Slow Mac

MagicToaster

My wife's Mac is really slow to boot up. It wasnt like that before. Once its up, it runs fine but I was wondering if anyone could recommend something to help optimize the performance. Its running Mac OS X, version 10.5.8.

Ive bee thinking about upgrading this comp, it has a 2Ghz Intel Core 2 duo and 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM. I was thinking specifically of upgrading the RAM, but I dunno how high I can make it on this OS and with this processor before I stop seeing a performance difference or see a bottle neck son some other component.

Could you tech savy people point me in the right direction?

EggyToast

Very quick solution -- don't shut it off, just sleep it.

Longer solution -- usually that sort of problem is related to a program or two that is taking longer than it should to start, delaying everything. Or the computer may simply be doing more diagnostic stuff, backups, whatever, during that same time frame. See how many "extra" preference panes are in System Preferences, and how many applications are starting it up automatically when the computer boots. Similarly, you can also see if there's extra applications that you don't need.

Since it runs the same once it's up, it doesn't sound hard drive failure or other problems, so it's probably related to software. That computer is in a pretty good spot; it's not the fastest, but it's pretty solid. More RAM will make the experience nicer for her but not significantly, unless she's doing a lot of RAM-intensive tasks. You'll probably see more benefit (and an alleviation of the startup problem) if you do a clean install of 10.6, though, and reinstall currently-used apps fresh.

MichaelLC

Have you tried running Onyx?

I's got some basic cleaning scripts that might help.

MagicToaster

Will upgrading to 10.6 erase the files on this Mac?

Ill back them up just in case... but Im not familiar with Macs and their file saving places.... also, this Mac is in Japanese so I understand about half of the things its telling me, so if possible Id like to avoid the whole file moving experience.

Id like to upgrade because at work theyre gonna switch me from Win to Mac, so being familiar with the latest OS will be a big use.

Project Mayhem

Back up always, regardless of what you're doing, but upgrading to snow leopard doesn't delete your personal files. It does, however, delete older code in the operating system and apps that come with your computer that are required for the older power pc chips, and are no longer required for the intel chips, so it actually saves you some space by upgrading. Another thing you might try is opening Disk Utility and repairing disk permissions on your hard drive.

MichaelLC

Here's an Apple article on changing the language settings.

Yeah, 10.6 won't change any docs, pics, etc. Like Project Mayhem said, still back-up though. I'd give Onyx a shot first, before you buy 10.6 anyway.

MagicToaster

Thanks, guys!

The_Glad_Hatter

just here to second onyx. (or third. Whatever). did my mac a lot of good. There are a lot of haters out there, but i'm certain that it prolonged the life of my ibook a lot. (almost 6 years old and still going strong...)

ALso, be sure to close down some apps every now and then.
i try to reboot about every 40 days..