iMac17,1 late 2015 27" 5K retina very slow and crashing regularly.

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iMac17,1 late 2015 27" 5K retina very slow and crashing regularly.

I have a iMac17,1 late 2015 27" 5K retina which has become very slow and crashing regularly. Updated to Monterey 12.6.7.

I think it may be a HDD issue although disk utility has not identified any issue.

Attached is EtreCheckPro report. Any ideas before i invest in upgrade to SSD.

EtreCheckPro version: 6.8.1 (68024)

Report generated: 2023-07-07 13:55:38

Download EtreCheckPro from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 9:32

Performance: Poor

Problem: Computer is restarting

Major Issues:

Anything that appears on this list needs immediate attention.

Hard drive too slow - The hard drive in this computer is too slow.

Kernel panics - This system has experienced kernel panics. This could be a sign of hardware failure.

Minor Issues:

These issues do not need immediate attention but they may indicate future problems or opportunities for improvement.

Heavy RAM usage - Apps are using a large amount of RAM.

Apps crashing - There have been numerous app crashes.

Apps with heavy CPU usage - There have been numerous cases of apps with heavy CPU usage.

Unsigned files - There are unsigned software files installed. These files could be old, incompatible, and cause problems. They should be reviewed.

Limited permissions - More information may be available with Full Disk Access.

Kernel extensions present - This computer has kernel extensions that may not work in the future.

Hardware Information:

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015)

Status: Supported

iMac Model: iMac17,1

3.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5 (i5-6500) CPU: 4-core

32 GB RAM - At maximum

BANK 0/DIMM0 - 8 GB DDR3 1867

BANK 0/DIMM1 - 8 GB DDR3 1867

BANK 1/DIMM0 - 8 GB DDR3 1867

BANK 1/DIMM1 - 8 GB DDR3 1867

Video Information:

AMD Radeon R9 M380 - VRAM: 2 GB

iMac (built-in) 5120 x 2880

Drives:

disk0 - APPLE HDD ST1000DM003 1.00 TB (Mechanical - 7200 RPM)

Internal SATA 3 Gigabit Serial ATA

disk0s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB

disk0s2 [APFS Container] 935.00 GB

disk3 [APFS Virtual drive] 935.00 GB (Shared by 6 volumes)

disk3s1 (APFS) [APFS Container] (15.41 GB used)

disk3s1s1 - Macintosh HD (APFS) [APFS Snapshot] (15.41 GB used)

disk3s2 - Preboot (APFS) [APFS Preboot] (279 MB used)

disk3s3 - Recovery (APFS) [Recovery] (1.12 GB used)

disk3s4 - VM (APFS) [APFS VM] (4.30 GB used)

disk3s5 - Macintosh HD - Data (APFS) [APFS Virtual drive] (350.93 GB used)

disk3s6 - Update (APFS) (9 MB used)

disk0s3 - B******P (MS-DOS FAT12) 64.99 GB

disk1 - TOSHIBA External USB 3.0 1.00 TB

External USB 5 Gbit/s USB

disk1s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB

disk1s2 [APFS Container] 1000.00 GB

disk2 [APFS Virtual drive] 1000.00 GB (Shared by 1 volumes)

disk2s2 - B********************c (APFS) (936.95 GB used)

Mounted Volumes:

disk0s3 - B******P

Filesystem: MS-DOS FAT12

Mount point: /Volumes/B******P

Size: 64.99 GB

disk2s2 - B********************c

Filesystem: APFS

Mount point: /Volumes/B********************c

Used: 936.95 GB

Shared values

Size: 1000.00 GB

Free: 62.84 GB

disk3s1s1 - Macintosh HD [APFS Snapshot]

Filesystem: APFS

Mount point: /

Read-only: Yes

Used: 15.41 GB

Shared values

Size: 935.00 GB

Free: 562.75 GB

Available: 593.26 GB

disk3s2 - Preboot [APFS Preboot]

Filesystem: APFS

Mount point: /System/Volumes/Preboot

Used: 279 MB

Shared values

Size: 935.00 GB

Free: 562.75 GB

disk3s4 - VM [APFS VM]

Filesystem: APFS

Mount point: /System/Volumes/VM

Used: 4.30 GB

Shared values

Size: 935.00 GB

Free: 562.75 GB

disk3s5 - Macintosh HD - Data [APFS Virtual drive]

Filesystem: APFS

Mount point: /System/Volumes/Data

Used: 350.93 GB

Shared values

Size: 935.00 GB

Free: 562.75 GB

Available: 593.26 GB

disk3s6 - Update

Filesystem: APFS

Mount point: /System/Volumes/Update

Used: 9 MB

Shared values

Size: 935.00 GB

Free: 562.75 GB

Remainder of report

Earlier Mac models

Posted on Jul 7, 2023 6:14 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Angler2506 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 8, 2023 3:31 AM in response to HappyL

Thank you below is the DriveDX report, looks like HDD is failing. Any further tips welcome. I have ordered an external SSD from Apple.

### SYSTEM INFORMATION ###

Report Timestamp : 8 July 2023 11:17:17 BST

Report Timestamp (ISO 8601 format) : 2023-07-08T11:17:17

Application Name : DriveDx

Application Version : 1.12.0.750

Application SubBuild : 0

Application Edition : Standalone

Application Website : https://binaryfruit.com/drivedx

DriveDx Knowledge Base Revision : 102/102

Computer Name : barrys iMac

Host Name : barrys-iMac

Computer Model : iMac17,1

OS Boot Time : 2023-07-07T14:56:22

Time Since Boot : 20h 20m 55s

OS Name : macOS

OS Version : 12.6.7

OS Build : 21G651

OS Kernel Version : Darwin 21.6.0

SAT SMART Driver Version : N/A

ATA Command Support Tolerance : verypermissive

N of drives in report : 1

### DRIVE 1 OF 1 ###

Last Checked : 8 July 2023 11:16:00 BST

Last Checked (ISO 8601 format) : 2023-07-08T11:16:00

Advanced SMART Status : FAILING

Overall Health Rating : AVERAGE 57.8%

Overall Performance Rating : GOOD 97.4%

Issues found : 3

Serial Number : Z4YE2FSB

WWN Id : 5 000c50 0924d938d

Volumes : Macintosh HD

Device Path : /dev/disk0

Total Capacity : 1.0 TB (1,000,204,886,016 Bytes)

Model Family : Apple (Seagate-based) HDDs

Model : APPLE HDD ST1000DM003

Form Factor : 3.5 inches

Firmware Version : AQ03

Drive Type : HDD 7200 rpm

Power On Time : 14,264 hours (19 months 24 days 8 hours)

Power Cycles Count : 14,446

Current Power Cycle Time : 20.3 hours

continuation of DriveDX report

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Answer 2

HappyL

Level 1

25 points

Jul 8, 2023 5:30 PM in response to Angler2506

Yes HDD issues are the most common problem with Macs. Over the years I had 2 iMacs and 1 Mini with failing HDDs. The first symptom of the failure tends to be abnormal time to boot (10 minutes or more) or random crashes, before they might become completely unreadable or unmountable.

So as the HDD is still somewhat accessible, make sure to make full backups using Time Machine or CCC to an external disk, that will be helpful to migrate to new external OS SSD later.

An external/internal boot SSD will drastically improve the overall performance of older Macs with HDD/small Fusion Drive, making them work like new or even better than new.

And consider reduce the RAM usage of your Mac by disabling unnecessary apps and utilities for auto startup (Settings-Users-Startup Programs). Also update the OS and browsers, and remove/disable unused addons. Newer versions of browser will be able to automatically suspend inactive tabs and sessions and free up a lot of RAM. Consider using Vivaldi or Firefox that are more RAM friendly if, like me, need to work with over 50+ tabs constantly. Safari is good nowadays yet it’s Adblock addon is limiting.

Finally, after migrating to the new boot disk, you can still use the somewhat faulty HDD. First erase it as a new HFS+ (not APFS as this is not HDD friendly) disk, and you can hold non-essential data, such installers, videos, music, books that can be redownloaded from the Internet or other providers. You can even use it as an extra Time Machine disk for monthly or quarterly backups as a cold storage.

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Answer 3

Ronasara

Level 6

15,537 points

Jul 7, 2023 9:55 AM in response to Angler2506

It appears that when you ran EtreCheck you did not enable full disk accesses. Some important information is missing. You have a slow, older mechanical hard drive installed which is slower than an SSD will be. Do you have any antivirus or Mac cleaning apps installed? If so, Joey should be completely removed using their respective uninstallers. One thing to speed up operations would be to purchase and install an external SSD, install your OS onto it and designate it as your startup drive.

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Answer 4

Allan Jones

Level 9

79,346 points

Jul 7, 2023 10:38 AM in response to Angler2506

Your SATA 3G 7200rpm should be faster than the SATA3 5400 rpm models Apple stuffed in 21.5-inch iMac that year. Yet is not:

Performance:

System Load: 1.70 (1 min ago) 1.91 (5 min ago) 2.31 (15 min ago)

Nominal I/O usage: 3.68 MB/s

File system: 124.40 seconds (timed out)

Write speed: 65 MB/s

Read speed: 76 MB/s

Those numbers should be in the 100-120mb/sec range for your drive model. However, with the latest macOS version all mech drives seem slow.

First, remove CleanMyMc with extreme prejudice using the developers' uninstell insrucition. Don't; just "turn it off." Macs, catlike, cleaning themselves and have for over 20 years; they need no help from apps that are more redundant than a crank-start handle on an electric vehicle.

I've see plenty of reports here where removing a "cleaning" app improved drive performance

Next, disconnect all external drives and devices other then input devices, and run the test again to see if that changed the write/read speeds.

The easy fix is to use an external USB3 SSD drive and set it as the boot volumes. That should give 400MB/sec writes and reads without requiring opening the iMac.

Use an external SSD as your startup disk … - Apple Community

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Answer 5

Angler2506 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 8, 2023 1:00 AM in response to Allan Jones

Thank you, I thought I had unistalled Cleanmymac and avast anti virus. Will recheck and run report again. The only external thing i have connected is a Toshiba 1TB drive I use for back ups.

Next step is buy external SSD and try that.

Thanks you for the advice.

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Answer 6

Ronasara

Level 6

15,537 points

Jul 14, 2023 9:40 AM in response to Angler2506

I wouldn't do it. It is not easily done by most people and the external disk should easily improve performance to make you satisfied.

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Answer 7

Ronasara

Level 6

15,537 points

Jul 8, 2023 8:32 AM in response to Angler2506

You are welcome. You will definitely enjoy a faster Ma with the SSD. I did that and was amazed at the increase in performance.

Reply

Answer 8

HappyL

Level 1

25 points

Jul 8, 2023 2:53 AM in response to Angler2506

The HDD might be falling with bad sectors. You can try out DriveDX for a thorough diagnosis.

If the HDD is bad then you may want to separate SSD from the Fusion Drive. Then you can also disable the HDD. Both steps require some Terminal commands. Please Google them for detailed instructions.

And, you can always use USB or TB external disks, including SSD, to compensate for the loss of internal HDD. GTech, Samsung and LaCie have good reputations for this purpose.

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Answer 9

Angler2506 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 14, 2023 8:41 AM in response to Angler2506

Thank you all for the advice, MAC now working fine with an external SSD. Quick last question, is there any benefit to replacing the internal HDD with an SSD, im thinking that the internal bus would be quicker than USB3

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iMac17,1 late 2015 27" 5K retina very slow and crashing regularly.

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