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Q: G5 PPC & New Yahoo! Mail - Impossibly Slow

I have a 20" G5 PPC iSight iMac, 2.1 GHz with 2.5 gb of RAM. I'm running 10.4.11. The machine seems to be in good health, Disk Utility shows no problems, plenty of space on the HD and so on.

 

In the last year or so I've noticed that the machine seriously struggles with certain websites, such as YouTube, Twitter, eBay etc. (endless spinning ball, inability to scroll and so on). I assumed it was something to do with Javascript content. I now use TenFourFox as a browser as both Safari and Firefox became virtually unusable, but the inability to view and use certain sites remains.

 

I've now been forced to switch to the new version of Yahoo! Mail - this site completely brings the machine to a standstill; typing takes an eternity, the spinning ball is pretty much a constant feature. I can no longer practically use my accounts on the machine.

 

Should I expect such awful performance and accept that my iMac needs to be replaced?

iMac G5

Posted on Jun 13, 2013 1:05 PM

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Q: G5 PPC & New Yahoo! Mail - Impossibly Slow

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  • by MichelPM,

    MichelPM MichelPM Jun 16, 2013 9:44 AM in response to JoeBloggs
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    Jun 16, 2013 9:44 AM in response to JoeBloggs

    I can't be sure, but Britny is running a lesser Mac than you and is reporting no issues.

    Are you running the most recent versions of Safari, Firefox or TenForFox for OS X 10.4.11?

    Have you tried clearing out histories, cookies and web caches as a suggested?

  • by JoeBloggs,

    JoeBloggs JoeBloggs Jun 16, 2013 11:39 AM in response to MichelPM
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    Jun 16, 2013 11:39 AM in response to MichelPM

    Yes, I'm using the most recent version of TenFourFox (17.0.6); switched to TenFourFox due to performance issues with Safari and FIrefox.

     

    Cache is limited to 100Mb, I don't keep more than a week's history and regularly clear cookies. Just cleared everything and Yahoo! Mail is still unusably slow, likewise Twitter. Disabling all browser add-ons doesn't improve things.

  • by MichelPM,

    MichelPM MichelPM Jun 16, 2013 12:31 PM in response to JoeBloggs
    Level 6 (13,653 points)
    iPad
    Jun 16, 2013 12:31 PM in response to JoeBloggs

    how about setting up ad blockers on each browser.

    Does that help?

  • by JoeBloggs,

    JoeBloggs JoeBloggs Jun 16, 2013 1:09 PM in response to MichelPM
    Level 1 (8 points)
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    Jun 16, 2013 1:09 PM in response to MichelPM

    I'm using Adblock Plus - enabled or disabled doesn't appear to make any difference.

  • by JoeBloggs,

    JoeBloggs JoeBloggs Jun 17, 2013 3:44 PM in response to JoeBloggs
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    Jun 17, 2013 3:44 PM in response to JoeBloggs

    Seems like there may be some link to Adblock Plus - if I disable it before opening Yahoo! Mail, it's much better; if I open mail and then disable Adblock, I have the same problems.

     

    Adblock Plus works fine with Yahoo! Mail using Windows XP and Firefox elsewhere, so this is presumably a problem specific to the version of OS X I'm using.

     

    Very frustrating.

  • by MichelPM,

    MichelPM MichelPM Jun 17, 2013 4:08 PM in response to JoeBloggs
    Level 6 (13,653 points)
    iPad
    Jun 17, 2013 4:08 PM in response to JoeBloggs

    I keep all of my ad and pop-up blockers active all the time on my web browsers.

    I never toggle them on/off.

    Camino, Firefox and Safari run much faster without all of garbage. Especially if the ads are animated.

    If a site has a lot of animated ads, that can slow down browser response significantly, too!

    I think you'll find that many browsers will run faster if you block all the banner ads and pop-ups from view.

    All of these are, usually,  junk, Anyhoo!

  • by JoeBloggs,

    JoeBloggs JoeBloggs Jun 17, 2013 4:27 PM in response to MichelPM
    Level 1 (8 points)
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    Jun 17, 2013 4:27 PM in response to MichelPM

    Agreed, but it seems that Adblock Plus may be causing an issue in this case.

  • by jives11,

    jives11 jives11 Aug 24, 2013 1:00 AM in response to JoeBloggs
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 24, 2013 1:00 AM in response to JoeBloggs

    Sorry to arrive late, but this thread is extremely pertinent to me , as i have a G5 with 1.5Gb running 10.5.8 and experience these kinds of issues daily..

     

    I completely understand your problem as I too find some websites and by implication, some javascript libraries cause the system to become very slow an unresponsive, spinning beach ball, and also extreme lag on text input. I tend to use google tools, and while the new gmail UI is OK, some other sites (blogger, adsense, analytics) seem to cause the machine to struggle. I use TenFourFox and keep it up to date. I also use TenFourBird for my work IMAP4 email .

     

    I've not come to any firm decisions beyond keeping the number of tabs to a minimum, routinely running some maintenance tools (Onyx is quite a nice one). I don't thinkAdBlocker is the issue, and I tend to favour using it to block animated adverts which have a hight CPU demand.

     

    I sometimes look at the system using top in a terminal window. The browser is invariably the highest consumer of CPU. I do have some errant HP printer processes, which is another well known problem. While not consuming massive amounts of CPU they do appear to use more than they should. Sometimes simply killing them and allowing them to respawn seems to work.

     

    I guess these machines are just not able to keep up with the heavy JS workload of many modern websites ?

  • by rccharles,

    rccharles rccharles Aug 25, 2013 12:41 PM in response to jives11
    Level 6 (8,464 points)
    Classic Mac OS
    Aug 25, 2013 12:41 PM in response to jives11

    I've noticed some slowdown in typing in the last few day with TenFourFox on my imac g3 600.  It is important to keep down the number of pages that you have open that are big on JavaScript I think.

     

    Robert

  • by JoeBloggs,

    JoeBloggs JoeBloggs Sep 8, 2013 1:51 PM in response to jives11
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 8, 2013 1:51 PM in response to jives11

    Still at a loss, I can only assume it's JavaScript causing the problems.

     

    Twitter, Yahoo! Mail, flickr and eBay's homepage "feed" are just some of the sites I'm unable to use. Any site with images and needing scrolling is also impossible.

     

    I've used DiskWarrior and Onyx, cleared everything I can clear and don't have multiple windows or programs open. Geekbench shows a score of 1305 which seems fairly healthy for a G5 iSight.

     

    Before I reluctantly scrap it, can anyone think of anything else that could be causing this that I've missed? Seems strange some report no issues.

  • by rccharles,

    rccharles rccharles Sep 8, 2013 5:16 PM in response to JoeBloggs
    Level 6 (8,464 points)
    Classic Mac OS
    Sep 8, 2013 5:16 PM in response to JoeBloggs

    I'd try a

    -- running in a new account.  This will rule you perference problems

    -- fresh install in a clean partition. 

     

    I've seen adiquiate performance with the new yahoo mail on my iMac g3 600 with tenfourfox 17.x

  • by MichelPM,

    MichelPM MichelPM Sep 9, 2013 8:11 AM in response to JoeBloggs
    Level 6 (13,653 points)
    iPad
    Sep 9, 2013 8:11 AM in response to JoeBloggs

    I agree with rccharles.

    Try creating a brand new, clean  user account and see if any thing changes.

    Just out of curiosity, you are not running any antivirus software, firewalls or any other type of crapware (like hard drive "cleaning"   apps or such) on your PowerMac,  are you?

  • by JoeBloggs,

    JoeBloggs JoeBloggs Sep 9, 2013 8:37 AM in response to MichelPM
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 9, 2013 8:37 AM in response to MichelPM

    I'm not using any sort of security or regular "cleaning" software - I have used DiskWarrior, OmniDiskSweeper and Onyx in previous attempts to sort issues and I use Adblock Plus.

     

    When you say run a new account, presumably I just log out of the one and only account I've ever had on this machine, set up a new one and see what happens on the various problem websites?

  • by rccharles,

    rccharles rccharles Sep 9, 2013 8:57 AM in response to JoeBloggs
    Level 6 (8,464 points)
    Classic Mac OS
    Sep 9, 2013 8:57 AM in response to JoeBloggs

    Create new Account

     

    blue apple > system preferences

    clicks on accounts icon

     

    click on lock icon if locked. 

    enter logon password 

    Picture 9.png

     

    click on + icon ( left side of screen just above the lock icon )

     

    Picture 10.png

     

    after creating new account, you need to logout of your current account.

     

    blue apple > log out ... current count name ...

     

    log on to new account. see if problem goes away.

    Picture 11.png

     

    if it has gone  away, some preference file got messed up on your account. Rename the appropriate  Preference file. You will have to figure out the name.   They are .plist files.  Look for these files in Preferences folder which is in your Library folder [ more formally ~/Library/Preferences ].  ... reboot.

    Post back for more help.

     

    More tips on creating a new account

    http://pondini.org/OSX/Transfer.html

  • by jives11,

    jives11 jives11 Sep 12, 2013 12:20 AM in response to JoeBloggs
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 12, 2013 12:20 AM in response to JoeBloggs

    My G5  is slow but not unusably slow, though I'm not using yahoo mail (gmail).

     

    Two articles on tuning OSX and tuning Firefox (I use TenFourFox) have definitely improved things :

     

    http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/performance.html

    http://benjaminkerensa.com/2012/11/12/learn-how-to-speed-up-page-loading-in-fire fox

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