my albook slowing down...

[bumblebee]

I have a 1year and 1 month old 12" Powerbook G4 now running on Panther 10.3.3.

Recently I've noticed that some of the programs are running a bit slower although some have always been slow even when I was still using Jaguar.

Example of apps running slower:
- when I use Mail, I use the autofill function when typing in the recipient's name and the options of recipients usually show up as soon as I type the first 2 letters. Now I have to type 5 letters and it still takes about 15 seconds before options show.

Example of apps that have always been slow (is this normal?):
- When I use iPhoto and the pictures are horizontal instead of vertical, I will click on the button to turn the picture around. Usually, each click will take a long time to apply. Also when shifting from Organize to Edit or vice versa, it also takes at least 10 seconds to apply.

Not sure if this is because I have about 2000 photos because even when I had 20 photos, I was already encountering this problem.

My friend told me to do the disk utility/repair permissions but I don't think it's made a difference.

Any advice?

[bagwis]

Try checking this thread.

[elbert]

How much RAM does your machine have? You can do a quick check by clicking on the Apple logo on the top left corner of your screen and selecting About This Mac. I'm presuming your 12 inch has an 867 MHz processor, which is what I'm using too.

[bumblebee]

Hi Elbert,

You're right. My 12"albook has an 867MHz processor and 640MB RAM.

[elbert]

You and I are running identical machines then.

Mail.app's autofill feature scans through previous e-mail as well as Address Book entries. Naturally, that should take some time to complete. However, in my case, (after typing just two letters) it takes about 1 second for the first few names to appear, then about 20 seconds before the spinning wheel disappears. I have almost 3,000 emails in my archive and over 1,500 names in Address Book.

Is your iPhoto 4.0.1? Previous versions of iPhoto had difficulty handling large libraries. The current version is claimed to be able to handle up to 25,000 photos.

If your software is updated, and you feel that your machine lags compared to others, then I suggest the last-resort solution. Back up all your files and do a reinstall of Panther and all your apps. This is something some of us do even when we DON'T have problems.

[penmanila]

exactly the same machine and config here (12-inch albook, 867/640, 10.3.3), and my albook doesn't show any of these slowing-down signs. the autofill feature works fine in mail.app. i have close to 2,000 photos as well and they seem to work ok in iphoto.

i'd do what elbert suggests if i were you--a complete reinstall. i don't think i can live with those kinds of delays; they're not what you got your mac for

[brain1976]

I read an article:

This is with the 867MHz model (the first one). In Terminal, type the following:
sysctl hw.cpufrequency

Odds are, you will see that your CPU is running at 533MHz, not 867. This is with the processor set to "Highest," etc.

The only work-around we know about so far is:
Shutdown.

Reset power manager (shift-control-option-power; hold 5-10 seconds).

Start up.

Launch Terminal and test.

RESTARTING or SHUTTING DOWN (and not resetting the power manager) makes the problem appear again

I tried this and got the same findings. It could be just a few but can anyone test this out if this is true?

[tdbur]

yup! just tried it and it does read 533.. that's strange... gonna try resetting the power manager and see what it reads after.

*UPDATE*
Resetting the power manager does seem to work. Now it's reading 867

[Edited on 5-24-2004 by tdbur]

[bumblebee]

hey tdbur,
now that it's reading 867, did you notice a difference in the speed of your processor?

[tdbur]

It does seem a bit faster. Doesn't lag as much either. Just a question.. Have you tried creating a new user account and seeing if applications are still lagging there?