PaulGG

Q: Beachballing iMac testing my patience! (EtreCheck results attached)

The "beachballing" slowness of my iMac is becoming intolerable. Here is the EtreCheck results. I would be very grateful for suggestions on fixes or solutions.

Note, I have ~75GB free of the 1TB drive.

 

EtreCheck version: 2.9.12 (265)

Report generated 2016-05-16 17:21:30

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime 14:10

Performance: Poor

 

Click the [Support] links for help with non-Apple products.

Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.

 

Problem: Beachballing

 

Hardware Information:

    iMac (27-inch, Mid 2010)

    [Technical Specifications] - [User Guide] - [Warranty & Service]

    iMac - model: iMac11,3

    1 2.93 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 4-core

    8 GB RAM Upgradeable - [Instructions]

        BANK 0/DIMM0

            2 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok

        BANK 1/DIMM0

            2 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok

        BANK 0/DIMM1

            2 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok

        BANK 1/DIMM1

            2 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok

    Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported

    Wireless:  en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n

 

Video Information:

    ATI Radeon HD 5750 - VRAM: 1024 MB

        iMac 2560 x 1440

 

System Software:

    OS X El Capitan 10.11.4 (15E65) - Time since boot: less than an hour

 

Disk Information:

    ST31000524AS disk0 : (1 TB) (Rotational)

        EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

        Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>  [Recovery]: 650 MB

        Boot partition (disk0s4) /Volumes/Boot partition : 149.11 GB (133.96 GB free)

        Recovery HD (disk0s5) <not mounted>  [Recovery]: 650 MB

        Macintosh HD (disk1) / : 849.21 GB (77.35 GB free)

            Encrypted AES-XTS Unlocked

            Core Storage: disk0s2 849.58 GB Online

 

    OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5680H   ()

 

USB Information:

    Apple Card Reader

    Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub

        Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

    Western Digital My Book 1230 4 TB

        EFI (disk2s1) <not mounted> : 315 MB

        Backup disk (disk2s2) /Volumes/Backup disk : 4.00 TB (647.90 GB free)

    Apple, Inc. Keyboard Hub

        Apple Inc. Apple Keyboard

    Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

    Apple Inc. Built-in iSight

 

Gatekeeper:

    Mac App Store and identified developers

 

System Launch Agents:

    [not loaded]    8 Apple tasks

    [loaded]    155 Apple tasks

    [running]    75 Apple tasks

 

System Launch Daemons:

    [not loaded]    42 Apple tasks

    [loaded]    156 Apple tasks

    [running]    90 Apple tasks

 

Launch Agents:

    [not loaded]    com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist (2014-05-09) [Support]

    [loaded]    com.google.keystone.agent.plist (2015-09-21) [Support]

    [loaded]    com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist (2012-12-17) [Support]

 

Launch Daemons:

    [running]    BESAgentDaemon.plist (2015-11-04) [Support]

    [loaded]    com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist (2013-05-08) [Support]

    [loaded]    com.adobe.fpsaud.plist (2016-05-09) [Support]

    [loaded]    com.apple.aelwriter.plist

    [loaded]    com.bombich.ccc.plist (2010-07-27) [Support]

    [loaded]    com.bombich.ccchelper.plist (2015-09-04) [Support]

    [loaded]    com.google.keystone.daemon.plist (2015-09-21) [Support]

    [loaded]    com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist (2012-12-17) [Support]

 

User Launch Agents:

    [loaded]    com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist (2016-03-15) [Support]

    [loaded]    com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist (2015-11-04) [Support]

    [running]    com.amazon.music.plist (2015-09-08) [Support]

    [loaded]    com.apple.SafariBookmarksSyncer.plist

    [running]    com.c-command.SpamSieve.LaunchAgent.plist (2016-05-16) [Support]

    [running]    com.spotify.webhelper.plist (2016-05-16) [Support]

 

User Login Items:

    iTunesHelper    Application  (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)

    Mail    Application  (/Applications/Mail.app)

    Meteorologist    Application  (/Applications/Meteorologist.app)

    SpeechSynthesisServer    Application  (/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks /SpeechSynthesis.framework/Versions/A/SpeechSynthesisServer.app)

    Dropbox    Application  (/Applications/Dropbox.app)

    Macs Fan Control    Application  (/Applications/Macs Fan Control.app)

    Spotify    Application Hidden (/Applications/Spotify.app)

    Box Edit    Application  (/Users/paul/Library/Application Support/Box/Box Edit/Box Edit.app)

    Box Local Com Server    Application  (/Users/paul/Library/Application Support/Box/Box Edit/Box Local Com Server.app)

 

Other Apps:

    [running]    com.Box.Box-Edit.499232

    [running]    com.box.Box-Local-Com-Server.499552

    [running]    com.crystalidea.MacsFanControl.482272

    [running]    com.heat.Meteorologist.65312

    [loaded]    396 Apple tasks

    [running]    193 Apple tasks

 

Internet Plug-ins:

    nplastpass: 3.1.21 (2014-10-08) [Support]

    AmazonMP3DownloaderPlugin1017277: AmazonMP3DownloaderPlugin 1.0.17 (2012-10-02) [Support]

    Google Earth Web Plug-in: 5.2 (2010-09-01) [Support]

    Default Browser: 601 - SDK 10.11 (2016-03-24)

    AdobeExManDetect: AdobeExManDetect 1.1.0.0 - SDK 10.7 (2014-05-09) [Support]

    Flip4Mac WMV Plugin: 2.3.8.1 (2011-01-13) [Support]

    OfficeLiveBrowserPlugin: 12.3.6 (2013-03-25) [Support]

    AdobeAAMDetect: AdobeAAMDetect 1.0.0.0 - SDK 10.6 (2013-05-08) [Support]

    FlashPlayer-10.6: 21.0.0.242 - SDK 10.6 (2016-05-16) [Support]

    Silverlight: 5.1.10411.0 - SDK 10.6 (2012-10-08) [Support]

    QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (2016-03-24)

    Flash Player: 21.0.0.242 - SDK 10.6 (2016-05-16) [Support]

    googletalkbrowserplugin: 5.41.0.0 - SDK 10.8 (2015-03-26) [Support]

    AdobePDFViewer: 9.3.3 (2010-07-31) [Support]

    JavaAppletPlugin: Java 8 Update 71 build 15 (2016-01-29) Check version

 

User internet Plug-ins:

    RealPlayer Plugin: Unknown

    GoogleOneClickPlugin: Unknown

    Google Earth Web Plug-in: 6.2 (2012-09-20) [Support]

 

Safari Extensions:

    AdBlock - BetaFish, Inc. - https://getadblock.com (2016-01-28)

    LastPass - LastPass - https://lastpass.com (2016-02-25)

 

3rd Party Preference Panes:

    Flash Player (2016-05-09) [Support]

    Java (2016-01-29) [Support]

 

Time Machine:

    Skip System Files: NO

    Mobile backups: OFF

    Auto backup: YES

    Volumes being backed up:

        Macintosh HD: Disk size: 849.21 GB Disk used: 771.87 GB

    Destinations:

        My Book [Local]

        Total size: 4.00 TB

        Total number of backups: 104

        Oldest backup: 7/14/14, 4:30 PM

        Last backup: 5/16/16, 3:41 PM

        Size of backup disk: Excellent

            Backup size 4.00 TB > (Disk size 849.21 GB X 3)

 

Top Processes by CPU:

        21%    IMRemoteURLConnectionAgent

         5%    kernel_task

         4%    WindowServer

         4%    backupd

         2%    com.apple.WebKit.WebContent(20)

 

Top Processes by Memory:

    3.53 GB    com.apple.WebKit.WebContent(20)

    653 MB    kernel_task

    319 MB    Safari

    164 MB    Mail

    147 MB    SpamSieve

 

Virtual Memory Information:

    28 MB    Free RAM

    7.97 GB    Used RAM (902 MB Cached)

    37 MB    Swap Used

 

Diagnostics Information:

    May 16, 2016, 04:59:41 PM    Self test - passed

    May 15, 2016, 09:34:33 AM    ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Mail_2016-05-15-093433_[redacted].crash

        /Applications/Mail.app/Contents/MacOS/Mail

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.5)

Posted on May 17, 2016 9:09 AM

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Q: Beachballing iMac testing my patience! (EtreCheck results attached)

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by rkaufmann87,Helpful

    rkaufmann87 rkaufmann87 May 17, 2016 9:55 AM in response to PaulGG
    Level 9 (58,523 points)
    Photos for Mac
    May 17, 2016 9:55 AM in response to PaulGG

    Something is using all your RAM, with 8GB of RAM you should be okay. Please use Activity Monitor (Applications - Utilities - Activity Monitor) to see what is using up the most RAM. You can learn how to  use it by clicking Use Activity Monitor on your Mac - Apple Support

  • by PaulGG,

    PaulGG PaulGG May 17, 2016 9:58 AM in response to rkaufmann87
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    May 17, 2016 9:58 AM in response to rkaufmann87

    Hi RKaufmann87, thanks for your response. Yes, I have Activity Monitor in my Dock all the time so I can check on memory usage etc. When EtreCheck was run, it looked like Safari was hogging a huge amount of memory. I'm not sure wast was going on then but right now, that does not seem to be the case (~870 MB).

  • by dr.crow,

    dr.crow dr.crow May 17, 2016 9:59 AM in response to PaulGG
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 17, 2016 9:59 AM in response to PaulGG

    I gave up and now doing a time machine restore from my g-drive.

  • by PaulGG,

    PaulGG PaulGG May 17, 2016 10:36 AM in response to PaulGG
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    May 17, 2016 10:36 AM in response to PaulGG

    Okay, I'm now replying to myself!!,  but I re-ran EtreCheck and it seems like there is memory pressure from  com.apple.WebKit.WebContent that is cause significant performance issues. I will see if I can find out more about what is causing WebKit to be hogging so much RAM.

     

     

     

    Top Processes by Memory: ⓘ

        2.58 GB    com.apple.WebKit.WebContent(22)

        852 MB    kernel_task

        573 MB    Safari

        246 MB    mdworker(20)

        238 MB    Mail

     

     

    Virtual Memory Information: ⓘ

        311 MB    Free RAM

        7.69 GB    Used RAM (1.26 GB Cached)

        1.97 GB    Swap Used

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis May 17, 2016 10:36 AM in response to PaulGG
    Level 10 (207,973 points)
    Applications
    May 17, 2016 10:36 AM in response to PaulGG

    When you see a beachball cursor or the slowness is especially bad, note the exact time: hour, minute, second.  

    These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.

    Launch the Console application in any one of the following ways:

    ☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

    ☞ In the Finder, select Go Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

    ☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

    The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select

              SYSTEM LOG QUERIES All Messages

    from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select

              View Show Log List

    from the menu bar at the top of the screen.

    Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Scroll back to the time you noted above.

    Select the messages entered from then until the end of the episode, or until they start to repeat, whichever comes first.

    Copy the messages to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.

    The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of it useless for solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.

    Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.

    Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.

    Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

    When you post the log extract, you might see an error message on the web page: "You have included content in your post that is not permitted," or "The message contains invalid characters." That's a bug in the forum software. Please post the text on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.

    If you have an account on Pastebin, please don't select Private from the Paste Exposure menu on the page, because then no one but you will be able to see it.

  • by etresoft,

    etresoft etresoft May 17, 2016 10:20 PM in response to PaulGG
    Level 7 (29,228 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 17, 2016 10:20 PM in response to PaulGG

    Hello PaulGG,

    What's going on with your hard drive? You have root being on an encrypted volume but then you have a "Boot partition" that isn't encrypted. That is not a standard configuration.

  • by PaulGG,

    PaulGG PaulGG May 18, 2016 7:31 AM in response to etresoft
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    May 18, 2016 7:31 AM in response to etresoft

    Hi Etresoft, the main drive is encrypted (as required by our institution), but I had not encrypted the boot partition. I can certainly do that -- do you think that could be affect computer performance?

    Thanks,

    Paul

  • by etresoft,

    etresoft etresoft May 18, 2016 8:10 AM in response to PaulGG
    Level 7 (29,228 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 18, 2016 8:10 AM in response to PaulGG

    Hello again PaulGG,

    I am not saying that any particular configuration is going to affect computer performance. It is just that your configuration is one that I have not seen before. I don't think that your machine is even configured the way you think it is. Someone has gone to an extra effort to do something in a non-standard way, and has done it wrong. I don't know if it has any affect on your machine's performance. When I see things like that, I get suspicious.

     

    Also, you have a fan control program installed. Why? That is something else that makes me suspicious. The system is designed to cool itself. It doesn't need any help. This is something that could definitely affect the performance.

     

    It may be that your hard drive is failing and has been going bad for some time. Maybe that is why you installed the fan software. I really don't know. I can tell you that your machine is running about 4 times slower than I would expect an iMac to run (and iMacs are relatively slow to begin with). The hard drive is configured in a non-standard and apparently incorrect way. It has software installed to override the system hardware defaults. From a diagnostic perspective, I wouldn't even touch or look at until it was restored to a default configuration. If it still performs poorly at that point, take it in to Apple or an Authorized Apple Service centre for repair.

  • by PaulGG,

    PaulGG PaulGG May 18, 2016 8:26 AM in response to etresoft
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    May 18, 2016 8:26 AM in response to etresoft

    Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I installed Macs Fan Control as, beginning a couple of months ago, the iMac's fans were running ~5000 rpm. Zapping PRAM, SMC reset etc. did not correct this. I really don't like to override the system with this type of software but the fan noise was very irritating. I will turn Macs Fan Control off and see if performance is improved.

    Standard hardware checks of S.M.A.R.T. have not indicated any issue with failing hard drive.

    I cannot un-ecrypt the drive or remove Tivoli End Point Manager as these are required by our institution, so returning the drive to default configuration is not an option.

  • by rkaufmann87,Helpful

    rkaufmann87 rkaufmann87 May 18, 2016 10:37 AM in response to PaulGG
    Level 9 (58,523 points)
    Photos for Mac
    May 18, 2016 10:37 AM in response to PaulGG

    Your description of the fan not being fixed by SMC resets points to a hardware issue. Please take it to your local AASP to be professionaly diagnosed.

  • by etresoft,

    etresoft etresoft May 18, 2016 6:59 PM in response to PaulGG
    Level 7 (29,228 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 18, 2016 6:59 PM in response to PaulGG

    Hello again PaulGG,

    I don't know if performance will improve or not. If you felt the need to install the software in the first place, then there was probably a problem the whole time. SMART is only a positive indicator of failure. If SMART says the drive is failing, then it probably is. If SMART doesn't say the drive is failing, it could still be failing.

     

    The default configuration is a single partition. You can still encrypt that single partition. It certainly looks like you are running from that single partition and the "boot partition" is just unused space.