iMac 2017 Monterey 12.7.6 : A few Issues

I'm adding this from the standpoint of "not wanting to buy new right now." Obviously this is your call but I'm covering other options. My 2017 5K iMac is still quite speedy.

Unless something is wrong with your Fusion Drive system, you should not be having slow loads. However, Fusion was not a trouble-free technology. Also, useless aftermarket utilities like anti-virus and so-called "cleaning apps are useless and known performance killers.

The only way we can effectively see if your current Mac is salvageable is if you post a system config report. Fortunately there is a safe secure way to do so, and it may reveal steps you can so at home that extend the only Mac's serice life while you shop for a new one.

If you want a data-driven evaluation in this setting where we can neither see nor touch your computer, please post an EtreCheck report. We can quickly and within the limitations of these forums help you determine what issues are at play without our playing a protracted game of "20 Questions" with you that could go on for days. 

EtreCheck Pro is available here:

https://etrecheck.com/index

The free version will do nicely for this purpose, although the app is worthy of our financial support.

We can see hard data about drive performance, software issues and interferences, and RAM usage. Etrecheck is the development of a long-serving and trusted ASC contributor. It is a reporting app, not a "fix-it” app, expressly for displaying information in these forums to help us help you remotely. It will not reveal any personal or secure information.

Please see this excellent user tip on how to post long text reports like EtreCheck's into a forum response:

How to use the Add Text Feature When Post… - Apple Community

Please post the entire report. What seems insignificant to a new Etrecheck user can speak volumes to those of us who have reviewed thousands of those reports. 

Your first step in diagnosis should be to use the software tools suggested in this discussion to see if it's a software issue that you can resolve easily.

Although your issue may not be the same, I recently had the same symptoms in my iMac of the same age. In my case I failed to find any software problems to explain the slowness. I therefore moved to a new M4 Mac Mini last year which then gave the opportunity to reformat the iMac to give it to my mother for her basic needs. Not only did the complete reformat and fresh macOS not solve the slowness, but within a month, the HDD portion of the fusion drive failed. I am guessing that was the issue all along.

Because I really like the 27" iMac hardware and monitor, I invested a relatively little money to replace the SSD and add RAM (https://eshop.macsales.com/upgrades/). If you feel confident working inside of computers, then replacing the fusion drive with a decent sized SSD may be a good option. The "kit"s offered by OWC make this fairly easy if you have some previous experience with computer repair.

The other thing to consider is that this Intel iMac hardware is no longer supported by any current macOS version and therefore you are going to struggle with even finding browsers that are safe to use for long. For this reason I choose to install Fedora (Linux) on the "like new" iMac for Mom's use. She is now happily browsing the web and getting her email on the iMac's blazing fast hardware and it's 27" monitor.

sogni wrote:

Repeated 'machine gun' type noise which arises regularly - esc fixes temporarily (apple wifi keyboard)

Have run Disk Utility First Aid...no issues arise.

Despite running Disk Utility, the "noise" sounds like the HDD part of the Fusion drive is failing. You need to have it looked at or replace the iMac. It is going on nine years old.

Hi,

You'd better upgrade RAM for smooth operations. I have same iMac which has 32GB of RAM, and running macOS Monterey on it smoothly.

8GB is too little, I think.

Install memory in an iMac - Apple Support

run DriveDX (free tryout period)

i suspect HDD issues

it will show health and failures

in my opinion, a drive with less than 90% health should be replaced

35,000 Power On Hours is long in the tooth...

this screenshot is from 2019 HDD hardware i bought to upgrade it to SATA SSD and resell -- this is what you don't want to see:

PS: HARD DRIVE REPLACEMENT IN 2017 IS MINIMUM (probably one hour labor) -- cut the screen off, blow out the dust, swap HDD for SATA SSD