Q: imac running slow

A little more info than just "my iMac is running slow", please?

None of us can really help you with that short, generic statement.

Year, screen size, CPU speed, amount of RAM memory installed and what version of OS X is your iMac running?

How full is your iMac's internal hard drive?

Do run any antivirus software?

Do you run any type of system "cleaning" or hard drive "cleaning" apps? Most are worthless and do not do what they claim they do and cause more issues with your system than anything else.

My iMac is running slow as well. I am new to the forum and my technical know-how is VERY basic.

iMac 24 inch, Early 2008/ OSX 10.8.3/ 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo/ 4GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM/ Hardrive 500 Gig

My computer takes a very long time to start up to the point at which I can use an application eg: Safari or Mail.

The icons along the top of the computer take 10 minutes to appear namely Sophos AntiVirus, Bluetooth, Dropbox, Time Machine, an unlocked padlock (I don't know what this is?), Volume, wifi, character keyboard, date, my name, Spotlight and lastly the Notifications icon (is it called that?). Also, the other icons on my desktop are "filled in" from "empty" to "filled" as I expect them to be - again quite noticeably sluggishly.

My harddrive is 500 Gig (499.25 GB capacity) with 96.23 available.

I have a 2TB usb Seagate external harddrive partitioned into 4: to back up by computer's hardrive; to back up a second drive - a 400 GB (Seagate) drive; a back up for an iBook; and for the Time Machine backup.

I do not use any "cleaning" or hardrive "cleaning apps." But I was thinking about this until I read MichelIPM's post above. I'm glad that I didn't waste my money. Thanks.

I ran the Disk Utility program and the Activity Monitor utility and I hope that the following information is useful:

With Activity monitor -

The % user CPU  = 1.0 - 1.75 (approx); the %Ststem = 2 -2.5 and finally cpu idle = 45 - 96 % (it fluctuates very quickly)

With System Memory:

Free= 1.68 GB; Wired = 527.3 MB; Active = 1.36 GB; Inactive = 452.3 MB and Used = 2.32 GB

VM size = 252-258 GB, Page ins = 510 MB (0 bytes/sec); Page outs = 0 (0 bytes/sec) and Swap used = 0bytes

With Disk Acitivity:

Reads in: 1248635; Writes out 99289 - 99293; Reads in/sec = 0; Data Read: 17.33 GB; Data written = 7.48 GB; Data read/sec: 0 byets/sec; Data written/sec

I also ran the Disk Utility program and verified my hard drive and this was ok. I ran it on my Seagate 2TB drive and the partition map appeared to be ok.

So what do I do?

I run programs such as Photoshop, MAX/MSP, Supercollider, Safari, Mail, Mathematica, Day One, Smultron, iWriter, TexPad, LaTex, Bento, Pages, ByWord, WriteRoom, Launch Bar, Keynote, Numbers, PDFPen, Ulysses, Things, Due, MSN, Skype, Dropbox, Logic, Maschine, Traktor, Guitar Rig, Massive, Kore, Ableton Live, Absynth, Battery, Kontakt, Reaktor, FM8, iTunes, Toast Titanium, Quicktime Player, Mind Node, iTunes, iPhot, Photoshop Elements and some other seldom used programs. I use Electric Sheep screensaver.

My startup disk is the one on my iMac.

I frequently get the "spinning beachball of death" - including staright after all my icons have appeared along the top bar and on my desktop and when I fire up Safari or Mail (which take upwards of 5 minutes to startup.)

I have got to the point where I go away and make breakfast (15 minutes) to then come back to my computer to see if things are ok for me to start using Safari, say. Safari and Mail often take up to 5 minutes to start up. And if I go to the apple icon to see if they have crashed and need force-quitting then the "spinning beachball of death" starts up 9 times out of 10 and I am stuck to wait for my programs to start up. They do eventually.

I despair.

Can anybody help me?

David

How many apps do you run simultaneously in the background on your iMac?

You might want to disable and uninstall Sophos A/V software.

OS X has issues with running third party antivirus software.

some anti-virus solutions can slow down your Mac, but to be honest, the best anit-virus is you, the user and your brain.

• Don't visit questionable websites or website you are unsure about.
• Don't install pirated software or software downloaded from a questionable or unknown websites or sources.
• Java is a vulnerability right now, if you do not need it, don't use it.
• Use a browser filter and pop-up blocker
• Don't open email attachments from email addresses that you do not recognize.
• Install security updates when they become available
• Educate yourself as to what threats are common and active.
• In effect, use your brain as the antivirus filter.

Follw that advise and in MOST cases, you will be fine and won't feel the need to have to install antivirus software.

Also, if you run a lot of high CPU, GPU and RAM intense applications and/or have many apps running simultaneously in the background, you may need to add more RAM.

4 GBs of RAM may not be cutting it.

Your model iMac can take up to 6 GBs of RAM.

My advice, install the full 6 GBs .

Purchasd correct and reliable Mac RAM from online Mac RAM source OWC (macsales.com)

Good Luck!

If you run a bunch of Appications simultaneously, even with 6 GBs of RAM, you may want to cut back on the amount of background apps running.

Every morning I start my iMac up and try to launch Safari - the icon bounces up and down a bit and then stops, the beach ball spins and I have to wait for over 3 minutes to start using the application. The same with Mail.

I uninstalled the Sophos A/V, disabled Java on Safari, turned off bluetooth and only had Safari open in the background when I tried to launch Mail. After both of these programs were eventually open and working I shut them down. After that, I was able to open the apps in seconds not minutes and I did a backflip of joy. My old iMac back again.

Why does it take so long to open the apps in the very first instance? And why do the icons on my desktop (folders, external drive partitions etc) take so long to "fill up" from a outline of the file/folder/drive to the full icon?

I looked up on the Apple page regarding memory for my computer model and it said that it could only take 4GB of RAM.

Cutting down the number of background apps running defintiely increased the speed of using Mail and Safari tthe second time I opened them.

Thanks for your help MichelPM

David

OWC is a everything Mac online store and they have their own reliable Mac memory.

OWC routinely checks Macs to see whether or not they can take more RAM than what Apple recommends.

Your iMac had been tested and as a result, OWC has confirmed they your iMac can safely and reliable take 6 GBs of RAM.

Here's the link.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/6400DDR2S6GP/

So, basically all you need to do is replace one of your 2 GBs RAM sticks with a 4 GBs stick to bring your iMac to its max. RAM of 6 GBs.

Good Luck!

"Why does it take so long to open the apps in the very first instance? And why do the icons on my desktop (folders, external drive partitions etc) take so long to "fill up" from a outline of the file/folder/drive to the full icon?"

If you are running OS X 10.7 Lion or OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, both these versions of OS X use much more CPU, GPU, RAM and hard drive resources.

2-4 GBs of RAM is really a working amount of RAM for OS X, alone, to operate smoothly and efficiently. Start running additonal applications alongside OS X and you may not have enough physical RAM available to run these othef applications efficiently and speedily. Without enough physical RAM, data that normally gets sent to RAM get sent to work using your iMac's internal hard drive as a RAM substitute. A spinning hard drive works much slower than physical RAM, slowing down the speed of your iMac.

So, even though CPU speed is important, also. RAM is just as equally important. So, the more RAM you can install into a Mac, the better.

Thanks for the extra information MichelPM. I have had a crash course in memory and operating systems which I found interesting and now I feel better able to talk to a specialist in the future and not to make time wasting posts to forums.

I looked at OWC's site and it says that the maximum memory is indeed 6GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM. So I went on and triple-checked that recommendation:

I am in the UK and a PC-user friend recommened using Crucial Memory based in the UK as being a reliable, fast, low-cost memory sales company and that it is accurate in its memory recommendations and sales for both PCs and Macs.

However, when I searched for my model: iMac 24 inch, Early 2008/ OSX 10.8.3/ 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo running OS X 10.8.3 (Mountain Lion - with the latest update some time before 10th April, 2013) it says that my computer could only take a maximum of 4GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM:

See here: http://tinyurl.com/cuh79jp

Also, I checked on Apple's site again to see if had made a mistake (very likely as I am a non-technical computer user) and this is what I found:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1423?viewlocale=en_US#2

So who do I believe? Apple and Crucial Memory combined, or OWC as you recommended?

This morning I phoned my local Apple store and they told me to go by the recommendation on Apple's own site and also confirmed the maximum limit. The Apple store also recommended doing a (and I think this is what they said) "fresh install back to factory settings," the particular assistant said that he did this twice a year for his computer - I would be prepared to do this had I not got so many official apps, and third party apps (I remember patiently spending 4 hours inserting DVD upon DVD (7 in total) and performing ages of extra time to make all the updates of 10 sizeable components of a suite of expensive music programs that I have bought and that I cannot do without.) I haven't got 5 free days of my life to contact all the companies to ask whether I can do a fresh install of their software (some of the software only allows me to install once per user unless my hardrive crashes (what I have been told).) The idea of spending my time backing up all my documents (music sketches and full pieces, iPhoto libraries, Photoshop, iTunes and other work to DVD or perhaps to a brand new external drive, and then doing fresh installs of the system software plus 40-50 other apps and third party software combined has made my brain go splat!

The Apple store said that I should go to their "genius bar" and take my computer in, presumably (?) to be told to do the fresh install etc as the man on the phone advised.

Of course, I could buy a new computer (I almost thought that the shop were going to suggest this). But why should I spend a thousand quid plus so that my 2  "breakfast apps"  (Mail and Safari) are no longer sluggish to open up plus seeing the worrying "spinning beachball of death" as they load up. Bying a new computer would give me a wonderful performance boost on my cpu-hungry apps, but I like my computer "as is" until I had the problems I described above. When I first bought my current iMac both Mail and Safari opened in seconds on startup and there was no weird "ghosts" of files, folders, hardrives that fill in sluggishly on startup. Also, I have seen more "spinning beachballs of death" over time and not just on cpu intensive apps.

Am I wrong to want my computer to perform as it did when I bought it? Do I really have to freshly install everything again and have my lifeforce sapped?

I used system 7 way back when, for controlling hardware synths, and it was very stable . I wish that I still had this computer now just for that reason. I loved that computer but I needed the money to buy a computer that ran more cpu intensive system software.

I only have 4GB of SDRAM and a relatively slow cpu which programs like: Logic (plus plugins), Photoshop and Mathematica gobble up, but they do work to my current needs. Apart from the RAM and cpu under Mountain Lion, you mention:

[that the computer is] "using your iMac's internal hard drive as a RAM substitute. A spinning hard drive works much slower than physical RAM, slowing down the speed of your iMac." I take your word on that.

Lastly, I have seen "spinning beachballs of death" become more and more frequent over time. Why might this be even in programs such as Mail, Safari, Firefox (I couldn't find how to disable Java in this browser?) ?

I have never used pirated software, music etc. and never, knowingly, visited dubious websites. I have done everything I could gleen including uninstalling the free version of Sophos AV ( a well-meaning friend suggested this to me) and a couple of other potentially performance-slowing apps. Finally, as you suggested, I have already been using my brain as an antivirus app. I belived, according to my friend that I should use Sophos A/V as "extra security." As you suggested, that this was probably wrong to use this software.

In a nutshell - I want to see less of those "spinning beachballs of death" and I want my "breakfast apps" to spring open as they did when I bought my computer. Oh, and before I waffle on any more, I don't want to have to turn the press the back switch to restart my computer when the computer becomes totally stuck, even using a non-cpu expensive apps (I have used the Activity Monitor utility to find out which apps use the most cpu for my own interest.)

Thanks for the time that MichelPM and anybody else has in answering my queries.

David

From the technical details description of your iMac model and its components, I'm pretty sure you are running a Model version 7.1 iMac, which I too used for five years, up until a month ago when I upgraded.  As the vendor OWC states, that model 7.1 can indeed stabley run up to 6 GB of Ram as MichelPM above mentioned.  Apple tests the maximum RAM that a model can use stabley just once, when it is initially released, and then never revisits or retests it.  But, as time goes on new capacities of RAM modules become available.  When the Model 7.1 was released, the 4 GB RAM modules that would have been required to get 6 GB of RAM in the iMac were Not  commonly available, and so Apple could not obtain enough of them or test them to see if they were stable.  Years later, OWC went back to the Model 7 and tested it with 6 GB of RAM (2 GB + 4 GB)  and found it to run perfectly stabley, and in fact OWC "Guarantees" it to work.  (They also discovered that "8 GB" will Not run in that model of iMac.)  I know, long story.  Anyway, I successfully ran 6 GB of OWC RAM in my Model 7.1 iMac for years.  And, Yes, Crucial RAM could also readily be used for that purpose.  And, it would indeed speed up your system noticeably.

A Complete fresh install or reinstall of OS X is not neccessary.

The 6 GBs of RAM is a sure thing, been thoroughly tested and having the extra RAM installed should cure most , but not all of the beach balling.

You can order from Crucial memory, also. They have reliable RAM, also, but tend to stick to Apple's specs for RAM amount as they do not do there own RAM testing as OWC does. I think it is because Crucial Memory is just a RAM supplier and not an online everything Mac store like OWC.

So, basically order (1) 4 GB module of RAM to replace one of the 2 GB sticks in your iMac,,now.

Some of your slowing downs issues maybe because your hard drive is starting to fill up. While 96 GBs is respectable, your drive is down to about 20% of its capacity.  While it is not at a critical stage, as yet, to start archiving and deleting data, you may still want to consider doing some archiving and deleting of data or just go through your iMac's hard drive and delete unnecessary files and data. I recomend archiving, backing up and deleting data off the internal hard drive once the drives gets to between 20-30 GBs left. Start running your iMac below 15 GBs of RAM and more issues with slowdowns will be constant.

Here are some tips that may help you regain some more hard drive space.

Have you emptied your iMac's Trash icon in the Dock?

If you use iPhoto, iPhoto has its own trash that needs to be emptied, also.

If you use Apple Mail app, Apple Mail also has its own trash area that needs to be emptied, too!

Other things you can do to gain space.

Delete any old or no longer needed emails and/or archive older emails you want to save to disc or Flash drive/s.

Look through your Documents folder and delete any type of old useless type files like "Read Me" type files.

Again, archive to disc or Flash drive/s or delete any old documents you no longer use or immediately need.

Uninstall apps that you no longer use. If the app has a dedicated uninstaller, use it to completely uninstall the app. If the app has no uninstaller, then just drag it to the OS X Trash icon  and empty the Trash.

Also, if you save old downloaded  .dmg application installer  files, you can either archive and delete these or just delete the ones you think you'll never install, again.

Download an app called OnyX for your version of OS X.

When you install and launch it, let it do its thing initially, then go to the cleaning and maintenance tabs and run all of the processes in the tabs. Let OnyX clean out all web browser cache files, web browser histories, system cache files, delete old error log files.

Typically, iTunes and iPhoto libraries are the biggest users of HD space.

If you have any other large folders of personal data or projects, these should be thinned out, moved, also, to the external hard drive and then either archived to disc/flash drive/s and/or deleted off your internal hard drive.

You may have to Purchase an external FireWire or USB hard drive to move these files/data off of your internal drive to the external hard drive and deleted off of the internal hard drive.

I intend(ed) to buy a 4GB memory strip from Crucial (UK) but I can't find the correct memory strip for sale when I follow their drop down menu system. Do I need a 4GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM strip for my current iMac to match the other 2GB strip of RAM (see specs of my iMac above)? And where on the site do I find it? I have tried to find an inexpensive memory strip from another site with the correct specifications and failed so far.

I would love have a "triple boot" (forgive me if I haven't got the terminology right) - to run OS 7.1, OS 9.2 and OS X Mountain Lion 10.3.8 - is this possible? Also, how do I find an "install system 7.1" program and do I have to pay for it? Just to let you know, I used sytem 7 on a chewing-gum-colored, tiny mac before I sold it to use more demanding programs. I wish that I still had it

Please don't feel that I am asking you to do my Googling for me - I'm currently lost and I am still hunting for info, but as yet, to no avail.

Thanks for repling to my message,

David

Thank you for your suggestions - I was gobsmacked at how much hard drive space I regained from emptying the computer Dock trash alone: I have gone from 96 GB free to 132 GB. I now appreciate how bad my computer housekeeping is.

Can you help me with my questions to Radiation Mac above? I would really love to know the answers, especially re: the triple boot query.

I will try every recommendation on your list. After some more strong coffee and a muffin or 4

Thanks again for time and care you took to clearly explain what to try next, MichelPM. It is very much appreciated.

David

I just found the following repository on this page:

http://tinyurl.com/5gsj

Do I just download and install the highest version of system 7 in the list?

Thanks

David

PS: I don't know the etiquette of this discussion forum, but should I start new queries on another thread?

Hi, again, brightondavid,

You cannot run very old software on these new Macs.

As far as I am aware, you cannot run any of the very old Mac OS systems on the newer Intel Mac systems.

So, don't even attempt it!

You can't run Apple System 7 or OS 8 and Apple dropped support for running OS 9 completely when Intel Macs and OS X 10.5 Leopard arrived.

So, no you cannot run these older OSes on any modern Mac.

Sorry.