Am I having memory problems?

Question

Am I having memory problems?

Over the last few days I'm having strange problems starting up programs. They seem to hang for a while. Often I'll get the spinning colour disk that says my Mac is working hard.

It usually happens when I quit out of one program and start another. It gets really bad if I'm running several programs at once. For example if I start up Skype, Mail and Safari at the same time

Some of the games I play occasionally hang and the sound to them starts to skip like an old fashioned vinyl record. They start again after a few seconds

Earlier I was watching videos on YouTube and every so often the picture would stop but the sound would continue. After a few seconds the picture would fast forward to the point it was actually playing.

I've done a hardware check, a virus check and a disk check. All have come back clean.

It's starting to worry me, that this might be a sign my Mac, is dying on me. I'm on disability and fixing this could be more than my finances could handle.

Thanks in advance.

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), 21.5 inch, Mid-2010

Posted on Jan 4, 2013 6:43 PM

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Answer 1

den.thed

Level 9

77,008 points

Jan 4, 2013 6:59 PM in response to Romantic Heretic

The 2010 iMac came with 4GB of RAM, which should be more than enough to run several programs and Safari at the same time.

What virus checker are you using...? Most do nothing but, bog down the system, cause problems and are not necessary unless you are sharing files directly to a windows computers.

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Answer 2

Jan 4, 2013 7:03 PM in response to Romantic Heretic

Here's some more information.

Elsewhwere I saw that iStat Pro was a good way to get hardware information. Here's the result it gave me.

If I'm reading this right, it looks like one of my memory cards has died. Is that the case?

If so, why hasn't any other checking apps I've used not shown this? If it is dead, have I any choice save buying a new card?

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Answer 3

den.thed

Level 9

77,008 points

Jan 4, 2013 10:50 PM in response to Romantic Heretic

Go up on the Menu bar to: Apple / About This Mac / More Info / Memory

Or open the Activity Monitor in your Applications / Utilities folder.

see > Using Activity Monitor to read System Memory

If your missing one module, it may have just become unseated in the slot. Follow the instructions for > iMac: How to remove or install memory and push real hard on both modules with your thumbs to make sure that they are fully seated in the memory slots.

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Answer 4

Jan 5, 2013 5:03 AM in response to den.thed

Thanks. I did both.

Here's the result from Activity Monitor.

And the results from About This Mac.

So it looks like my memory is fine.

So what is causing this odd behaviour of my programs?

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Answer 5

den.thed

Level 9

77,008 points

Jan 5, 2013 5:51 AM in response to Romantic Heretic

Romantic Heretic wrote:

Thanks. I did both.

Your welcome!

Romantic Heretic wrote:

So it looks like my memory is fine.

Agreed

Romantic Heretic wrote:

So what is causing this odd behaviour of my programs?

Once again: " What virus checker are you using...? "

Most do nothing but, bog down the system, cause problems and are not necessary, unless you are sharing files directly to a windows computers.

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Answer 6

Jan 5, 2013 8:01 AM in response to den.thed

Sophos. But I don't believe it is on at the moment. The icon for it doen't appear in the menu bar. I only run it when I feel it might be a good idea to check, which is about every six months.

I'll check it out though. It occurs to me that these problems started to appear about the last time I ran it.

Thanks again.

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Answer 7

Jan 5, 2013 8:23 AM in response to Romantic Heretic

I tink that may have done it. I removed Sophos and restarted my computer. Once it got past the usual starting up work things ran fine. We'll see, but I'm hopeful.

Thanks again.

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