[muglo] Re: slow hard drive
- From: "Eric D." <hideme666@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <muglo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 15:59:00 -0400
I'm not at all sure what probbblems you had so I'll try to pppiece them
together (multiple letters b/c I have key repeat rate set to max (I wish I
could overdrive OS X b/c the repeat rate is too slow and Classic has issues
with max key repeat rate when it doesn't get enough CPU cycles... OS X
really is designed for the lowest common denominator in some aspects (read,
hunt-and-peck typists for Keyboard)).
on 25/4/03 1:21 PM, Alex at admeddemda@xxxxxx wrote:
> I don't think my speed problem is a 9.2.2 issue... I was throwing
> that out there in hopes someone would agree, lol, as that's easy to
> fix.
Don't know -- it's software.
> I am setting up a B&W and am surprised by it's slow response to text
> input... even my SE/30 is faster. A friend picked one up in toronto
> and I offered to set it up, mainly so I'd get the chance to try out a
> B&W before buying. Right now it's slower than my tower clone system
> (49mhz bus vs. B&W 100mhz). This makes no sense.
There's nothing wrong with the hardware of your computer. It's a software
issue that I never bothered fixing (never was an issue for me b/c as a touch
typist I'm usually ahead of where I want to be on the page anyway ;).
I suspect it's a Classic-related (OS 9.1, 9.2.1 or 9.2.2) issue since I
remember it cropping up later on in the OS 9 cycle.
> So... this has a 40G HD in it, and now I am thinking perhaps that's
> the problem. But why would text input be slow, and everything else
> seem perfectly normal?
The 40 GB would have nothing to do with the speed of input on your text.
> Is there an external cache slot on the B&W, or is the cache built
> into the chip?
It all depends on the CPU since it's built into the CPU. The earlier G3s
(<400 MHz IIRC) had 512 MB of back side cache whereas the newer ones had 1
MB. Since you have a G4 ZIF I'm not sure *what* you'd have. Fire up ASP
(Apple System Profiler) and report back to us.
> Also, with 1GIG of ram, why won't virtual memory turn on? Any way
> around this? Not that it's really needed, but it does make programs
> require less ram to run.
In OS 9 your computer cannot access more than 1 GB of RAM.
"but it does make programs require less ram to run" -- you're worried about
this with 1 GB of RAM ;-)? In theory, you could turn on VM by replacing one
of the 256 MB DIMMs with a 128 MB DIMM, thereby downgrading the B&W to 896
MB!!! However, there's no way you'll be able to save yourself 128 MB by
having VM on unless you run 20 or 30 apps at the same time and that is not a
recommended action in OS 9 (that's a recipe for a crash in OS 9).
One thought I had -- are there any apps that *require* VM or are more stable
with VM on than off?
If you upgrade to OS X -- which I _highly_ recommend with your B&W -- your
G4'll blow 9 out of the water on that computer ;).
In OS X VM will *always* be on, even with your 1 GB (of course, VM in X
takes up a lot less disk room than 9 since X only uses the actual amount of
disk space it needs). But, in X the issue of saving RAM will be a moot point
because OS X has much more efficient memory management than OS 9 (it just
needs more of it to be more efficient... makes sense, you need more RAM to
be more efficient eh? ;).
PS If you really want to test your computer's speed run one of the speed
testing utilities.
SpeedOMeter is a good old favourite for OS 9. It usually blew my mind to run
it and compare it to my old SE upgraded 16 MHz 68020 (I still have the
benchmark for that computer around somewhere).
<http://www.macupgradespecialists.com/software/speedomer4.0.sit.hqx>
I just ran it in Classic and my G3/400 only came up 22 x faster for CPU than
a Quadra 605 (957x for math ;). Not bad, not bad (though, if I were to
reboot into OS 9 it'll be a bit faster yet... but that would mean that I'd
have to boot into OS 9 (yuck) which I haven't done in a dog's age... I
recently *had* to <grumble> restart the computer b/c I upgraded the AirPort
software ;)!
I simply couldn't imagine living in OS 9 anymore - the instability, lack of
multitasking & slow web browsing would drive me nuts (though, I have to
admit that IE 5.2 for OS 9 opens *fast*... I guess that's the advantage to
no multitasking).
Eric.
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