Slow Finder

M

myhnegon

Registered
Hi there, I'm new to this site, but have browsed around. Seems to be very helpful community. And I hope you can help me.

A few days ago, my computer started being really slow. This problem just seems to be within the Finder as loading Applications takes forever (as does booting up the machine) but once they're open, they run like normal.
:confused:
I don't think I was doing anything different - i was online checking a movie site when the change happened. I may have been downloading too, as I am often downloading stuff when my computer is on.

I tried updating my software (inclusing upgrading to Mac OS 10.1.5 instead of 10.1.4) to see if that would make a difference but alas it did not. Shot in the dark I guess.

I did consider reinstalling Mac OSX but would rather avoid doing so, because I don't want to have to reinstall the extra software etc. which I have downloaded.

I hope someone can help!

Thanks very much!
 
Oh and also if I restart the computer in OS9 instead, there is no problem whatsoever. OS9 runs smoothly.
 
Myhnegon,

You have the infamous "Application Launch of Death", which I have been suffering with, until I found out the problem.

You haven't installed Thursby DAVE by any chance? If you have, you need to uninstall

If you haven't, you need to reinstall MacOS X. That is what I did and my PowerBook is running 100% and I am very happy.

What I did was to do a complete reformat of the HD, installed the OS and then straight away, upgraded to the latest version.

Sorry that I was not bearer of better news.

Hope it helps...
 
that seems a bit much, first run a check on your permissions lately? That seems to be where my problems rest. I use Norton, fix any problems found, then startup from the install disk, run disk utility, then run permissions check. If that doesn't work, install the system in place, saving all data that is there and you are all set, although you will have to update your apple apps and system to the current state.
 
Thanks to both of you!

I *have* installed DAVE a couple of months back but found it was not what I was looking for, so forgot about it. I'll go about trying to uninstall it now and if that doesn't work, I'll try the other stuff.
 
99% of OS X.2 problems are related to the following:
-disk errors
-permissions
-pre-binding
-unsupported hardware
-wrong installation of software

For the first 3 things you could use the built-in Jaguar utilities and for the last 2 you could do some reading before buying/installing ANYTHING :p :D ;)

:)
 
Except for the pre-binding part. Since OS X 10.2, pre-binding is done automatically, and has little if any effect on improving performance when done manually. But, of course, mynhegon, you have not yet upgraded to Jaguar! And pre-binding has good effect there. You should consider that as a great way to treat your computer! (or wait a little for Panther, or 10.3)
 
Originally posted by DeltaMac
Except for the pre-binding part. Since OS X 10.2, pre-binding is done automatically, and has little if any effect on improving performance when done manually. But, of course, mynhegon, you have not yet upgraded to Jaguar! And pre-binding has good effect there. You should consider that as a great way to treat your computer! (or wait a little for Panther, or 10.3)
Click to expand...

...although pre-binding in OS X.2 is done automatically (was it from 10.2 or from an update of 10.2 version? Dunno :confused: ), still sometimes that automatic process can crash therefore the user should, from time to time, do a manual pre-binding just to be on the safe side :rolleyes:

As for 10.1.x pre-binding is a must :p :D ;)
 
myhnegon: Do you leave your computer on at night, or do you shut it down when you're finished? If you shut it down regularly, you are missing the cleanup stuff UNIX does late at night when it's not being used. Between 3 and 5 a.m., it usually goes through different kinds of cleanup every night, with daily, weekly and monthly checks.

I recommend you download MacJanitor. This will do what UNIX does late at night when you want it done, and you can do the daily, weekly or monthly stuff separately, or everything all at once. You may find that this improves performance somewhat (and you should do this before reinstalling anything).
 
Dear Myhnegon,

As you can see, many users have offered advice about "pre-binding", sorting out your permission etc, but I have already try all this before and none of it worked, trust me.

The only real solution is to do a clean reinstall of MacOS X. Ok, might be a bit extreme, but you will know then for a fact that no DAVE files are linging on the hard drive.

DAVE is a good piece of software, it's just a shame that the software brings the machine to a complete stop.

I hope that I was some help...?
 
One thing you should look for.

Is there an application suddenly using considerable amounts of your harddrive for scratch disk? OSX not only gets really S L O W when running out of Virtual memory space (less than 10%) it gets positively dangerous.

In the same vein check whether you are short of VM space AND extremely fragmented. There are a few utilities that can both check and fix this. PlusOptimizer which comes DiskWarrior is my choice.

Seeing how important this is, it is a real shame Apple does not have effective maintenance software built into the system.
 
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