Performance Issues with Mac Mini (Late 2014)

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com.cisin Author

Level 1

0 points

Performance Issues with Mac Mini (Late 2014)

Dear All,

We have few Mac Minis with below mentioned configuration in our organization.

Mac Mini (Late 2014)

Processor : 1.4GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 (Turbo Boost up to 2.7GHz) with 3MB on-chip shared L3 cache

Storage : 500GB (5400-rpm) hard drive

Memory : 4GB of 1600MHz LPDDR3 memory

Graphics : Intel HD Graphics 5000

Mac OS Version : 10.10.2 Yosemite

We are using these Mac Minis for iOS application development using Xcode, but now we are facing lots of performance related issues. We are sharing issue related details with you & want to get some help to improve our system performance.

1) System is running very slow & take a lot of time to Boot.

2) Some time it never boots & we need to press start button several time.

3) When system goes in Sleep mode, then it takes much time to come to display screen to type Password.

4) Sometimes the whole screen moves Downwards.

5) Sometimes while during coding using Xcode in Simulator it shows some kind of Error “Unexpectedly quit”

6) Xcode runs very slow & it take lots of time in switching between files.

7) While closing any open application it take lots of time & show activity indicator for very long time.

8) Sometimes it doesn’t support iPad when we connect it using USB cable.

Our development team is facing lots of issues using these Mac Minis, so please can anyone suggest us that how can we improve our system performance & is this configuration is ideal to run Mac OSx 10.10 Yosemite Series and to use it for iOS application development.

Please try to help us to solve these issues & try to share some valuable comments on it.

Thanks 🙂

Mac mini, OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)

Posted on Mar 27, 2015 12:53 AM

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Answer 1

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,478 points

Mar 27, 2015 8:30 AM in response to com.cisin

Take one of the problem machine into an Apple Store and they will perform a free diagnostic on it.

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Answer 2

Mar 28, 2015 3:33 AM in response to com.cisin

Do a quick check of the following:

1. Open up activity monitor and select CPU. Post the top 5 procersses

and their percentage of CPU usage.

2. Then select Memory. Post the values listed in the box at the bottom

or you can post a screen shot that area.

A second thing to try, start the machine up in safe mode (hold down shift

key at boot) and see if the issue persists. If not, you may have installed

a 3rd party item that is causing the problem and we can continue from there.

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Answer 3

com.cisin Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 30, 2015 1:42 AM in response to woodmeister50

Dear woodmeister50,

Here i am sharing required screenshots which you have suggested to share.

1. Open up activity monitor and select CPU. Post the top 5 procersses

and their percentage of CPU usage.

2. Then select Memory. Post the values listed in the box at the bottom

or you can post a screen shot that area.

Please analyze these Activity monitor logs & let us know if you want to share some feedback on that. We will also try to boot & run our system in safe mode.

Thanks 🙂

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Answer 4

lllaass

Level 10

210,411 points

Mar 30, 2015 2:15 AM in response to com.cisin

Nothing really sticks out except Xcode.

How does it run without starting Xcode?

How does it run in Safe Mode?

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Answer 5

dwb

Level 7

32,920 points

Apr 1, 2015 3:21 AM in response to com.cisin

Some of your problems - the failed startups, connection issues with iOS devices, and display problems - could be hardware failures but were that the case I’d not expect it to be happening with lots of computers. Adding to Illaass’ questions: what’s LCD, keyboards, and mouses are you using? What other peripheral devices are connected to the computers? How are the display’s connected to the computer? (VGA adaptor, HDMI?)

Other issues are probably related to the slow internal hard drives and lack of RAM. You might want to get an external SSD (USB3 or even better Thunderbolt) and see if that makes a significant difference in performance. While the RAM snapshot you showed doesn’t show any memory pressure, I’ll bet it would have been high if you had a project loaded in Xcode and were running the iOS emulator. (I’m guessing you weren’t so correct me if I’m wrong. I see greater RAM usage when I’m programming and I don’t have big projects going.)

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Answer 6

Lanny

Level 6

13,183 points

Apr 1, 2015 3:21 AM in response to com.cisin

Change the selection from, "My Processes" to "All Processes."

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Answer 7

com.cisin Author

Level 1

0 points

Apr 1, 2015 3:26 AM in response to Lanny

Dear Lanny,

Here i am again uploading screenshots after selecting "All Process".

Thanks 🙂

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Answer 8

Lanny

Level 6

13,183 points

Apr 1, 2015 5:09 AM in response to com.cisin

Referencing the comments made by "dwb."

I’ll bet it would have been high if you had a project loaded in Xcode and were running the iOS emulator. (I’m guessing you weren’t so correct me if I’m wrong. I see greater RAM usage when I’m programming and I don’t have big projects going.)

Your MacMini's configuration is not a good match for your activities. A 5400 rpm hard drive and 4 Gigs of RAM are more suited to a casual computer usage, not software development and simulation. If the MacMinis are a recent purchase, perhaps they can be returned and exchanged for ones with more RAM and Fusion drives. Otherwise, you can follow dwb's suggestion about getting a thunderbolt SSD, but you won't be able add more RAM.

The only other things, from my experience, Safari uses less RAM than Firefox, and quit any applications, i.e., Skype, that aren't being used for your main tasks.

Bottomline: The minimal MacMini configuration is not a good match for your activities.

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