Slow system and odd startup icon

Question

If I'd only changed one variable at a time then I'd probably not be asking this question... but since I changed so many here goes:
About the same time as upgraded to 10.4.8 I added a third internal drive (first one in the slower drive area near the front of my MDD G4) and installed the newest iLife suite.
My system has slowed down amazingly... just trying to activate Finder to look at a file list, changing an active selection from Mail to Safari, opening most any app... causes a 5 to 10 second spinning beach ball.
My only clue is a momentarily new symbol when I restart the CPU: Prior to the launching of the normal Apple screen I see a small folder that alternates with a question mark for just a second or two. Then startup proceeds normally. I thought that icon was for a problem finding the startup drive, but I've not changed where the system resides or that drive at all.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated,
Pat

Answer 1

Did you also update your iLife apps and QuickTime? And did you repair permissions? Two things to do to see if you can find the source of the slow down:
1. Create a test user using System Preferences->Accounts. Leave the test user basically as it is created, don't add contextual menus, menu extras, fonts, nothing extra. Try logging into the test user and see if the responsiveness is back to normal. If so the problem is something in your usual account rather than a system level problem.
2. Try launching Console from your utilities folder and leave it running in the background. Are you getting any odd error messages?
Also check to see if the drives are set to sleep when possible, make sure the check box is UNchecked in System Prefs->Energy Saver. Usually though the slow down when that is checked is intermittant rather than constant.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder