Hi,
I have a 24" iMac which is also going very slow. After a call to the help line I have repaired the disk permissions and have just now (after 2 days!) restarted after reinstalling the OS.
The advise on other topics (i.e. upgrade RAM etc.) is great but why should you have to replace and upgrade bits to make it go as fast as it was for the last year (since I bought it) until a week or two ago? What goes wrong to make the speed of operation (minutes to open applications! 15 minutes to restart!!!!!) drop right off?
*why should you have to replace and upgrade bits to make it go as fast as it was for the last year*
If you have made no substantial software or hardware changes, the answer is simple: you shouldn't. But let's take a quick inventory. How much hard drive space do you have left and how much is in use? Since buying the new computer have you installed any software? If so, open up your Activity Monitor and check out how much RAM those new programs use and how much of the CPU they command. In the last year have you changed your working habits? Did you used to run only one program at a time? Are you now running 5 or 6 at a time?
A quick explanation of the inventory questions: if you are using up 85% or more of your hard drive you now have less space for temporary files such as caches and swap files and this will result in a slower computer. Also, when you reach this point disk fragmentation, which isn't generally a problem for Mac users can start to become an issue. So if you've passed the 85% full mark a quick (and relatively inexpensive) fix might be to offload some of your stuff to an external drive. Music and video files are a good start. Your iPhoto library too.
You may not be a Mac newbie but newbies tend to quit one program before starting another and they tend to use the software that comes with the Mac for a while before venturing out to buy more. Eventually they discover the advantages of multitasking and run several programs at once. A standard Mac comes with
just enough RAM to run the programs Apple ships with it and you can generally run other programs with that default RAM amount - as long as you don't try to multitask. But when you have 1GB or less with Leopard the computer will become slow - very slow - if you run too many programs or try running a demanding program such as Photoshop or MS Word. If you've changed your habits as described here, a RAM upgrade
is in order.
Now if you have plenty of drive space, you aren't using any demanding programs, and you aren't multitasking then something's up with your computer. How did you reinstall the OS? Did you completely erase the computer and start over? Did you perform an archive and install? Those two methods
should have improved your speed. If you performed the default upgrade you wasted your time. Do an archive and install, then come back if the computer is still slow.
