I have 2005 G4 iBook; it's so slow; how can I speed it up?

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5614365

Is Spotlight indexed? If you don't know how to find out, let me know. If it is, then that isn't the problem.

Do you let your machine go into screen saver mode over night or energy saver, or turn it off? Screen Saver lets

the machine's logfile optimizations take place overnight, where energy saver delays it until such time when it can be run.

Have you attempted to repair permissions? Installing any software that requires an administrative software may initiate problems. Accessing Mac OS X only folders from Classic applications can also cause problems with permissions.

Do you use any third party maintenance tools I should know about? You should only use a backup software. All else actually slows you down even after it is used.

Normally the only thing that might slow down is the internet on web sites that aren't written with open standards in mind. But someone with the latest Flash shouldn't have much trouble with that. Java on the other hand can slow people down with old computers, since that has had more frequent updates that no one seems to keep up with until the last second. More website need to seriously consider open standards this page explains:

http://www.anybrowser.org/

Do you connect any hard drives with their own backup software? That software can slow things down.

Go to the upper right hand corner little icon that looks like a magnifying glass. That's Spotlight. It is the built-in content & file search engine of Mac OS X 10.4 and later. Because it deals with Content, it has to go through a process of building an index of the content of all Word, Acrobat, Addresses, e-mail messages, and any other text searchable document on you system. If it says it is indexing, it hasn't completed that index, and operations will be slow. If the index is corrupted, rebuilding is necessary by adding and removing the hard drive to Apple menu -> System Preferences -> Spotlight -> Privacy.

Do not sleep once a month, and let the machine run in screen saver instead. This will let the logfiles cleanup. They can clog the system and slow it down.

Try disabling Weprint to see if it makes a difference.

Once a month is all that is needed.

Spotlight indexing is explained here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2409

i have a 2005 powerbook G4 1.5GHz 2GB RAM. i maxed it out with a nice SSD. you wont belive how much of a jumpstart it is. my powerbook is now faster than it ever it was. Boots in under 20 seconds 🙂

How much space have you left on your hard drive? Check disk utilities to see how much space you have left, that could be hampering you. Also, how much memory are you using? If it's a mid-2005 iBook it can max to 1.5GB but only came with 512. Is this the 1.33 processor speed machine?

Despite A Brody's advice above, I personally would use Onyx as a maintenance tool to clean out caches and other matters for Tiger, the free download is here http://onyx-tiger.en.softonic.com/mac?ab=0

Onyx should only be used on backed up systems. Cache cleaning software can inadvertantly zap cache as it is being written. In the worst case scenario, it creates an endless loop of this happening. And when it happens to the Launchservices cache, many, if not all Apple applications will not launch. Cache files are used to speed the system. It is when they get corrupted that things slow down. You don't amputate a patient for an uninfected bug bite. Emptying the cache file is akin to doing that, and if it is done indiscriminately, you can lose more than you gain.

I have used Onyx for about six years with no problems whatsoever in both Tiger and Snow Leopard. My citing of cache clearance was to mention only one of the maintenance suite of operations offered by the app, which can be tailored according to one's needs or thoughts, not choosing to empty cache if one has your reservations, but ticking the box for rebuilding spotlight, repairing disk utitilities, and others.

My purpose in entering this thread is simply to offer another perspective to the original poster from my own experience. The size of the remaining space on his hard disk and the memory size is what I would first like to hear given a slowness problem.

Sorry just reread your first reply, you have 14 GB space, that should be OK.

Try another OS ? I have just bought a 12" 1.33 gHz iBook G4 specifically to run MorphOS on it. This lightwaight OS derived from AmigaOS flies on this configuration and looks absolutely ravishing ! 🙂

Here's someone demonstrating MorphOS on his iBook G4 :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMCZhZX_-mY

As you can see it's extremely fast, even when you have a browser opened playing youtube videos, an emulator running a 3D game and several other applications running in the same time.

I'm delighted with my iBook !

Onyx, while one of the better applications for fixing issues, still can create issues. People indiscriminately using such tools can kill the system launchservices cache when cleaning system caches, just as the system cache is being used. The net result is applications that don't launch. And then worse, cache files contrary to popular belief actually speed up the system. So knowing what cache file to delete at the right time is a matter of voodoo science, since Apple's software dynamically opens and closes programs it doesn't tell you about. And uses the cache files to optimize its system. If you delete the wrong file, you will slow yourself down. Best to operate with such utilities only with a backed up system. You don't know if the reason for a corrupt cache is a slowly dying hard drive, or a poorly written application. But you don't want to essentially kill the patient to cure the cold. Make sure there is always backup before such utilities are used.