Constant lags - Mac Mini - Mavericks
MacMini 2012, 8Gb RAM, running Mavericks.
I'm experiencing frequent 1~4 seconds lags while using my MacMini. My MacBook, which is at least one year older runs without any of this lags.
This behaviour started about 3~4 weeks ago, when I started to use this computer less frequently, turning it on once in a week in contrast to the previous month when the frequency of use was 5 days a week.
It occurs quite frequently when interacting with the UI in any app. Any of the below results in lags.
Examples:
- focusing on text input fields (System Preferences App, Firefox, Finder, Chrome, whatever...)
- clicking on segmented buttons (System Preferences)
- opening any menu, including Apple menu
- finder (dragging and dropping files)
- scrolling
- trashing (command+delete)
- emptying trash (command+shift+delete)
- closing an file (command+w)
- quitting any app (command+q)
- opening folders in dock
Important: repeating the latest action doesn't cause lags.
What I've tried with no improvements:
- repair/fix permissions
- repair/fix disc
- update to 10.9.5
- recovery mode: repair/fix permissions
- recovery mode: repair/fix disc
- reset the PRAM
- Apple Hardware Test: fully tested, reports nothing wrong
- monitoring with Activity Monitor, with 1/2/5 second intervals shows no suspects (while lagging Activity Monitor freezes - it's useless)
Having nothing more to try I did:
- erased the hard drive
- installed Mavericks from scratch
- Disk Util: verify disk
- Disk Util: verify disk permissions
- S.M.A.R.T. status tells nothing wrong.
...and the lags aren't gone and I'm tired...
Any advice?
Mac mini, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)