slow to respond after being idle

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Level 1

127 points

slow to respond after being idle

Hi,

For the past week or so, my Mac has been slow to respond when I start using it after it has been idle for awhile. I first noticed this when I would use it first thing in the morning. At night, I dim the screen and lower the volume but leave it on 24/7. In the morning it would not respond to my hitting the F2 button (increase screen brightness - Powerbook G4...) so I thought it had frozen overnight so I hit the power key and restarted it.

In more recent days, it has responded but it is slow to first thing in the morning. Now, it is slow to respond after being idle for awhile during the day as well as when first used in the morning.

I have fixed permissions. I'm not sure what else to do. Everything else seems to be ok. I have 17.3 GB free on the HD.

Cheers,

John L

15" Powerbook/1.67 Ghz (DL/HR), Mac OS X (10.4.11), 1.5 gb RAM, Fantom 250 gb external firewire drive

Posted on Jul 12, 2009 5:42 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 12, 2009 5:47 PM in response to lipwak

HI John,

Try resetting the PMU instructions here.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1431

and try resetting the PRAM/NVRAM too. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

*"In more recent days, it has responded but it is slow to first thing in the morning"*

Also, check to make sure there is sufficient disk space. Control or right click the MacintoshHD icon on your Desktop. Click "Get Info". Under the General tab you will see Capacity and Available. Make sure there is at least 10% available disk space, 15% is better.

John, is this the original hard drive?

Just in case, now would be a good time to back up any important files in case the drive fails.

Carolyn 🙂

Message was edited by: Carolyn Samit

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Answer 2

Limnos

Level 10

427,343 points

Jul 12, 2009 8:36 PM in response to lipwak

Check preferences on your hard drive. If you have a drive set to spin down while the computer is idle it will take several seconds for it to spin up again when the computer thinks it may need it, and that can seem like a long time.

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Answer 3

lipwak Author

Level 1

127 points

Jul 12, 2009 9:24 PM in response to Limnos

Well, my preferences for power adapter are still set to what I left them at - display and computer never go to sleep but hard drive goes to sleep whenever possible. (Seems like a contradiciton - computer vs gard drive...) Anyway, that's how I've had things set up for a long time, not just recently and they are still set that way. Settings for battery are computer - never go to sleep, display - go to sleep after 15 min and put hard drive to sleep whenever possible.

I always have the Powerbook plugged in so it isn't running on battery.

I don't think these settings are causing it but I am curious about the seeming contradiction between never put computer asleep and put hard drive to sleep whenever possible...

I reset the PMU and will see if that fixes things tomorrow morning.

Oh, and I have 17.7 GB free on a 80 (74.53 GB after formatting) HD.

Thanks.

John L

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Answer 4

lipwak Author

Level 1

127 points

Jul 13, 2009 10:03 AM in response to Carolyn Samit

Well, resetting the PMU didn't help. It was slow to respond this morning. I've zapped the P-ram so let's see if that helps (tomorrow).

The Powerbook is 3&1/2 years old and yes, it's the original HD. I backup once a month.(SMART status is verified.)

Thanks for any help.

Cheers,

John L

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Answer 5

BDAqua

Level 10

250,253 points

Jul 13, 2009 10:29 AM in response to lipwak

Hi John,

At this point I think you should get Applejack...

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/19596

After installing, reboot holding down CMD+s, (+s), then when the DOS like prompt shows, type in...

applejack AUTO

Then let it do all 5 of it's things.

At least it'll eliminate some questions if it doesn't fix it.

The 5 things it does are...

Correct any Disk problems.
Repair Permissions.
Clear out Cache Files.
Repair/check several plist files.
Dump the VM files for a fresh start.

First reboot will be slower, sometimes 2 or 3 restarts will be required for full benefit... my guess is files relying upon other files relying upon other files! 🙂

Also open up Activity Monitor and see what might be using up a lot of CPU. Open Console, also in Utilities and see if there are any relavent messages.

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Answer 6

Jul 13, 2009 11:07 AM in response to lipwak

May be some applicable tips on these sites.

Look at these links

Mac Tune-up: 34 Software Speedups
http://www.macworld.com/article/49489/2006/02/softwarespeed.html

52 Ways to Speed Up OS X
http://www.imafish.co.uk/articles/post/articles/130/52-ways-to-speed-up os-x/

Tuning Mac OS X Performance
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/performance.html

11 Ways to Optimize Your Mac's Performance
http://lowendmac.com/eubanks/07/0312.html

The Top 7 Free Utilities To Maintain A Mac.
http://mac360.com/index.php/mac360/comments/thetop_7_free_utilities_to_maintain_amac/

Mac OS X: System maintenance
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=607640

 Cheers, Tom 😉

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Answer 7

lipwak Author

Level 1

127 points

Jul 14, 2009 4:33 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

Resetting the P-ram seems to have done it. Thanks all for your help. (If all goes well tomorrow morning, I'll mark this question as answered.)

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Answer 8

lipwak Author

Level 1

127 points

Jul 22, 2009 8:07 AM in response to lipwak

Well, it's back to being sluggish when I first use it in the morning. Takes 13 seconds for it to respond to increasing the brightness, 3 seconds for the Gmail notifier to react to being clicked on right after the brightness comes on and 3 seconds for the widgets to appear (they weren't just being started).

I could zap the P-ram again but why do I have to do this twice within a few days?

FYI, it is not sluggish at other times for the most part so all the suggestions for "speeding up your Mac" are not relevant, but interesting nonetheless.

Thanks.

John L

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Answer 9

lipwak Author

Level 1

127 points

Jul 22, 2009 8:07 AM in response to lipwak

It is back to being sluggish first thing in the morning, which was the reason I started this thread.

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Answer 10

BDAqua

Level 10

250,253 points

Jul 22, 2009 2:53 PM in response to lipwak

I'm thinking it may be time to consider replacing the HD or test Booted from a Firewire drive.

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Answer 11

lipwak Author

Level 1

127 points

Jul 22, 2009 3:08 PM in response to BDAqua

Gulp. How do I test booted from a Firewire drive? I know about target mode. Replacing the HD is probably not an option for me at this point although I suppose it is cheaper than getting a new machine, maybe not...

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Answer 12

BDAqua

Level 10

250,253 points

Jul 22, 2009 3:24 PM in response to lipwak

If you have a Firewire drive and can install OSX on it, or Clone your Internal to it, then you just hild the Option key down at Boot time to select the FW Drive, or use Sys Prefs>Startup Disk pref pane to choose it then restart.

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Answer 13

lipwak Author

Level 1

127 points

Jul 22, 2009 3:49 PM in response to BDAqua

And then do what? Run Disk Utilities Verify? I can do that from the system disk...

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Answer 14

BDAqua

Level 10

250,253 points

Jul 22, 2009 5:43 PM in response to lipwak

Just see if you have the same slow to respond issue while booted off the Firewire Drive.

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Answer 15

lipwak Author

Level 1

127 points

Aug 3, 2009 8:51 AM in response to BDAqua

I tried it last Saturday night. Sunday morning it was quick to respond. However, it was quick to respond this morning too. It has been sluggish otherwise both first thing in the morning and at random times in the day after when I haven't been using it. Yesterday and today, so far, that hasn't been a problem.

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