adding memory to version 10.6.8

Hi Susan,

To find out about your iMac go to the apple menu in the upper-left and choose: "About This Mac" that window will have tabs to let you see how much space and memory you have.

I have a 2008 iMac and it was really slow and awful until I replaced the HD with a SSD (Solid State Drive) -- it was not the size that mattered but rather the speed of the drive. My computer no longer makes snorting noises when opening things and it feels like a new machine... so if you have a mac of a similar age to mine consider the SSD upgrade.

Memory also makes a big difference, but to know how much you can add I'd need to know the year and model of your iMac. ie "iMac (20-inch, Early 2008)" it's listed in "About This Mac"
-Susan

PS. I'm a Susan too!

Is it just the Internet/web browsers that are slow or your whole computer?

It would help us to help you if we could have some more technical info about your iMac.

If you like, please go ahead and download, install and run Etrecheck.

Etrecheck was developed as a simple Mac diagnostic report tool by a regular Apple Support forum user and technical support contributor named Etresoft.

Etrecheck is a small, unobstrusive app that compiles a static snapshot of your entire Mac hardware system and installed software.

This is a free app that has been honestly created to provided help in diagnosing issues with Macs running the new OS X 10.9 Mavericks.

It is not malware and can be safely downloaded and installed onto your Mac.

http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck

Copy/paste and post its report here in another reply thread so that we have a complete profile of your Mac's hardware and installed software so we can all help with your Mac performance issues.

Thank You.

If you download and run the Etrecheck report, this will tell us everything we need to know about your Mac system and installed softwarem so we can make a determination about what is wrong with your Mac.

Please download, install, run, then post the results of the Etrecheck report.

Thank You very much.

Apple still sells OS X Snow Leopard.

Apple isn't issuing any security updates for it, any longer.

But this does NOT mean OS X Snow Leopard is obsolete.

I still use OS X Snow Leopard as my regular working OS X version as it is a superior OS X version, in every way, compared to OS X versions that have come after it.

Especially since the post Steve Jobs versions of OS X.

If you are worried about security issues with OS X Snow Leopard,

Ditch ALL Googlewares. They are ALL a serious resource hogs on the OS X system.

The additional benefit is that you'll stop Google from mining your data when you surf the web

https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95319?hl=en

https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2375081?hl=en

If you do not like Apple's Safari web browser, download, install and try Mozilla FireFox, instead.

http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox

The current, up-to-date version of FireFox is fully compatible with OS X and is regularly updated by the great developers of the Mozilla group.

I have, also, stopped using the Google search engine regularly (due to Google's privacy policies or lack thereof) and I now use DuckDuckGo as my default search engine.

Also, since it appears you are reluctant to use the Etrecheck report support software to help aid in troubleshooting your Mac, we are going to have to do this the hard way to get to your Mac issues.

To find out info about your system,

Click on the Apple symbol in the upper left of the OS X main menu bar. A drop down menu appears. Click About this Mac. A smaller popup window appears. This gives you basic info like what version of OS X your iMac is running, the speed of your iMac's CPU and how much RAM is installed.

Click on the button that says More Info. A larger window appears giving you a complete overview of your iMac's hardware specs.

Highlight all of this info and copy/paste all of this into another reply to this post, editing out your iMac's serial number before actually posting the reply.

This will tell us everything about your iMac so we may begin to help with your iMac issues.

How much RAM installed on your Mac?

How full is your Mac's hard drive?

Locate your iMac's hard drive icon on the OS X desktop. Click the icon once, then use the keyboard key combination Command-I. This will give you additonal info about your iMac's internal hard drive.

How many applications do you run simultaneously in the background while working in another application?

If you have a long list of user login/startup items that launch at startup/login, you need to reduce the amount of these to less than 6 or so items or less, if possible.

Do you have any unnecessary antivirus installed on your iMac?

Do you have any unnecessary "cleaning" apps on your Mac like MacKeeper, CleanMyMac, TuneUpMyMac, MacSweeper, MacCleanse and the like installed on your Mac?

Have you updated all of your installed software and updated all connected third party device software and drivers?

Have you updated all of the various web browser plugins you that have installed within your web browser?

minicolleen wrote:

Hello, I've been told by Apple that the only thing I can do to upgrade is to add more memory and available space. I only have 1 gb of memory and I don't know how to tell how much space I have.

Would it be a good idea for me to add additional memory and space instead of buying a new computer?

I've used Firefox and Google Chrome for browsers and in some instances the pages load pretty quickly but in others they are very slow to load or don't load at all. That's why I'd like to upgrade. Will adding more memory and space do the trick?

Thank you very much,

Susan

If its just Safari -- if you use top sites-or not - edit out any you don't want -- they refresh - and add themselves - I found that that was a big problem with slowing the load - I thought I had dumped them all -- never checked until sites kept getting stuck -- Since apple stopped support for Snow Leopard I finally switched to OPERA - latest version - I went with the down load footprint. 1GB of memory is kinda lean particularly if your hard drive is filled -- easy way to see file size - when finder shows on the desktop - view menu, show options, click on show icon info, icon preview - and it will show hard drive size and free gb.

MichelPM wrote:

Apple still sells OS X Snow Leopard.

Apple isn't issuing any security updates for it, any longer.

But this does NOT mean OS X Snow Leopard is obsolete.

I still use OS X Snow Leopard as my regular working OS X version as it is a superior OS X version, in every way, compared to OS X versions that have come after it.

Especially since the post Steve Jobs versions of OS X.

If you are worried about security issues with OS X Snow Leopard,

Browsing around the internet discovered that 2002 was the date that Apple started the team to switch to Intel chips from the Power chips (one reason I went with mac) so the changes after Snow Leopard are still in the direction Steve Jobs wanted when he first showed the IPAD.

This is incorrect.

As a very long time Mac user (beige color PowerMac 9600 and desktop PowerMac G3 user- mid 1990’s),

The transition from PowerPC CPUs to Intel CPUs happened around late 2005 and beginning of 2006.

Around the time of the end of OS X 10.4 Tiger and the Intrduction of OS X 10.5 Leopard whch was available for both PowerPC Macs AND Intel Macs.

I bought my last PowerMac G4 1.25 Ghz Single CPU Toy box case model in 2003 when Apple was first introducing the new PowerMac G5 models.

The last PowerPC G5 models were the iMac G5, the last late 2005 PowerMac G4 Mac Mini and the late 2005 PowerMac G5 which was, finally, discontinued in August of 2006.

MichelPM wrote:

This is incorrect.

As a very long time Mac user (beige color PowerMac 9600 and desktop PowerMac G3 user- mid 1990’s),

The transition from PowerPC CPUs to Intel CPUs happened around late 2005 and beginning of 2006.

Around the time of the end of OS X 10.4 Tiger and the Intrduction of OS X 10.5 Leopard whch was available for both PowerPC Macs AND Intel Macs.

I bought my last PowerMac G4 1.25 Ghz Single CPU Toy box case model in 2003 when Apple was first introducing the new PowerMac G5 models.

The last PowerPC G5 models were the iMac G5, the last late 2005 PowerMac G4 Mac Mini and the late 2005 PowerMac G5 which was, finally, discontinued in August of 2006.

I mentioned when Steve Jobs made the decision to change the chips - not when the first Intel Mac was available to the public. The article also mentioned only the team working on the chip change was "In the loop" while everyone else was "in the dark".

You are under the impression that it happened immediately - so are thinking that the problem with the updates is because Steve Jobs is no longer with us - when in fact -- what you are seeing today including the watch, and eventually house - are still his direction/directive coming to flower.

Hello,

Based on what I see and what you have told me,

Hard drive free space is good!

Yes,

Stop using Google Chrome and uninstall it per the link I provided.

Use the most up to date version of FireFox.

The login/startup items are apps that launch automatically whenever you startup or login to your Mac.

You can check for these in the System Preferences Panel under the User and Accounts icon. When you click on the Accounts icon a window will pop up with all of the accounts on your Mac. Pick your main account and to the window on the right look at the Login items tab.

If you have a ton of items/apps that are starting up at login, then you need to determine what these are and pare that list down to close to 6 or less items, if possible.

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.

Your model iMac is a 2006 model.

The farthest OS X version you can reliably run on that iMac IS OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard.

Your iMac has only 1 GB of RAM which is the bare minimum RAM to run OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.

Your iMac is, definitely, starved for RAM

Your year and model iMac can take a total of 4 GBs of RAM (2) 2 GB RAM modules.

Your iMac model, unfortunately, will only see about 3.2 to 3.4 GBs of the total 4 GBs of RAM, but OS X functions much better with identical pairs of RAM, so it's best to have (2) 2 GB RAM modules installed into your iMac model.

Correct, compatible and reliable Mac RAM can ONLY be purchased from online RAM sources Crucial memory or OWC (http://www.macsales.com).

If you live in the U.S., I highly recommend OWC for theIr RAM kits.

Here is the RAM kit you need.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/5300DDR2S4GP/

RAM is, relatively, easy to install by the user, even by newbie or novice Mac users/upgraders.

It should only take you, at the most, between 10-20 minutes to take out the old RAM module and replace it with the two brand new RAM modules.

Here is how shown here.

http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/imac_intel_white_mem_h/

Good Luck!