Extremely slow performance

Question

I have a 400 MHZ g4 Power Mac (PowerPC) with PCI graphics - running OSX 10.3.9 and it has slowed to a crawl. I get the spinning wheel when I try to switch between two windows of an open program - and I'm basically using this computer for basic email and web browsing - that's it.
What can I do? Is it dying on me?

Answer 1

Try in this order:
1. Check the S.M.A.R.T. Status for your drives under Disk Utility. Backup your data now, in case the disk is going bad. I mean NOW. Not 5 mins later.
2. Create a new user and see if you can reproduce the problem. If the new user works fine then you know it's not a hardware problem.
3. Unplug all USB devices. Can you still reproduce the problem? Unplug from the network.
4. Make sure all the connections are tight from the drives to the mainboard, make sure the components are seated properly.
5. Use Disk Utility to verify the disk, after you have made the backup.
6. If you have access to a new disk, try a new disk and reinstall (not clone) the OS. Does the problem go away?
It could be a lot of things. You kind of have to be patient and work through each possibility. The most likely issues are: (a) corrupt prefs file etc.; (b) problematic disk; (c) something on the network timing out or something on the USB (or any other bus) not responding.