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VRSB
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: iMac slowing down

My mac ver. 10.6.8 is noticeably slowing down in retriving and opening files. The software is up to date, so this won't be the problem. Must be something else. Any suggestions? Anyone?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Aug 26, 2012 7:03 PM

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VRSB

Q: iMac slowing down

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  • Helpful answers

  • by BDAqua,Helpful

    BDAqua BDAqua Aug 26, 2012 7:11 PM in response to VRSB
    Level 10 (123,501 points)
    Aug 26, 2012 7:11 PM in response to VRSB

    Hello,

     

    Open Activity Monitor in Applications>Utilities, select All Processes & sort on CPU%, any indications there?

     

    How much RAM & free space do you have also, click on the Memory & Disk Usage Tabs.

    Open Console in Utilities & see if there are any clues or repeating messages

     

    In the Memory tab, are there a lot of Pageouts?

    https://discussions.apple.com/servlet/JiveServlet/showImage/2-18729098-127219/AMPageouts.jpg

  • by Allan Jones,Helpful

    Allan Jones Allan Jones Aug 26, 2012 7:22 PM in response to VRSB
    Level 8 (35,032 points)
    iPad
    Aug 26, 2012 7:22 PM in response to VRSB

    There are quite a few things that can help. A few of the easy ones are:

     

    First, simply restart the computer. After a long time without a restart, temporary files and caches can pile up, slowing things.

     

    Second, see if your hard drive is getting too full. Right-click your hard drive icon and you get a "contextual menu" like this:

     

    Screen shot 2012-08-26 at 7.13.08 PM.png

     

    Select "Get Info" as shown in the image. That will give a new window whose top portion looks like this:

     

    volume_ get_info_box.png

     

    The amount "Available" should be at least 15 percent of "Capacity," or 20GB, whichever is larger. In the example, the free (Available) space is about 68 percent.

     

    Third, are you running any commercial ("pay-for") antivirus or internet security software? Those can drag perfromcence down. Dump them.

     

    Fouth, are you using a back-up scheme other than Apple's Time Machine? Those bundled with external hard drives can be real performance killers.

     

    Check those items. If nothing is amiss there, post back and we'll check some stuff that's a little more in-depth.

     

    EDIT: BDAqua out-typed me again! Must put up a "Do not Disturb" sign when working here!

  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Aug 26, 2012 8:23 PM in response to Allan Jones
    Level 10 (123,501 points)
    Aug 26, 2012 8:23 PM in response to Allan Jones

    Happens all the time me Allan... if that's any consolation!

     

    PS. I doubt a one finger typist out-typed you!

  • by VRSB,

    VRSB VRSB Sep 19, 2012 4:29 PM in response to Allan Jones
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 19, 2012 4:29 PM in response to Allan Jones

    Thanks for the info. My available space is 520 GB. So, that won't impact on speed. I am running Parallels, and have a internet virus protwction on windows, but even without Windows running the Mac seems to be either looking for something or checking itself.

  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Sep 19, 2012 5:55 PM in response to VRSB
    Level 10 (123,501 points)
    Sep 19, 2012 5:55 PM in response to VRSB

    No clues in Console?

  • by VRSB,

    VRSB VRSB Sep 22, 2012 6:38 AM in response to BDAqua
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 22, 2012 6:38 AM in response to BDAqua

    I am not up to the console status. Do not know what to look for in console! For instance I have this message in there as a last entry. What that means?

     

    22/09/12 11:36:50 PM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[174] (com.hp.devicemonitor[6876]) posix_spawn("/Library/Printers/hp/hpio/HP Device Monitor.app/Contents/MacOS/HP Device Monitor", ...): No such file or directory