Slow Mac - advice?
KevinKal
Registered Users Posts: 246 Major grins
**Ooops...I noticed I posted this in the wrong forum. Could a moderator move it to "Digital Darkroom Gear" for me please?**
Hi all, perhaps someone could provide a bit of insight into my computer issues. I have a 1 year old Mac G5 dual processor. It is set up to have 2 accounts, one for me and one for the DW. On her side, she has tons of music/emails on on my side I have loads of photos & RAW files. The problem I am encountering is that it takes ages to switch between the two users (much longer than when we first set the system up). It can also take ages and ages to open certain programs (iPhoto or CS2 for example). Here are the computer specs:
Processor: Dual 2 GHz PowerPC G5
Memory: 512 MB DDR SDRAM
Startup Disk: Macintosh HD
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
BUS Speed: 1 GHz
Software version: Mac OS X 10.4.9
The computer is rarely shut off and is in sleep mode when idle. I believe the problem is that I need more RAM (it maxes out at 4 Gb I believe). My question is, how much of a difference could I expect to see if I upgraded to 2 Gb of RAM? Any other suggestions? I have followd the instructions posted previously by David (http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=444959&postcount=1478)
Cheers all,
Kevin K.
Hi all, perhaps someone could provide a bit of insight into my computer issues. I have a 1 year old Mac G5 dual processor. It is set up to have 2 accounts, one for me and one for the DW. On her side, she has tons of music/emails on on my side I have loads of photos & RAW files. The problem I am encountering is that it takes ages to switch between the two users (much longer than when we first set the system up). It can also take ages and ages to open certain programs (iPhoto or CS2 for example). Here are the computer specs:
Processor: Dual 2 GHz PowerPC G5
Memory: 512 MB DDR SDRAM
Startup Disk: Macintosh HD
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
BUS Speed: 1 GHz
Software version: Mac OS X 10.4.9
The computer is rarely shut off and is in sleep mode when idle. I believe the problem is that I need more RAM (it maxes out at 4 Gb I believe). My question is, how much of a difference could I expect to see if I upgraded to 2 Gb of RAM? Any other suggestions? I have followd the instructions posted previously by David (http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=444959&postcount=1478)
Cheers all,
Kevin K.
0
Comments
512MB is barely enough for a casual user, and completely inadequate for photo editing. The delays you see are OS X not being able to fit your work into the available RAM, and therefore swapping data to and from the disk. The disk is much slower than RAM, and all that adds up to a big delay.
You should see a big speedup if you go to 1GB RAM, probably just as much of a speedup at 2GB, and then from there it's diminishing returns depending on how big and complicated your files are. Many users can stop at 4GB, others with large images or many layers go beyond 4GB. In any case, 512MB is not even close enough.
You should see an additional speedup if you put in a second hard drive and assign that to be your Photoshop scratch disk in the Photoshop prefs. It will take a load off your main drive.
Charlie
You DO have all your program and data files backed up somewhere else don't you??!!
Right click on the Macintosh HD and click Get Info
Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
Are you logging out of one user before going to the other? Or just going back and forth and leaving both open?
In the future (assuming you've enough RAM and free space) here are the troubleshooting steps you should take.
1) Restart. That might be all it takes.
2) Actually, this should be #1, probably. If I ever run into weirdness issues, I'll restart and run AppleJack. It's a free download. It repairs your disk, repairs your permissions, cleans your cache files, validates preference files and removes swap files. To run it (after installing) you a) restart, b) at the startup chime, hold "cmd-s" until you've started in single user mode (white text on the screen). c) type "applejack auto restart" d) get a cup of coffee while it does it's thing. When it's done it will restart.
3) If the problem persists, you may have a bad app, one that's hoggin resources. Open Activity Monitor, and look for apps that are hogging the CPU, and quit them. HP mucks up my kid's computers all the time.
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One last question: is there a difference between the 2 Gb as a single RAM chip vs two separate 1 Gb chips?
Cheers,
Kevin K.
I believe you'll be wanting to put your RAM in as matching pairs.
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I upgraded my g4 17" powerbook a while back and I believe I have a extra 512 DDR SDRAM chip. It looks from your post it's the same. Not sure? If it is your welcome to it. That will give you double what you have now. If you want it, let me know and I'll look for it. Just pay shipping from Seattle area.
Original Chip marked pc2700.
Also I believe Mac service requires you have their Ram installed or they wont service if something goes wrong. I bought third party for www.approvedmemory.com they had good prices. and have not had a problem. I've heard bad things about Chips from Ebay that when installed say you have a gig or two, but you really dont.
Good Luck,
Jerry
I don't think that's correct but it's worth checking on.
I have AppleCare and when I have asked them about my non-Apple RAM, or the non-Apple hard drive I installed in my old PowerBook, they said the machine is still covered, but if they can't find a problem with the Apple parts and determine that the problem is with or caused by the third-party components, don't expect them to fix it. One tech said for the testing, they would temporarily replace my RAM with Apple RAM to give them a good baseline.
In other words, they will service the machine, but they won't fix problems related to non-Apple parts, which is fair enough.
I do not know if that is what all techs would say, or if that's still true.
You can probably assume that any part Apple calls "user-replaceable" will not void your warranty. RAM is definitely user-replaceable because Apple makes it so easy and provides instructions. Same with hard drives on models like MacBooks and Mac Pros, where a user can change out a hard drive in under a minute with almost no tools.
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Sent a PM to Jerry.
Cheers,
Kevin K.
The odds of these two being compatible are about the same as a die hard Nikon user going out an buying a DReb. The physical form factor just isn't the compatible.
Desktop ram (what all G5s need):
Laptop ram (what all PowerBooks need):
http://wall-art.smugmug.com/
This is standard policy. Basically, if you call with a system instability issue, and they find you have 3rd party RAM, they will ask that you remove the 3rd party RAM and replicate the issue. The 3rd party RAM won't "void" the warranty (unless you physically break something when installing it), but the presence of it could be the cause of the problem (this is, sadly, VERY common) so the only way to know is to remove it and run the tests.
As far as compatible RAM, I strongly recommend Crucial (who uses RAM from Micron, which is where Apple gets its OEM RAM), or Kingston. Both of them have configurators on their sites where you select your exact Mac model and it gets you the correct RAM... so no worry about picking it by spec (I sell these things all day and 400 MHZ 3200 NS DDR3 blahblahblah with a pin # is gobbledegook to me as well. I advise avoiding that route, i.e. the NewEgg route, just because the chance you're paying two-way shipping is quite high ;-)
I'll echo the Crucial or Kingston advice.
two nits: 1. Crucial *is* Micron. 2. Apple gets ram from a number of places, my wife's mini arrived with non micron memory. But then they also tend to over spec it sometimes, and I think that's when they're using the "second tier" vendors. So when it calls for PC2700, they'll put PC3200 in it from someone else if it's cheaper than the 2700 from a big name. Apple's planar designs tend to expect the memory to live up to the exact specs, which is why memory compatibility is so often the cause of "weird stuff". What's really sad isn't how often that's the cause on Apple boxes, but how much the "pc" crowd just lets memory slack off on the specifications.
http://wall-art.smugmug.com/
I ordered from Crucial once and despite their reputation and higher prices they are the only one of the companies who got my order wrong, although they exchanged it without hassle.
Over the years, Crucial prices have risen above the competition, and they have been accused of unusual pricing practices. With the flawless RAM and service and lower prices I've gotten from Ramjet and OWC, I see no need to deal with the higher prices at Crucial. I'm sure you'll get a good product from Crucial, but I'm also convinced that Crucial's charging more for their reputation.
Yeah, I'd say buy their memory, but not from them. The last time I needed to order memory for a laptop I used their website to find the right part number, then bought it from newegg. (And saved about $50 if I recall correctly!)
http://wall-art.smugmug.com/