Mac mini (Mid 2011) inexplicably running slow, especially videos, despite what I think is sufficient memory.

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Level 1

8 points

Mac mini (Mid 2011) inexplicably running slow, especially videos, despite what I think is sufficient memory.

I have a Mac mini (Mid 2011). It has become slow in some ways even though I have 8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 memory and almost 250GB of free storage. I recently installed Yosemite 10.10.1 (14B25) but I had noticed the slow down prior to that. Notably, videos no longer run smoothly. Instead, there are brief pauses in playback. I initially thought it was a problem with streaming videos but then found the same problem playing TV shows and movies downloaded from the iTunes store.

There are now also lags for starting up certain programs and many programs seems sluggish once open. Not sure what could have caused the slow down since I don't even use the computer at issue very much and haven't recently installed any new software. No programs launch with log-in and all notifications are turned off. Any ideas? If there's a problem specifically related to video, I'd be interested in hearing that too. I use a Samsung monitor but it and everything else about my computer used to work perfectly and videos ran smoothly until fairly recently.

Mac mini, OS X Yosemite (10.10.1)

Posted on Mar 25, 2015 4:59 PM

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Answer 1

lllaass

Level 10

210,411 points

Mar 25, 2015 5:08 PM in response to pcdales

Run this and post the results here so we know about your installation

EtreCheck

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Answer 2

pcdales Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 25, 2015 5:18 PM in response to lllaass

EtreCheck version: 2.1.8 (121)

Report generated March 25, 2015 at 8:14:49 PM EDT

Download EtreCheck from http://etresoft.com/etrecheck

Click the [Click for support] links for help with non-Apple products.

Click the [Click for details] links for more information about that line.

Hardware Information: ℹ️

Mac mini (Mid 2011) (Technical Specifications)

Mac mini - model: Macmini5,2

1 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2-core

8 GB RAM Upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok

Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported

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

Video Information: ℹ️

AMD Radeon HD 6630M - VRAM: 256 MB

SMFX2490HD spdisplays_1080p

System Software: ℹ️

OS X 10.10.1 (14B25) - Time since boot: 0:49:33

Disk Information: ℹ️

TOSHIBA MK5065GSXF disk0 : (500.11 GB)

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / : 499.25 GB (227.37 GB free)

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

USB Information: ℹ️

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Gatekeeper: ℹ️

Mac App Store and identified developers

Launch Agents: ℹ️

[not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist [Click for support]

Launch Daemons: ℹ️

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist [Click for support]

[not loaded] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist [Click for support]

User Launch Agents: ℹ️

[loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist [Click for support]

[failed] com.apple.CSConfigDotMacCert-[...]@me.com-SharedServices.Agent.plist [Click for details]

[running] com.spotify.webhelper.plist [Click for support]

User Login Items: ℹ️

None

Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️

o1dbrowserplugin: Version: 5.40.2.0 - SDK 10.8 [Click for support]

Default Browser: Version: 600 - SDK 10.10

Flip4Mac WMV Plugin: Version: 2.4.0.11 [Click for support]

AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: Version: 10.1.13 [Click for support]

FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 16.0.0.305 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

Silverlight: Version: 5.1.30514.0 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

WidevineMediaOptimizer: Version: 6.0.0.12757 - SDK 10.7 [Click for support]

Flash Player: Version: 16.0.0.305 - SDK 10.6 Outdated! Update

QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

googletalkbrowserplugin: Version: 5.40.2.0 - SDK 10.8 [Click for support]

SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.4.1 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

AdobePDFViewer: Version: 10.1.13 [Click for support]

JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 15.0.0 - SDK 10.10 Check version

User internet Plug-ins: ℹ️

Google Earth Web Plug-in: Version: 7.1 [Click for support]

3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️

Flash Player [Click for support]

Flip4Mac WMV [Click for support]

Time Machine: ℹ️

Time Machine not configured!

Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️

18% mds

5% WindowServer

0% Google Chrome

0% ocspd

0% AppleSpell

Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️

266 MB mds_stores

163 MB Google Chrome

110 MB Google Chrome Helper

94 MB Finder

60 MB WindowServer

Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️

3.96 GB Free RAM

2.43 GB Active RAM

1.12 GB Inactive RAM

1.08 GB Wired RAM

2.51 GB Page-ins

0 B Page-outs

Diagnostics Information: ℹ️

Mar 25, 2015, 07:23:54 PM Self test - passed

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Answer 3

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Mar 25, 2015 7:17 PM in response to pcdales

When you see a beachball cursor or the slowness is especially bad, note the exact time: hour, minute, second.

These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select

SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages

from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select

View ▹ Show Log List

from the menu bar at the top of the screen.

Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Scroll back to the time you noted above.

Select the messages entered from then until the end of the episode, or until they start to repeat, whichever comes first.

Copy the messages to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.

The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of it useless for solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.

Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.

Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.

Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

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Answer 4

kahjot

Level 4

2,462 points

Mar 26, 2015 5:35 AM in response to pcdales

If the 500GB drive is the one that came with the Mini, it could be failing. Have you tried running Disk Utility on it? Do you have an external drive from which you can boot the Mini, to see if it runs better off the external?

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Answer 5

etresoft

Level 8

46,104 points

Mar 26, 2015 6:23 AM in response to pcdales

I agree with kahjot. The Mac mini uses a notebook-class 2.5" hard drive and those tend to fail after 2-3 years. Luckily, those old Mac minis are easily upgradeable. You can swap out that hard drive for an SSD and have a super-fast machine. See OWC: https://www.macsales.com

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Answer 6

Lanny

Level 6

13,183 points

Mar 26, 2015 6:52 AM in response to pcdales

18% mds processing indicates that Spotlight indexing is still ongoing, that would contribute to some slowness. After upgrading, the indexing shouldn't take more than 2-3 hours though. How long has it been since you upgraded?

You might want to try https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201716 if it has been more than 3 hours.

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Answer 7

pcdales Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 29, 2015 2:46 PM in response to Linc Davis

Linc Davis appreciate the time taken in this reply and willingness to look through log data to help me out. But this still seems like a significant amount of work to diagnose. Also, the beachball isn't the most common indicator of my problem. Rather, as I mentioned, the constantly "lagging" video and "mini-pauses" are the more common complaint. And those are all the time, anytime I watch a video. Would your same instructions apply to that problem?

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Answer 8

pcdales Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 29, 2015 2:48 PM in response to Lanny

Hi Lanny what do you mean about "if it has been more than 3 hours?" Do you mean if it's been more than 3 hours since I "upgraded?" What kind of upgrade are you referring to?

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Answer 9

pcdales Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 29, 2015 2:53 PM in response to etresoft

kahjotetresoftthis solution sounds like the most promising for some reason - maybe just because it doesn't require me to do any more analysis - so I think I will try it unless an SSD is unreasonably expensive or difficult to install. Could I do it myself? If I was looking at the right SSD on the link you provided. It looks like they're about $50. Is that right?

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Answer 10

etresoft

Level 8

46,104 points

Mar 29, 2015 3:16 PM in response to pcdales

No, sorry. SSDs are cheaper now than they have ever been. But a 500 GB SSD will be about $250. They are fairly easy to replace though. Here is a direct link to the hard drive upgrade options for your Mac mini on OWC: http://eshop.macsales.com/MyOWC/Upgrades.cfm?sort=pop&model=432&type=Internal+Dr ive

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