up a lot of system resources?
 
Make sure to repair the disk, see if it needs to be repaired, there is also one other thing you can do - besides restarting - you can try to put it to sleep and wake it back up... Um... I'd be very weiry of a hard-drive failure. Maybe do an Apple Hardware Test.
 
truz said:
The Intel Macs are 2x+ faster then the G5's, let's leave it at that. Quit being a mac hater and learn how to use a real computer, elementary schools are...
Click to expand...

What the hell are you talking about? Did you even read his post? He is giving helpful information to the OP and then you come along and make up stuff about him being a mac hater, and then you say "learn how to use a real computer"! What gives?

Anyway, that does seem strange. On my G5 iMac no matter how long the computer is idle, or how long it's been since i opened that app, it never takes more than 3 seconds to load.
 
slooksterPSV said:
Make sure to repair the disk, see if it needs to be repaired, there is also one other thing you can do - besides restarting - you can try to put it to sleep and wake it back up... Um... I'd be very weiry of a hard-drive failure. Maybe do an Apple Hardware Test.
Click to expand...

what if I have a 500 gig hard drive will that make it slow? I have ran all possible tests, and repaired whatever needs to be repaired
 
Jericho2550 said:
what if I have a 500 gig hard drive will that make it slow? I have ran all possible tests, and repaired whatever needs to be repaired
Click to expand...
Depends on fragmentation, but if you did a reinstall all data should be towards the start of the HDD. Some people partition drives like that down - 60 for OS and APPS then the rest (440) towards whatever they need. If you're not sure about the OS Apps you'll need installed (like you do a lot with Final Cut Pro or the Studio Pro Suite, do about 100 GB Partition).
 
slooksterPSV said:
Depends on fragmentation, but if you did a reinstall all data should be towards the start of the HDD. Some people partition drives like that down - 60 for OS and APPS then the rest (440) towards whatever they need. If you're not sure about the OS Apps you'll need installed (like you do a lot with Final Cut Pro or the Studio Pro Suite, do about 100 GB Partition).
Click to expand...

so partitioning should get this thing up to speed? but as you said, I just did a clean install, and at the moment, I'v only used 23 gigs of space. It's really weird that a newly cleaned out hard drive that is using 5% of it's space would slow the machine like this :confused:
 
Jericho2550 said:
so partitioning should get this thing up to speed? but as you said, I just did a clean install, and at the moment, I'v only used 23 gigs of space. It's really weird that a newly cleaned out hard drive that is using 5% of it's space would slow the machine like this :confused:
Click to expand...
The partition is HFS+ right?
 
Jericho2550 said:
yes, it is
Click to expand...

Ok, I disabled the computer from sleeping, only the display is allowed to sleep after an hour, the computer is set to never sleep, I have left it idle for about 20 minutes, and when I get back, it is responsive, anybody think that makes sense?
 
This is definitely NOT normal. My friend's B&W G3 350 opens iChat in probably like 3-5 seconds. A new Core Duo iMac shouldn't be doing that, especially since iChat is a Universal Binary. I've never used an Intel Mac, so I don't know how the apps that aren't Universal act, but I doubt even they take that long to open normally. Something is definitely up with this.
 
The culprit is the "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" option. If that's checked on my Quad G5 the same thing happens when using the computer after it's been idling.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back