OSX slows down over time

bighairydog

bighairydog

tail-wagging member
Hi guys,

Not sure if anybody has noticed this, but over the time that I've had my G4 (DP 800), things have gotten slower. IE used to boot in a few seconds, now it's more like ten. The terminal used to pop up really fast on clicking it's dock icon, now it laggs.

Most worrying, more applications (especially MS Word and MS Entourage, surprise surprise...) unexpectedly quit on launching. They never used to.

It's not much, but I'm sure it's worse than it used to be, and that irritates me (I was on a Wintel box the other day, and found myself thinking "damn that's snappy and responsive: NOOOOOOO!!")

Anyone found this, or found a solution?

Bernie :eek:)
 
I've heard them mentioned, but I'm not sure what they do. I tried typing fsck, and get no result, it just displays another command prompt. I also tried "man fsck", and didn't understand all the manual jargon.

How do I use these commands?

Bernie :eek:)
 
You should run the fsck command when you boot in single-user mode. Here's what you do:

Reboot while holding down Apple-S. After a while you'll get all the funky Unix stuff. Then you'll get to a command prompt. Type in the following:

fsck -y

It'll then check your filesystem for errors. If it finds any, then you should reboot (type reboot), and hold down Apple-s again. Lather, rinse, repeat, until the system repeats no errors.

When the system reports that your volume appears to be OK, just type logout, and you'll boot into X as usual.

As for updating prebindings, I'd recommend that you d/l Xoptimize. It's a free utility that'll do the hard work for you (otherwise you can go to the terminal and type in some arcane stuff--which you could find by searching for prebindings or something similar on this site).

Have you defragged your hard drive anytime recently?

enjoy!
 
Cheers- I'll try that when I next shut down.

When you ask if I've defragged recently, I was under the impression that fsck was a defrag tool? How do I defrag then (without shelling out for Norton Utils if possible)?

Bernie :eek:)
 
Nah, fsck just checks the filesystem for errors. There are no tools in X for defragging--you have to shell out the money for the utility. Yeah, I don't like that either. . . .
 
According the the manpages for fsck, the -y flag is an invitation to disaster. Basically it says yes to anything that comes up. Personally I'd rather see what it is asking before saying yes... :)

The update_prebinding command is
sudo update_prebinding -root /
Not arcane at all, compare to other Unix commands. :D the sudo part says "run this command only as root user". The -root says "start at the directory specified by the next argument". So therefore you want to start at /, which is the root directory, or highest directory in the tree.

I am not sure what the Xoptimize does -- and I'm pretty much a control freak, so I'd rather do it by hand as opposed to trust a "simple" utility. For example, MacJanitor runs cron jobs. Or I can do it myself with sudo sh /etc/daily instead of clicking on the 'daily' button in MacJanitor.

p.s. fsck is file system check, which is different from optimization (or defragging (same things)) On the Windows side of things, a comparable command to fsck is chkdsk.
 
Normal unices don't need a defrag tool, which is why I think that there isn't one built in to OS X. I am not sure what filesystem OS X is using by default, though, so it's probable that it really should have had one built in. But IIRC MacOS has never included a defrag tool.
 
Cheers for the help nkuvu and Homer, I'll play around and see what I can do. If I get any impressive improvements I'll let you know...

Bernie :eek:)
 
A couple of clarifications:
UFS does not need defragging. OS X normally uses HFS+, which may need to be defragged occasionally.
XOptimize simply puts a GUI on the update_prebinding command.
Defragging and updating of prebindings are completely different processes. In order to defrag, you will need a utility like Norton, Alsoft's PlusOptimizer or TechTool Pro 3.0.6.
 
UFS does not need defragging. OS X normally uses HFS+, which may need to be defragged occasionally.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info -- I was starting to wonder...
XOptimize simply puts a GUI on the update_prebinding command.
Click to expand...
Like MacJanitor and the daily/weekly/monthly scripts, I suppose. Considering that you can make aliases in Unix, I don't see how this is an advantage. For example, I can make up_pre (for example) run the sudo update_prebinding -root / command. Is a GUI really necessary? Strike that question -- I am sure there are lots of people uncomfortable with the command line...
Defragging and updating of prebindings are completely different processes. In order to defrag, you will need a utility like Norton, Alsoft's PlusOptimizer or TechTool Pro 3.0.6.
Click to expand...
Just for clarification, I don't believe I ever said that they were the same. Not that I think that you think that I ever said that they were the same, I am just covering my... um, yeah. :) genghis, do you know if the Mac OS ever had a defragger installed with the OS?
 
Originally posted by bighairydog
Cheers for the help nkuvu and Homer, I'll play around and see what I can do. If I get any impressive improvements I'll let you know...

Bernie :eek:)
Click to expand...

I'm sure your machine, even with with prebindings unoptimized, horrible filesystem errors, and 90% fragmentation, would still run faster than my 233MHz iMac. But I'm working on improving that situation!
 
Originally posted by nkuvu
I am just covering my... um, yeah. :) genghis, do you know if the Mac OS ever had a defragger installed with the OS?
Click to expand...

AFAIK, Macs never had defraggers built in.
And I didn't know that tortoises had to cover their "um, yeah." I thought the shell did that.
;)
 
Originally posted by genghiscohen
AFAIK, Macs never had defraggers built in.
And I didn't know that tortoises had to cover their "um, yeah." I thought the shell did that.
;)
Click to expand...

genghiscohen is correct. The Mac OS never included a defragmenting tool (but it sure would be nice!).
 
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