Recently purchased a 21.5 inch iMac. 16 GB Ram. This machine was installed from an older machine running High Sierra. The new machine is very slow, slower than the the 2013 machine it has replaced. I have heard there may be problems with the 5400 rpm hard drive. I have no antivirus software and Ryte check only reveals poor speeds. Can anyone help?
Thank you for your reply. I will do that. Never used this forum before. Many people are having problems with the 2019 iMacs. Best to try and and cover it up. Have a good day and thanks for solving my problem.
Thank you for your reply. I will do that. Never used this forum before. Many people are having problems with the 2019 iMacs. Best to try and and cover it up. Have a good day and thanks for solving my problem.
I think you would benefit by re-reading the Terms of Use you agreed to. If you have feedback for Apple please let them know at www.apple.com/feedback.
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There is nothing wrong with a 5400 RPM hard drive accept that they are very slow! If the computer is less than 2 weeks old and you bought it directly from Apple return it for one with a SSD instead of a HD. Rotating HD's are the speed bottle neck in any computer.
If your computer is older than 2 weeks, then your best alternative is to purchase an external SSD, install Mac OS on it along with your apps and then use the internal 5400 RPM HD for storage only. If that is something you are considering I'd recommend speaking to www.macsales.com, they can provide many alternatives for you and can help you select one that best suits your needs.
What drive did the 2013 have? If you downgraded from an SSD or Fusion in the 2013 to a 5400rpm in the new the HDD would absolutely be a problem. In that case you should either return the iMac and purchase a better configuration or else reinstall MacOS onto an external SSD.
(The problem with a 2.5" 5400rpm HDD is first that its only half as fast as the old 3.5" 7200rpm HDDs that once were standard and second that modern software has gotten more drive intensive. Anyone using one with 3rd party software has been at risk of spinning color wheels since El Capitan).
Although there may be a performance difference between a 5400 RPM and a 7200 RPM drive, the speed difference between the two shouldn't be drastic. If you're noticing a huge difference between your old iMac and your new one then I suggest checking some additional items before taking steps to replace your iMac with an SSD model:
1) Temporarily disconnect and additional peripherals besides the keyboard and mouse. (e.g. external hard drives, thumb drives, printer, etc.) and reboot. If the performance improves try reconnecting the peripherals one at a time.
2) Is your iMac creating the Spotlight index to make searching for documents easier? Indexing can be a lengthy process, but once completed will have a minimal impact on your iMac's performance. To check whether the indexing is in process first launch the Activity Monitor application found in the Applications/Utilities folder. Next, select the CPU Tab and click on the Process Name column to sort alphabetically. Look for a process named 'mdworker'. If you see that the 'mdworker' process is consuming a fair amount of processor time then the Spotlight indexing is in process and the system performance will likely improve once it has completed.
3) If you continue to have performance issues then it would be helpful to upload an Etrecheck report to see whether there are any other issues that need addressing.
Thank you for your reply. You are correct. I installed a SSD and the problem is solved. I was not aware of the 2 week timeframe so covered the cost myself. I could say more but Apple will remove it.
Why is my new 2019 iMac so slow?
