Originally posted by DavidH
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If you install Microsot's Intellipoint software then you can change which button does what I think. -
Crikey, I thought Macs weren't meant to slow down? I put leopard back on and decided to partition this time but I didn't think it would slow down over time unless that assumption was based on certain typical usage.Originally posted by Lyris View PostComment
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My Macbook never slowed down (2 years). It got a bit faster after I upgraded to Snow leopard (upgrade, not a fresh install) in fact. Normally by now I'd have a desire to get a new computer but I'm in no rush at all. Most odd!Comment
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There have been times where I fill the disk almost to capacity (video) and then delete again, so perhaps using huge files reveals it? The spinning beach ball is a pretty common sight for me. I should wipe it this Christmas.Comment
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is it a MacBook pro? if so, is it a case of the mbp beachball blues?Comment
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Yeah, early 2008 model Macbook Pro (the one before they took out the tracker button). Is it a known problem?Comment
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I dont know if its been mentioned but theres a SL compatible wrapper for Project 64 available here, much better than any previous mac N64 emus that Ive tried, great with the 360 controller.
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I think you'll be ok then. As far as I'm aware the issue only affects people (like me) with the 2009 models that use sata2 drives (like me) and was caused by Apple releasing a firmware update that unlocked the full sata2 speed while simultaneously buggering things up because it couldn't handle the increased speed. Luckily someone leaked a firmware downgrader otherwise we'd have been buggered for a while.Originally posted by Lyris View Post
Having said that, there was talk about certain hard drives with drop sensors interfering with the Macbook's own sudden motion sensor, but I'm not sure which models are/were affected (Apple released a hard drive firmware update but only for their specific Apple-badged drives).Comment
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It's not so much "reveals it" but simply nature of the beast.Originally posted by Lyris View Post
The Mac uses Virtual Memory, writing bits of memory to hard disk when working on fresh stuff, and if you go back to the old stuff, the system has to read that data from disk, while laying the new stuff down to disk. Example, if you're in iMovie, and working on a big project, then click on Finder to go and find something, the Mac will beachball while laying down iMovie memory shiz to disk, and reading Finder data back into memory. (bloody simple layman's terms disclaimer here)
It can make any computer, PC, Linux or Mac grind to a skidding halt, although it has to be said that the Mach Kernel does have some of the best memory management around.
Two ways to fix this, buy a bigger hard drive (ball ache) or buy more memory. This'll reduce how much disk swapping the OS does. As a rule of thumb, I try to keep the hard disk at least 25-30% empty/free, specifically for things like Virtual Memory and Photoshop's scratch disk to do their thing. This keeps the disk swapping fast and I can't really grumble about the speed.
Hope this helps a little...Comment
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Just to be clear, the system is still beach-balling even when the big video files have been deleted and are no longer being accessed.Comment
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Ahh, then you may have deeper issues.Originally posted by Lyris View Post
Use Activity Monitor (in Utilities) to see if any apps are needlessly chewing up disk access, memory or CPU time.
But it could be worse than that. Your drive may have a bad block or sector and the system is hanging when trying to access that area, either because a file is stored there or the OS is trying to use that space as virtual memory. Fire up Disk Utility after booting off the install CD and run some checks. hope you don't run into something like this...
I had this happen with a 2007 MBP within 3 months of owning it. Fortunately, I had Time Machine backups of everything so didn't lose anything, but I would seriously back up everything you can now, and look at a worst case scenario.Comment
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You may have a logicboard issue. My first iBook G4 had a logicboard fault and would cause Panther to beachball with the lightest of loads and Tiger to be really unstable.Comment
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I also have issues with the screen (which has been replaced once already) which are strange. The first problem is that at the top left, there's some sort of dirt stuck behind the layers which has appeared over time; I think it's some sort of rubber padding that must have come loose.
The second happened on the last screen too (before it was replaced); over time, what looks like a small pressure point has appeared at the bottom left.
I think when I have a free moment or two, I'll take it back to Apple's Glasgow temple, throw my Applecare at 'em and tell them to fix it
Thanks for the suggestions, I'll let you know the findings.
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May as well point out the beachballing. I'd say don't go on about making and deleting big files in case they say something like 'Yep, that sounds like the reason - too many files!' as it sounds more likely to be a hardware error of some sort.Comment
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Quick question, doesn't really matter if the answer is no but I'd like to know: by default iTunes stores everything in "home folder/music/iTunes". Is it possible to change that to "home folder/iTunes"?Comment
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