What is P-R-A-M
Some said there Macbook was running slow so someone suggested resetting their PRAM. What is PRAM?
MAcbook, Mac OS X (10.4.6)
PRAM is your Mac's Parameter RAM and all the details can be found HERE is Apple's KB article.6 replies
PRAM is your Mac's Parameter RAM and all the details can be found HERE is Apple's KB article.
See this article
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
Particularly the Additional Information section.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
Particularly the Additional Information section.
PRAM or Permanent RAM is a portion of memory that is continuously maintained even when the computer is turned off by either an internal lithium battery or from the main battery in the case of some laptops. The PRAM saves certain information such as the selected boot device, video resolution setting, date and time, and data from the most recent kernel panic.
Zapping or clearing the PRAM may help for certain types of problems if the memory area becomes corrupted. However, zapping the PRAM will not do much for a slow running computer. Usually a slow running computer needs maintenance of some type, but zapping PRAM isn't going to help. See my FAQ on maintenance:
Kappy's Personal Suggestions for OS X Maintenance
For disk repairs use Disk Utility. For situations DU cannot handle the best third-party utilities are: Disk Warrior; DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption. However, DW is not yet compatible with Intel Macs; TechTool Pro provides additional repair options including file repair and recovery, system diagnostics, and disk defragmentation. TechTool Pro 4.5.2 is Intel Mac compatible; Drive Genius is similar to TechTool Pro in terms of the various repair services provided. The current version, 1.5.1, is Intel Mac compatible.
OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) If this isn't the case, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility called Macaroni that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep.
OS X automatically defrags files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive. As for virus protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. You can protect the computer easily using the freeware Open Source virus protection software ClamXAV. Personally I would avoid most commercial anti-virus software because of their potential for causing problems.
I would also recommend downloading the shareware utility TinkerTool System that you can use for periodic maintenance such as removing old logfiles and archives, clearing caches, etc.
For emergency repairs install the freeware utility Applejack. If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the commandline.
When you install any new system software or updates be sure to repair the hard drive and permissions beforehand. I also recommend booting into safe mode before doing system software updates.
Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is significant):
1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
5. SuperDuper (Commercial)
6. Carbon Copy Cloner (Freeware - not universal binary.)
7. LaCie SilverKeeper (Freeware - not universal binary)
8. PsynchX 2.1.1 and RsyncX 2.1 (Freeware)
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore.
Additional suggestions will be found in Mac Maintenance Quick Assist.
Referenced software can be found at www.versiontracker.com and www.macupdate.com.
Why reward points?(Quoted from Discussions Terms of Use.)
The reward system helps to increase community participation. When a community member gives you (or another member) a reward for providing helpful advice or a solution to their question, your accumulated points will increase your status level within the community.
Members may reward you with 5 points if they deem that your reply is helpful and 10 points if you post a solution to their issue. Likewise, when you mark a reply as Helpful or Solved in your own created topic, you will be awarding the respondent with the same point values.
Zapping or clearing the PRAM may help for certain types of problems if the memory area becomes corrupted. However, zapping the PRAM will not do much for a slow running computer. Usually a slow running computer needs maintenance of some type, but zapping PRAM isn't going to help. See my FAQ on maintenance:
Kappy's Personal Suggestions for OS X Maintenance
For disk repairs use Disk Utility. For situations DU cannot handle the best third-party utilities are: Disk Warrior; DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption. However, DW is not yet compatible with Intel Macs; TechTool Pro provides additional repair options including file repair and recovery, system diagnostics, and disk defragmentation. TechTool Pro 4.5.2 is Intel Mac compatible; Drive Genius is similar to TechTool Pro in terms of the various repair services provided. The current version, 1.5.1, is Intel Mac compatible.
OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) If this isn't the case, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility called Macaroni that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep.
OS X automatically defrags files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive. As for virus protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. You can protect the computer easily using the freeware Open Source virus protection software ClamXAV. Personally I would avoid most commercial anti-virus software because of their potential for causing problems.
I would also recommend downloading the shareware utility TinkerTool System that you can use for periodic maintenance such as removing old logfiles and archives, clearing caches, etc.
For emergency repairs install the freeware utility Applejack. If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the commandline.
When you install any new system software or updates be sure to repair the hard drive and permissions beforehand. I also recommend booting into safe mode before doing system software updates.
Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is significant):
1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
5. SuperDuper (Commercial)
6. Carbon Copy Cloner (Freeware - not universal binary.)
7. LaCie SilverKeeper (Freeware - not universal binary)
8. PsynchX 2.1.1 and RsyncX 2.1 (Freeware)
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore.
Additional suggestions will be found in Mac Maintenance Quick Assist.
Referenced software can be found at www.versiontracker.com and www.macupdate.com.
Why reward points?(Quoted from Discussions Terms of Use.)
The reward system helps to increase community participation. When a community member gives you (or another member) a reward for providing helpful advice or a solution to their question, your accumulated points will increase your status level within the community.
Members may reward you with 5 points if they deem that your reply is helpful and 10 points if you post a solution to their issue. Likewise, when you mark a reply as Helpful or Solved in your own created topic, you will be awarding the respondent with the same point values.
In addition for Eric, Mike and Kappy post,
I use Maintenance and Onyx for optimizing my MacBook :
http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs/english.html
Also how much memory you installed in your MacBook, if yours is the original one that comes with 512 mb, upgrading the memory will make your macbook more responsive. And try to upgrade it in matched pair.
Also I noticed that you still using 10.4.6 on your information below, if that so, try to upgrade your software and firmware aswell and repait your permission after doing so.
Good Luck.
I use Maintenance and Onyx for optimizing my MacBook :
http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs/english.html
Also how much memory you installed in your MacBook, if yours is the original one that comes with 512 mb, upgrading the memory will make your macbook more responsive. And try to upgrade it in matched pair.
Also I noticed that you still using 10.4.6 on your information below, if that so, try to upgrade your software and firmware aswell and repait your permission after doing so.
Good Luck.
I've notice that my macbook is starting to run slower than it has in the past. Do you think the addition of about 70 large movie files about 250 MB a piece are slowing it down. I know you said that OSX automatically defrags files 20MB and smaller. Should I manually defrag these files and if so how do I do that?
Large files on the a hard drive do not cause a computer to slow down. Even were the files severely fragmented all that would cause is slower loading and accessing of those files. Fragmentation only affects the speed of accessing and loading a file. It has no other effect on the computer's speed. Given the speed of modern hard drives I can't see that much benefit from defragging.
As a friendly aside your question has nothing to do with the question asked by the original poster. You should have posted this question as a separate topic. When you post your own question in another person's topic it's called threadjacking, and it's considered poor etiquette (please read the forum's Terms of Use.)
As a friendly aside your question has nothing to do with the question asked by the original poster. You should have posted this question as a separate topic. When you post your own question in another person's topic it's called threadjacking, and it's considered poor etiquette (please read the forum's Terms of Use.)
What is P-R-A-M