macbook

[1Nivek1]

MacBook, 2Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1 GB RAM, OS X 10.4.11 (tiger)

I've had this thing for about 6 mos., love the design, but....

Granted, I'm used to XP & haven't used a mac in a while, but I just use it for internet really and some other worthless stuff like media.

She's slow....Safari as a web browser seems sluggish (software wise). Another strange thing is it take 20+ min to load a dvd/cd with 600+ pics on it (indexing service?).

Is there anything that regular mac users can recommend as far as software and OS tweaks? I'm comfortable with shelling, etc., so if you can point me in the right direction. The only thing that's fast seems to be the boot time.

For instance, with XP, I can tell someone to dump every MS software progy they got (+edit sysoc.inf) and replace with Firefox, GOMPlayer(or VLC)...disable sh*tload of services, kill antivirus, add ZoneAlarm firewall, disable Recovery, adjust page file to near 0, run quicktime alternative, ffdshow, etc.

Is there a quick checklist someone could run through for me to boost performance, and generally better progs?

[Joe Beaudoin Jr.]

Go with Firefox for Mac. Also, how are your power management settings... Are they set for high optimization when you're plugged into the wall? If not, that might be an issue.

[Spencerian]

Hey, 1Nivek1.

Spotlight (OS X's indexing) may be working hard on the CD or DVD you added, but I've not seen that behavior myself. You can always add the disk (or any file or folder) to the privacy list in Spotlight's system preferences (in Apple->System Preferences) to skip any indexing. Joe's mention of going into Energy Saver and adjusting settings while on Power Adapter to "Better performance" should do it, too.

As with any OS, however, memory is key to efficiency. Your MacBook can use 2GB, but you only have 1GB installed. The MacBook shares a portion of main memory as video RAM, which is likely what is causing the slowdown. I own a MacBook (first generation) and use 2GB, which keeps things working very well.

Odds are you have 2 512MB modules (use Apple>About this Mac and click the More Info button there to bring up System Profiler to tell you what you have installed, under "Memory"). Order up two 1GB modules for your model from Kingston.com (strongly recommended) and your Mac will feel much snappier. You'll want to keep the RAM modules matched in size and type: don't mix around the old and new modules or performance or even failure can result.

Adding RAM is pretty easy as the modules are within the battery bin. See Apple's site or your MacBook manual on how.

[1Nivek1]

Never thanked you two for posts...

Thanks!

[Joe Beaudoin Jr.]

It's all part of the service, Nivek! :D