IMac G5 (w/iSight) running slow and hot on web browsers

Question

Hello-
I've had my iMac for 4+ years and haven't any problems I couldn't fix on my own until now....
Machine is an iMac G5 w/ iSight with all original hardware except an extra 2GB of memory (for a total of 2.5). Over the last couple of months, my web browsers have begun to run slower and slower (mainly Safari, but I also use Firefox). Also the processor fan (I believe) comes on more quickly and frequently. It is now to the point that anytime there are any imbedded graphics, whether it's a youtube video, or a weather radar loop, or my kids are on webkinz, the fan kicks in and the top left corner gets extremely hot to the touch. As soon as I leave the page or close out the browser, the fan dies down. I cannot run any of these sites optimally. I am also getting quite a lot of page loading errors in Safari such as "Safari can't find the server." However, when I hit refresh the page comes right up. There does not seem to be a pattern to these messages. This only seems (so far) to be an issue with the browers. Today I simultaneously played a DVD, played songs on iTunes, and work in MS Word. No fan...
Here's what I've done so far:
Repaired disk permissions
Ran the extended hardware test (passed, no errors)
Ran diagnostics on my network connection (passed)
Reset Safari and Firefox incl. clearing the cache and deleting all cookies
Ran cleaning and maintenance w/ OnyX
Any thoughts or help would be much appreciated!
Thanks...
JD

Answer 1

Which Camino? Do you have the latest, which I think is 2.0.3? It's difficult to pinpoint why all your browsers might be slow to load.
You could try the Servers from OpenDNS which may be faster (and safer, since they are patched for DNS poisoning/redirects) than those of your ISP. Put these numbers in Network> DNS for the interface your are using, eg. Ethernet, Airport:
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220
Then check to see if it's working by going to
http://www.opendns.com/welcome/
You can also test your speeds here
http://www.speedtest.net/
Here's something to read on slow browsers (in this case, Safari, but applicable to any browser.)
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10354948-263.html
If the refresh option works quickly, that might indicate that your Internet speed is slow. Once you've been to a page, it's stored in the browser cache, so it doesn't need to reload everything from scratch. I don't notice any difference in speed from refresh loading, so I suppose my Internet speed, though only around 1MBPS, is fast enough not to have to depend on the cache.
I don't know for certain if that indicates a problem, but the CPU spiking temporarily to 100% on loading a page doesn't sound like a big problem. Your processor is by now relatively slow compared to newer machines and web pages are getting more complicated with more elements to load all the time.
Finally, those G5s do run kind of hot; it will only delay the arrival of the hottest temps, but putting a fan at the back does help a little. I use one even on this new iMac.
Message was edited by: WZZZ