System/some apps slowing

Frida

Frida

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A few weeks ago I erased my startup disk and did a clean reinstall due to performance problems I couldn't rectify. MYOB was getting slow at recording anything. A sale took 5-6 seconds to record once the button was clicked, and a log entry took even longer, all while the HD was clicking and churning. I repaired permissions, ran disk utility, deleted caches (including VM cache), ran Norton's SpeedDisk, checked prefs (no problems), deleted MYOB prefs anyway, logged in as a different user. All to no avail. After reinstall everything was OK. Any entries were instantaneous. Now it's back to square one. :mad: Some other apps are slow opening. It seems they've hung and when they finally open a message comes up saying something like "this will open the application NNNN for the first time…" even though it's been opened before. Trying to eject disks results in a message saying the disk couldn't be ejected because it's busy. I have to wait until the disk stops "tic-tocing", anywhere from 1-5 minutes.
G4 PowerMac, Sonnet 1.4G, 640Mb RAM, 10.3.8.
 
Hmmm... what are some programs you have installed on the computer?

Anything that runs constantly, like Konfabulator or some anti-virus softwre?

Do you have a gamepad connected, and, if so, are you using MacAlly's driver?
 
MYOB Accounting Plus, Palm Desktop, Norton Antivirus, AppleWorks, Safari, Mail, iLife 05, Cocktail, miscellaneous games. I recently installed Konfabulator but the problems existed long before that.
 
Hmmm... it may be completely unrelated, but I would get rid of Norton AntiVirus as soon as possible. It has been known to cause problems with OS X and has been discontinued.
 
I knew Norton Disk Doctor is a dud but I didn't know NAV was an issue. What about Speed Disk? What should I use for virus protection and defrag instead?
 
I wouldn't recommend defragging at all. OS X is written to put frequently-used files on a portion of the disk it deems necessary for quickest access. Defragging your drive only screws this process up, so after a defrag, OS X has to start all over, putting all those files back where it wants them. There's a slight chance you might be causing OS X to run slower than it can if you defrag a lot.

If you have a .Mac membership, you can get Virex for free.

While I don't advocate running without virus protection, I have to admit that I do it and that I never have had virus protection installed. A good router-firewall and all sharing options turned off keeps my system virus- and hack-free, not that there's much threat of either happening in the first place. I kinda think it slows the system down, and is unecessary (at this point in time). I keep good backups and can reinstall my system in a relatively short amount of time, not that I've ever had to due to a hack or virus. If you do the same, you may consider running without it until it's needed, as it might garner a performance increase (albeit a small one).

If you want a good repair program, I would suggest either DiskWarrior or TechTool Pro, or both if you have the cash. Neither protect against virii, though, and I don't think either defrag, but they're better options for keeping your system health top-notch than defragging is.
 
Norton has found PC virii on my machine twice in the past, somewhere in a Safari-associated folder, probably desperately looking for non-existent files to infect, but most likely able to send themselves on to others via my internet connection. There is also the infamous Opener out there which does indeed affect OSX from what I understand - see this thread http://www.macintouch.com/opener.html
I may have had an encounter with this, since before the re-install my firewall as well as Little Snitch had been turned off on a few occasions. I might invest in Virex. Already have DiskWarrior and ran that previously without improvement in performance.
 
Opener poses no threat to you at all unless you specifically run it yourself. It requires you to enter your admin/root password, and is more a "proof-of-concept" rather than a real trojan horse.

I would recommend Virex for a virus solution, much more than I would recommend Norton AntiVirus.
 
Well, I turned off Norton AutoProtect, rebooted and low and behold MYOB is flying again! Seems like the Norton CDs will spend the rest of their days as coasters. Thanks ElDiablo, you're a clever devil! :p
 
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