Older iMac bogs down all apps when LW running
 

Hey, I recently installed LW pro onto one of my older iMacs, G3 with 400mHz, and OS X.3.5. LW works fine, but, everything else has slowed to a crawl. When I quit LW, everything is back to normal.

Any ideas on how to remedy this?

The same LW works on my other computers without problems (same OS).

Thanks,

Boris

I presume that means you're using OSX right? LW runs on Java. Java for mac is far from perfect & apparently results in some memory leakage. It also can take up some virtual memory space/scratch disk (ie:hdd space.) All I could suggest would be to keep your java updated. And if you're using high-end apps to try to just run one at a time. Either that or just run LW in spells. After each time the vm & real memory use that accumulates will be wiped. I think et voilà would be best at answering this, but anyway.

To get an idea of what I'm refering to see: http://www.gnutellaforums.com/showth...5968#post95968

et voilà à la rescousse .... ;)

How much ram in that iMac? Running osx and LW confortably needs at least 256MB ram.

Try reinstalling JAVA 1.4.2 update 2 downloadable at http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/

If that doesn't work tell us. I'm using the same iMac (however much modified :D :D :D ) with 512MB ram and no problems running 10 programs at once.

Bonne chance

Just as a side note, I believe those imacs can have up to I GB ram. Which is something apple don't always tell you.

1GB RAM is overkill for a G3 IMO. 512MB is the sweet spot. The next thing to speed a lot an iMac G3 is to change the hard disk to a 7200RPM with a fat cache.

Ciao

Only 128 :-(
 

I've only got 128 of RAM. I'll be heading over to eBay next.

Software update appears in order.

I'll not be upgrading the Hard drive. I'm not going to put that much into this baby (It does have an external FW HD).

Thanks for the advice.

Boris

PS--I remember having this trouble on another iMac a while back. I ended up downloading a wierd version of LW from some european site through versiontracker (maybe?). That seemed to work at the time, but I'm a little hazy on the details.

http://www.limewire.com/english/content/download.shtml
is the ONLY place to get the official LW! Yes 128 MB ram even just for running osx is really cutting it fine to say the least. No wonder your apps slow to a crawl. I hate ram issues & learnt the hard way in the early days. It will affect noth the speed of your os & any apps that struggle to obtain any real ram. My hint of the max for your iMac was just making the point of what you 'can' have. I use 1.5 GB personally for a G4. But as et voilà pointed out, the max is overkill for your machine nowadays. You obviously don't use it for high-end graphics or such anyway. So is that a SCSI external/usb/firewire hdd?

firewire external harddrive
 

I've got an ACOM extenal firewire drive--relatively inexpensive (at CompUSA), and very quiet. Also holds about 120GB--nice for lots of music files.

Boris

My favorite site for RAM prices is ramseeker.com, I usually buy from 1-800-4-MEMORY and never got a problem with their ram. They have 256MB modules for your iMac at 39,95$.

Ciao

Good! Sounds like a decent hdd! That's obviously a 7200rpm drive right?! Unlikely not to be. Anyway, see how you go if you are serious about obtaining more ram. After installation I'm sure thins will pick uup for you. By the way, there's no eneed to get apple to install it for you unless you're worried about warranty & anything going wrong in the process. See: http://www.info.apple.com/usen/cip/index.html & you can dwnld a QuickTime movie file to show how to change ram. But also read up about ESD Precautions!!!

Thanks
 

I'm no stranger to customer installable parts. The iMac in question is my _oldest_ iMac, and has been resurrected from the mothballs by my live-in nephew. His music collection quickly outgrew the slim 10GB HDD that this machine has.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Boris

To make you woes less difficult i suggest going to download.com and getting "mac tracker" this handy app will tell you all the info about macs ever. How much you can expand memory what can be upgraded ect. Cool thing is that mac tracker is free, comes with info about every mac ever and is extremly help full.

For a p2p app that wont bogg your comp try out poisened. Got to mac-p2p.com, it connects you to alot of diffrent peer 2 peer netwoks even kazaa and gnutella. Furthermore it only uses 10% of my comp speed instead of the horrible 80% of lime wire. I tried pro and its still the same slow thing. So try out man.

RAM worked
 

You were correct. I added a 512 card to the 64 already there, and now it works great.

Thanks,

Boris