Comments below:
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Regards from brianF
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On 29/12/2010, at 4:39 PM, Ţorvarđur Davíđsson wrote:
snipped
> It is in fact amazingly slow right now. I used Migration Assistant so I may have brought some old issues with me from my old G4.
Migration Assistant is excellent but it will transfer all of you .plist Preference files as well.
This can cause problems; you may now have duplicate copies but, more likely, some of these are very old.
'MacPilot' used to have a section where you could trash the .plist files which had not been used for some time. In my case there were some not accessed for 2-3 years but had carried over from previous iBook or MacBook units. The latest version seems to have deleted this choice. Pity.
If you are manually trashing Preference files, make sure you have backups of passwords and activation codes of their Applications as these may be embedded in old .plist files.
> 1) The startup process is very slow. I press the power button and … nothing happens. After 7 seconds I hear a low click and then a loud chime. It takes 55 seconds until I see the Desktop. I guess this is normal because I have 500 GB hard disk and it is nearly full (I always try to keep about 20% free, now I have 50 GB available). Besides I am running MaxMenus which always need some time to load as well as a few menu bar applications. The Dock is also full (= 86 applications and folders, is that perhaps too much?).
No wonder it's slow. Far too little space; no, far too much garbage.
I suggest you get an external FireWire HD and transfer files to there and use it for backup.
> 2) I have been using Spell Catcher X 10.3.7 (<http://www.rainmakerinc.com/>) for some time and I suspect this software to be responsible for some instability I have been experiencing lately.
>
> Is anybody here using Spell Catcher X?
Not since 1999, or earlier. (-:
Why don't you utilise the built-in spell checker which comes with the system.
I set it to underline spelling errors and type Cmd+Shift+Colon [:] .
Go to System Preferences/Language and Text/Spelling/Setup. But better still, buy for UD$15 this PDF:
"Take Control of Exploring & Customising Snow Leopard from Take Control" from Tidbits.com.
Here is an extract from it:
=====start
Tackle Your Text
Unless you use your Mac primarily for surfing the Web or creating
graphics, sooner or later you’re going to press a key on your keyboard,
and a text character is going to appear on your screen. It sounds sim-
ple, but behind the scenes a lot of incredibly sophisticated stuff is
happening as the mighty Mac OS X text engine swings into action.
In Snow Leopard, the Mac OS X text engine has been heavily
upgraded, providing many new features, including smart quotes,
automatic correction of misspellings as you type, and text substitu-
tions where you type one thing and something else is entered for you.
Naturally, that calls for some customization, so the first thing we’ll do
is examine the new text engine and Set Up Text Behavior. Then we’ll
make sure you Understand the Input Menu so that you can enter
interesting text characters.
=====end
Then follows a detailed method of setting-up your own internal spell checker, customised for your language too.
Here's more:
=====start
Other System-Level Text Settings
Back in the Text view of the Language & Text preference pane, let’s take stock of the other possible customizations:
• Spelling: This makes a difference when spell-checking, and when the text engine corrects your spelling automatically. To see what I mean, try this: Set the Spelling pop-up menu to U.S. English. Quit TextEdit
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and launch it again (to make it adopt the designated spelling system), and choose Edit > Spelling and Grammar > Correct Spelling Automatically so that it is checked. Now type behaviour (a British spelling) followed by space, and watch it correct itself to behavior.
Now do it the other way around. Set the Spelling pop-up menu to British English. Quit TextEdit and launch it again (to make it adopt the designated spelling system), and choose Edit > Spelling and Grammar > Correct Spelling Automatically so that it is checked. Now type behavior (an American spelling) followed by space, and watch it correct itself to behaviour.
Now that you’re finished playing, set the Spelling pop-up menu back to its original setting (probably Automatic by Language).
=====end
And as a comment on the above extracts, my spelling check setup had a field day with all the US spellings here. Once you start to use it, you will be amazed at the alternatives it provides.
> 3) If I work many hours nonstop my MacBook Pro tends to become increasingly slower, it feels as if all the available memory is gone (I have 4 GB memory). When I then restart the computer (I just did it right now) all the icons are suddenly on the right side of the screen *although* the view options in the Desktop are "Arrange by NONE". This can hardly be considered normal.
>
> I have deleted the Finder preferences in /Users/me/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist and I have already updated all the third party Preference Panes to no avail.
>
> Obviously it is not possible to repair a large number of Java Permissions permanently; Disk Utility "repairs" them and the next time I run Disk Utility the same Java files are back again with "wrong" permissions. People have told me that I should ignore this because Disk Utility is apparently not working correctly under OS 10.6.5.
I haven't checked Permissions lately, but there was a time when a multitude of them were 'repaired' only to return. As advised by others more knowledgeable than I, 'let it be'. This could have been under Leopard.
> Before I install the whole system again I'll try to do the following successively:
>
> A) Remove Spell Catcher X - Definitely.
> B) Use another User Account - may only exacerbate you HD problem.
> C) Run Disk Warrior - get something less invasive.
Disk Warrior? Also last used about 1999. I know there have been later versions, but...
And since you HD is so full I don't think it would help.
Buy a big external hard drive, preferably with FireWire, then USB.
Do you really need to store files on 95% of your operating HD? I bought a slightly-used iMac with 1 TB of space. 3.06 MHz. It's not slow. (-:
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