Imac PPC G4 sluggish, don't have install discs, any ideas ?

Question

I have an old PPC G4 17" w/ 1 GB DDR SDRAM running 10.5.8 , I do not have any original discs. It has gotten more and more sluggish in spite of the RAM upgrade a few years back.
HArd drive is 75% empty and I ran Onyx routines, any suggestions what I can do to improve performance since I cannot do a fresh reinstall ?
Message was edited by: Chris Ifatoye Theberge

Answer 1

You may have to get a retail full install DVD for Leopard 10.5 so you may
access the computer from there, and see about running Disk Utility from
the Installer, to Verify the hard disk drive, and also 'repair disk.'
There is supposed to be a way to run fsck in a single-user mode of startup
from the command-line; to help do certain tasks that may otherwise not be
possible if the discs are missing, or if other processes do not work.
It is best if you can perform maintenance with the booted OS X install disc.
• Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility & fsck:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1417
{A retail Leopard 10.5 install DVD would not include iLife apps, or other
apps which may have accompanied the computer when new, or added
by some other owner with discs no longer with the computer now. An
iLife '06 would probably be most compatible with the iMac G4 & 10.5.8.}
Have you tried booting the computer via SafeBoot mode (shift key held
on startup until you get a starting OS X dialog box or login screen) then
use the system's Disk Utility and have it 'repair disk permissions' on the
Macintosh HD? When done, you restart the computer normally.
• Mac OS X: Starting up in Safe Mode:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1455
Depending on what iMac G4 model and build you have, it may be able
to support up to 2048MB of RAM if both slots can be upgraded. If your
iMac G4 has at least a 1GHz processor, or is USB2.0, it probably can
use more than the original supported amount of installed RAM capacity.
You may be able to add one 1024MB chip in the lower RAM slot, if
the computer is an iMac G4 1GHz or faster CPU for 1.5GB RAM.
Leopard demands more resources in some computer builds that did well
under Tiger 10.4.11, & in some instances 10.5 may be more problematic.
If you have an external FireWire hard disk drive enclosure with boot-capable
hard drive within it, a self-powered model with its own power adapter, it may
be possible to get and use a Clone utility to make a bootable clone/copy of
your computer's complete hard disk drive, to an external FW HDD, and then
test it, to see if it can run the computer the same as the original in-Mac HD.
With a successful clone of the computer's hard drive to an external FW HDD,
you could consider using the Clone's own Disk Utility (run from clone in the
FW hard disk drive) to secure erase or zero-overwrite and partition map, and
reformat the computer's internal hard disk drive; test & repair it, etc. Then use
the same clone utility (such as Carbon Copy Cloner, etc) to move a clone copy
back into the computer's hard disk drive. Then 'repair disk permissions' on boot
via the clone's Disk Utility, to be sure they are corrected and check out OK.
With an older computer, it may be the internal hard disk drive also may be getting
worn and could be starting to fail. There are third-party disk utilities such as
Drive Genius, and DiskWarrior; these should be of the correct version to help the
computer model and OS version, and not too old or too new for your configuration.
There's just too much to say; especially when your best first effort would be to
have the Leopard 10.5 retail full install DVD to check, test, repair, or replace the
computer's system. And an external FireWire type hard disk drive, which can
support booting OS X and work with clones.
So, there's a lot one could do; if you have access to the tools, even more.
Good luck & happy computing!