24 " mac with 10.6.8 running really slow. Should I upgrade and how can I make it faster?

The minimum requirement for Lion is 2 Gigs of RAM.

Click on the Apple Menu's "About This Mac," and it will show you what version of OSX that you're running. Click on the "More Info" button and you will see more information. Look under Hardware for Model Identifier: i.e., iMac6,1, etc.

An iMac 6.1 (Sep 2006 to August 2007) can run Lion. 3 Gigs RAM is the Max with 4 Gigs installed.

An iMac 7.1 (August 2007 to April 2008, Mid 2007) can run Mountain Lion. 6 Gigs RAM is the Max.

2 Gigs of RAM is the minimum for both, maximizing the RAM is recommended.

I purchased it in 2007.

The model introduction date is what matters, not the purchase date.

It only has 1gb of Memory in it and won't let me upgrade to LION.

Due to the age of that 2007 machine, I would upgrade the memory to 4GB as two 2GB modules. Technically a mid-2007 (7,1) iMac can support 6GB of memory, but Apple only acknowledges a maximum of 4GB. Snow Leopard (10.6.8) will rejoice with that extra memory. You may also have substantial file directory fragmentation that will abnormally slow down your disk access times.

You can tell what operating system is on the machine by choosing the “About this Mac” menu item under the Apple menubar logo. The version will appear directly under Mac OS X. Lion (10.7) requires 2GB of memory minimum just for the operating system install and 10.6.8 must be installed (all upgrades) already. Also, look on the back of the iMac for the model number, probably in the range A1224 - A2133.

Here is a quick fix for file system performance.

Open up your /Application/Utilities folder and double-click on Disk Utility. In the left panel will be the name of your boot drive, probably “Macintosh HD.” Click this once to select it and under the First Aid tab, you should Verify/Repair your permissions, and also Verify your disk. For the latter, if you get anything other than a green OK, your drive has some issues.

The next thing is to shut the iMac down. Turn it on and immediately press and hold the shift key until you see a grey horizontal progress bar. The iMac will eventually present you with a login window. Login. You are now in what is called Safe Boot Mode. You can now reboot normally. You may see some interactive performance improvements. Here is an Apple article on the what Safe Boot does for your computer.

Possible source for RAM upgrades, you should really consider the 6 Gigs:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/apple/memory/iMac/Intel_Core_2_Duo

Video for RAM install: http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/imac_mid_2007_mem

(P.S., you have to wait a little bit of time for the Quicktime videos to download in the background before they play)

1 Gig of RAM and the use of photo software is snooze time.

Also, check for at least 10-15% free space on your hard drive. If you start running out of hard drive space, you'll get a big performance hit, especially with only 1 Gig of RAM.

jacquien wrote:

I run CLEANMYMAC on my machine. I purchased it in 2007.

...

Any ideas how I can improve the running on this machine

Stop running CleanMyMac, back up your data, erase the hard drive and reinstall the OS.

Migrate you data back and never run any system optimizing programs again. If it promises to "clean up," "speed up," "fix up," "protect," "optimize," or any other increadible-sounding words, it won't.

Oh, and purchase as much RAM as will work in your Mac.

Thanks I promise I won't - I'm just trying to uninstall cleanmymac but it doesn't want to go.

The number one flag that it is ultimately crapware. It fights being uninstalled.