system slowdown...

[bolindilly]

i have many macs, and i usually leave them on for a long time. they go to sleep in between, and they'll be fine this way for weeks on end. however, one of my macs is having an issue. if it's been on for a while, the video feedback is slow. it only reacts and updates the screen whenever i stop moving the mouse. it can do simple animation and update type pretty well, but i don' tunderstand why it's so slow...
a restart solves the problem, but it comes back after a few days... the computer itself also seems slow... any ideas?

thanks,
bolindilly

[Mendel]

Hi,

go to the terminal and type "top". Look whats eating your CPU-Cycles...

Mendel.

[bolindilly]

i already did that. nothing too large. it seems as if the computer has been dropped in molasses...

[Snowball]

I heard permissions errors caused slowdowns in Jaguar; try running Disk Util and verifying permissions. Otherwise, try reinstalling Jag.

[michaelsanford]

Snowball, that will only be effective if bolindilly is running Jag, and we don't know that...

So bolindilly, what are your system specs: processor, RAM, model, and OS version? Off the top it sounds like you have an applpication that is leaking RAM (i.e., reserving it and not properly releasing it after the appplication terminates). Take a look in TOP at the RAM readout and see if it's being gobbled up. Otherwise do you have any peripherals that could cause a slow-down (like a DV camera over firewire for example)?

I've said it before and I'll say it again: OS reinstallation is a last-ditch attempt that many people seem to use as a first-line solution. One should try everything else possible before reinstalling an entire operating system; the only thing after reinstalling an OS is getting new hardware which is pretty drastic!

[bolindilly]

yeah, it's a 17in iMac
800g4
512ram
geforce 4 mxos x 10.2.2

it was a standard 17inch iMac, but i added 256 ram...
i looked at top, nothing seemed too drastic. also, i ran the hardware check, and it didn't return any problems.
all the programs i use on this machine are programs i've already used on my other jaguar macs...

i'll try disk utility to se if there's anything...
thanks for your help, and hopefully we'll figure this out.

thanks,
bolindilly

[ElDiabloConCaca]

You don't, perchance, have an HP printer hooked up to that machine, do you? There are severe slow-down issues with the HP software and Jaguar 10.2. The only way to fix them at the moment is to uninstall or deactivate the HP software.

[bolindilly]

i do have a hp printer...
it's slow even when the printer is unplugged. the hp software is screwy???
why, why would they do that?
any fixes?