lorry85

Q: Why is my iMac so slow?

I am on v10.11.4. My iMac has been relatively slow pre upgrade to Captain but has become even slower since upgrading to Captain. I am not an expert Mac user so therefore am after some advice, basically:

 

  • Can I un-install Captain?
  • Should I continue using Safari or switch to Firefox...etc?
  • Pre-upgrade to Captain, my iMac was relatively slow for Internet usage and other apps such as iTunes and iPhoto - is there an explanation for all this?

 

I'm confident in saying that I have sufficient memory. My iMac is a few years old now however, I've been led to believe that Mac users shouldn't need to renew their computers every few years like a PC user should...

 

I appreciate my question is a bit vague, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks

Lorry

iMac (20-inch Early 2009), Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Jun 3, 2016 9:10 AM

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Q: Why is my iMac so slow?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Jun 3, 2016 9:14 AM in response to lorry85
    Level 10 (139,572 points)
    iLife
    Jun 3, 2016 9:14 AM in response to lorry85

    It's impossible to suggest anything without hard information

     

    I'm confident in saying that I have sufficient memory

     

    Why not tell us how much memory you have?

     

    My iMac is a few years old now however

     

    Why not tell us how old?

     

    One thing that might give us something to work with is to download Etrecheck

     

    https://etrecheck.com/

     

    This will generate a report on what's on your Mac. Copy and paste that on here and it might allow us to help you.

  • by lorry85,

    lorry85 lorry85 Jun 3, 2016 9:32 AM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Jun 3, 2016 9:32 AM in response to Terence Devlin

    The iMac has 187.91GB of available space. It is 7 years old.

     

    EtreCheck report:

    EtreCheck version: 2.9.12 (265)

    Report generated 2016-06-03 17:27:11

    Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

    Runtime 2:25

    Performance: Excellent

     

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

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

     

    Problem: Computer is too slow

     

    Hardware Information:

        iMac (20-inch, Early 2009)

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

        iMac - model: iMac9,1

        1 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2-core

        4 GB RAM Upgradeable - [Instructions]

            BANK 0/DIMM0

                2 GB DDR3 1067 MHz ok

            BANK 1/DIMM0

                2 GB DDR3 1067 MHz ok

        Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported

        Wireless:  en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n

     

    Video Information:

        NVIDIA GeForce 9400 - VRAM: 256 MB

            iMac 1680 x 1050

     

    System Software:

        OS X El Capitan 10.11.4 (15E65) - Time since boot: about one day

     

    Disk Information:

        WDC WD3200AAJS-40H3A0 disk0 : (320.07 GB) (Rotational)

            EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

            Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / : 313.40 GB (187.89 GB free)

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

     

        HL-DT-ST DVDRW  GA11N   ()

     

    USB Information:

        Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

        USB USB Keyboard

        Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub

            Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

        Apple Inc. Built-in iSight

        MediaTek Inc MT1887 

     

    Configuration files:

        /etc/sudoers, File size 1242 but expected 2299

     

    Gatekeeper:

        Mac App Store and identified developers

     

    Kernel Extensions:

            /System/Library/Extensions

        [not loaded]    com.mcafee.kext.Virex (1.0.0d1 - 2016-05-17) [Support]

     

    System Launch Agents:

        [not loaded]    8 Apple tasks

        [loaded]    150 Apple tasks

        [running]    80 Apple tasks

     

    System Launch Daemons:

        [not loaded]    45 Apple tasks

        [loaded]    153 Apple tasks

        [running]    90 Apple tasks

     

    Launch Agents:

        [failed]    com.adobe.ARMDCHelper.cc24aef4a1b90ed56a...plist (2016-05-17) [Support]

     

    User Launch Agents:

        [failed]    com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist (2016-02-27) [Support]

     

     

    Other Apps:

        [running]    jp.co.canon.cijscannerregister.65632

        [loaded]    378 Apple tasks

        [running]    202 Apple tasks

     

    Internet Plug-ins:

        DirectorShockwave: 12.2.4r194 - SDK 10.6 (2016-02-23) [Support]

        o1dbrowserplugin: 5.38.6.0 - SDK 10.8 (2015-11-06) [Support]

        Google Earth Web Plug-in: 7.1 (2013-10-07) [Support]

        Default Browser: 601 - SDK 10.11 (2016-03-23)

        AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: 15.016.20041 - SDK 10.11 (2016-05-21) [Support]

        FlashPlayer-10.6: 21.0.0.242 - SDK 10.6 (2016-05-21) [Support]

        AmazonMP3DownloaderPlugin101749: Unknown

        QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (2016-03-23)

        iPhotoPhotocast: 7.0 (2010-04-01)

        Flash Player: 21.0.0.242 - SDK 10.6 (2016-05-21) [Support]

        googletalkbrowserplugin: 5.38.6.0 - SDK 10.8 (2014-10-29) [Support]

        AdobePDFViewer: 15.016.20041 - SDK 10.11 (2016-05-21) [Support]

        JavaAppletPlugin: 15.0.1 - SDK 10.11 (2014-10-13) Check version

     

    User internet Plug-ins:

        fbplugin_1_0_3: Unknown (2010-02-26) [Support]

     

    Safari Extensions:

        AdBlock - BetaFish, Inc. - https://getadblock.com (2016-02-12)

     

    3rd Party Preference Panes:

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

     

    Time Machine:

        Skip System Files: NO

        Auto backup: YES

        Volumes being backed up:

            Macintosh HD: Disk size: 313.40 GB Disk used: 125.51 GB

        Destinations:

            Time Machine Backups [Local]

            Total size: 999.86 GB

            Total number of backups: 16

            Oldest backup: 25/10/2015, 17:23

            Last backup: 25/05/2016, 17:34

            Size of backup disk: Excellent

                Backup size 999.86 GB > (Disk size 313.40 GB X 3)

     

    Top Processes by CPU:

            92%    mdworker(15)

             4%    WindowServer

             2%    kernel_task

             1%    fontd

             0%    SystemUIServer

     

    Top Processes by Memory:

        534 MB    kernel_task

        524 MB    com.apple.WebKit.WebContent(3)

        233 MB    mdworker(14)

        193 MB    iTunes

        119 MB    Safari

     

    Virtual Memory Information:

        155 MB    Free RAM

        4.10 GB    Used RAM (1.08 GB Cached)

        768 KB    Swap Used

     

    Diagnostics Information:

        Jun 2, 2016, 05:01:19 PM    Self test - passed

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Jun 3, 2016 9:38 AM in response to lorry85
    Level 10 (139,572 points)
    iLife
    Jun 3, 2016 9:38 AM in response to lorry85

    7 years old hardly constitutes "every few years" in computer world. But still:

     

    You have 4 gigs of RAM (that's memory) and that was enough when you bought the machine but now it's the bare minimum for running 10.11. You could get more.

     

    Uninstall Virex. It's does nothing for you

     

    The biggest thing I see there is that Spotlight is running the processor at 92%, which would be a significant cause of slowdown. Try rebuild your Spoltight Index

     

    Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac - Apple Support

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Jun 3, 2016 9:42 AM in response to lorry85
    Level 10 (208,000 points)
    Applications
    Jun 3, 2016 9:42 AM in response to lorry85

    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.