27 inch iMac suddenly running very slowly

Question

CT YodaFan Author

Level 1

0 points

27 inch iMac suddenly running very slowly

iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011) (Verified)

iMac - model: iMac12,2

1 3.1 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 4-core

4 GB RAM Upgradeable

OSX 10.10 (Yosemite)

My Mac suddenly slowed down on Monday or Tuesday of last week. Response time from mouse click to system response is sometimes in the 10s of seconds. This was not a gradual slow down. It happened quite suddenly.

I've run Disk Utility from recovery boot -- fixed permissions and verified disk. Disk showed no issues but I clicked repair anyway. Ran Apple Hardware Test; it says no hardware issues. No change.

Here's what etrecheck shows:

Problem description:

Very slow system response. Often tens of seconds between mouse click and system action.

EtreCheck version: 2.0.11 (98)

Report generated November 8, 2014 at 10:40:28 PM EST

Hardware Information: ℹ️

iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011) (Verified)

iMac - model: iMac12,2

1 3.1 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 4-core

4 GB RAM Upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok

BANK 0/DIMM1

empty empty empty empty

BANK 1/DIMM1

empty empty empty empty

Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported

Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n

Video Information: ℹ️

AMD Radeon HD 6970M - VRAM: 1024 MB

iMac 2560 x 1440

System Software: ℹ️

OS X 10.10 (14A389) - Uptime: 2:34:50

Disk Information: ℹ️

ST31000528AS disk0 : (1 TB)

S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

iMac HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 999.35 GB (617.61 GB free)

Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB

OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5690H

USB Information: ℹ️

Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

Apple, Inc. Keyboard Hub

Apple Inc. Apple Keyboard

Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Logitech USB-PS/2 Optical Mouse

Apple Internal Memory Card Reader

Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Gatekeeper: ℹ️

Mac App Store and identified developers

Launch Agents: ℹ️

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist Support

[running] com.rosettastone.rosettastonedaemon.plist Support

Launch Daemons: ℹ️

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist Support

[loaded] com.oracle.java.JavaUpdateHelper.plist Support

User Launch Agents: ℹ️

[loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist Support

[invalid?] com.citrixonline.GoToMeeting.G2MUpdate.plist Support

[loaded] com.facebook.videochat.[redacted].plist Support

[loaded] com.genieo.completer.download.plist Support

[loaded] com.genieo.completer.ltvbit.plist Support

[loaded] com.genieo.completer.update.plist Support

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist Support

[loaded] com.valvesoftware.steamclean.plist Support

[running] net.optimum.iptv.optimumapp.agent.v3.plist Support

[running] opt.plist Support

User Login Items: ℹ️

iTunesHelper UNKNOWN (missing value)

Quicken Scheduler application (/Applications/Quicken 2007/Quicken 2007/Contents/SupportApps/Quicken Scheduler)

OpenDNS Updater Application (/Applications/OpenDNS Updater.app)

Music Manager UNKNOWN (missing value)

Android File Transfer Agent Application (/Users/[redacted]/Library/Application Support/Google/Android File Transfer/Android File Transfer Agent.app)

Google Drive Application (/Applications/Google Drive.app)

Dropbox Application (/Applications/Dropbox.app)

Google Chrome Application (/Applications/Google Chrome.app)

Music Manager Application (/Users/[redacted]/Library/PreferencePanes/MusicManager.prefPane/Contents/Helpe rs/MusicManagerHelper.app)

iTunesHelper UNKNOWN (missing value)

HP Scheduler Application (/Library/Application Support/Hewlett-Packard/Software Update/HP Scheduler.app)

Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️

Flip4Mac WMV Plugin: Version: 3.0.0.85 BETA - SDK 10.7 Support

FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 15.0.0.152 - SDK 10.6 Support

Default Browser: Version: 600 - SDK 10.10

AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: Version: 11.0.09 - SDK 10.6 Support

AdobePDFViewer: Version: 11.0.09 - SDK 10.6 Support

Flash Player: Version: 15.0.0.152 - SDK 10.6 Mismatch! Adobe recommends 15.0.0.189

QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

OfficeLiveBrowserPlugin: Version: 12.3.6 Support

Unity Web Player: Version: UnityPlayer version 4.5.0f6 - SDK 10.6 Support

Silverlight: Version: 5.1.30514.0 - SDK 10.6 Support

JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 8 Update 25 Check version

User Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️

CitrixOnlineWebDeploymentPlugin: Version: 1.0.105 Support

Safari Extensions: ℹ️

Omnibar

Audio Plug-ins: ℹ️

DVCPROHDAudio: Version: 1.0

3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️

Flash Player Support

Flip4Mac WMV Support

Java Support

MusicManager Support

Time Machine: ℹ️

Skip System Files: NO

Auto backup: YES

Volumes being backed up:

iMac HD: Disk size: 999.35 GB Disk used: 381.73 GB

Destinations:

500 GB External [Local]

Total size: 499.45 GB

Total number of backups: 36

Oldest backup: 2014-10-26 22:03:51 +0000

Last backup: 2014-11-08 13:22:06 +0000

Size of backup disk: Too small

Backup size 499.45 GB < (Disk used 381.73 GB X 3)

Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️

4% WindowServer

2% MusicManagerHelper

1% systemstatsd

1% AppleSpell

0% Google Chrome

Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️

125 MB Dock

116 MB Finder

90 MB mds_stores

82 MB Google Chrome

77 MB mds

Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️

195 MB Free RAM

1.62 GB Active RAM

1.43 GB Inactive RAM

805 MB Wired RAM

3.42 GB Page-ins

193 MB Page-outs

Saw on another thread the suggestion to run Console and see what the logs were saying. Here's a sample -- looks pretty ominous:

11/8/14 11:57:52.210 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.mdworker.bundles) Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 10 seconds.

11/8/14 11:58:02.252 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.mdworker.bundles[3936]) Could not find uid associated with service: 0: Undefined error: 0 1422

11/8/14 11:58:02.253 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.mdworker.bundles) Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 10 seconds.

11/8/14 11:58:02.932 PM system_profiler[3935]: platformPluginDictionary: Can't get X86PlatformPlugin, return value 0

11/8/14 11:58:02.933 PM system_profiler[3935]: platformPluginDictionary: Can't get X86PlatformPlugin, return value 0

11/8/14 11:58:03.000 PM kernel[0]: 13893.822791: apple80211Request[10514] Unsupported ioctl 181

11/8/14 11:58:12.261 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.mdworker.bundles[3954]) Could not find uid associated with service: 0: Undefined error: 0 1422

11/8/14 11:58:12.261 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.mdworker.bundles) Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 10 seconds.

11/8/14 11:58:22.280 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.mdworker.bundles[3955]) Could not find uid associated with service: 0: Undefined error: 0 1422

11/8/14 11:58:22.281 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.mdworker.bundles) Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 10 seconds.

11/8/14 11:58:32.288 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.mdworker.bundles[3956]) Could not find uid associated with service: 0: Undefined error: 0 1422

11/8/14 11:58:32.288 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.mdworker.bundles) Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 10 seconds.

11/8/14 11:58:42.303 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.mdworker.bundles[3957]) Could not find uid associated with service: 0: Undefined error: 0 1422

11/8/14 11:58:42.303 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.mdworker.bundles) Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 10 seconds.

11/8/14 11:58:52.312 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.mdworker.bundles[3958]) Could not find uid associated with service: 0: Undefined error: 0 1422

11/8/14 11:58:52.313 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.mdworker.bundles) Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 10 seconds.

11/8/14 11:58:55.000 PM kernel[0]: disk0s2: I/O error.

11/8/14 11:58:55.049 PM systemstatsd[346]: assertion failed: 14A389: systemstatsd + 3269 [8BF02DBC-09E8-3994-8C2D-1C0A869EF157]: 0xa

11/8/14 11:58:55.471 PM Google Chrome[277]: Error launching spell checker for Multilingual: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=256 "The application “AppleSpell” could not be launched because a miscellaneous error occurred (OSStatus -1712)." UserInfo=0x7d40fa70 {NSURL=file://localhost/System/Library/Services/AppleSpell.service, NSUnderlyingError=0x7d40f9c0 "The operation couldn’t be completed. (OSStatus error -1712.)", NSLocalizedDescription=The application “AppleSpell” could not be launched because a miscellaneous error occurred (OSStatus -1712).}

11/8/14 11:58:56.040 PM AppleSpell[313]: *** -[NSMachPort handlePortMessage:]: dropping incoming DO message because the connection is invalid

It's not showing as much in the excerpt above, but I'm getting lots of those "kernel: disk0s2: I/O error" messages. Sounds like HD failing? Why would Disk Utility say everything is fine?

Any help would be appreciated!

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10), 27-inch, Mid 2011 (Verified)

Posted on Nov 8, 2014 9:57 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

rkaufmann87

Level 10

144,006 points

Nov 8, 2014 10:06 PM in response to CT YodaFan

2 things I noticed, it has very little RAM installed, only the base 4GB that it shipped with and there is very little available RAM. Next is it has the AMD Radeon HD 6970M installed. Have you seen: iMac (27-inch): AMD Radeon 6970M Video Card Replacement Program - Apple Support

Reply

Answer 2

MichelPM

Level 10

81,284 points

Nov 8, 2014 11:34 PM in response to CT YodaFan

You have the Genieo adware installed.

Here is how to uninstall it.

http://www.thesafemac.com/arg-genieo/

Remove all of your User login/startup items. User login in items that launch at startup are problematic on newer versions of OS X.

Add or remove automatic items

Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Users & Groups.
Select your user account, then click Login Items.
Do one of the following:
- Click Add ➕ below the list on the right, select an app, document, folder, or disk, then click Add.If you don’t want an item’s windows to be visible after login, select Hide. (Hide does not apply to servers, which always appear in the Finder after login.)
- Select the name of the item you want to prevent from opening automatically, then click Delete ➖ below the list on the right.

You might want to consider disabling Google Drive and maybe stop using Google software on your Mac, altogether.

Google software is invasive on the OS S system and really doesn't run very well on Macs and OS X.

Do a web search for how to properly uninstall all of the different Google software packages.

If you do like Apple Safari web browser, try Mozilla FireFox web browser, instead. Mozilla FireFox is more Mac3OS X friendly and the Mozilla group constantly releases updates to FireFox regularly.

Reply

Answer 3

CT YodaFan Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 9, 2014 5:15 AM in response to MichelPM

Thanks for the replies.

rkaufmann87, I'll definitely look into more RAM. Performance was fine until this week, but a few apps did struggle a bit nonetheless. That should help.

MichelPM, The performance of my system makes me unable to run the adware removal process you helpfully provided. The precision needed for the manual removal process cannot realistically be performed when mouse clicks and text entry often take minutes to register.

I've decided to restore my system to a nearly unused external drive (nothing on it that I don't have somewhere else). I'm hoping that I can get some quality time on a clean install to figure whether I have corrupt files or if my internal drive is failing. I should also be able to take on MichelPM's suggestions.

Stay tuned . . .

Reply

Answer 4

CT YodaFan Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 10, 2014 5:38 PM in response to CT YodaFan

Back up and running again. I managed to do a Time Machine backup to an external drive and boot to it. It is an old drive so it kind of creaked and groaned, but the system responsiveness was decent, so that probably ruled out logic board or other non-hard drive problems.

I then erased my iMac internal drive and did a clean system install on it (not a Time Machine backup). That was to try to avoid corrupt/infected apps. I ran the system for a while and all was fine. I stopped getting the disk error messages in the Console. So if I do have a failing HD, it's not evident at the moment.

I have since reinstalled my non-Apple apps and reentered all of my account settings and configurations. A real pain, but best to be safe. I have moved my documents and files (music, photos) back in as well and so far, so good.

System is running like a top right now -- better than before. Still, going to add that RAM! ;-)

Reply

Answer 5

GizinUK

Level 1

8 points

Dec 18, 2014 4:32 PM in response to CT YodaFan

Yes i have had the same problem with Yosemite recently with the imac27 late 2011 unresponsive with the spinning disc icon showing regularly about every 5 mins. Then it would allow me to work and stopped again to show the spinning disc. Had problems with startup too and would more oftern not start stuck at 50% progress bar. tried eveything SMC PRAM Safe boot, repair disk, repair permissions and no errors. However in Console logs had many Kernel: disk0s2: I/O errors with systemstatsd: assertion failed: 14B25..... etc suggesting drive failure. But I am not convinced it is the drive as disk utility repiar says all is OK. if it was a faulty drive it would fail randomly not stop worrking for 5 mins and start again. The issue feels like an OS update issue perhaps a big memory leak but activity shows CPU and memory etc OK too. iMac has 16Gb ram so I changed the ram too and no change.

Seems strange that this coincided with 10.10.1 update.

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Answer 6

GizinUK

Level 1

8 points

Dec 19, 2014 1:40 AM in response to GizinUK

Ive fixed it. The console errors were Kernel: DiskXXXX I/O errors and this suggested a faulty hard disk. However the regular nature of the spinning beach ball made me think that it was an OS issue.

So i ignored all level 10 advice to replace the disk and did a reinstall Yosemite from the CMD R (repair screen). This doesn't delete your files so it was worth a try. It worked no more spinning wheel of death. Hope this helps others.

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Answer 7

Aug 8, 2015 1:48 PM in response to MichelPM

Un-Google was very good advice. These problems started shortly after I installed Google Crome and a couple of Google developer apps. Simply deleting the Chrome did not solve the problem, though it helped. The spinning wheel was still popping up but only for a few seconds at a time.

I re-installed Yosemite through Safe-Boot (keeping all my programs and data intact) and everything is running exactly as is should again.

My Takeaway: Google does not play nice with Mac.

Thanks. Hope this helps the next person.

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