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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Osx Tiger Screensaver Causes Serious Slow Down
J-Man - Jun 23, 2005 - 3:25 pm
Since installing Tiger, when the screensaver activates all system processes seem to go into an "über-slow" mode.
Examples:
The screensaver itself starts out like regular -- switching images, panning, dissolving to next, etc. But after a few seconds, the images do the same at about 1/100 of the speed.
Applications seem to come to a standstill when the screensaver's active: Retrospect is the best example as it'll be in the middle of an activity... and essentially completely pause. (BTW... Retrospect is set to NOT pause if another application becomes active.)
E-mail checking the same (Entourage)
As soon as I move the cursor, and stop the screen saver, everything seems to wake up and start going again. Likewise, if I put the cursor in the "don't activate screensaver" corner, all of the above apps will auto-run on their own just fine.
Under Energy Saver, I've set the computer and screens to Never sleep and the Hard Drive to never spin down.
(I wonder if it's some weird Spotlight indexing bug/feature.)
Thanks for the help.
OSX Tiger 10.4.1 on G4 DP 1.4ghz. 2 gigs ram.
Examples:
The screensaver itself starts out like regular -- switching images, panning, dissolving to next, etc. But after a few seconds, the images do the same at about 1/100 of the speed.
Applications seem to come to a standstill when the screensaver's active: Retrospect is the best example as it'll be in the middle of an activity... and essentially completely pause. (BTW... Retrospect is set to NOT pause if another application becomes active.)
E-mail checking the same (Entourage)
As soon as I move the cursor, and stop the screen saver, everything seems to wake up and start going again. Likewise, if I put the cursor in the "don't activate screensaver" corner, all of the above apps will auto-run on their own just fine.
Under Energy Saver, I've set the computer and screens to Never sleep and the Hard Drive to never spin down.
(I wonder if it's some weird Spotlight indexing bug/feature.)
Thanks for the help.
OSX Tiger 10.4.1 on G4 DP 1.4ghz. 2 gigs ram.
DeltaMac - Jun 23, 2005 - 5:52 pm
Do you get the same 'response' with other screensavers?
Do you really need the screensaver to run? (modern displays do not exhibit 'burn-in' to the same degree as older displays, and LCD displays aren't damaged by long-term images in one spot. Screensavers are good for entertainment, or as a means of leaving the system, and entering a password to leave that screensaver. Perhaps you can simply do without the screensaver
Just my 2ç
- Dale
Do you really need the screensaver to run? (modern displays do not exhibit 'burn-in' to the same degree as older displays, and LCD displays aren't damaged by long-term images in one spot. Screensavers are good for entertainment, or as a means of leaving the system, and entering a password to leave that screensaver. Perhaps you can simply do without the screensaver
Just my 2ç
- Dale
J-Man - Jun 23, 2005 - 8:21 pm
Thanks Dale,
You're right... I probably don't "need" the screensaver, but I do leave my computers on ALL the time. (Really don't know how resistant LCD monitors are to burn.)
Also... I tried other savers... and they all acted the same way.
My Mac head-ness would love to solve the mystery, so I'm open to other suggestions and would like to hear if other people are having this problem.
BTW... booted from the install disc and ran disk repairs/permissions but that didn't seem to have any effect.
You're right... I probably don't "need" the screensaver, but I do leave my computers on ALL the time. (Really don't know how resistant LCD monitors are to burn.)
Also... I tried other savers... and they all acted the same way.
My Mac head-ness would love to solve the mystery, so I'm open to other suggestions and would like to hear if other people are having this problem.
BTW... booted from the install disc and ran disk repairs/permissions but that didn't seem to have any effect.
DeltaMac - Jun 23, 2005 - 8:42 pm
An image burn on a CRT (picture tube type) is the result of permanent damage to the phosphors used inside the tube, and is where the image is created by the constant scanning from the light guns in the tube. LCD monitors cannot permanently burn an image, it's impossible. LCD monitors can develop an image memory, but leaving the monitor power off for 24-48 hours will cause anything like that to dissipate. An LCD may have flaws, or develop flaws in the screen, causing some of the tiny pixels to stay on or off permanently, but not caused by any image viewed on the screen.
Anyway -
1. Repair disk permissions from Disk Utility in your Utilities folder when booted to the normal system - this is the preferred way to repair permissions.
2. I have several utilities that can perform maintenance tasks on the system. Download something like OnyX, which allows you to change a variety of settings in your system, among other tasks. This can clean out your cache folders, and perform other routine tasks that can 'tune' your system. This could help.
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/20070
OnyX is not unique. YASU, Maintain, Tinkertool, System Optimizer X, several others - all perform basic similar tasks. some do unique things, but the cleanup - tuneup. are all similar, and can be done completely through the terminal. These apps just make the task simpler to do. Some can be set to do their job automatically, but I don't care to give up that control....
Final note - your Energy Saver pref probably warns you when setting the display to Never turn off. This is one area that you may want to think about. Leaving an LCD screen on all the time can shorten the life of the backlight bulbs (that's how your screens are so bright, without the backlight, you will see very little on the screen) This doesn't happen overnight. I would set these monitors to sleep after 30 minutes to an hour of idle. Replacing the backlight lamps is not a simple task, so think about it.
- Dale
Anyway -
1. Repair disk permissions from Disk Utility in your Utilities folder when booted to the normal system - this is the preferred way to repair permissions.
2. I have several utilities that can perform maintenance tasks on the system. Download something like OnyX, which allows you to change a variety of settings in your system, among other tasks. This can clean out your cache folders, and perform other routine tasks that can 'tune' your system. This could help.
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/20070
OnyX is not unique. YASU, Maintain, Tinkertool, System Optimizer X, several others - all perform basic similar tasks. some do unique things, but the cleanup - tuneup. are all similar, and can be done completely through the terminal. These apps just make the task simpler to do. Some can be set to do their job automatically, but I don't care to give up that control....
Final note - your Energy Saver pref probably warns you when setting the display to Never turn off. This is one area that you may want to think about. Leaving an LCD screen on all the time can shorten the life of the backlight bulbs (that's how your screens are so bright, without the backlight, you will see very little on the screen) This doesn't happen overnight. I would set these monitors to sleep after 30 minutes to an hour of idle. Replacing the backlight lamps is not a simple task, so think about it.
- Dale
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