Q: imac running slow

Oh, and yes,

You need to order one 4GB RAM module,

I think MichelPM's suggestions are spot on. I'm currently ordering an OWC 4Gb memory module as I'm in a similar position to brightondavid (though less cluttered!)

Good discussion, thank you.

So I'm a little surprised that 2G do memory is not enough to run OSX, and I'm not sure that disk space at that size has anything to do with this issue.

I think there is an OS issue that needs to be addresses. I'm having a similar issue, with a much newer 2011 Mac, and even more memory. I keep my ram free, my disk space free, and to me, this seems to be a different issue. As I'm reasonably new to macs, and having owned a pc for many years before, I've been a bit surprised that this kind of OS behavior could ever be seen as normal. Perhaps a Trojan or a virus ? That is where I've seen increasingly degrading performance on PCs.

Are there new exploits on macs? That is where my money is. I can't seem to find any serious discussion on security on apple posts. Any ideas?

Thanks, I'm a bit out of my depth,

Welcome SmittySmith1

Newer Intel versions of OS X like OS X 10,6, 10,7 & 10,8, especially, 10.7 and 10.8 really demand a working minimum of , at least 4 GBs of RAM with OS X 10,7 & 10.8 really need this amount and more. This is just for the OS, alone! No other extra applications running!

The new base model iMacs ship with a mimimum RAM of 8 GBs of RAM. Why? This is because newer iterations of OS X use even more CPU, GPU! RAM and hard drive resources.

As I asked other users in the past,

How many applications do you run simultaneously in the background while working in another application?

Do you run any antivirus software on your Mac? Antivirus software can slow down the normal operation of OS X.

Do you run any "crapware" like Mackeeper or any other type of so called hard drive "cleaning" apps?

If you can a answer yes to either of  the last two questions or have too many applications running in the background eating up CPU and RAM cycles, these issues can be what is slowing down your iMac.

Thanks for the quick response, MichelPM , this helps because I really am stuck with these current performance problems...

Here are my responses:

How many applications do you run simultaneously in the background while working in another application?

- Typically not more than 2 applications,

Do you run any antivirus software on your Mac? Antivirus software can slow down the normal operation of OS X.

- No, no antivirus software,

Do you run any "crapware" like Mackeeper or any other type of so called hard drive "cleaning" apps?

- Nope, nothing like this,

My iMac is the 20.5 inch, and I purchased it new in Dec 2010,

It has the standard 4 G of memory, with 250 G free on the hard disk,

I've run the hardisk diagnotic, and all checked out. My first concern was the drive was failing,

I've run the activity monitor, and have not seen any issues.

This started happening 2 weeks prior, with no warning that I can see. I've had "white screen" boot up issues in the past, but were found to be the result of:

- MS Office security updates, where they do not run updates via the apple store, and have critical updates from time to time,

- Apple updates that I had not downloaded and applied. Generally I can boot up in safe mode, apply the updates, and then this fixes the issue.

- Thinking this was an exploit issue, I upgraded Java to the latest, no help,

- Thinking this could be a network issue, I upgraded my router firmware, no help,

I am not sure what to try next,

Thanks again,

Tthere is no 20 inch screen 2010 model. Is your iMac, perhaps, a 21.5 inch screen model?

What is the CPU speed of your iMac?

What version of OS X are your running?

What applications do you run?

What size is your iMac's internal hard drive?

Have you checked the S.M.A.R.T. status of your hard drive?

http://pondini.org/OSX/DU9.html

If you have, recently upgraded to OS X 10.7 Lion or OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, 4 GBs of RAM is really the working mimumum of usable RAM for these OS X versions, as I have stated.

Your iMac model is a core2duo model it can take up to 16 GBs of RAM.

If your 2010 iMac is an i5 or i7 quad core CPU, then it can take up to 32 GBs of RAM.

Correct and reliable Mac RAM can be purchased from online Mac RAM sources Crucial memory or OWC (macsales.com).

The reason I am aking about the hard drive, again, is if the hard drive in your iMac is a 1 TB Seagate drive, there is a free replacement recall program for these drives if your iMac's serial number is confirmed to be installed with one of these problems drives.

Officially, the recall/replacement program ended April 1, 2013, but replacement drives are still being done under this recall to date.

You can check if your iMac qualifies, here.

http://www.apple.com/support/imac-harddrive/

Next time you do a cold boot immediately check Spotlight to see if it's indexing any of your hard drives.  If it is that will really eat up the CPU and slow things down until the indexing is complete.

You were right about the drive ... SMART tells me it is failing. This explains everything ...

This looks like a imac hardware issue to me. I think they are not cooling the drives properly, else why would a drive fail after only 3 years or less?  I understand also that these drives are no longer guaranteed by the manufacturer.

Unfortunately for me, my drive is the 500 GB Seagate... so I'm not sure I would qualify. Still I'm going to check,

My main task now is to get my personal data, which is primarily photos, videos, and AAC songs, off of the drive while is is still functioning. I'm also going to try to copy my Library settings.  I never got around to setting up Time machine, however ... won't make that mistake again.  Will Apple guarantee previously purchased content, such as songs, movies, etc?

The good news is I have most of my data on other machines,

Thanks again for your help,