Increasing memory on 800 MHz 640MB iBook G4
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suddenly become slow as treacle. I have tried verifying permissions and
checking the disc itself but everything happens about 30 seconds after I
press any command. It doesn't seem to matter much how many programs are
loaded, the delay is always the same. I cant believe this computer was
designed to load everything and execute every command that slowly? Can this
thing have caught a virus? There is a curious file which has appeared on my
desktop called eBayISAPI.dll. I hadnt thought that you used dll files in
OSX?
Is there a trick involved and/or should I upgrade from Tiger to Leopard to
use less resources? Or would it use MORE resources to load all the new OS's
features? Or will Leopard even install on an 800 MHz 640MB computer? At
the moment is is loading a 73 mb 2008-003 security update. It has been
installing for about an hour.
nospam
<fount...@amexol.net> wrote:
> I read somewhere that I can increase the memory on my iBook G4 which has
> suddenly become slow as treacle. I have tried verifying permissions and
> checking the disc itself but everything happens about 30 seconds after I
> press any command.
macs don't 'suddenly' become slow and 30 seconds is unusually long for
even a slow computer. it sounds like there may be a hardware issue,
perhaps a failing hard drive.
news.rcn.com
news:290520080704406046%nos...@nospam.invalid...
Oh not again!! This will be my eighth 2.5 inch hard drive to go in about
three years on eight different computers, most with the same symptoms. But I
had just assumed that the reports on the drive on DiskUtility along with the
SMART report were sufficient.
And I had assumed that as only one of them was on a Mac (a Powerbook G4),
they were somehow more reliable than PC drives.
This is one of thoseMacs in which you have to take virutually the whole
drive apart to get to the drive, isnt it?
As to Leopard, does it run properly once it is installed if I buy a gig of
PC2100 memory? (I was sure I had read on the Apple site that you cant put
any more than 640 MG in it)
news.rcn.com
> three years on eight different computers, most with the same symptoms. But
> I had just assumed that the reports on the drive on DiskUtility along with
> the SMART report were sufficient.
>
> And I had assumed that as only one of them was on a Mac (a Powerbook G4),
Oh and can I poll opinions on whether it is worthwhile paying as much as a
couple of second hand hard drives for Disk Warrior please?
nospam
<fount...@amexol.net> wrote:
> Oh and can I poll opinions on whether it is worthwhile paying as much as a
> couple of second hand hard drives for Disk Warrior please?
diskwarrior is worth its weight in gold, but it won't fix a mechanical
problem with a drive.
nospam
<fount...@amexol.net> wrote:
> Oh not again!! This will be my eighth 2.5 inch hard drive to go in about
> three years on eight different computers, most with the same symptoms. But I
> had just assumed that the reports on the drive on DiskUtility along with the
> SMART report were sufficient.
if smart says the drive is bad, it's bad. if smart doesn't say it's
bad, the drive might be dying or it might be fine. so just because you
are getting positive reports doesn't mean that a problem isn't lurking
within.
> And I had assumed that as only one of them was on a Mac (a Powerbook G4),
> they were somehow more reliable than PC drives.
the same drives are used in both macs and pcs.
> This is one of thoseMacs in which you have to take virutually the whole
> drive apart to get to the drive, isnt it?
ibooks are a *bitch* to swap hard drives.
> As to Leopard, does it run properly once it is installed if I buy a gig of
> PC2100 memory? (I was sure I had read on the Apple site that you cant put
> any more than 640 MG in it)
g3 ibooks were limited to 640 meg. g4 ibooks can take more.
news.rcn.com
"nospam" <nos...@nospam.invalid> wrote in message
> In article <8sKdnTBVX7iVNaPV...@rcn.net>, news.rcn.com
> <fount...@amexol.net> wrote:
>
>> Oh not again!! This will be my eighth 2.5 inch hard drive to go in about
>> three years on eight different computers, most with the same symptoms.
>> But I
>> had just assumed that the reports on the drive on DiskUtility along with
>> the
>> SMART report were sufficient.
>
> if smart says the drive is bad, it's bad. if smart doesn't say it's
> bad, the drive might be dying or it might be fine. so just because you
> are getting positive reports doesn't mean that a problem isn't lurking
> within.
a Mac and test the drive? Or CAN you boot from UBCD4WIN just to check the
drive? Or Ubuntu if there is some drive testing utility in it?
Rob McCleave
"news.rcn.com" <fount...@amexol.net> wrote:
> Is it still the case that you cant boot from a Drive Fitness Testing cd with
> a Mac and test the drive? Or CAN you boot from UBCD4WIN just to check the
> drive? Or Ubuntu if there is some drive testing utility in it?
If Drive Fitness Testing and UBCD4WIN are written for a PC, they won't
boot any kind of Mac with a Power PC G4 chip in it. A Linux CD written
for PPC chip should boot it.
The install CD that came with the iBook will definitely boot the machine
and you can run the disk utility from the CD and get the (admittedly
limited) diagnostics and repair functions that it provides.
Apart from out and out failure there is also the possibility that the
drive is close to full. That will make the computer slower and less
reliable.
If that is the case, new drives are cheap, but of course replacement of
a full drive is as much pain as replacing a failed drive. I see tiny
Torx head screws rolling off the table...
news.rcn.com
"Rob McCleave" <maku...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:makuribu-66718F...@news.cogeco.ca...
> In article <TO2dnU_yXauRTKPV...@rcn.net>,
> "news.rcn.com" <fount...@amexol.net> wrote:
>
>> Is it still the case that you cant boot from a Drive Fitness Testing cd
>> with
>> a Mac and test the drive? Or CAN you boot from UBCD4WIN just to check the
>> drive? Or Ubuntu if there is some drive testing utility in it?
>
> If Drive Fitness Testing and UBCD4WIN are written for a PC, they won't
> boot any kind of Mac with a Power PC G4 chip in it. A Linux CD written
> for PPC chip should boot it.
>
> The install CD that came with the iBook will definitely boot the machine
> and you can run the disk utility from the CD and get the (admittedly
> limited) diagnostics and repair functions that it provides.
I used original install discs. I selected repair on the Fujitsu drive
itself and it told me in red that 15 reserve fields in the catalogue count
have incorrect data and that there is an invalid leaf count (It should be 16
instead of 18)
It then said the iBook G4 (HFS) drive was repaired successfully AND that it
tried to repair 2 volumes (presumably the other being the Fujitsu drive?)
and that the other volume could not be repaired.
On Verify Permissions, All sorts of verifications come up wrong and
ultimately I get a 'DISK UTILITY INTERNAL ERROR D. U. has lost its
connection with Disk management Tool and cannot continue, please quit and
relaunch disk utility'. then it announces that if you quit you may destroy
your OS. It then does go into 'repair permissions' and I get the same get
a 'DISK UTILITY INTERNAL ERROR D. U. has lost its connection with Disk
management Tool and cannot continue, please quit and relaunch disk utility'
with lots of suspicious sounding clicking at aroud 80% complete. Running
verification again passes the verifications which were repaired but
ominously starts the clicking at the same place again. I wonder if this
means trouble with the platters! Something SMART couldnt repair with
replacing bad sectors with spare ones?
Anyway re-running Disk Repair gives invalid leaf record count and the HFS
Vol is OK, the other one could not be repaired again.
Shane Badham
If the iBook has suddenly started to slow down the problem may be
fixable and not need a new disk. I am assuming you have not tried using
the utiliies that come with the OS.
Get out your Mac OS X install CD-ROM, and startup or restart holding
down the 'C' key. When the install app appears go to the menu and select
Disk Utility.
First of all check permissions and repair if necessary.
Second run the Verify Disk and if necessary run Repair Disk.
I can't guarantee that it will fix it, but it is worth doing and could
not be cheaper. :-) I have AppleCare on my iBook so I also run TechTool
if necessary. Between the two of thwm I have never failed to fix my disk
partitions on my G4 mirror-door; the iBook has never needed this
treatment.
HTH
--
Thanks and regards, Shane.
"A closed mouth gathers no feet!"
Email: Beware the invalid word! shane at wonk dot demon dot co dot uk
Website: http://www.wonk.demon.co.uk/