Mac Mini with OS X trouble troublshooting

[rldgooots]

I have version Mac OS X 10.4.11

that's what came with it.

1.5 GHz Intel Core Solo

2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

 

It is running slow all of a sudden. It started when I hooked up a Lacie drive to backup all my pictures with a Firewire cable. Not sure if this is what started the problem or it is a coincidence. It is not connected at the moment and still having problems. I have zapped the PRAM. I tried to reboot in safe mode and it would not work. Can't find a startup disc.

 

Any suggestions on how to find out what is causing it to run slow.

 

Some symptoms are:

Safari and Firefox running real slow ; spinning rainbow wheel a lot.

Icons disappearing from desktop only to reappear later.

Applications freeze and have to do keyboard commands to bring up force quit window.

 

Any suggestions would be most helpful.

Thanks,

[Geek]

Firewire is buggy on 10.4. Eats resources once you connect a drive and doesn't release them when disconnected. Have you considered an upgrade?

[rldgooots]

Yes, I have considered an upgrade. Do you think that will help?

Is there anything else I need to consider when upgrading? I have a lot of old software that I don't want to upgrade. Especially Microsoft Office and my Creative Design Suite.

 

Would I upgrade to the latest version of OS X? I don't think I can run Lion because I don't have Intel Core Duo.

[Geek]

You can run 10.5. That's what I'd go for. It should take care of the problems you have.