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General discussion

Finder issues with 10.5.8

Aug 15, 2011 4:21AM PDT

I have had my mac mini for over 6 years now and it has worked like a charm as I do all the upkeep and keep it away from the nasties.

Discussion is locked

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Possibility of a failing Hard drive here,
Aug 15, 2011 5:38AM PDT

Does it boot slowly?

Note that the problem is not limited to just one application. I would guess that you would get the same result if you swapped from Finder to Safari/VLC/any App.

These drives a reasonably easy to change out yourself, should you decide to do so.

P

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Boot up is fine so far
Aug 15, 2011 6:59AM PDT

I boot up as normal, whether it be from a hard restart or regular boot up, it takes the usual time. I do have a hard drive monitoring app just in case. It shows green which means that it is fine. Thanks for the suggestion.

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No it doesn't
Aug 15, 2011 8:32AM PDT

No it doesn't. Those programs probably just check the SMART status of the drive. As a hardware tech, out of the probably hundred or so HDDs I've replaced... I could probably still count on one hand the number that have shown as failing via SMART.

I would say the symptoms fit that of a failing HDD. I'm betting that the boot time has slowed so gradually you haven't even noticed it. Since this is a PPC system, Apple retail stores will likely refuse to support it. It's also almost certainly on the Vintage list, if not Obsolete. So, check for a non-Apple retail AASP in your area, have them take a look. Might want to do it sooner rather than later, since that thing probably has a 2.5" IDE HDD, and those are getting harder to come by every day.

Of course this could be a golden opportunity to give yourself an excuse to upgrade. The new Mini models with Core i5 CPUs will be like a night and day comparison to what you have now. There's really no way to accurately reflect the performance difference you will see.

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Problem solved
Aug 15, 2011 10:48AM PDT

I got rid of Syrinx, a Twitter client and it seems to be running normally. No hang ups or wait times with the exception of my wireless internet connection. I will take your suggestion to heart though. Thanks.