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very slow Mac

My iMac (3.1 GHz Intel Core i5 running Monterey 12.3.1) has slowed to a crawl. I have cleaned it up, but still very slow. I have 8 GB memory and 1TB of storage with 650Gb free. Can anyone suggest anything to help?


Posted on Sep 2, 2022 12:56 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 2, 2022 1:26 PM

Download and run Etrecheck.  Copy and paste the results into your reply. Etrecheck is a diagnostic tool that was developed by one of the most respected users here in the ASC and recommended by Apple Support  to provide a snapshot of the system and help identify the more obvious culprits that can adversely affect a Mac's performance.


Copy the report



and use the Additional Text button to paste the report in your reply.



Then we can evaluate the report to see if we can determine the cause of the problem.


10 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 2, 2022 1:26 PM in response to tcarb

Download and run Etrecheck.  Copy and paste the results into your reply. Etrecheck is a diagnostic tool that was developed by one of the most respected users here in the ASC and recommended by Apple Support  to provide a snapshot of the system and help identify the more obvious culprits that can adversely affect a Mac's performance.


Copy the report



and use the Additional Text button to paste the report in your reply.



Then we can evaluate the report to see if we can determine the cause of the problem.


Sep 4, 2022 2:21 PM in response to tcarb

You have the iMac 8 GB hard disk drive (HDD) configuration. It’s under-configured for your usage. Badly.


That iMac configuration is discussed in detail here:


Why is my hard disk drive iMac so slow? - Apple Community (includes link to using an SSD)


That iMac will always be slow.


Migrating the contents of your internal boot HDD to an external SSD is probably the best least-bad option available, short of replacement with a newer iMac. See the previously-linked article for more about that, too.


Also: Removing anything that can consume resources or reduce performance is an option, too—that includes add-on anti-malware, and the Google apps are not known for being gentle with storage and memory resources, etc


The hard disk speeds are somewhat low, too. Ensure you have a current and complete backup, on the off chance that HDD is failing.

Sep 4, 2022 1:54 PM in response to Old Toad

Not sure if you received the reply. My iMac is so painfully slow, takes forever just to get a new website. This is what the report highlighted;


Performance:

    System Load: 1.44 (1 min ago) 1.53 (5 min ago) 1.63 (15 min ago)

    Nominal I/O usage: 13.61 MB/s

    File system: 63.73 seconds

    Write speed: 39 MB/s

    Read speed: 38 MB/s


very slow Mac

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