[Voorburg]

I own three Macintosh machines (12" PowerBook 1.5 gz Power PC, 15" MacBook Pro 2.16 ghz Intel Core Duo, and a new Mac Mini 2.26 ghz Intel Core 2 Duo).

I've suddenly developed a problem with the Safari web browser for the 12" PowerBook. Safari will work fine for 3 - 5 minutes after the browser is launched but will then freeze up. The blue status bar will just stop moving.

I initially thought the problem was with the PowerBook's Airport card. However, Safari still froze up on me after 3 - 5 minutes when I placed the Ethernet cable direct into laptop's side port.

At this point, when trying to get out of Safari altogether, the Force Quit dialog box says "Safari - Not Responding".

Any idea what might cause this problem to suddenly appear ? Do you know how I can fix this ?

Remember, this Safari problem only appears with my PowerBook. The MacBook Pro's & Mac Mini's Safari app. is working fine.

Thanks a lot.

[ericforat]

which OS are u using on the G4? and which version of Safari?

[Voorburg]

Eric,

For the OS, I'm using 10.4.11.

For Safari, its version 3.2.3.


Thanks a lot !

[ericforat]

why don't you try installing Safari v.4.0.1 ?
and when exactly did this behavior start?

[dougster]

-Hi,

You should have extra free hard disc space available for running your OS. How much is available? Might try logging out and then log back into your account. Have you tried a 3rd party maintenance utility like OnyX to flush out the Internet cache files and old log files?

Might want to snag OnyX Tiger and give it a try: http://www.titanium....onyx_tiger.html

I wouldn't install Safari v4.x until the bugs are fixed.

[ericforat]

hi
Dougster is right, Onyx is the best (and most complete) maintenance app around. You should have it (or some similar maintenance app) on all three machines. You could also try from the menu Bar >Safari> Empty Cache or Reset Safari .
I haven't had any problems with S .v.4.0.1, and apart from the blue progress Bar disappearing, no complaints.
Have you tried other browsers, Firefox or Opera maybe?

[Voorburg]

Doug & Eric,

I only have 7 gb of hard disc space left on this 12" PowerBook. I have 13 gb of music files within iTunes for my iPod. I have given some thought about transferring these music files onto my new Mac Mini as it has about 250 gb of hard disc space on it. I've also thought about purchasing a portable hard drive for the music files.

Yesterday I did reset Safari and the problem did go away temporarily. However, today it seems to be back a little bit. Browsing is moving but at a slower clip than it has in the past.

This problem appeared about 2 weeks ago.

I've never used Onyx and I'm not sure how it works. As you can tell, I'm no computer expert so any info. on how to use Onyx would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again.

[ericforat]

hi Voorburg
seems like your iBook came with 60 or 80 GB. so even with 13GB in mp3 form, it should not be too full !
though as we all know, storage tends to quickly fill-up to its limits, that would not be be the case unless you're at least half a geek. Granted, some glitches may fill you up with useless files and their copies
If you have never done any special maintenance, download Mac Janitor, and run it. Quite intuitive UI, easier to tackle than Onix by itself. It is a bit forbidding, for many (guessing?), at least it was to me.
If this doesn't help, you can re-install Safari, 3 or 4, after first backing up your stuff on one of the bigger machines
There is a little free app, very nice, called AppCleaner, at http://freemacsoft.net/AppCleaner/ and it gets rid of the App you want to trash, including any ancillary files that were installed with it.
Use it to trash Safari. and reinstall from: http://www.apple.com/downloads/

You could do a safe boot: restart your Mac through the Apple menu with the shift > key held down.

From Apple, courtesy of MacManus http://forums.dealma...m/profile.php?4,6708 (do read the whole post)

"Safe Boot is a special way to start Mac OS X 10.2 or later when troubleshooting. Safe Mode is the state Mac OS X is in after a Safe Boot. You do a safe Boot by closing down, and restart by clicking
Starting up into Safe Mode does three things to simplify the startup and operation of your computer:

* It forces a directory check of the startup volume.
* It loads only required kernel extensions (some of the items in /System/Library/Extensions).
* In Mac OS X 10.3.9 or earlier, it runs only Apple-installed startup items (some of the items in /Library/StartupItems and /System/Library/StartupItems - and different than login items).
* Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger only: It disables all fonts other than those in /System/Library/Fonts .
* Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger only: It moves to the Trash all font caches normally stored in /Library/Caches/com.apple.ATS/(uid)/ , where (uid) is a user ID number such as 501.
* Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger only: It disables all startup items and any Login Items".
"Taken together, these changes can work around issues caused by software or directory damage on the startup volume".

Finally do a clean install, and if you feel up to it, slim OSX down by doing a custom install and throwing away things like most languages, etc., unless you plan to work in Swedish or Chinese... but then this assumes all the precedent was not all Greek to you!

luck

succeed or not, give a shout either way

[Voorburg]

Eric,

Per your instructions, I installed and then ran MacJanitor. The program ran for about 5 minutes.

Safari seems to be running a little better. I'll test it out for a few days. I'll try some of your other
options if Safari slips back to the "slow response mode" of the past two weeks.

I'll probably go with your reinstall suggestion rather than the "Safe Boot" as this seems a bit over
my head.

Perhaps its time I buy the new MacBook Pro 13" and discard the old 12" Powebook. :-)

Thanks again !!!

[ericforat]

Now that last one is probably THE best suggestion on this thread!

But actually, the safe boot is VERY simple, and all macs from OSX 10.2 will benefit.
Just restart your iBook, and at the chime (Bong, booing, etc) click and hold one of the shift keys. Let it go when the sprocket appears onscreen and starts turning. After your mac finishes restart, give it another normal restart right then and there, and you should feel some more responsiveness right away. Put it on your iCal and do it every 2/3 mos, if you use the macchina heavily.

best,

eric

[Voorburg]

Eric,

If I simply did a clean reinstall of Mac OS X, will this totally eliminate the no-response problem. I'm thinking with a clean reinstall, the OS will simply perform like it did when the computer was brand new. Meaning no delays or hiccups with Safari whatsoever.

My PowerBook Reinstall Disc identifies the OS as version 10.3.7.

I'm currently transferring my 2,000+ songs from this 12" PowerBook to my new Mac Mini so I'm thinking a clean reinstall might be a good thing.

Thanks again for your help.

[ericforat]

hi Voorburg!

well, if you transfer all the files you want to
keep to your Mini, and do a clean reinstall, after which you do a
software update to 10.3.9, and Safari works at it should, then update
Safari to 4.0.2, and that works, your Powerbook should be fully
operational (quicker) and Safari should not slowdown from use. Apple
has always suggested a reinstall yearly, or at least an archive and
reinstall. This may not be really necessary with the latests versions
of OSX, but it still may do some good and nothing really bad.

This
said, your Powerbook is an obsolescent machine, and speed of all apps
on it will be less than on your other macs. If this solves the problems
you originally had, could you credit the question as answered, I'm
working on my points!

Let me know if it all works out!

tks.,
eric

[Voorburg]

Eric,

I performed the clean reinstall earlier today and Safari 3.0 was running really well after the installation. I just installed Safari 4.0 and everything is very fast. Since I moved my 12 gb of music from the old PowerBook, I got quite a bit of open hard drive space so I'm thinking about installing Leopard on it. I know Snow Leopard, when it comes out, can't go on a Power PC machine like the PowerBook.

Later this year / early next year I'll take the plunge and replace the 12" PowerBook with a new 13" MacBook Pro.

Thanks again for your help.

[ericforat]

Hi Voorburg!

I'm afraid you won't be able to install Leopard on a G4 iBook, at least I haven't been able to install it on my 13" iBook G4. But someone

who knows more about the mac might be able to pull it off... it's more than a disk space issue.

Anyway good luck and thanks for the credit!

best, eric