iMac very slow, apps not responding, wheel turning

Have you tried starting in Safe Mode and see if the problems still occur?

Restart holding the "shift" key.

(Expect it to take longer to start this way because it runs a directory check first.)

If this works look in System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login items and disable any third party login items. Also look in /Library/Startup Items. Nothing is put in that folder by default, so anything in there is yours.

First, back up all data immediately, as your boot drive might be failing.

Take these steps when you notice the problem.

Step 1

Launch the Activity Monitor application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Activity Monitor in the icon grid.

Select the CPU tab of the Activity Monitor window.

Select All Processes from the menu in the toolbar, if not already selected.

Click the heading of the % CPU column in the process table to sort the entries by CPU usage. You may have to click it twice to get the highest value at the top. What is it, and what is the process? Also post the values for % User, % System, and % Idle at the bottom of the window.

Select the System Memory tab. What values are shown in the bottom part of the window for Page outs and Swap used?

Next, select the Disk Activity tab. Post the approximate values shown for Reads in/sec and Writes out/sec (not Reads in and Writes out.)

Step 2

You must be logged in as an administrator to carry out this step.

Launch the Console application in the same way as above. Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left.

Post the 50 or so most recent messages in the log — the text, please, not a screenshot.

When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.

PLEASE DO NOT INDISCRIMINATELY DUMP THOUSANDS OF LINES FROM THE LOG INTO A MESSAGE. If you do that, I will not respond.

Important: Some personal information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Edit it out before posting.

Delete them and test, you can always add them back with the "+" button.

The yellow triangle usually denotes a problem. Rather than guessing, I'd suggest deleting all and then adding them back one by one to find the culprit(s).

EDIT: And get rid of that AV software. Even if it isn't a culprit, all it's doing is hitting on your performance.

"Mac OS X versions 10.6.7 and later have built-in detection of known Mac malware in downloaded files. The recognition database is automatically updated once a day; however, you shouldn't rely on it, because the attackers are always at least a day ahead of the defenders. In most cases, there’s no benefit from any other automated protection against malware."

Try doing a force quit of the finder. I am having the same problem and it appears to be an issue with the finder. My father is having the same problem as well.

Force-quitting the Finder is at best a band-aid solution. It may cause your symptoms to go away temporarily, but that does not fix anything.

What do you think? It's a mess, I'm sure.

That is, indeed, a mess. With that much stuff running in the background all the time, it would be surprising if you weren't having performance problems! Start with uninstalling Kaspersky, as macjack said. If you want anti-virus software installed (see my Mac Malware Guide to help making that decision), that's not one you'll want to use.

Next, go through that list and decide what you never use anymore and uninstall it completely (using whatever uninstaller is provided, if any). Any apps that you just had to drag to the Applications folder to install can be removed by deleting the app and removing any associated login items from the list.

If that doesn't help, keep weeding out stuff. But you may have other things installed elsewhere, like kernel extensions, from programs not on that list. If you get to this point and are still having problems, you may want to consider erasing the hard drive and reinstalling a fresh new system.

I 100% agree that force quiting the finder is a band aid and a bad one at that. *BUT* the fact that force quiting the finder temporarily solves the problem (usually for a few hours) does seem to indicate there is a problem there doesn't it? Something is causing the finder, or filesystem, to become unresponsive and then all the apps freeze. Discovering the culprit is difficult. The instructions listed above are good but certainly not for the light hearted! :-)

I'm grasping at straws so other explanations or thoughts are welcome.