ronaldfromcroydon

Q: iMac goes very slow

iMac Retina running Yosemite 10.10.1. 4G proc.  Just changed from early 2009 iMac, and transferred files during setup.  Old mac was running slow, freezing, ditto with new mac, but more so. have removed unnecessary files and disconnected externals.  Constantly freezing. Should not be a problem with memory or drive 32g & 3T

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.1)

Posted on Jan 26, 2015 6:27 AM

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Q: iMac goes very slow

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  • by CellarDwellr,

    CellarDwellr CellarDwellr Jan 26, 2015 6:36 AM in response to ronaldfromcroydon
    Level 4 (1,212 points)
    Jan 26, 2015 6:36 AM in response to ronaldfromcroydon

    Hello! Then it's likely that your 2009 iMac was slowed down for reasons of software malfunctioning.

     

    I’ve offered the steps below to similar posts in the past and they helped out getting to the solution (or at least find the cause). I suggest them to you too in this case. It will take you about 30 minutes or less to do these, depending on how bad the problem on your Mac is.

     

    The goal here is to boot your Mac to the so-called Recovery partition where you’ll have a chance to repair the disk and the disk permissions using the Disk Utility and Password Utility. This might solve your issue and even if it doesn’t- it’s still a decent maintenance step to perform. These steps won’t erase your data or reinstall your Mac in any way if you follow instructions carefully.

     

    Here’s how:

     

    1/ Make sure your computer is completely shut down.

     

    2/ You’ll have to be quick next: Press the Mac’s power button. As soon as you either hear the loud chime, or see the display light up - usually after a second or 2 - on your keyboard press [cmd] + [r] Keep these keys on your keyboard pressed until you either see an Apple Logo with a loading bar or a spinning gear.

     

    After a few minutes, you’ll be presented with a Utilities screen. This is the Recovery partition. If this step is already giving you problems, try using a USB-keyboard. It doesn’t have to be an Apple-keyboard. If you have a Windows-tailored keyboard laying around, use the “Windows-flag” key in stead of the [cmd]-key and it should also work.

     

    3/ Choose Disk Utility and click [continue]

    Disk Utility will display your computer’s harddrive in the left column. The default name for it is “Macintosh HD” and is usually the second one from the top. Click on it and click on the [verify disk] button. This will check your “Macintosh HD” harddrive partition for errors. If found, click [repair disk]  unless you have a Fusion drive in your Mac and it says [fix] instead of [repair disk] please tell us before you continue! For a screenshot of what I mean, check this article from Apple: http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202574

     

    4/ Once done with the verifying or repairing of your “Macintosh HD” click [repair disk permissions]

    This will check your partition for permissions errors. A common myth about this feature is that it will fix all permissions issues on your Mac, which is not true, but it will fix most systemwide issues. Also, here is a list of error messages that you can safely ignore if they pop up:

    http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203172

     

    5/ Lastly we shall do a permissions/Access Control List repair on specifically your user’s home folder with a somewhat hidden tool in the Recovery partition. Close Disk Utility and find the menu called “utilities” in the top left corner of your computer’s display. It’s in between the menus “edit” and “window” Don’t be confused with the menu called “os x utilities” 

    Choose Terminal. A somewhat old-fashioned looking window will pop up, waiting for a text command from you. This is the Terminal.

    After the # type: resetpassword and press return. Note that there is no space between ‘reset’ and ‘password’ 

     

    What you’ll see next is an rectangular window that gives you the option to reset passwords. We are not going to that, however. Instead, click on “Macintosh HD” at the top. In the pull-down menu below that, choose your user's accountname. Skip all the rest and at the very bottom click the [reset]-button.

    A spinning gear will appear and may stay on for a second or several minutes. It’s hard to predict exactly how long.

    If you have multiple users on your Mac, I advise you to repeat this step for all your users.

     

    We’re ready to reboot your Mac now. Click on the Apple Menu and choose “startup disk” Choose to boot from “Macintosh HD” Please let us know if this solved your issue, or if the steps above did not work, or could not be performed for some reason.

     

    NB- lastly, if you do these same steps on your 2009 iMac it might function correctly again as well

  • by ronaldfromcroydon,

    ronaldfromcroydon ronaldfromcroydon Jan 26, 2015 7:08 AM in response to CellarDwellr
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 26, 2015 7:08 AM in response to CellarDwellr

    Thanks I'll try this as soon as I have time, but one point, the 2009 mac is running fine after I removed most of the unneeded software ( I'm giving it to a relative) . so I went through the software on the new mac and removed the unnecessary, but still faulty, so it may be due to software. 

  • by CellarDwellr,Helpful

    CellarDwellr CellarDwellr Jan 26, 2015 7:14 AM in response to ronaldfromcroydon
    Level 4 (1,212 points)
    Jan 26, 2015 7:14 AM in response to ronaldfromcroydon

    ronaldfromcroydon wrote:

     

    Thanks I'll try this as soon as I have time, but one point, the 2009 mac is running fine after I removed most of the unneeded software ( I'm giving it to a relative) . so I went through the software on the new mac and removed the unnecessary, but still faulty, so it may be due to software.

    Fair enough.

     

    One extra thing: if you're giving the Mac to someone else, it's highly recommended that you erase and reinstall the mac to factory defaults. if not, your Apple ID purchases (which might include OS X itself) and iCloud account might still pop up all the time for the new owner, hindering them in installing their own apps and OS X upgrades.

  • by h2vh,

    h2vh h2vh Jan 26, 2015 9:49 AM in response to CellarDwellr
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 26, 2015 9:49 AM in response to CellarDwellr

    An hour ago I ran the procedure described here:

    CellarDwellrJan 26, 2015 6:36 AM


    Uneventful until 'repair disk permissions'; after completing that step I did a 'verify disk permissions', which returned:


    "System/Library/CoreS..." - should be: drwxr-xr-x - are: lrwxr-xr-x

    "Applications/Safari.ap...l" - should be: lrwxr-xr-x - are: -rwxr-xr-x


    I tried to go through the list:


    Mac OS X: Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions messages that you can safely ignore - Apple Support


    but it was too long!


    *************


    "Skip all the rest and at the very bottom click the [reset]-button.

    A spinning gear will appear and may stay on for a second or several minutes. It’s hard to predict exactly how long"

    - the spinning wheel showed momentarily, and the [reset]-button greyed out. I suppose that means the the reset has been accomplished(?).

     

    *************


    It's too early to tell if the computer is working faster now - I'll report back when I find out


  • by CellarDwellr,

    CellarDwellr CellarDwellr Jan 26, 2015 9:57 AM in response to h2vh
    Level 4 (1,212 points)
    Jan 26, 2015 9:57 AM in response to h2vh

    h2vh wrote:

     


    "Skip all the rest and at the very bottom click the [reset]-button.

    A spinning gear will appear and may stay on for a second or several minutes. It’s hard to predict exactly how long"

    - the spinning wheel showed momentarily, and the [reset]-button greyed out. I suppose that means the the reset has been accomplished(?).

     

    *************


    It's too early to tell if the computer is working faster now - I'll report back when I find out


    The spinning gear might only appear for a fraction of a second. By the way you're describing it, it sounds like the ACL repair was completed successfully.

     

    Just let us know if this wasn't enought. There are additional things we can recommend you on top of deleting unnecessary apps like you already did.

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Jan 26, 2015 11:53 AM in response to ronaldfromcroydon
    Level 9 (72,273 points)
    iTunes
    Jan 26, 2015 11:53 AM in response to ronaldfromcroydon

    If you are giving the computer to someone else, below is a list of things to consider so there aren't future problems.

     

    Selling old Mac

     

    Selling old Mac (2)

     

    Selling old Mac (3)

     

    Selling old Mac (4)          Apple support

  • by ronaldfromcroydon,

    ronaldfromcroydon ronaldfromcroydon Jan 26, 2015 10:11 PM in response to CellarDwellr
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 26, 2015 10:11 PM in response to CellarDwellr

    I carefully followed your instructions, but I'm afraid it didn't help. The coloured ball continues play with me.

  • by CellarDwellr,

    CellarDwellr CellarDwellr Jan 27, 2015 2:41 AM in response to ronaldfromcroydon
    Level 4 (1,212 points)
    Jan 27, 2015 2:41 AM in response to ronaldfromcroydon

    ronaldfromcroydon wrote:

     

    I carefully followed your instructions, but I'm afraid it didn't help. The coloured ball continues play with me.

    Hmmm

     

    We can do more permissions and ACL reset. This time from inside your OS X. That might help. This one is simpler since it's all packed into one terminal command:

    sudo diskutil repairPermissions /; chflags -R nouchg,nouappnd ~; sudo chmod -R 700 ~; sudo chmod 755 ~; sudo chmod 755 ~/Public; sudo chmod 733 ~/Public/Drop\ Box; sudo reboot

     

    Here is how:

    Open the Terminal application, for example by typing ter into Spotlight, the magnifying glass in the top right corner of your computer's display.

     

    Copy-paste the entire long command I quoted above, from sudo to reboot.

    Please be aware that this command will auto-reboot your Mac without asking your permission. Save all your work before doing this command.

    Also, Terminal will ask for your administrator/login password several times during this. When you enter it, you will not see any **** appear. It will look like you're not typing anything. Just blindly enter your password and press the return key.

  • by h2vh,

    h2vh h2vh Jan 27, 2015 2:49 AM in response to ronaldfromcroydon
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 27, 2015 2:49 AM in response to ronaldfromcroydon

    I tend to agree(?).

    Additionally I removed my Antivirus (Sophos (free) Home Edition).

     

    I feel that the general response is a little bit quicker - but if so I can't really tell if it was caused by the repair of disk permissions or the deletion of the AV software?

     

    I'll give it a few more days and the report back again.

     

    The computer is an iMac (intel) from 2010. It came with Snow Leopard and is now running Mavericks - my impression is that each and every OS update has slowed it down!

    That's why I'm still very hesitant regarding Yosemite.

  • by ronaldfromcroydon,

    ronaldfromcroydon ronaldfromcroydon Jan 27, 2015 7:05 AM in response to CellarDwellr
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 27, 2015 7:05 AM in response to CellarDwellr

    No, I'm afraid the problem remains.  I'm going to try removing software, one at a time.

  • by CellarDwellr,

    CellarDwellr CellarDwellr Jan 27, 2015 7:40 AM in response to ronaldfromcroydon
    Level 4 (1,212 points)
    Jan 27, 2015 7:40 AM in response to ronaldfromcroydon

    No, I'm afraid the problem remains.  I'm going to try removing software, one at a time.

    That sounds like a plan. You could also check the application called Activity Monitor to see if anything stands out.

     

    Before removing actual applications that you use, you should do these two things:

    1. go to "System Preferences > Users & Groups > [login items]" and trash everything that there using the [-] button. Unchecking the boxes won't be enough.
    2. open the Finder and then the menu: "go > go to folder" and copy paste the line below in the box that appears, including the ~

     

    ~/library/

     

    This will open your user library folder. Check and see if you find a folder called caches, one called launchagent and one called launchdaemons.

    Trash the entire caches folder. It will have a lot of content but never mind that.

    check the content of the other two folders - if you have them - and delete what you deem inappropriate from them. Whatever you delete will not crash your computer or the apps these files are associated with.

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Jan 27, 2015 12:32 PM in response to CellarDwellr
    Level 9 (72,273 points)
    iTunes
    Jan 27, 2015 12:32 PM in response to CellarDwellr

    Activity Monitor - Mavericks  also Yosemite

     

    Activity Monitor in Mavericks has significant changes

     

    Performance Guide

     

    Why is my computer slow

     

    Why your Mac runs slower than it should

     

    Slow Mac After Mavericks

     

    Things you can do to resolve slowdowns  see post by Kappy

     

    Try running this program and then copy and paste the output in a reply. The program was created by Etresoft, a frequent contributor.  Please use copy and paste as screen shots can be hard to read.

     

     

     

     

     

    Etrecheck – System Information

  • by ronaldfromcroydon,

    ronaldfromcroydon ronaldfromcroydon Jan 28, 2015 7:55 AM in response to CellarDwellr
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 28, 2015 7:55 AM in response to CellarDwellr

    Removed the Login items, except for one Which was unremovable, showed a greyed out - . showing Kind unknown, of a file that doesn't seem to exist.

     

    Int the ~/library/  found Caches   Do you mean completely remove the entire caches file? 

    Found LaunchAgents, but no Launch Daemons.

  • by ronaldfromcroydon,Helpful

    ronaldfromcroydon ronaldfromcroydon Jan 28, 2015 7:58 AM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 28, 2015 7:58 AM in response to Eric Root

    Tried most of these  but checked OnyX, but it doesn't appear to be available for 10.10 yet.

    I'll go over them further later.

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