Advice needed on repair/maintenace utilities

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sblock

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I have an iMac OSX 10.5.6 2.4. GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.

I have applications
Photoshop CS3
Lightroom 2
Nik Sharpener Pro 3
Nik Viiveza
Nik Silver Efex Pro
Noiseware

I sometimes find my mac running a little slowly at times. - I suppose all these extra plug-ins does not help.

I would be grateful for some expert advice. I would like to keep it running at the best it can

1. I have Leopard Cache Cleaner - Besides the maintenance scripts which I run once a week ( or should I run twice a week?)

2. What other system scripts should I run e g." the Cache - which do I choose
a. Clean local Cache
b. Clean system cache also

Do I choose light, medium or deep cleaning and the reason for using either of these?.

3. Another choice on Leopard Cache Cleaner is " Optimize" with choice of INTERNET
Tune for Broadband
Restore for defaults
FILE CACHE
optimize file cache
Restore file cache
SYSTEM
Optimize files
Optimize Ram

How is the best to use the above?

I have heard that Disk Warrior does a more thorough cleaning. Would it be advisable as an extra maintenance?
 
MacOS X 10.5.7 is now available via Software Update.

Contrary to the nonsense sometimes posted here, caches don't slow you down. They speed you up. Left to its own devices, your Mac will not need routine maintenance. If you think that you have a non-routine situation, then run Disk First Aid in Disk Utility. If you have a genuine problem* (suspected slowdowns don't qualify) that Disk Utility didn't fix, then run fsck -fy from the commandline in Single User Mode.

Another problem that older computers have is a nearly full hard drive. Your Mac's virtual memory system needs at least 10% of its capacity available as free space. If you slip below this threshold, then you may experience slowdowns and even the failure of certain software titles.

Notice that I did not recommend buying anything? That's because you don't have to buy anything. Problems that cannot be fixed using the methods outlined above may be caused by the incipient failure of your hard drive.

*A genuine problem has an obvious cause such as multiple power outages while you are using your computer.
 
Just to add to the discussion -- it doesn't matter how many applications you have installed on your system -- whether you have 10 applications or 10,000, like MisterMe said, as long as you've got sufficient free space on your drive, the system with 10,000 apps will run just as fast as the system with 10 apps.

Using up hard drive space does not slow a system down (until you actually fill the hard drive to capacity). Install apps until your heart's content -- it will not slow your system down.

Mac OS X is unlike Windows in the sense of maintenance. Mac OS X takes care of all of it's own maintenance -- rotating log files, clearing caches if needed, ensuring that temporary files are deleted, etc. Forcing Mac OS X to clean caches and run maintenance scripts outside of their normal scheduled time is like taking your car in for an oil change, then coming home and changing the oil again: pointless and completely non-beneficial.

I sometimes find my mac running a little slowly at times.
Click to expand...
At what specific times do you find your Mac running slowly? Is it when you've got 13 open applications? Is it when you're browsing a website that's heavy in Flash or JavaScript content?

Use Activity Monitor to monitor the processes you've got running on your system. When you experience the slowness, check Activity Monitor to see which process is taking up the highest percentage of CPU cycles (you can sort the list so that the process using the most cycles is at the top). Which process is this?
 
Apart from all that: You're using software that enjoys having enough RAM. Your machine can handle 4 GB easily, and Photoshop will like it. If you have less than that: Upgrade. It's easy and cheap enough nowadays.

Most of the cache-cleaning and harddrive-optimizing stuff is just voodoo and homeopathy. A reboot alone can achieve the same results. ;)
 
What I use is the free/donationware Yasu once about every three months running all the routines except the 'clear system logs' routines (because it would remove the Software update log). Then I let the program reboot the Mac. Once it comes back up I immediately reboot again to completely the startup/shutdown cache.

Other people use the free Onyx to do the cache cleaning. It works just as well as Yasu but I like the latter because I prefer the on trick pony free applications. To each is own choice because either program will run all the cleaning routines.

Another trick that works once in while is to Reset Your PRAM if OS x forgets connected devices and such. Plus if a program keeps acting up in OS x you can reset most any program to "factory default" by going to the folder /YourHardDrive/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/ and find the preference file for the program and take it to the trash. This usually helps malfunctioning programs.
 
Satcomer said:
What I use is the free/donationware Yasu once about every three months running all the routines except the 'clear system logs' routines (because it would remove the Software update log).
Click to expand...

I like and recommend YASU also. Partially because it is easy for ordinary users to use, partially because it doesn't have any dangerous features, partially because it is free (a donation is requested), and partially because Jim does a great job a staying on top of Apple's latest undocumented or poorly documented system changes and he quickly updates YASU as appropriate.

By the way, YASU doesn't touch your Mac's receipt files, and thus has no detrimental impact on Software Update. (Just so no one misunderstands what you are saying.)
 
Randy Singer said:
By the way, YASU doesn't touch your Mac's receipt files, and thus has no detrimental impact on Software Update. (Just so no one misunderstands what you are saying.)
Click to expand...

Well it does on my Intel Macs so I wonder why I see that and you don't.
 
thank you for your helpful responses.

1. My mac is only 2 years old and I have 3 GB on my machine. Checking the Activity Monitor I see I have 1.01 GB free. Is this sufficient?

I am on a learning curve here

On looking at the Activity Monitor, I notice the numbers of the MB keep moving !! I would be grateful for some clarification as I am not very computer savvy.

1. What is the difference between 'real memory' and virtual memory'?
Example.
Virtual memory:
Spotlight has 1,016.23 MB 12.09 MB
Safari 1,012.30 MB 81.02 MB
Google Desktop 916.12 MB 6.86 MB
GoogleDesktopAgent 882.70 MB 7.52MB

Should I wish to get rid of Google Desktop. How do I do this? I suppose GoogleDesktopAgent is part of this?

I notice I have 2 System Profilers under"my processes" under Activity Monitor

Would there be a reason for this, or is it because my general ignorance has multiplied this utility? Delete one? best method?

MisterMe you mentioned to run sck -fy* from the commandline in Single User Mode if there is a problem. How is this done.

I heard somewhere is that if there is lots of folders on the desktop this can slow the computer. Is this correct?

Also if the mailbox/trash is full. My mail box is always full and I also save lots of information in my draft box. Is this a no-no.

Also have lots of information in my bookmark folder. In my minds eye I can just see all the above lunching on the computer memory?

By the way the Activity Monitor shows Lightroom but not iPhoto or Photoshop. Why would that be?

Another question In the next few days I will be installing Photoshop CS4. Is it best to uninstall Photoshop CS3 first?

thank you


Sue
 
Satcomer said:
Well it does on my Intel Macs so I wonder why I see that and you don't.
Click to expand...

I wrote to Jim Mitchell, developer of YASU, and this is what I heard back from him:


On May 14, 2009, at 1:18 AM, Randy B. Singer wrote:

A user on the MacosX.com discussion list is saying that YASU (the System Cache setting) blows away his receipt files and causes Apple's Software Update not to work properly.

I've never seen this happen, nor have I heard about it happening before.

What is your take on this?

Hi Randy,

Great to hear from you again.

Same here. I've never seen it happen, nor have I had a user report anything like it. Yasu doesn't do anything with Receipts. The only thing I can think of is, if the user can recreate it, then their disk has worse underlying issues in the directory structure, and they're in serious need of a Disk Utility or Disk Warrior session.

Regards,

Jim Mitchell
Jim Mitchell Design
web: jimmitchelldesign.com
twitter: jimmitchell
 
Randy: Satcomer said nothing about package receipts -- he mentioned the Software Update log file.

I think this is a case of a simply misunderstanding. Satcomer didn't claim that YASU touched the /Library/Receipts folder, nor any package/file inside of that directory. He said that YASU apparently touched the Software Update log file, which is a completely different file located in a completely different place.

I also don't see where Satcomer claimed that YASU caused Software Update to fail, though I did read through everything kind of quickly.
 
ElDiabloConCaca said:
Randy: Satcomer said nothing about package receipts -- he mentioned the Software Update log file.
Click to expand...

Well, first, I think that you should let him speak for himself; especially when you say that you haven't read things carefully.

Second, my original understanding was the same as yours. I just wanted to clarify things for others. But then this was his response to a quote of what I said:

Originally Posted by Randy Singer
By the way, YASU doesn't touch your Mac's receipt files, and thus has no detrimental impact on Software Update. (Just so no one misunderstands what you are saying.)

Posted by Satcomer
Well it does on my Intel Macs so I wonder why I see that and you don't.
 
Last edited:
Well, ok then.

Satcomer: I think this is a simple misunderstanding. Randy was talking about package receipts, and you were referring to the Software Update log file -- two completely separate, different things.

Better? :)
 
Good! Thank you.

I was just concerned that some folks might misunderstand the original post by Satcomer to mean that YASU interferes with Software Update and/or that they should be afraid to use YASU frequently.
 
1. My mac is only 2 years old and I have 3 GB on my machine. Checking the Activity Monitor I see I have 1.01 GB free. Is this sufficient?

I am on a learning curve here

On looking at the Activity Monitor, I notice the numbers of the MB keep moving !! I would be grateful for some clarification as I am not very computer savvy.

1. What is the difference between 'real memory' and virtual memory'?
Example.
Virtual memory:
Spotlight has 1,016.23 MB 12.09 MB
Safari 1,012.30 MB 81.02 MB
Google Desktop 916.12 MB 6.86 MB
GoogleDesktopAgent 882.70 MB 7.52MB

Should I wish to get rid of Google Desktop. How do I do this? I suppose GoogleDesktopAgent is part of this?

I notice I have 2 System Profilers under"my processes" under Activity Monitor

Would there be a reason for this, or is it because my general ignorance has multiplied this utility? Delete one? best method?

MisterMe you mentioned to run sck -fy* from the commandline in Single User Mode if there is a problem. How is this done.

I heard somewhere is that if there is lots of folders on the desktop this can slow the computer. Is this correct?

Also if the mailbox/trash is full. My mail box is always full and I also save lots of information in my draft box. Is this a no-no.

Also have lots of information in my bookmark folder. In my minds eye I can just see all the above lunching on the computer memory?

By the way the Activity Monitor shows Lightroom but not iPhoto or Photoshop. Why would that be?

Another question In the next few days I will be installing Photoshop CS4. Is it best to uninstall Photoshop CS3 first?

thank you


Sue
 
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