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Slow iMac

Hi


I've read a couple of posts regarding "slow imacs", but I'm still not sure what to do. I have an iMac 21'5 inch late 2009. I use it for my home studio with an external sondcard "Presonus Firestudio Mobile". Lately the computor has started to lag when I use Logic 9, but also when I stream videos from YouTube, etc.


What should I do to address this problem?


T

Posted on Apr 15, 2013 5:28 AM

Reply
18 replies

Apr 15, 2013 9:11 AM in response to laundry bleach

Ok, thanks laundry bleach!


I'm using Mountain Lion, 4 Gb RAM, 318 Gb free of 500 Gb.


I read this post: Step by Step to fix your Mac: https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3353

and started out with step 12 as recommended.


1. The S.M.A.R.T. couldent be verified (e.i. something wrong with the disk)


2. I continued to install Onyx and erased all the cache.


3. It is still slow


And now?

Apr 15, 2013 9:16 AM in response to thoolson

thoolson wrote:


Hi rkaufmann87!


Should I run some Apps while checking the RAM? Logic or/and YouTube?

Yes, operate the computer as you normally woould. However the fact that te S.M.A.R.T. setting cannot be verified indicates you have a failing HD. Before you do ANYTHING backup the computer and then take steps to repair or replace the HD. You did not indicate the verison of OS X you have installed (PLEASE complete your profile otherwise we have to go through this Q&A), if you run Lion or ML then restart using the Recovery Partition, go into Disk Utility and try repairing the disk. If it comes back with errors as I suspect it will it's time to replace the HD.

Apr 15, 2013 9:54 AM in response to rkaufmann87

Sorry, here's the spec's.


OS Mountain Lion


iMac 21'5 inch late 2009

Model indetifyer iMac 10,1

Processor Intel Core 2 Duo

Processer speed 3.06 Ghz

Nubers of processer 1

Numbers of cores 2

L2-cache 3 MB

Memory 4 Gb

Bus speed 1.07 GHz

Boot ROM-version IM101.00CC.B00

SMC-version (system) 1.52f9


Poorly translated from Swedish.


Could you please guide me step by step from " ... restart using the Recovery Partition, etc ... "


Big thanks so far.


T

Apr 15, 2013 10:21 AM in response to thoolson

Also, how many applications do you run in the background simultaneously while working with another application?

How full is your iMac's internal hard drive?

It really sounds like you simply do not have enough RAM in your iMac to do the tasks you want to do since upgrading to OS X 10.8 Mounain Lion.

Both OS X 10.7 Lion and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion use a lot more CPU, GPU, RAM and hard drive resource than previous versions of OS X.

Did the slow down occur after the upgrade to OS X 10.8?

If it did, then it is because OS X now needs between 2-4 GBs of RAM alone for the OS to run smoothly and efficiently.Once you start using other apps alongside OS X, both OS X and the App/s you are using increase the demand for physical RAM. Without enough RAM, RAM intensive task get sent to the iMac's internal hard drive to process tasks. A spinning hard drive is much, much slower to process tasks than actual physical RAM and slowing down your iMac is the result of this.

Your model iMac can take up to 16 GBs of RAM.

My advice, install, at least, another 4 GBs of RAM to bring your total RAM to 8 GBs.

If you can afford to install more RAM...do that!

Purchase correct and reliable Mac RAM from Mac RAM sources Crucial memory or OWC (macsales.com).

Good Luck!

Apr 15, 2013 12:04 PM in response to rkaufmann87

Hi again rkaufmann87


I tried the Recovery Partition" and the following showed up.


1. I klicked the uppermost unit in the left collumn that said: 500.11 GB ST3 500418AS..., in red colour begining with an HD icon.


2. A text in the middle of the window said (in Swedish): "This unit has a problem with the hardware/machinware that can not be repaired".


Should I continue with the Recovery Partition anyway?


(sorry for all this trouble)

Slow iMac

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