My Mac is too slow, it even cannot handle everyday tasks

Hi everyone,


My Mac is too slow, it even cannot handle everyday tasks. It has been so since I bought it. Today I made an EtreCheck, which found some major issues. You can find it below. How can I solve these problems? Any idea would be very helpful. Thank you in advance for your support.


All the best,


Omer


  Model Identifier: iMac18,2

  Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Core i5

  Processor Speed: 3 GHz

  Number of Processors: 1

  Total Number of Cores: 4

L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

  L3 Cache: 6 MB

  Memory: 8 GB



iMac 21.5″ 4K, macOS 11.6

Posted on Jan 5, 2022 9:22 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 5, 2022 9:32 AM

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities.


Please see the notes below from your report.


No Time Machine backup - Time Machine backup not found.

It appears that you do not have a Time Machine backup. If this is the case, you should create one. To start, you need an external hard drive. Here’s a few excellent ones sold by Apple: 


You can then follow the steps in this Apple Support article to setup your Time Machine backup: Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support. Also, moving forward, I recommend that you use iCloud in addition to Time Machine to sync all your files and photos to all your Apple devices. Although iCloud is not a "true" backup service, iCloud can also act as an emergency off-site backup, but this is why iCloud should be used in addition to Time Machine. Here are some resources on setting up iCloud for Mac:


Antivirus software: Kaspersky

Mac computers do not need any sort of anti-virus, cleaners, VPNs, etc. The only thing they are good at is creating false marketing promises and taking consumers' money. They are all scams. In fact, anti-virus and other cleaners cause performance issues, security issues, and make macOS appear buggy. Your Mac is far worse with these types of Apps installed.


Mac computers have protection built-in, which is the best protection for your Mac. For specifics on macOS Security, see: macOS - Security - Apple and Protecting against malware in macOS - Apple Support. Mac computers also have built-in storage recommendations: Optimize storage space on your Mac - Apple Support. You can even use the built-in macOS Firewall: Block connections to your Mac with a firewall - Apple Support. Other than that, all you should do is restart your Mac approximately once a week and keep macOS up to date: Update macOS on Mac - Apple Support


Delete these apps according to: How to Delete Anti-Virus, Cleaners, VPNs,… - Apple Community.


Other than that, the reason your iMac is slow is due to the 5400-rpm hard drive. While this hard drive found in your Mac is perfectly suited to light tasks, such as email, web browsing, etc., for more advanced tasks, and for users who want the maximum performance from their Mac, this hard drive does have its limitations. Luckily, you can use an external SSD as your startup disk to run macOS and all your data from that. It will make your Mac 10 to 30 times faster for storage, and in turn, make your entire Mac system much faster. For more info, instructions, and what external SSD to buy, please see: How to Setup and Use an External SSD as your Startup Disk on a Desktop Mac - Apple Community.


Another option is to replace this Mac with a new Apple Silicon based Mac: Mac - Apple. If you go this route, it is generally recommended that you purchase 16GB of Memory with the largest SSD that you can afford. You can also use Apple Trade-In to get credit towards a new Mac: Apple Trade In - Apple.


Jack

6 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 5, 2022 9:32 AM in response to Omer_kksl

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities.


Please see the notes below from your report.


No Time Machine backup - Time Machine backup not found.

It appears that you do not have a Time Machine backup. If this is the case, you should create one. To start, you need an external hard drive. Here’s a few excellent ones sold by Apple: 


You can then follow the steps in this Apple Support article to setup your Time Machine backup: Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support. Also, moving forward, I recommend that you use iCloud in addition to Time Machine to sync all your files and photos to all your Apple devices. Although iCloud is not a "true" backup service, iCloud can also act as an emergency off-site backup, but this is why iCloud should be used in addition to Time Machine. Here are some resources on setting up iCloud for Mac:


Antivirus software: Kaspersky

Mac computers do not need any sort of anti-virus, cleaners, VPNs, etc. The only thing they are good at is creating false marketing promises and taking consumers' money. They are all scams. In fact, anti-virus and other cleaners cause performance issues, security issues, and make macOS appear buggy. Your Mac is far worse with these types of Apps installed.


Mac computers have protection built-in, which is the best protection for your Mac. For specifics on macOS Security, see: macOS - Security - Apple and Protecting against malware in macOS - Apple Support. Mac computers also have built-in storage recommendations: Optimize storage space on your Mac - Apple Support. You can even use the built-in macOS Firewall: Block connections to your Mac with a firewall - Apple Support. Other than that, all you should do is restart your Mac approximately once a week and keep macOS up to date: Update macOS on Mac - Apple Support


Delete these apps according to: How to Delete Anti-Virus, Cleaners, VPNs,… - Apple Community.


Other than that, the reason your iMac is slow is due to the 5400-rpm hard drive. While this hard drive found in your Mac is perfectly suited to light tasks, such as email, web browsing, etc., for more advanced tasks, and for users who want the maximum performance from their Mac, this hard drive does have its limitations. Luckily, you can use an external SSD as your startup disk to run macOS and all your data from that. It will make your Mac 10 to 30 times faster for storage, and in turn, make your entire Mac system much faster. For more info, instructions, and what external SSD to buy, please see: How to Setup and Use an External SSD as your Startup Disk on a Desktop Mac - Apple Community.


Another option is to replace this Mac with a new Apple Silicon based Mac: Mac - Apple. If you go this route, it is generally recommended that you purchase 16GB of Memory with the largest SSD that you can afford. You can also use Apple Trade-In to get credit towards a new Mac: Apple Trade In - Apple.


Jack

Jan 5, 2022 9:45 AM in response to Omer_kksl

This is the issue. You hard drive:

Drives:

disk0 - APPLE HDD HTS541010A9E632 1.00 TB (Mechanical - 5400 RPM)

Internal SATA 3 Gigabit Serial ATA


was slow when new but is now running at half its nominal speed. That drive model should do 70-80MB/sec but yours is doing half that:


Performance:

System Load: 1.80 (1 min ago) 1.69 (5 min ago) 1.55 (15 min ago)

Nominal I/O speed: 1.29 MB/s

File system: 45.46 seconds

Write speed: 33 MB/s

Read speed: 37 MB/s


Because that model was not designed to be opened by the end-user, your cost-effective option is to set up an external solid-state drive (SSD) in a USB-3 enclosure and make it the boot volume. That will give write/read speeds in the ballpark of 400 MBsec.


However, you fist must rid yourself of the pachyderm on the premises:


[Running] com.kaspersky.kav.plist (Kaspersky Lab UK Limited - installed 2021-12-13)


It is unneeded and is likely slowing your computer. Ignoe fear-based marketing and let your Mac be a Mac.


Restarting more often than every seven days can help when you have small amounts of RAM. However, your RAM was not stresed at the time of the test. Adding RAM won't speed up your computer one iota in this case.


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My Mac is too slow, it even cannot handle everyday tasks

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