Slow speed in Word X

[mrjim]

I've got a new Imac G5 with the standard 250 ram. Word X works
extremely slowly for me. It takes 25 seconds (I timed it) for a
ScreenTip to display in a document when I use the cursor to hover over
the word. The hyperlinked text is contained within a text box.
Meanwhile, the CPU fans whir to a high pitch, as if the processor is
being asked to perform some Herculean task. Other operations also
take far more time than they should. I've noticed at the bottom of
the screen that the little page turning animation goes on and on and
on when I ask Word to do something, until it finally stops at a red X.
I may have Safari running in the background but that's about it.
Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Has it always been working this slowly?

The page turning thing is checking spelling/grammar. If you feel that's the
drag, try turning off spellcheck as you type (you can turn off one or both).

256MB RAM is not much to be running OS X and Word with, that's why every
review I saw said Apple was crazy/cheap/underhanded to ship the new iMac
with only 256. Suggest you get more.

Anyhow, run through the standard troubleshooting techniques and see if
anything helps:

http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/TroubleshootingIndex.htm
(hit refresh a few times in Safari, or use a different browser)

 

[Phillip M. Jones, CE.T.]

Has it always been working this slowly?

The page turning thing is checking spelling/grammar. If you feel that's the
drag, try turning off spellcheck as you type (you can turn off one or both).

256MB RAM is not much to be running OS X and Word with, that's why every
review I saw said Apple was crazy/cheap/underhanded to ship the new iMac
with only 256. Suggest you get more.

Anyhow, run through the standard troubleshooting techniques and see if
anything helps:

http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/TroubleshootingIndex.htm
(hit refresh a few times in Safari, or use a different browser)

I have 1.5 gb RAM in my G4-500.

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[John McGhie]

Hi Jim:

I am with everyone else: 250 MB is nowhere near enough for good performance
in OS 10.3. I have 1.25 GB of RAM in this iBook. Word vX does not
task-switch as nicely as Word 2004: if you are getting worried by annoying
"pauses", you may consider upgrading.

However, more memory will make an unbelievable difference to that machine.
Throw in another 1 GB of RAM and a whole new world will open up for you.

The little page turning animation is simply showing you that the background
spell-checking task is running. It runs at low priority so it does not
interfere with your work, rather, you interfere with its work. Which is why
it's taking so long. I wouldn't even bother turning it off: because
whenever you do anything, Word suspends it automatically.

The red X it ends with simply shows you that it found some things it
considers to be spelling errors.

Word is not particularly CPU-intensive, so the speed of the fans is more a
commentary on the amount of heat a G5 generates, coupled with the difficulty
of cooling things in the new iMac layout. The G5 is a very hot-running
processor compared to the earlier versions. Early models of the iMac had
somewhat marginal cooling and were known for burning up motherboards, so I
guess they put in a busier fan this time to make sure of adequate cooling.

Hope this helps

I've got a new Imac G5 with the standard 250 ram. Word X works
extremely slowly for me. It takes 25 seconds (I timed it) for a
ScreenTip to display in a document when I use the cursor to hover over
the word. The hyperlinked text is contained within a text box.
Meanwhile, the CPU fans whir to a high pitch, as if the processor is
being asked to perform some Herculean task. Other operations also
take far more time than they should. I've noticed at the bottom of
the screen that the little page turning animation goes on and on and
on when I ask Word to do something, until it finally stops at a red X.
I may have Safari running in the background but that's about it.
Any ideas? Thanks.

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[mrjim]

Thanks,John, but I had no idea 256 of ram would not be enough to run a
word processing program. Reviews of the Imac I read suggested I Tunes
and video editing would be a problem. Since those were not priorities
for me, I went with what came standard. I will consider upgrading but
1 gig costs $600! A bit much on a machine that was already pretty
expensive. Would upgrading to 512 make a difference? Does the 512
get added to the 256 or does it simply replace it? Sorry but I've not
upgraded memory before.
Jim

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Don't buy memory from Apple, it's much more expensive that way.
E.g., here's 1 gig for the g5 iMac for $249.
http://ramjet.com/
Probably if you call a local Mac shop, they would be at about online memory
prices, and installation is usually quick, so a flat rate of maybe $40. Or
there's probably a tutorial online somewhere to install it yourself, after
ordering online. I don't have too much experience with this, but that's the
rough sketch of the way to go. (just buy the memory from a reputable dealer
who warrants it to work) It should be easy to find more information online
about that, you won't be the only person who said 256MB isn't enough but
didn't want to pay apple's prices.

I am so far relatively content with 512MB in my 1.5 ghz pb, though I plan to
go to a gig eventually. This review says you could go to that for $40-50,
by putting another 256MB card in the open slot (there are two memory slots).
<http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/editors/2004/09/i_ac_he_issing_emory/index.
php>

The reviews I read suggested that 256MB should not have been the standard,
and consumers are paying the price. Stupid of Apple, really to sell a
machine people are unhappy with out of the box, although come to think of
it, some of it might just rebound on MS as Office and Adobe are the big
memory hogs, and anybody messing with Adobe knows to get extra memory.
AppleWorks, etc, probably runs fine. Perhaps not stupid of Apple.
Except that I wouldn't want to run OS X with only 256MB.

Note as well that your description does seem extremely slow--I'd try the
troubleshooting tips before spending money. And Normal View is faster.

DM

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Jim,

I have a G5 iMac also and I've installed two 512 MB chips so I have 1 GB
RAM. There are two chip slots. The preinstalled 256 MB chip is in one of
them and the other will be empty. Yes, it will help if you purchase and
install just one 512 MB chip (for a total of 768 MB) and if you later find
that it's insufficient, you can always purchase a second 512 MB chip to
replace the 256 MB chip (or even a 1 GB chip).

Installing it yourself is simple. You just have to remember to keep
yourself grounded and use a bit more force than you think you should need in
order to lock the chip into its slot. There are full instructions about all
this in the G5 iMac User Guide.

The best deal on chips that I know of is at OtherWorldComputing:
<http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Page.cfm?Parent=710&Title=1Template=1>

That said, I think you should follow Daiya's advice and do some
troubleshooting first, but increasing memory will definitely make your
machine go faster.

Hope this helps.

--
***Please always reply to the newsgroup!***

Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org>

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Jim:

Thanks,John, but I had no idea 256 of ram would not be enough to run a
word processing program.

Yeah. Lots of people think a word-processing program is "simple" because
what we do with it is simple. However, under the hood, Microsoft Word is
the most complex program you have, and the job it is doing for you makes it
the most system-intensive application you have! Word is far more complex
than most publishing programs

The other thing that's worth mentioning is that your operating system is
using MOST of the first 256 MB of memory What many people miss is that
Apples are Reduced Instruction Set Computers. Very simplistically, the idea
was that by reducing the complexity of the instructions a CPU had to decode,
it could decode and execute them faster. While that is true, it is also
true that if you use only short words in a sentence you need twice as many
words to express the same meaning. Same in computers: a RISC program is
typically twice the size of the alternative. So while Windows XP will sort
of work on 256 MB of memory, Mac OS X needs 512 to do the same job, because
the programs are twice the size in memory. Apple was trying to hit a price
point, and I think they did the wrong thing.

Reviews of the Imac I read suggested I Tunes
and video editing would be a problem.

Yeah, they would have been. Those two are CPU-intensive applications that
also need a fair bit of memory to store whatever it is they are working on.
In that case, while the application is simple, it works very hard and needs
memory to store what it is making. In Word's case, what it is making is
relatively small, but the application itself is large and complex. To get
Word to respond quickly, it needs to be held "resident" in memory. OS X
will do that automatically for you if it has the spare memory to do so. If
every time you want Word to do something the computer has to go find the
relevant bit of it on disk and load it into memory, you will live in wait
city.

Since those were not priorities
for me, I went with what came standard. I will consider upgrading but
1 gig costs $600! A bit much on a machine that was already pretty
expensive. Would upgrading to 512 make a difference? Does the 512
get added to the 256 or does it simply replace it? Sorry but I've not
upgraded memory before.

Neither had Beth until a little while ago The instructions Apple
provides are very clear, and while the operation is terrifying the first
time you do it, it really is as simple as clicking a card into a slot.

I would follow Beth's suggestion and order a 512 MB stick of memory from the
shop Daiya suggested. That's what I did. Nobody buys memory from Apple
unless they get it installed at the factory: Apple charges at least twice
what the stuff is worth!!

You have one stick of 256 in there. The 512 you order will add to that,
giving you 768. That will be ample unless you start running Virtual PC. Or
hammering the video editor And it will make a huge difference to your
performance.

Just be really careful what you order: check and double-check that you are
ordering the exactly correct component. Most websites are very good about
ensuring that you get the correct part. Apples are not as forgiving about
memory as PCs. A PC will use almost anything that fits: with an Apple, you
will get crashes (or the damn thing will simply refuse to boot!!) if you put
the wrong flavour in

The first time you put the memory in if you have not done this before, it is
likely that you will not get it to click into place properly. If that
happens, when you restart, the computer will not show that it has any
increase in memory. Simply switch off, pull it out, and put it in again
carefully. Not getting the memory to connect properly on the first attempt
is quite common (it happened to me, twice). It's very scary, but it does
not usually mean that you have zapped the new memory: it's usually a plain
common-or-garden old-fashioned loose connection

Hope this helps

Jim

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Neither had Beth until a little while ago

Not true ! I installed memory *twice* on my G3 and now once on the G5.

Beth

 

[mrjim]

Thanks to all. I'm going to buy a 512 memory stick and try installing
it myself. Instructions in the G5 instruction book make it seem
relatively simple. If I have problems, look forward to another post.
Jim

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

I trust when you say "G5" you mean "iMac G5". If it's a "desktop" PowerMac
G5 you'd need to get two of them. On both machines it's dead simple to
install memory sticks.

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MVP MacOffice
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[Beth Rosengard]

Yes, it's a G5 iMac as noted earlier in the thread.

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***Please always reply to the newsgroup!***

Beth Rosengard
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