gengle1984

Q: Late 2009 iMac running slow

I have a late 2009 21.5 iMac, 500gb hdd, 8gb ram. Mavericks is installed. Recently I added a new user after only having 1 user since the computer was purchased new in 2009. Ever since adding the new user, the computer run really really slow. I get the spinning color wheel beach ball everytime I click on ANYTHING. I need help to figure out what's wrong. I have checked the following:

 

Activity monitor;

Nothing is high in memory at all.

Nothing is hogging CPU time.

Cache is less than 1 Gb

Used memory is less than 2 gb

 

Users and groups;

No start up items in any users profile.

 

Had one administrator account for several years and had no problems. The computer was lightning fast. I recently added another administrator account to have two separate accounts for use.

 

Computer slowed down dramatically

 

Realized that this was also a bit of a security concern;

So I added a third admin account (for admin use only) and changed the 2 other accounts to "standard users.

 

Please help, I have tried just about everything I can find on this discussions page to fix it to no avail.

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on Apr 21, 2014 6:24 AM

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Q: Late 2009 iMac running slow

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  • by Mike Sombrio,

    Mike Sombrio Mike Sombrio Apr 21, 2014 7:07 AM in response to gengle1984
    Level 6 (17,268 points)
    Apple Watch
    Apr 21, 2014 7:07 AM in response to gengle1984

    Are you running any anti virus or cleaning software? Consider downloading and running EtreCheck http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck and posting its result. That'll give us a good snapshot of your system and hopefully provide some answers.

  • by gengle1984,

    gengle1984 gengle1984 Apr 21, 2014 7:30 AM in response to Mike Sombrio
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 21, 2014 7:30 AM in response to Mike Sombrio

    No I am not running any antivirus or cleaning software.

    The only things I have done to the iMac are described above. Just added a user and poof, slow usage.

    I will try to download Etrecheck when I get a chance. Any ideas besides that?

  • by Mike Sombrio,

    Mike Sombrio Mike Sombrio Apr 21, 2014 7:49 AM in response to gengle1984
    Level 6 (17,268 points)
    Apple Watch
    Apr 21, 2014 7:49 AM in response to gengle1984

    Not having any idea if software is the culprit, I'd suggest running Disk Utility to repair the startup volume and check the SMART status.

  • by thomas_r.,

    thomas_r. thomas_r. Apr 21, 2014 10:59 AM in response to gengle1984
    Level 7 (30,929 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 21, 2014 10:59 AM in response to gengle1984

    Having your computer suddenly slow down isn't a security concern. Performance problems on a Mac are almost never caused by malware.

     

    The biggest concern here, especially if this is a 2009 machine that has never had its hard drive replaced, is that your hard drive is dying. If it dies - and it could die instantly at any moment - it will take all your data with it if you don't have backups. For this reason, the number one top priority needs to be making sure you have a good set of backups. One backup is not adequate. You will need a minimum of two separate backup drives. Preferably, you will also want to create those backups with two different programs. I use Time Machine (built into Mac OS X) with a Time Capsule and Carbon Copy Cloner with several external hard drives.

     

    Once you've got your backups in place, you can start trying to troubleshoot the problem. See my Mac Performance Guide for some suggestions.

     

    (Fair disclosure: The Safe Mac is my site, and contains a Donate button, so I may receive compensation for providing links to The Safe Mac. Donations are not required.)

  • by MichelPM,

    MichelPM MichelPM Apr 21, 2014 11:41 AM in response to gengle1984
    Level 6 (14,087 points)
    iPad
    Apr 21, 2014 11:41 AM in response to gengle1984

    Who uses these other User accounts?

    DId this start happening immediately after creating the new user account or after that new user account was getting used?

    Could be something that the new user/s installed or downloaded onto your Mac?

    Another Poster had a smiler issue to yours and that  Poster found that the the other user of the computer had downloaded things that had over a short time was making the Mac slow.

    Does this user have the ability to download and install any new applications to the OS X Applications folder?

    Check your Applications folder to see if there is anything installed that you do not recognize.

  • by gengle1984,

    gengle1984 gengle1984 Apr 21, 2014 5:22 PM in response to Mike Sombrio
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 21, 2014 5:22 PM in response to Mike Sombrio

    Disk untility has been run. HD is OK. verification went fine. No errors. Would not let me repair anything

    Verified disk permissions, took a long time. The utility found some errors. I repaired the disk permissions after they were discovered with the disk utility.

  • by Mike Sombrio,

    Mike Sombrio Mike Sombrio Apr 21, 2014 5:25 PM in response to gengle1984
    Level 6 (17,268 points)
    Apple Watch
    Apr 21, 2014 5:25 PM in response to gengle1984

    In order to repair the hard drive you have to be started up from your recover partition by holding Command R at startup and run Disk Utility from there.

  • by gengle1984,

    gengle1984 gengle1984 Apr 21, 2014 5:27 PM in response to thomas_r.
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 21, 2014 5:27 PM in response to thomas_r.

    The security concern was not that the computer slowed down. The securty concern was that we had 2 administrator accounts that were used for day to day computing. That is never a good idea no matter what OS is run. So after realizing that, I changed my wife and I's user accounts to "standard users" and created 1 admin account.

     

    We have 3 accounts on the iMac:

    1 is mine as standard user

    1 is my wifes as standard user

    1 is admin

     

    My accouint is the new account on the iMac and I havent downloaded anything except the new iPhoto and the goPro app. I saved some photos from my PC on the iMac but that is it. Nothing that should slow the computer down.

     

    I have backups set using time machine and an Airport Time Capsule 3TB.

     

    Do you think the drive is starting to go? That was kind of what I was thinking too... Maybe i should just replace it.

  • by gengle1984,

    gengle1984 gengle1984 Apr 21, 2014 5:44 PM in response to gengle1984
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 21, 2014 5:44 PM in response to gengle1984

    How do i know if the hdd is even bad? I dont want to repair it if it is bad. Will it wipe data if i repair the disk?

  • by thomas_r.,Helpful

    thomas_r. thomas_r. Apr 21, 2014 6:32 PM in response to gengle1984
    Level 7 (30,929 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 21, 2014 6:32 PM in response to gengle1984

    Running as an admin user on a Mac is not the security risk it is made out to be. In order to really embed anything in the system, malware still has to get you to enter the admin password. Besides which, malware can do things just as nasty and steal your data just as easily with no admin privileges. A lot of the malware out there these days doesn't even try to get admin privileges.

     

    But that's all moot, and doesn't help you with your problem. The problem with a dying hard drive is determining that it is actually, in fact, dying. If Disk Utility shows that its SMART status isn't "Verified," that's definitive evidence that it's dying. In practice, I've rarely ever seen a case where SMART status gave advance warning. If Disk Utility reports that it is damaged, that's generally evidence that the drive is dying, but a drive may be able to be erased and reused successfully for a long time before the drive finally gives up the ghost.

     

    If there's no definitive evidence that it's dying, it can be a difficult call. If the disk really is 5 years old, it would probably benefit you to replace the drive, but there's always the chance that replacing the drive won't cure the problem, and then you're out a wad of cash that you didn't have to spend.

  • by Mike Sombrio,

    Mike Sombrio Mike Sombrio Apr 21, 2014 6:34 PM in response to gengle1984
    Level 6 (17,268 points)
    Apple Watch
    Apr 21, 2014 6:34 PM in response to gengle1984

    Soooo.....how we doin with that EtreCheck idea? I'd still like to see the report.

  • by gengle1984,

    gengle1984 gengle1984 Apr 21, 2014 6:57 PM in response to Mike Sombrio
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 21, 2014 6:57 PM in response to Mike Sombrio

    I can not do the EtreCheck idea yet. I am away from home at work. I will try and get the details posted tonight.