computer can't keep up with my typing, very slow to respond

Question

Level 2

205 points

computer can't keep up with my typing, very slow to respond

I've been noticing lately that I the computer has been dropping characters as I type. In other words, the words do not appear on the monitor as fast as I can type the characters and I'm certainly no speed typist. Sometimes, the cursor just stops moving even though I'm still typing and then when it starts moving again, it's missed several letters that I've typed. Or, I'll press a few keys and nothing shows up for a few seconds and then the last few keypresses pop up. I thought it was related to upgrading to 10.4.5, but I returned to using the back-up disk with 10.4.4 and it's still happening. Only other new item is a DSL modem, but don't know how that would slow down the whole system. Would appreciate troubleshooting suggestions on how to narrow down the cause!

1 GHz PowerPC G4 Mac OS X (10.4.4) 1.62 GB SDRAM

Posted on Mar 16, 2006 6:46 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Mar 18, 2006 10:15 PM in response to William M.

I think you can uninstall the Canon software, but it doesn't seem trivial, so if a restart fixes your problem, or you find the names of the processes in the startup items, I suggest you simply remove them from there.

If not you can go to Canon's website Support > Consumer, choose the product from the pop up menus, then go to Support > Downloads > Drivers/Software > Driver uninstall utility Ver. 1.20X (Mac OS X) . That one may successfully remove the software. I have never tried it though. Good luck!

Reply

Answer 2

Kevin Horn

Level 4

1,836 points

Mar 16, 2006 10:11 PM in response to William M.

Go to System Preferences->Keyboard & Mouse->Keyboard. You'll see 2 speed adjustments, play around and see if that helps. Also in System Preferences go to Universal Access->Keyboard and see if Sticky Keys or Slow Keys is set.

Reply

Answer 3

William M. Author

Level 2

205 points

Mar 17, 2006 3:47 AM in response to Kevin Horn

Go to System Preferences->Keyboard & Mouse->Keyboard.
You'll see 2 speed adjustments, play around and see
if that helps.

Nothing's been changed in the the Keyboard preferences since the problem began. I suppose I could adjust those speeds, but why should I have to? That's only covering up the symptom without fixing the problem.

Also in System Preferences go to
Universal Access->Keyboard and see if Sticky Keys or
Slow Keys is set.

Nothing activated in Universal Access->Keyboard.

Reply

Answer 4

Mar 17, 2006 2:20 PM in response to William M.

Have you installed any unusual fonts? Have you verified your fonts with FontBook (File > Validate Font)? I guess those things could slow down your typing.

Have you checked in the Activity Monitor for processes that take up a lot of processor power?

Reply

Answer 5

William M. Author

Level 2

205 points

Mar 17, 2006 3:27 PM in response to SermoDaturCunctis

Have you installed any unusual fonts? Have you
verified your fonts with FontBook (File > Validate
Font)? I guess those things could slow down your
typing.

I haven't installed any fonts, unusual or otherwise, since this problem began.

Have you checked in the Activity Monitor for
processes that take up a lot of processor power?

I did check in the Activity Monitor for processor hogs. After checking a link "Mac OS X: What are all those processes" I quit two processes that took up a lot of power and that seems to have helped quite a bit. I just don't know what those processes where, what started them, or how to keep them from coming back.

Reply

Answer 6

William M. Author

Level 2

205 points

Mar 17, 2006 6:12 PM in response to Kevin Horn

I wish now I'd written them down before I quit out of them. One was something that included the letters "CNL" followed by a bunch of numbers I think and the other one was something about a ButtonManager?????

Reply

Answer 7

Mar 17, 2006 11:48 PM in response to William M.

Well, I have a process called CNQL1212_ButtonManager which comes as part of the support for my Canon Lide 60 scanner. It is currently at 0% in the Activity Monitor

It seems your problem then isn't directly linked to typing or MacOS X, but that Canon's software went bananas and grabbed most of the CPU. Once you killed the offending program, things went back to normal. Hopefully you had recently made something unusual with the scanner, which triggered the CPU theft. Otherwise you may have a corrupt scanner software.

Reply

Answer 8

Mar 18, 2006 12:18 AM in response to William M.

That ButtonManager is likely to be a culprit. Open Console in your Utilities folder and check your console.log. Do you have a constantly repeating message something like "ButtonManager looking for device..."? If this is so then this process is eating up some of your resorces.

You want to stop this process (it will do no harm; it is just your Canoscan toolbox daemon constantly looking for your Canon scanner). Open System Preferences>Accounts>you>Login Items and remove the (probably) 2 ButtonManagers from your login items.

Matthew Whiting

Reply

Answer 9

William M. Author

Level 2

205 points

Mar 18, 2006 7:21 AM in response to matthew whiting

That ButtonManager is likely to be a culprit. Open
Console in your Utilities folder and check your
console.log. Do you have a constantly repeating
message something like "ButtonManager looking for
device..."? If this is so then this process is eating
up some of your resorces.

No mention of a ButtonManager in the console.log. However, I did notice a constantly repeating "TWAINBridge crashed" written to crashdump. What in the world is that?

Reply

Answer 10

Mar 18, 2006 7:41 AM in response to William M.

However, I did notice a constantly repeating
"TWAINBridge crashed" written to crashdump. What in
the world is that?

It's image capture software. It's also linked to your scanner software.

Did this problem persist after you restarted by the way?

Reply

Answer 11

William M. Author

Level 2

205 points

Mar 18, 2006 6:32 PM in response to SermoDaturCunctis

I have a CanoScan 3200F scanner. BTW, the buttons on the scanner stopped working around the update to Jaguar or Panther, I'm not sure when. I've emailed Canon about the problem and gotten no reply from them.

Is the TWAINBridge something I can disable or delete? If that and the the ButtonManager are part of my problem, I'd like to get rid of them.

Reply