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Leopard Time Machine Slows Down My Productivity

March 27, 2008 by debbie T | Mac Software

UPDATE: all my Leopard woes have been fixed! I removed the suspected problematic 2gb ram stick I purchased from OWC, and it is working like gangbusters now!

I have been using Leopard’s Time Machine for a couple of weeks, and it seems to work very well, until I realized that it was slowing down my productivity.

For instance, today while saving several pdf files of specific web pages, the external hard drive (set as my Time Machine backup drive) starts up as soon as the save dialog box appears. While the drive is starting, I can’t navigate to where the file should be saved, which slows me down considerably.

This happens a lot, the external (Time Machine) drive will just start up on its own (it isn’t backing up at the time), and cause a slow down on my system. It brings everything to a halt, and stops me from working.

For now, I disabled auto Time Machine backups, and will backup manually (using Time Machine as well as Chronosync). I don’t know why Apple doesn’t allow more customization of Time Machine. I would like to schedule a once or twice daily backup. I don’t see the need for hourly backups. I realize some people need this option, but I wish some options could be disabled. Maybe in a future update.

And I don’t if this is related or not, but occasionally, out of the blue, my DVD drive will make a noise like it is ejecting a disk. It has happened a few times in the last week.

In general, my whole Leopard system just doesn’t seem right lately; I don’t know if it’s really Leopard or bad ram, or maybe everything is normal, I am asking too much! LOL

Firefox is Acting Wacky

Besides Leopard, Firefox has been wacky as well. Very slow and web pages are not displaying properly. The new Adobe Express web site doesn’t allow me to join or log in using Firefox, but other users are having no issues. I am running the latest and (possibly not so greatest) version of 2.0.0.13 - It just updated yesterday.

EDIT March 29, 2008: Twice now (today and yesterday) while in Firefox, my workspace completely froze. My mouse and keyboard didn’t work. The workspace just froze. The first time, I was writing a blog entry, and I copied and pasted a line of text. The second time, I was in a Flickr friend’s photo stream, and was scrolling. Both times I was in battery mode. I had to hit the shut off button to shut down the system, and then reboot.

I am not sure what is going on~

Battery is Acting Crappy

My MacBook Pro battery has been crappy lately as well. According to Coconut Battery, I am at 42% capacity. My MacBook Pro is less than a year old, and my battery is already under half. Also, while running on battery power, it will shut down the system once it gets under 10%. I used to be able to use the MBP under 1% power. Don’t know what happened, but I will have to contact Applecare soon. I hope I can get a replacement.

Wacom Tablet Isn’t Active at Restart

When I restart my MBP, or re-log into a user account, my Wacom Graphire Tablet isn’t immediately active. At the log in screen, it takes a good minute or so before I can use the pen/tablet. And when logged into my account, it waits until everything has launched before it becomes active. If I unplug the USB cable, it will work immediately after I plug it back in.

I think this problem appeared after one of the Leopard updates. I know it is a software issue, because when I boot into my Tiger boot drive, the Wacom tablet works fine.

Do I Have To Re-install /she whines

I guess I am just venting. I know I am probably going to have to reinstall Leopard, and I really don’t want to.

I suppose it is the only way I will be able to test the OWC ram again (both 2gb ram sticks in my MBP are from OWC) - and if I do reinstall, I think I wait on some of the Leopard software updates.

I will update any new findings.

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