Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Runs like a dead horse but not maxing CPU or RAM

Since upgrading to El Capitan I've seen behaviour I can't explain. A lot of spinning beach balls for simple things - even clicking the apple icon in the status bar, system preferences giving errors and can't open panels for builtin features, fullscreen video doing a lot of double takes.

I could understand all of this if I was hitting max CPU or >= 80% physical ram utilisation but this is happening while CPU is sitting at around 20-25% and ram is at around 60% usage.


Mac Mini, Mid-2010 (Macmini4,1) 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and 4gb RAM upgraded from Snow Leopard. A little old I know but these issues aren't from hitting resource limits, at least not as far as activity monitor's concerned.

Mac mini, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1), null

Posted on Oct 28, 2015 10:57 PM

Reply
15 replies

Oct 29, 2015 7:23 AM in response to Andrew Scott

There are four main things which can cause performance issues -


  1. Insufficient RAM
  2. CPU over loaded i.e. too slow for the work
  3. GPU i.e. video card also overloaded
  4. and the one you did not mention, storage medium too slow i.e. an old and slow hard disk


While Apple do say El Capitan and before that Yosemite can run with 2GB and therefore also 4GB of RAM my own experience is that really 8GB is the recommended amount. I can also say that replacing an old slow hard disk with a new vastly faster SSD drive makes a huge difference even on old Mac mini computers like yours.


I would say that of these two options the SSD option is going to deliver the biggest improvement for your money. The vast majority of new Macs now come with SSD drives as standard - only the lowest spec entry level Mac minis still have traditional hard disks.

Oct 29, 2015 8:49 AM in response to Andrew Scott

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.

When you post the log extract, you might see an error message on the web page: "You have included content in your post that is not permitted," or "The message contains invalid characters." That's a bug in the forum software. Please post the text on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.

Oct 30, 2015 3:04 AM in response to Andrew Scott

As you appear to be using a traditional hard disc and are not only now having slowness problems but other random issues I now suspect your hard disk is starting to fail.


Before you consider anything else make sure you have an up-to-date backup.


Then either consider some means of testing the hard disk or replacing it - perhaps with as I suggested an SSD.

Oct 30, 2015 5:28 AM in response to Andrew Scott

Please read this whole message before doing anything.

This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.

The purpose of the test is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party software that loads automatically at startup or login, by a peripheral device, by a font conflict, or by corruption of the file system or of certain system caches.

Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards, if applicable. Start up in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem.

Note: If FileVault is enabled in OS X 10.9 or earlier, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for further instructions.

Safe mode is much slower to start up and run than normal, with limited graphics performance, and some things won’t work at all, including sound output and Wi-Fi on certain models. The next normal startup may also be somewhat slow.

The login screen appears even if you usually login automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.

Test while in safe mode. Same problem?

After testing, restart as usual (not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of the test.

Oct 30, 2015 12:52 PM in response to John Lockwood

Hey John, do you really think upgrading to El Capitan is causing my HDD to fail? That's scary but not impossible I suppose, none of these behaviours were happening two days ago. Maybe Apple should warn people with HDDs if this is the case? What would you recommend the best way to upgrade the HDD in a Mac Mini and is there any tests we can run to check your theory before doing that?


Thanks! - Andrew.

Oct 30, 2015 1:03 PM in response to Andrew Scott

The process of upgrading to El Capitan will have involved download several gigabytes of data and worse installing and removing many more gigabytes of data likely located all over your hard disk. In other words it is a very stressful process to the hard disk in a relatively short time. So yes it could have tipped your already failing drive over the edge, I certainly have had the same thing happen when upgrading elderly hard disk based Mac mini computers.

Oct 31, 2015 5:35 PM in response to Andrew Scott

Hello Andrew,

You seem to have some serious problems with your computer. When you ran EtreCheck, it couldn't even load its English-language resources. You have quite a few system modifications. Finally, you don't seem to have a backup. Mac mini's have 2.5" hard drives like notebook computers. Those tend to die after 2-3 years. Your hard drive appears to be original. There is no definitive proof in your EtreCheck report that it has failed, but I always used to replace my hard drives after 2 years regardless. I consider them like brakes on a car. You can replace them on your own terms, or take a chance and wait for them to fail. That being said, your system is seriously scrambled. I recommend:

1) Make a backup,

2) Erase the hard drive (either the current one or a new SSD), r

3) Restore only user documents from backup,

4) Manually reinstall the latest version of any 3rd party software that you absolutely require.


If you do all of this on your current hard drive and it works fine - great! You have some time to shop for a hard drive replacement. If you encounter any problem whatsoever, the hard drive is dead and should be replaced. Personally, I would go ahead and install a new had drive and just restore to that.


Also, you have most definitely maxed out your RAM. OS X Yosemite and El Capitan are much more demanding any any previous version of OS X. Your EtreCheck report lists a number of processes that the system has killed to try to recovery RAM. This is normal behaviour, but only if you have maxed out your RAM. Considering the fact that you need to open up the machine to install a new hard drive, may as well add RAM too. Your EtreCheck report should list upgrade instructions, but that link might not work considering your other system problems.

Runs like a dead horse but not maxing CPU or RAM

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.