moonstruck1008
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: iMac Super Slow - Beach Ball of Death always spinning

I am new to all this.  My iMac is on a wireless network at home and has been running uber slow.  I checked under Activity Monitr and see that the pie Chart under the System Memory tab, has a small green sliver of available memory.  there is a HUGE red portion which says Wired: Total amount of physical memory that cannot be paged to disk.

 

What the heck does that mean?  How do I see what is contained there and I can I delete some of it?  The only thin running is my printer, mouse (wireless) keyboard and Time Machine back-up up disk.

 

I appreciate any help.

 

Ann

iMac (24-inch Early 2008), Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Jul 19, 2012 10:18 AM

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moonstruck1008

Q: iMac Super Slow - Beach Ball of Death always spinning

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  • by baltwo,

    baltwo baltwo Jul 19, 2012 10:58 AM in response to moonstruck1008
    Level 9 (62,256 points)
    Jul 19, 2012 10:58 AM in response to moonstruck1008

    http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/sbbod.html

  • by MichelPM,Helpful

    MichelPM MichelPM Jul 19, 2012 12:29 PM in response to moonstruck1008
    Level 6 (14,279 points)
    iPad
    Jul 19, 2012 12:29 PM in response to moonstruck1008

    How much free space do,you have left on your startup drive?

    Select the drive icon, on your desktop, then hold the command-I keys on your keyboard to bring up the info pane for your startup drive.

    It sounds to me like you need more RAM memory.

    Your iMac can take a max. RAM amount of 6 GBs.

     

    Here's a reliable Mac RAM seller

     

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

     

    And here's the procedure for installing it into your iMac

     

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

  • by Sludgedragon,

    Sludgedragon Sludgedragon Jul 19, 2012 12:51 PM in response to moonstruck1008
    Level 1 (65 points)
    Jul 19, 2012 12:51 PM in response to moonstruck1008

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1342

     

    Maybe you have too much going at the same time? Do you have some memory-hungry application running or open that you aren't actually using? Does it do the spinny even after a restart? Do you have something set up to open at startup that shouldn't?

  • by moonstruck1008,

    moonstruck1008 moonstruck1008 Jul 19, 2012 1:29 PM in response to MichelPM
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 19, 2012 1:29 PM in response to MichelPM

    Thanks for the quick response.  It says capacity: 499.76 GB

    Available: 428.45 GB

     

    Doesn't sound like I am using a lot.  You think I should get more RAM?

  • by moonstruck1008,

    moonstruck1008 moonstruck1008 Jul 19, 2012 1:33 PM in response to Sludgedragon
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 19, 2012 1:33 PM in response to Sludgedragon

    All that launches at Startupis Mail iCal and Google Chrome.  Says I have 499.76 GB Capacity and am only using 71.32 GB.

     

    It does spinny thing when I try and do a google search, opening Facebook.  The computer is purely a play thin, meaning I do no work.  I just don't understand what the big red section in the pie chart of Wired means.  What can be wired if I am on a wireless network.

     

    Can my sons' Xbox have anything t do with it, although it does this when he's not on.

     

    Thanks for your quick reply.

  • by MichelPM,Helpful

    MichelPM MichelPM Jul 19, 2012 4:40 PM in response to moonstruck1008
    Level 6 (14,279 points)
    iPad
    Jul 19, 2012 4:40 PM in response to moonstruck1008

    The "Wired" part of the pie chart is how RAM memory has been capture or allocated in order to run your iMac smoothly.

    If the majority of this is being used

    If the left over isn't much, then you need to add RAM!

     

     

    The XBOX could be an issue if the amount of data you pay to stream, isn't enough to stream live or active data across multiple internet devices that can slow your Internet speeds down.

    Also, other issues can slow your Internet speeds.

    Think of the Internet as a rapidly flowing river, if enough people tap off water/data all at once from the rapidly flowing data stream, they amount of taps can slow the speed and volume of data that will eventually reach your tap or connection.