CMB320 From United States, joined Oct 2000, 338 posts, RR: 4 Posted (2 years 8 months 3 weeks 1 day 11 hours ago) and read 237 times:
Greetings!
I have a fairly new PowerBook G4 15" (2 months old) and it's starting to have some issues which I don't know what to do about.
First issue:
It has always started up really fast. After I would turn it on and it chimes, the black Apple logo would come on the screen for maybe 3 seconds max. Now, everytime I turn it on, the black Apple logo stays on the screen for on average 30 seconds. It just started happening all on it's own. I haven't installed any new software besides Norton Anti-Virus, but this didn't start happening until 2 weeks after I installed it.
Second issue:
Everytime I use it, it's slowing down big time and freezing on me. The mouse pointer still moves but the rest of the screen freezes and I can't do anything. I can't evcen get it to restart without using the power button manually.
These may not seem like big deals, but to me it is because I haven't used this laptop yet for any major work that would take a lot of processing power, and I've only installed as of yet one single program. I'm wanting to start using it more and more for business finances because of the security of an Apple, but I would like to work out these problems before I start to depend on it too much.
Jbmitt From United States, joined Jan 2002, 391 posts, RR: 1 Reply 1, posted (2 years 8 months 3 weeks 1 day 10 hours ago) and read 227 times:
I would suggest first going to utilities, selecting disk utility, selecting your hard drive and repair disk permissions. Make sure that software is also up to date from the software update under the apple. If this doesn't help you, swing by the forums at www.macnn.com and a lot of people should be able to help you.
Klaus From Germany, joined Jul 2001, 16267 posts, RR: 54 Reply 2, posted (2 years 8 months 3 weeks 1 day 9 hours ago) and read 212 times:
Remove all Norton products. They are unreliable and produce more problems than they can fix, some of them rather serious. Their disk utility could even cause volume corruption (and wasn't able to fix much if anything). They are crap and should be avoided at almost any cost.
It looks like that is the source of your problems.
At this time an anti-virus software is pointless anyway since there simply isn't any malware on the MacOS X platform. Normal caution is obviously recommended, such as not starting any programs from dubious sources, being really careful before confirming the "The application (name) is being started for the first time. Do you want that?" dialog and keeping the firewall closed (System control -> sharing -> firewall).
Applying the standard Disk Utility for checking the disk would be a good idea; Repairing permissions is mostly a placebo operation, but occasionally it can fix issues introduced by faulty third-party software (see above).
By far the best disk recovery software at this time, by the way, is Disk Warrior. As said, there is no "best" anti-virus software since there aren't any to test against. (You could be nice to Windows sufferers and filter out any Windows malware that might be passing through however).
Other points to look at: Do you have any peripheral devices connected or external servers mounted by default? There may be problems involving those. Try disconnecting all peripherals and check if the problems persist.
Bezoar From United States, joined Nov 2001, 805 posts, RR: 10 Reply 3, posted (2 years 8 months 3 weeks 1 day 7 hours ago) and read 191 times:
I second Klaus's assessment and recommendations regarding Norton. I had considerable problems after installing Norton, and would not recommend that product to anyone. I even had problems uninstalling it.
I have used TechTool rather than Disc Warrior, but have not had any problems. I'm not sure how much TT is actually doing, though, as I use the Disc Utility that comes with the OS.
"There are none so blind as those who will not see."
Beowulf From Austria, joined Jul 2003, 671 posts, RR: 13 Reply 4, posted (2 years 8 months 3 weeks 1 day 7 hours ago) and read 182 times:
Quoting CMB320 (Thread starter): I haven't installed any new software besides Norton Anti-Virus, but this didn't start happening until 2 weeks after I installed it.
Norton is a hog. It slows a system down. Since you use an Apple, viruses are not too much of a concern for you anyway.
Lentigomaligna From , joined today!, posts, RR: Reply 5, posted (2 years 8 months 3 weeks 1 day 4 hours ago) and read 155 times:
Quoting Beowulf (Reply 4): Since you use an Apple, viruses are not too much of a concern for you anyway.
Tell that to the IT guys at my work who confiscated my PowerBook for a week since it was "broadcasting" a virus over the network - though that was actually a good week for me since I didn't have to do much work...hahaha.
Klaus From Germany, joined Jul 2001, 16267 posts, RR: 54 Reply 7, posted (2 years 8 months 3 weeks 1 day 3 hours ago) and read 144 times:
Quoting Lentigomaligna (Reply 5): Tell that to the IT guys at my work who confiscated my PowerBook for a week since it was "broadcasting" a virus over the network
Most likely FUD or simple incompetence on their part. So what was their final explanation? Did they find the first virus that actually works under MacOS X? And apparently failed to report it (since the count is still zero)?
IT support personnel often fears the introduction of Macs, since by all experience it takes far fewer "IT guys" to support a given number of systems than it takes with Windows-based ones.
Quoting 777236ER (Reply 6): Should have got a Wintel machine
Lentigomaligna From , joined today!, posts, RR: Reply 8, posted (2 years 8 months 3 weeks 1 day 3 hours ago) and read 142 times:
Quoting Klaus (Reply 7): Most likely FUD or simple incompetence on their part. So what was their final explanation? Did they find the first virus that actually works under MacOS X? And apparently failed to report it (since the count is still zero)?
IT support personnel often fears the introduction of Macs, since by all experience it takes far fewer "IT guys" to support a given number of systems than it takes with Windows-based ones.
I have absolutely no idea to answer any of these questions. They said they fixed the problem and that's all I know. They searched my PC until they realized (much to their confusion) that the IP address they were picking up an alert from was, in fact, my mac. And macs were commonplace at my work.
Hawaiian717 From United States, joined May 1999, 2933 posts, RR: 9 Reply 9, posted (2 years 8 months 3 weeks 1 day 2 hours ago) and read 133 times:
If I had to guess, I'd say it was probably Rendezvous/Bonjour they were seeing from Lentigomaligna's Mac. Since the IT folk only know Windows, they saw something that looked weird to them and assumed it was bad.
Klaus From Germany, joined Jul 2001, 16267 posts, RR: 54 Reply 10, posted (2 years 8 months 3 weeks 1 day 2 hours ago) and read 131 times:
Yeah, Rendezvous sounds like a possibility... although it uses an officially published port, is available for MacOS X, Linux and even for Windows and thus could not be confused with a Windows virus... (unless you have no clue, of course)
Beowulf From Austria, joined Jul 2003, 671 posts, RR: 13 Reply 11, posted (2 years 8 months 3 weeks 22 hours ago) and read 105 times:
Quoting Hawaiian717 (Reply 9): I'd say it was probably Rendezvous/Bonjour they were seeing from Lentigomaligna's Mac
What is Rendezvous/Bonjour? Oh, let me introduce an alternative to MacOS ... OpenBSD, a very robust operating system with a strong focus on security. I have my OpenBSD box (it's actually a laptop) running for weeks, have performed several release upgrades, and do not suffer any performance issues. Does this make me a geek? Noooo, I don't think so.
Also known as "zeroconf" - a generalized infrastructure for automatic local network configuration and service discovery. For the user: Everything public is immediately visible and accessible without configuration (printers, chat, media...). It only works within the local network, however, and thus is no security risk towards the internet. It also doesn't open any additional ports but simply makes those ports known which have been deliberately opened anyway.
Quoting Beowulf (Reply 11): Oh, let me introduce an alternative to MacOS ... OpenBSD
How is that a viable alternative? It's basically MacOS X, just without a proper user interface. MacOS X is in many ways based on and related to BSD.
Quoting Beowulf (Reply 11): have my OpenBSD box (it's actually a laptop) running for weeks, have performed several release upgrades, and do not suffer any performance issues. Does this make me a geek? Noooo, I don't think so.
Yes, it does. You can have pretty much the same just without all the difficulties...
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Does this make me a geek? Noooo, I don't think so. 
You can have pretty much the same just without all the difficulties...
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