MDD G4 Upgrade - sluggish operations

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Level 1

4 points

MDD G4 Upgrade - sluggish operations

Hey folks,
I recently purchased a MDD G4 Dual 1.25 computer used from an auction house on eBay. It came with OSX 10.4 loaded on it - and I used target disk mode to transfer all settings and files from my MDD Dual 1.0. After ensuring everything worked and the computer checked out, I transferred the hard drive from the old box to the new, added another ATA 160GB drive (that I hope to use for a separate boot drive for Leopard in the near future), a Samsung DVD burner and a USB 2.0 card...

Everything is working in the "new" box... just slower than the older (and supposedly slower processor) was working?! I have tested the system with the TechTool deluxe CD, repaired permissions with Disk Utility... and rebuilt the entire directory with Disk Warrrior... all of the latest Tiger software updates/firmware updates are installed...

When I use Safari, the search between pages (spinning "loading" icon) is sluggish, mail the same... using iPhoto seems to be more sluggish... Any thoughts out there?? What to do next?

Additional info on box:
Machine Name: Power Mac G4
Machine Model: PowerMac3,6
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (3.3)
Number Of CPUs: 2
CPU Speed: 1.25 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB
L3 Cache (per CPU): 2 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 167 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.4.8f2
External Maxtor backup drive connected via firewire 400 port
External WD shared backup drive connected via USB/Ethernet to time capsule hookiedoo
Aluminum apple usb keyboard and mighty mouse...

Many thanks for any insights!

G4 MDD Dual 1.25 GHz, Mac OS X (10.4.11), MacBook 10.5.6

Posted on Jul 4, 2009 8:25 AM

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Answer 1

Allan Jones

Level 9

78,272 points

Jul 4, 2009 10:53 AM in response to socalexpat

Hi socalexpat!

Congrats on scorrig an MDD--we're rather fond of them around here.

I transferred the hard drive from the old box to the new,

Is that drive pretty full? A lack of free space on the drive can slow things, although the 2G of RAM helps reduce that effect.

Hard drives in the MDD should be set to "cable select." I doubt that doing "master/slave" would have such a negative effect on system performance but it's worth checking.

The burner(s) should be set to master.

What brand and model of USB card? Use System Profiler to look for the vendor code. In SP, select "USB" and see what vendor code shows for the card. A code containing 1033 indicates an NEC chipset on the card, a good thing. Cards with 1045 embedded in the vendor code have the OPTI chipset, which can cause trouble in some (not all) Macs.

You may wish to use Activity Monitor ("AM" for short--it's in your Utilities folder) to check for processes that are hogging the processors. Anything using more than 50 percent of your processor cycles is suspect. To see these, you'll need to set AM's "Show" window to "all processes." By default, AM will be set to "User processes" on the first launch. Make sure all your regular apps are closed--the computer is idling--when you check for runaway processes.

It's possible that Spotlight is busy indexing all the files on the drives. That should away when finished. If it doesn't, some action is called for.

Did you repair permissions after installing all the updates?

Well, there are some starting points. You may have done these already but I thought they are worth mentioning.

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Answer 2

socalexpat Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 4, 2009 12:08 PM in response to Allan Jones

Hello Allan - many thanks for the quick reply!

Some updates:
The hard drive is an 80GB - 48 GB available
I was certain to get a Belkin USB card with the NEC chipset (made that mistake already w/the other MDD!)
Both Hard Drives are on Cable Select... the old Pioneer optical drive was set on cable select as well when I opened the case (it is still installed)... the new Samsung came with a master setting, but after a call to OWC to query, they suggested all the drives should be on cable select. Is this correct?

I did repair permissions after everything was updated...

Lastly, this new box came without a modem - which didn't bother us as we're connected via DSL/ethernet... having never used Activity monitor before - something surprising turned up:
says that FaxJobManager is running 100 to 109% of CPU while real memory is 2.98MB on this program... and kernal_task (root user) was running about 66.7% of CPU, with 88.13MB of real memory
There are still stored user Fax settings in the system utilities window from the old dial-up days. Should they be deleted?

Spotlight is indexing the drives? Didn't quite catch the thread of that one?

btw - still enjoying the MDD's as well - this one did come with the 360W power supply, already runs a bit quieter that the old box!

Again - appreciate your assistance

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Answer 3

japamac

Level 7

24,400 points

Jul 4, 2009 7:44 PM in response to socalexpat

Spotlight is indexing the drives? Didn't quite catch the thread of that one?

The indexing process will be a normal part of a drive and data reconfiguration.
You will see "mdworker" and "kernel_task" consuming the CPU during indexing.
Until Spotlight is done, the involved processes will consume system resources.
This may take hours, even a day or two.
Let it run overnight, and get it over with.

An alternative, and to immediately cease the process, is to open System Preferences/Spotlight/Privacy, and click the "+" to add a drive to the privacy list.
Spotlight will not index the drives in the privacy list.

Of course, if you do this, Spotlight will not be able to search the drive(s) in the list.

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Answer 4

socalexpat Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 5, 2009 5:58 AM in response to japamac

My thanks to both of you - the last question: the activity monitor does show kernal task (the spotlight indexing) using processor resources - but the most processor resources seem to be going to JobFaxMgr? Seems to be a subset of WindowServer(68) - not sure how to ferret that one out
Again - appreciate your assistance!

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Answer 5

japamac

Level 7

24,400 points

Jul 5, 2009 6:12 AM in response to socalexpat

Hi-

If you can turn off your fax services, it may be worth it to try.
Not knowing your set up/settings, I can't say how....

In Activity Monitor, you can kill the JobFaxMgr process, and see if it stays off.
Select the process, and while it is highlighted, click the Quit button.

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Answer 6

socalexpat Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 5, 2009 8:36 AM in response to japamac

Hello again
Yes, I was able to quit the Fax application under activity monitor - but it kept reappearing until we rooted out every last thread of the app on three drives! It was the SmithMicro app that originally came with the G4 bundle... without an internal modem - it kept searching for it. The processor is acting "normal" again - Many thanks!

Just to quell my paranoia - an item left over from posts a couple notes back: the two hard drives and both optical burners are all set to cable select - this is the correct set up for these drives, yes?
Thanks for your advice and followup!

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Answer 7

Allan Jones

Level 9

78,272 points

Jul 5, 2009 11:30 AM in response to socalexpat

Sorry to have bailed, but Saturday got very busy and I hit the bed fast when it was over. Fortunately, you gained the attention of japamac, Grand High Poobah of G4 PowerMacs.

the two hard drives and both optical burners are all set to cable select - this is the correct set up for these drives, yes?

My understanding is that hard drives in an MDD should be cable select but optical drives should be master/slave according to their position on the ribbon (master on the end device and slave on the middle. I've not upgraded the optical drive in mine so I'm simply going on what others have posted. However, if all is better now and you are satisfied with the performance, I would not sweat it. If some trouble persists, you may wish to try the other setting option.

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