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Spotlight Constantly Indexing

I have an early 2005 Power Mac G5. Spotlight is constantly indexing, initially showing 100+ hours for about 135GB of info, and requiring the cpu and fans to run all the time.

Any suggestions of how to stop this??


Thanks!!

Power Mac G5 Dual 2.7 Ghz, 8GB SDRAM, ATI Radeon X850 XT, Mac OS X (10.5.8), Apple 23" HD Cinema Display

Posted on Jun 28, 2011 1:02 PM

Reply
30 replies

Jun 28, 2011 6:35 PM in response to BDAqua

Thanks, added all drives to privacy pane. That stopped spotlight from running away. Now, when mail is on, in activity monitor, cpu is running at 100%. Any ideas about why mail is running cpu at 100%?


You were helping a few weeks ago with this dying G5. Thought it was bad hard drive, etc. These problems could be related,CPU B is dead or at least not showing on hardware monitor. New iMac ordered and should be here this week. My concern is, if I try to transfer or do the migration assistant... if these are problems that will follow to the new machine???

Jun 28, 2011 6:48 PM in response to skyflynbeachbum

>Any ideas about why mail is running cpu at 100%?


Do you have any Mail Add-ons/extensions?


In Mail under the Window menu item>Connecxtion Doctor, does that show any hangups?


Not certain, but this can fix myriad Mail problems...


Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), it will try to repair your Disk Directory while the spinning radian is happening, so let it go, run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, then move these folder & file to the Desktop.


Move this Folder to the Desktop...


/Users/YourUserName/Library/Caches/Mail/


Move this file to the Desktop...


/Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail/Envelope Index


Reboot.


If that doesn't do it and you can afford to redo all your Rules, try these & reboot...


/Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail/MessageRules.plist


/Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail/MessageRules.plist.backup


>if these are problems that will follow to the new machine???


Tough to tell, but I'd try MA at very first boot, easy enough to start over with a fresh install if so., but let's see if we can get Mail to quite down first.

Jun 28, 2011 10:08 PM in response to skyflynbeachbum

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


http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/15667/applejack


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


applejack AUTO


Then let it do all 6 of it's things.


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


The 6 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.

Trash old Log files.


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! :-)


Disconnect the USB cable from any Uninterruptible Power Supply so the system doesn't shut down in the middle of the process.

Jun 29, 2011 5:59 AM in response to BDAqua

Ran applejack, restarted 4 times. Running somewhat better, with Mail and Activity Monitor the only apps on, runs between 50%-95% of cpu. But also, and this was happening before, at initial startup, it "never" goes to the log in page which requires a password. It just comes up to the desktop. So I guess it never really shuts down even when the power is cut off.

Jun 29, 2011 6:11 AM in response to BDAqua

Also, after running applejack, decided to turn Spotlight back on, had added my HD to privacy, to see if it fixed that. It didn't. Activity monitor showed %system went up to 60% with fans running.


Was just wondering, fans had been running a lot before everything went wrong several weeks ago. Could whatever making Mail run at 100% and Spotlight at 50%+ have "burn out" CPU B? Because CPU B is apparently "dead" now. That causing me having to get new machine??


As I'm typing all of this in Safari, only 2-4% total, user and system in Act. Mon.

Jun 29, 2011 9:26 AM in response to skyflynbeachbum

Let me jump in for a second. The Swiss Army Knife I use:


http://www.northernsoftworks.com/snowleopardcachecleaner.html


Can help tame Spotlight and 99 other uses, has its own AJ-ish single user mode routine and many others.


A corrupt spotlight index or database / corrupt hidden "._DS" files and other things.


I would also run Disk Warrior 4.x if you have it and even TechTool Pro 4+ to look for problem files.


Next:


CLONE your system and repair with DW/TTP


Want to erase or zero the drive, lets try to rule out a bad drive sector, problems with directory, or problem files and prefs. Instead of looking for the "one magic bullet" solution go deep and far can be fastest and best way to touchdown. Corrupt files can affect RAM, and of course marginal RAM can do all kinds of strange things.


Boot off the clone


How To clone

Carbon Copy Cloner

Using Cloning as a Backup Strategy


I use CCC and SuperDuper, they each are useful at different times.

SuperDuper

Jun 29, 2011 1:46 PM in response to BDAqua

Haven't tried to turn cpu off. I see where I can "reset all" in your message. Don't know if I can do it but will try. Tried Console.. not responding.

Have just got new iMac... so all these problems will soon go away. However, hate to give up on this G5, it's been a great machine. If I could fix it, would like to!

Next problem, transferring all my stuff from the G5 to the new iMac, especially since the G5 keeps freezing!


Tried to run Snow Leopard Cache Cleaner as recommended by The Hatter, even though I don't have Snow, last OS that will run on my machine 10.5.8..... but, it froze up after a few minutes (the original problem.)

Jun 29, 2011 1:55 PM in response to The hatter

Thanks for your thoughts!!! Tried to run Snow Leopard Cache Cleaner, I have old G5, 10.5.8, so it doesn't have Snow. But the OS described by the company included me, so I ran "Cleaner" anyway. After about 5 minutes the machine froze up, see post above.


Return to "original" problem, hope this link works!!!


Re: My Power Mac G5 is freezing up. A few days ago my G5 started freezing up, the cursor is unresponsive and none of the keys have any use. I have to press the power button to shut down and then restart. Sometimes on the restart, instead of the Apple... (Updated)



Have just picked up my new iMac, this was driving me crazy so bought new machine! But if G5 could be saved... would like to. It's been a GREAT machine!!!


So, after freezing up, never got to the Disk Warrior stuff. Don't know if it can work with machine freezing.


Next MAJOR concern... how to get the info from my old G5 to my new iMac with the G5 crashing/freezing every few minutes. Also of concern, is the cause of these problems of the G5, going to be brought to the iMAc if I transfer my stuff???

Jun 29, 2011 2:23 PM in response to skyflynbeachbum

Doesn't tell me anything or what you tried to do with SLCC (the developer is excellent and knows his stuff, and if there was a 10.5 version but sLCC works on 10.6 and back to 10.3).


I try to get people to STOP using their drives and system, to install and use another boot drive with OS X and not touch it until it is backed up / repaired / reformatted.


Your problem sounds like what 10.5.1/10.5.2 would do to me. And fixed with Disk Warrior. The problem seems to ly with Mail and 10.5s SYNC SERVICES that it uses and creates a real mess.


Apple wanted to blame my mouse because it was 3rd party, Microsoft, and anything else - not with their USB extension or their software being shipped pre-maturely. And feel sorry for the new Mac Pro + new OS + none of the software and drivers and 3rd party ready. (10.3.0 was similar story as was 10.4.0).


Migrating form PowerPC to Intel is to me, to be done very carefully if at all. And not if there is any doubt as to file system integrity.

Spotlight Constantly Indexing

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