Old Mini G4 getting slower..and sloower... and....

[Graphoniac]

I'm only a wannabe techie, someone who loves the cool stuff, and has changed out RAM and 1 hard drive on a mini with much guidance, but that's about it.

I've got a mini, g4 with 1.33 ghz processor and 1gb ram, running OS 10.5. Lately it's been getting sloow. I mean, it's never handled Word well, and if I'm streaming pandora and doing anything else, sure it'll slow down. But the last month or so it's just as slow as, well. It's bad.

Also, I thought my monitor might be going out, since there were streaks showing up. But they are worse when the computer's slow (or I simply have more time to look at them). Could it still be my monitor? The calibration steps I know to do don't seem to help.

What's going on? Please don't tell me I'm about to lose my mini.

PS. the streaks are horizontal and mostly static, they look like over exposure in a photo, and while some stay put on the screen, others seem to emminate off of menus, text boxes, and such, following them with movement of the window.

 

[Akula971]

Graphics

Try your monitor with a different machine if you can. It sounds more like your graphics chips in the G4 are failing. Have you run the diagnostics on startup?

From

http://macosx.com/forums/howto-faqs...are-test-other-diagnostics-test-hardware.html

For PPC based Macs, use the Install Disc 1 that came with your Mac, hold down alt or option key depending on your keyboard, select the Hardware Test from the menu, and the menu selections and loop mode are as for Intel based Macs.

 

[DustinT]

One other option is to create a new user account on your system and see if that performs better. If so, it might indicate that something in your old account is slowing it down.

Also, disk utility \ repair permissions is a good idea.

 

[ricardoflamingo]

Try This

I had a 1.42 ghz G4 Mini. I made it faster by putting a system, 10.5.8, on an external 7200 rpm firewire hard drive. I used it as my main system. It was faster but nothing compared to my 2011 Mini. I feel like Iv'e gone from a beat up old chevy to an Aston Martin!

 

[srf4real]

I had a 1.42 ghz G4 Mini. I made it faster by putting a system, 10.5.8, on an external 7200 rpm firewire hard drive. I used it as my main system. It was faster but nothing compared to my 2011 Mini. I feel like Iv'e gone from a beat up old chevy to an Aston Martin!

No doubt. My 1.42 GHz G4 still works like new, including its limitations. My 2011 server mini is 10x more powerful and still way cool!

Thanks for the idea of booting from a 7200rpm external.. through firewire 800 I suppose?

 

[ricardoflamingo]

400

"Thanks for the idea of booting from a 7200rpm external.. through firewire 800 I suppose?"

400