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Some system slowdowns & crashes can be caused by errors in the directory structure that allows OS X to find all the files & folders on any disk. These errors are often caused by crashes or the Mac being switched off without shutting down properly (using the Shut Down or Restart command from the menu). Often the system can get round these errors, but it can cause slowdowns. Errors can just sit there for some time, but they can grow worse, particularly if a lot of writing new files &/or deleting old ones happens. So it's a good idea to clear any directory errors as early as possible. If you have any slowing down or crashes then use the following procedure to check & fix your hard drives(s);

Boot from the Install CD & run Disk Utility Disk Repair (not Repair Permissions). If you get any errors, try running again. If errors don't clear after 3 runs or you get Keys out of order, you have a problem that DU can't fix. Post back on here with any messages. If it's not any better when you reboot as normal, you can try running Disk Utility Repair Permissions. This can be done by running Disk Utility from your System disk after you've rebooted as normal.

Disk Utility Disk Repair should be run with no errors before running an Archive & Install. This because A&I does a large amount of directory changes & any errors can be made much worse, even resulting in all the data being lost. A&I will not fix directory errors, it does not reformat the disk.

Apple Mail slowing down can be caused by messages building up in the In & Sent mailboxes. One way of avoiding this is to create new mailboxes & move messages to them, either by drag & drop or using Move to on the Menu. This not only stops Mail from slowing down, it makes messages easier to find. Searches can be done either on an individual mailbox or all mailboxes.

Updated 03/08/2006

On a simpler level, see the Spinning Beach Ball FAQ

The best way i have found to have your mac running at optimum performance levels is to backup your home folder, apps etc (to dvd or external hard drive) and reformat however this is not always practical for everyone as you will end up having to put in all your preferences etc again.......but its the best way for me and i reckon for many too

putting in as much memory as you can afford also works wonders

istockist.com,

I'm afraid that reformatting is more likely to slow down the system as it destroys the work that OS X has done in placing the files on the disk for optimum performance. If you find that a reformat improves speed, then it's much more likely that you have a disk directory problem which is cleared by the reformat. Running Disk Utility Disk Repair would be an easier way of clearing any minor problems.

simonjary,

I've got 1.12GM RAM and I see the beachball an awful lot. I've done all the Repair Disk stuff and it still happens.

I mainly use Quark, Photoshop, Illustrator, Mail, Word, they are all slow to open and quite often run very slow for no reason.

G4 733mhz running 10.4.6

big-blue-wolf,

1.12 Gb of Ram is not a lot these days.

Update to 10.4.11, update all applications to latest versions, then use Onyx or something similar to clear the caches and run all the Cron tasks.

Make sure that you minimise the number of fonts active in the various folders or use a Font Manager (Linotype FontExplorerX is free). Fonts can impose tremendous overheads.

When you have done all this, lets see how things are. Don't expect miracles . . . the 733 G4 was always a bit of a snail.

jjgraphics,

"then use Onyx or something similar to clear the caches and run all the Cron tasks."

Don't do that, it's the most pointless waste of time you could imagine! The cron tasks do so little of importance for 99.9% of users, it's not like the locate database is used very much and the log files aren't going to cause a home user any problems if they're 2MB instead of 1MB.

It's just the same as running permissions repair all the time, it doesn't really work as preventative maintenance.

JP.

Apple Certified System Administrator

jjgraphics,

Thanks for the reply but this thread was started in 2006!!!! Why it has resurfaced now I really do not know.

The G4 has since been pensioned off and been replaced by a quad core MacPro

big-blue-wolf,

It resurfaced when someone posted a query in it as well as starting two threads. I deleted both posts, transferring one to another thread.

Perhaps the FAQs should be locked, but it would be presumptuous of me to do it.