[DM-MUG] Slow Mac

[jim lagnese]

Clearing the caches seem to help as well...I believe there are several
utilities that do it. I just set up a cron job....


On 9/7/06 8:35 AM, "Matthew W." <maccelerate at earthlink.net> wrote:

> Just like a car, gunk can build up in the system. Disk Warrior can
> repair and optimize the directory, or catalog, on a disk and that can
> help further the reliability of the machine. If there IS a severe
> directory problem, then it could impede progress and slow things
> down, but that's not usually what happens.
> 
> If you haven't kept up regular maintenance, removed unused startup
> items and kept certain system preference items updated, you'll start
> succumbing to what I call the 'upgrade downgrade.' See, any computer
> is like a car. You have to check the fluid levels, take the barbells
> out of the trunk, lube the door locks, clean out the back window so
> you can see police cars and mobsters following you, and keep the
> engine tuned-up. If you start towing around a camper (10.4) without
> making sure the rest of the engine is at its peak, you'll start to
> backfire, burn oil, lose power, etc. Of course, some machines run for
> years before noticing any ill effect.
> 
> There is no single answer, but Disk Warrior is a fine product. Like
> changing your own oil, it helps you become more knowledgeable about
> your own machine. From your description, that problem *could* be
> directory-based as all of these things rely upon some aspect of the
> database, except 'Connecting to sever.' Your Mail.app database for
> one or more mailboxes could be a little confused, but rebuilding them
> (select a mailbox and go to the menu Mailbox and choose Rebuild)
> without verifying that your directory is fit may not help much.
> 
> It might help to know if 'everything' is slow, or just when you're
> using Mail.app? Your referenced symptoms are all Mail-specific
> problems and unless you're actually seeing the system drag across-the-
> board, then we should only look into Mail itself.
> 
> Matthew
> 
> On Sep 7, 2006, at 5:25 AM, Julie Joyce wrote:
> 
>> Hello:
>> 
>> When I bought my PowerBook G4 a couple of years ago, it did
>> everything fast.  But for quite some time now, it slows down often
>> and quite a bit.  The problem seems to be my email (I have tons of
>> emails saved), which frequently goes through a tedious process of
>> "Writing changes to disk," "Connecting to server," "Updating
>> index," "Saving index..." etc.  Everything freezes while this
>> happens.  Is there anything I personally can do to make it speedy
>> again -- or will I have to purchase something such as Disk Warrior???
>> 
>> Thank you!
>> 
>> Julie Joyce
> 
> 
> Matthew Wheeler
> Acting Vice President
> Des Moines Macintosh Users Group
> http://www.dmmug.org
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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