technical problems

[MargaretD]

I'm having some technical problems with my computer. Running OS X 10.4.7 and it's so slow. Not just one program, but all the programs. It seems like the entire computer is bogged down. Could this be caused by a font? When I try to open something in Word it says there is not enough memory or disk space. It all seems to start when I installed some new fonts. Is it just one font? Too many fonts. I install the fonts in Font Book. Another thing with Word- For a long time it is so slow when choosing a font. If I choose the fonts from the top they are not grouped together they list each font- for example

Font>
ACaslonbold
ACaslonboldItc
ACaslonroman
AcaslonromanItc
Acaslonsemibold
Acaslonsemibolditc
Acaslon bold

....and so on for each font.

What should I do?

[mojoprime]

are they open type fonts?

[MargaretD]

Some are. Is that a problem?

[mojoprime]

the 10.4.8 update fixes a problem specific to Word with opentype fonts:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/13052

that may be part of your problem. you can try some of the typical stuff. do you have a lot of fonts loaded? if so, try activating only what you need. since i don't know your machine's specs, it might be ram issue or you might be running out space on your harddrive. you really want to keep more than, say, 10 gb free if you're working with photoshop and all. that's just an arbitrary number, ned could tell you better about photoshop. he's the guru there.

[MargaretD]

thanks. I'll try turning off a few fonts and see if that helps. Maybe I need to get rid a few things as well.

[mojoprime]

you should be ok with a bunch of fonts, so you may have ended up with a corrupt one. you can use something like font doctor, which comes with suitcase, or font agent pro that has some of it built in.

[MargaretD]

How can I tell if I need more memory? Or if there is something else causing the problem?

[mojoprime]

what type of machine do you have?

[MargaretD]

G5

[mojoprime]

ok, well, you've got way more machine than should be choking on this. how much ram do you have installed? and how much room do you have on your harddrive?

[MargaretD]

Sorry. G4.

Machine Name: Power Mac G4
Machine Model: PowerMac3,6
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (2.1)
Number Of CPUs: 2
CPU Speed: 867 MHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB
L3 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 133 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.4.8f2

[MargaretD]

Sorry. G4

Machine Name: Power Mac G4
Machine Model: PowerMac3,6
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (2.1)
Number Of CPUs: 2
CPU Speed: 867 MHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB
L3 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 133 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.4.8f2

[mojoprime]

still, working in Word, you ought to be ok. have you repaired permissions, running disk utility? it's in the applications / utilities folder. sometimes, that corrects things, particularly with Office.

do you know how much room you have left on your harddrive? go to the desktop and find your disk, right- or control- click it, select get info, and look at the 3 lines that say capacity, available and used.

[MargaretD]

Sorry G4

Machine Name: Power Mac G4
Machine Model: PowerMac3,6
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (2.1)
Number Of CPUs: 2
CPU Speed: 867 MHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB
L3 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 133 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.4.8f2

[mojoprime]

did you try doing what i just described?

[MargaretD]

Capacity 57.14 GB , Available 44.24 GB

[MargaretD]

I tried repairing permissions earlier. Didn't seem to help. Word is still not opening files. Other programs still seem slow. I turned off some of the fonts. Do I need to delete them or just turn them off? How many fonts do you think should be installed at once?

[mojoprime]

ok, plenty of disc space. and i have like 200 active, so unless you have every single font on your machine active, i would expect anything under that would be ok.

no, don't delete them. just turn them off.

you might try this: (and you might want to print these directions out)

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/30637

disclaimer: unless you feel comfortable running a system cleaning program, then DON'T do this. it might help your situation, it might not. if you have icons on your desktop in a special way or a custom desktop picture, it might delete that, but you can go back in and reset it.

i'm assuming this is your personal computer, so after you download this, save everything you're working on and quit all applications. by default, Maintenance is installed in your applications folder. go there and launch maintenance.

it will ask for your password. when that's done, you'll be at the main menu. under the maintence area, select "execute maintenance scripts" "optimize the system - complete optimization". under cleaning, DESELECT clear logs and crash reporter. sometimes those logs grow pretty big but you have plenty of harddisk space so you should be ok. leave everything the same and click execute.

go get a coke or a beer. it may take a bit.

come back and when it asks you to restart, go ahead and do that and after your machine has booted up, see if the situation is any better.

[MargaretD]

Will it delete any of my files?

[mojoprime]

it will delete the font, system and kernel and applications caches, which are temporary files that can sometimes get corrupted. but any of your other files should be ok.

the maintenance scripts are routines built into the unix core of os x, that -- if you keep your machine up and running a lot -- are already running in the background. this just runs them again. no harm done.

optimizing the system happens every time you install an apple update; full optimization just takes longer.

launchservices tells the system to open X file with X application. if you have deleted some applications, or a lot of them, sometimes it can get a little confused. this clears it out, and you may have to tell your mac which application to use to open some types of files.

like i said, you should be ok, but since i'm not there with you i can't guarantee everything will work right, since you can never have that kind of guarantee in doing anything with computers anyway. but if you have someone who knows more about mac os x than you do and you'd be more comfortable with them running this (or another utility), then by all means call them and have them come over or wait until you can hook up with them to take a look at your machine.

if you're more comfortable going from apple's site, you can check here:

http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/help/

again, no harm in being apprehensive. i always tell folks only do as much as you feel comfortable doing.

[D-Frag]

maybe you have a virus ;)