It's not that often, maybe once or twice a week, but sometimes iTunes randomly decides to pause. It doesn't seem to happen for a reason or be triggered by anything, I'm not hitting any buttons, and I don't even have to be in the same space as it for it to happen. It just randomly pauses. It has happened in more than one iTunes version. Why does this happen, and does it happen to anyone else?
17" 1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo iMac,
Mac OS X (10.5.4),
2gb RAM, 160GB HDD
This happens to me as well. I have always assumed that it is because the Mac gets doing something in the background that ties up the CPU so much that it actually has to pause the iTunes player to get the task done. A similar problem arises with my screen saver when it is doing a slide show. Every once in a while it pauses. I assume it is loading a new batch of pics to display, and/or some other process competes with that so it ends up pausing.
We have to remember the Mac is a multi-tasking platform. If you are like me, you will have Mail, Safari, iTunes, and probably one or two other applications running at the same time. Then there are tasks that run in the background all the time. All of these compete for the attention of the CPU. For real-time applications like iTunes, Quicktime, action games, etc., sometimes the CPU just gets overloaded and interrupts occur causing them to time out briefly (or not so briefly). Having lots of RAM is supposed to help.
This happens to me as well. I have always assumed that it is because the Mac gets doing something in the background that ties up the CPU so much that it actually has to pause the iTunes player to get the task done. A similar problem arises with my screen saver when it is doing a slide show. Every once in a while it pauses. I assume it is loading a new batch of pics to display, and/or some other process competes with that so it ends up pausing.
We have to remember the Mac is a multi-tasking platform. If you are like me, you will have Mail, Safari, iTunes, and probably one or two other applications running at the same time. Then there are tasks that run in the background all the time. All of these compete for the attention of the CPU. For real-time applications like iTunes, Quicktime, action games, etc., sometimes the CPU just gets overloaded and interrupts occur causing them to time out briefly (or not so briefly). Having lots of RAM is supposed to help.
I suppose that makes sense. I haven't thought of it that way. Backing up what you said is that I'm usually running 10+ programs at once on 2gb of RAM (it still runs fast enough though, OS X is just good like that :D), and at least one of them is usually something hardware demanding like Flash or Photoshop. Thanks for explaining that. I'm going to leave the question open a little longer though, in case anyone has anything to add.
videoCWK wrote:
I suppose that makes sense. I haven't thought of it that way. Backing up what you said is that I'm usually running 10+ programs at once on 2gb of RAM (it still runs fast enough though, OS X is just good like that :D), and at least one of them is usually something hardware demanding like Flash or Photoshop.
Darn! I wish I had 2GB of RAM. I am limping along on 512KB. And, yes, I run Photoshop along with the others and it really slows things down. Also, I have secure virtual memory turned on, and that means all the stuff swapped out to disk by the application in encrypted on the fly. That uses a lot of CPU as well.
But 10+ programs, and OS X is still fast? I am so envious...
I would recommend upgrading. RAM isn't to expensive as long as you buy 3rd party. 2gb is the max for my system, I dunno about G5s though. Mine came with 512mb and upgrading was the best thing I ever did. It was actually somewhat problematic beforehand, and it would start to get slow if I opened more than Safari and Adium, but since upgrading it's been great. I wouldn't say it's super duper fast after opening more than 10 programs, but it's definitely not slow. Right now I'm running (not counting Finder) iTunes, GarageBand, Photoshop, Photo Booth, Safari, Adium, Activity Monitior (always keep it open, just in case I want to see what the system is doing), Opera (don't ask why I have two browsers open), Limewire, and KiGB (a Gameboy emulator) and it's still running pretty well. If upgrading RAM isn't in your budget, change your budget. It feels like a different computer when you go from 512mb to 2gb.
videoCWK wrote:
If upgrading RAM isn't in your budget, change your budget. It feels like a different computer when you go from 512mb to 2gb.
Ok, I think I am convinced. I was stalling on the possibility that I would just take care of this when I get my next Mac. (The present one was a gift, which is why it came with only 512KB). What brand of 3rd party RAM did you buy? I have been hesitant to put any non-apple hardware in my Mac.
Mine was actually a gift too, in fact so was the RAM. When the guy at the Apple store told me in a conversation that I should definitely upgrade my RAM before getting Leopard, that was what convinced my mom, since she wanted to get me Leopard as a gift. So I got RAM as an early present (it arrived like a month before Christmas and she wanted to be sure it was the right kind before it was too late) and it worked. I don't actually remember what brand it is, and I don't know where the package went. It came from Newegg though, and I think it was categorized as laptop memory for some reason. If you're skeptical you can get RAM from Apple, but it'll cost more. Just remember this if you get it off Newegg. Even if it says laptop RAM, if the type of RAM is the same type your iMac takes, then get it. Like I said, mine was supposedly laptop RAM, but it was the type my computer used, and surely enough, it works.
Also, if you know you're getting your next Mac soon, then just wait until then. Even if you get it off Newegg or somewhere like that it'll still be around $100, and you don't want to spend that money on RAM only to retire it a few months later. But if this will be your Mac for a while longer, then definitely upgrade.
That just happened to me too. I have 2 GB RAM and I only had Microsoft Excel 2004 and iTunes running. iTunes paused a song and I had to hit the play button again to make it start playing again. Do you have to click play again too, or does it just stop and start again by itself?
