I have a 10 year old PowerBook G4 and get the technicolor spinning wheel a lot. I am not very computer savvy, but can follow instructions. Any help will be appreciated.
PowerBook
Exactly which model Mac are we discussing? This article may help you find that info, but there are many other ways as well:
.
Exactly which model Mac are we discussing? This article may help you find that info, but there are many other ways as well:
.
I have a MAC OS X version 10.4.11. It is a Powerbook G4 15".
OK, that cuts it down to only about 24 models, as shown on this page:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/index-powerbook-g4.html
which model exactly?
Model: Powerbook 3,5
That model has two RAM slots, that can hold a total of 1GB.
You can use Activity Monitor to show a graph of how much RAM is in your machine and how much is in use. If there is very little Green "free memory", that is likely the cause of slowness, and if you do not have the maximum amount installed, doing that upgrade will provide a substantial speed boost.
As I indicated, I am not that computer savvy (75 years old). How do I get to activity and rather than getting more RAM, how do I remove data stored to increase my RAM storage with the current Ram that I have? Thanks
you will see the brightly-colored pie chart in the Activity Monitor window.
How do I get the Activity Monitor? Please walk me thru it. At the top I have an Apple, then Safari, File, Edit, View, History, Bookmarks,Window, and Help. Under Window I see Activity. How do I delete? Is this what you mean?
The Apple Menu stays still and the each Active Application you use puts its MenuBar items in the rest of the positions across the top. Right now you are seeing the Safari MenuBar across the top.
There should also be a Dock, on the bottom by default. It contains shortcuts to things you might use frequently. Safari will be one of the Icons on it as well.
If your Hard Drive is showing on the upper right of the desktop, double-click to open it. Find the folder named Applications and double-click to open it. Inside there will be a folder named Utilities. Double-click to open that, and one of the items inside will be Activity Monitor, double click to launch that.
No hard drive icon in upper right. Bottom icons that I use are Safari and Trash and Photosmart C3100. Where is Applications and Utilities?
I do get a long list of Activity under the Window icon at the top. How do I erase all of it?
OK I found Applications and Utilities on my screen before I launch Safari. How do I remove items in Activity monitor?
Now you are looking for this Memory display:
This will show the total amount of memory installed, and how much is free, along with PageOuts and Swap used high-water-marks.
The best speedup for your Mac is to have the maximum possible memory installed.
There are always a lot of processes in that presentation. To reduce the list of items on those lists, look for the light under running items on the Dock, click that Icon (to switch to that Applications) and quit that Application.
I have a 10 year old Mac. I get the spinning wheel a lot. I am not very computer savvy. Any suggestions on what to do to "clean" up my computer so the spinning technicolor wheel stops?
