kablack
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Constant pinwheel - iMac hangs up

My specs:

Refurb purchased 6/2009

Processor: 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

Memory: 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3

1 TB hard drive

Mac OSX 10.6.8

 

My iMac is running so slow and hanging up so often, I see the pinwheel more often than I see the work I need to do. I have been on the phone with support 3x in the mast 3 months (who had me do all kinds of weird things and told me I just needed to upgrade my OS - to NO avail) and then I finally gave up and made an appointment at the Genius Bar. Due to my schedule, the only time I was able to take it was the VERY last day of my warranty. Go figure. They did the diagnostics, turned a couple things off, told me to uninstall a couple other things and rushed me out like I had the plague. I have never been so disgusted with Apple as I am right now. And nothing they did helped.

 

It STILL takes forever to open programs. ANY program. Photoshop, Excel, even TextEdit. I am tearing my hair out to watch that pinwheel come up everytime I try to move the littleest thing in Illustrator. And God forbid I have PS and Ai open at the same time. It even takes a good 20 to 30 seconds sometimes to open a finder window and even longer to load my applications list.

 

I am not a Mac guru. I don't know all the technical aspects. Im your average user who utilizes their Mac for home use, and freelance work. But my Mac is vital to my job. So I need it to run properly.

 

So I come to you all for help. What on earth could be causing me so much trouble that I permanently see pinwheels in my dreams, née - nightmares... ?

 

 

Thank you in advance for any advice.

iMac (24-inch Early 2009)

Posted on Jun 19, 2012 7:06 PM

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kablack

Q: Constant pinwheel - iMac hangs up

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Carolyn Samit,

    Carolyn Samit Carolyn Samit Jun 19, 2012 7:15 PM in response to kablack
    Level 10 (124,591 points)
    Apple Music
    Jun 19, 2012 7:15 PM in response to kablack

    Hi..

     

    How much free space on the startup disk?

     

     

    Right or control click the MacintoshHD icon on your Desktop.

     

    Click Get Info. In the Get Info window you will see Capacity and Available. Make sure there's a minimum of 15% free disk space.


  • by kablack,

    kablack kablack Jun 19, 2012 7:41 PM in response to Carolyn Samit
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 19, 2012 7:41 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

    Capacity - 999.86 GB

    Available - 154.69 GB

     

    Guess it just makes it... I take it this is the culprit?? I need to move stuff to an external hard drive and free up space on the internal?

  • by kablack,

    kablack kablack Jun 20, 2012 4:42 PM in response to kablack
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 20, 2012 4:42 PM in response to kablack

    Is this really the only solution?

  • by MichelPM,

    MichelPM MichelPM Jun 20, 2012 10:20 PM in response to kablack
    Level 6 (14,279 points)
    iPad
    Jun 20, 2012 10:20 PM in response to kablack

    It maybe the free space issue, but 155 GBs of storage space left is still sufficient.

    You may want to consider offloading or archiving some of your files, but that's not the biggest issue with what free space you have remaining.

    It's not an issue of hard discs free space so much as it is an issue with the amount of RAM you have in your iMac.

    Have you thought about purchasing more RAM???

    If you're a graphics guru or pro, 4 GBs of RAM is simply not enough. No where near enough!!!

    4 GBs of RAM is the working minimum just to run OS X!  Every iteration of Mac OS X uses more CPU, GPU and RAM resources. AND Not nearly enoughRAM if you're using CPU and RAM intensive apps like the Adobe Creative Suite apps.

    Photoshop is the biggest CPU and RAM hog all by itself!

    You desperately need to add more RAM to your iMac.

    I have the 27 inch screen iMac version of what you have.

    I do a lot of large size ,large data file PS work. You need a fast CPU, plenty of HD space and lots 'O RAM.

    If you can afford it, your iMac max. RAM capacity is 16 GBs.

    With the RAM you already have installed, you can add/fill up the rest of the RAM slots and this would take you to 12 GBs of RAM.

    It's cheaper to buy the RAM yourself and install it. It's not hard and it's really the only user installation you can do.

     

    Here's a link to the removal and installation of RAM in your iMac.

     

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1423

     

    Here's a link to a place where you can purchase the RAM.

     

    http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/iMac/DDR3_21.5_27

     

    You can purchase either the 8 GB kit or the complete 16 GB kit.

    You have to remove the original 4 GBs of RAM in your iMac now to install the full 16 GBs of RAM.

     

    Adding all of this RAM will definitely cure a lot of your system performance ills

    Good Luck!

  • by MichelPM,

    MichelPM MichelPM Jun 20, 2012 10:34 PM in response to MichelPM
    Level 6 (14,279 points)
    iPad
    Jun 20, 2012 10:34 PM in response to MichelPM

    The links I posted maybe the right, but maybe not.

    That is RAM for a 21.5 inch screen iMac

    What size screen is your iMac?

    If it's a 24" screen model it will only take a max. Of 8 GBs of RAM.

    Here's a link to the RAM for that model.

     

    http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/iMac/DDR3_2009

  • by kablack,

    kablack kablack Jun 21, 2012 5:22 AM in response to MichelPM
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 21, 2012 5:22 AM in response to MichelPM

    I was under the impression my iMac was maxed at 4. How do I determine if I truly can go up to 8 or more?

    I have a 2009 24".

  • by RRFS,

    RRFS RRFS Jun 21, 2012 6:10 AM in response to kablack
    Level 5 (4,490 points)
    Jun 21, 2012 6:10 AM in response to kablack

    The Pinwheel of Death sometimes is the precursor to a harddrive failure. Make sure you have backed up your system and data. Restart your computer in Safe Mode and see if the problem persists. It will load quite slowly but it will also clear some caches and not load some other stuff. Here is a system management tool that may help:

    OnyX for Mac

    http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/11582/onyx

    http://helpdesk.hsc.unt.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Mac-OS-X-10.6-run-OnyX.pd f

    If you are running any of these programs uninstall them:

    Akamai Download Manager

    EyeConnect

    Novacom

    † PeerGuardian

    † VirusBarrier

    MacDefender

    MacKeeper

  • by MichelPM,

    MichelPM MichelPM Jun 21, 2012 7:10 AM in response to kablack
    Level 6 (14,279 points)
    iPad
    Jun 21, 2012 7:10 AM in response to kablack

    Yes,

    The 2009 models, with the exception of the late 2009 model iMacs can take up to 8 GBs of RAM.

    You, definitely, can install 8 GB of RAM into your iMac.

    Use the last two links I posted.

  • by MichelPM,

    MichelPM MichelPM Jun 21, 2012 3:15 PM in response to kablack
    Level 6 (14,279 points)
    iPad
    Jun 21, 2012 3:15 PM in response to kablack

    Here's a link to the type and amount of memory your iMac can take.

    From Apple's own website

     

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1423#2

  • by kablack,

    kablack kablack Jun 22, 2012 7:12 PM in response to MichelPM
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 22, 2012 7:12 PM in response to MichelPM

    Thank you everyone for your help! Much appreciated!