Late 2009 iMac freezing repetitively

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Level 1

48 points

Late 2009 iMac freezing repetitively

Hi,

I have a late 2009 iMac that will hang upwards of 5 minutes at a time. I do some light final cut work, have about 150gb of free space on the 1tb internal harddrive, and have already done the whole restarting thing but this problem occurs frequently while using all programs (safari, final cut, photos, etc.)

Currently, the computer is frozen and has been frozen for almost 20 minutes, but there have been hangs in the past where it has been stuck for about 5 minutes but will unfreeze on its own or while trying to force quit something and all the actions that I tried to do while it was frozen will happen very quickly and all at once while it all “unlocks”.

What is the best course of action? I have all my data backed up on a time machine, and I am working with media off an external drive. This freezing problem has been happening for a couple of weeks. Do I need to do a fresh install of OS X or do I need to free up more space from the internal hard drive?

I can still move the mouse, but nothing is clickable.

Running El Capitan

Thanks

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)

Posted on Nov 23, 2015 4:36 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

SeaPapp

Level 7

26,486 points

Nov 23, 2015 7:19 PM in response to jchrisman14

Sounds like your hard drive has failed. You should run the Apple Hardware Test from disc 2 of the original gray install set.

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Answer 2

jchrisman14 Author

Level 1

48 points

Nov 23, 2015 7:09 PM in response to SeaPapp

Thanks for your response. I tried to do what you said, but the dvd drive will not keep the disc. When I put the disc in, I can hear that the drive is trying to process the disc, but after a minute of this, the drive automatically ejects the disc on its own. What do I do?

Also as a side note, is Clean My Mac a bad program? I'm troubleshooting this iMac for my dad and he had this installed.

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Answer 3

morrispe

Level 4

1,224 points

Nov 23, 2015 8:56 PM in response to jchrisman14

Clean My Mac is unnecessary and likely to do more harm than good. It should be uninstalled.

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Answer 4

SeaPapp

Level 7

26,486 points

Nov 24, 2015 4:00 AM in response to jchrisman14

Clean My Mac is a horrible piece of malware, it needs to be removed per the developers instructions.

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Answer 5

jchrisman14 Author

Level 1

48 points

Nov 24, 2015 8:33 AM in response to SeaPapp

Ok so the Clean My Mac program has been removed, but has the damage been done already? Is permanent damage done to the system? How does it hurt the system exactly?

Also, don't know if I can run the Apple hardware test because the superdrive won't read the disc. It just ejects it after a minute of trying to process it. Does the superdrive need to be fixed too?

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Answer 6

SeaPapp

Level 7

26,486 points

Nov 24, 2015 11:37 AM in response to jchrisman14

Clean My Mac will sometimes identify system files as needing to be "cleaned" and remove them leaving the system unstable or unusable. First, is there a backup of this system? You need one before you should proceed. IF the hard drive is bad it's a matter of time, and while reinstalling OS X is almost always glitch free anything can happen. Much info is missing in order to offer advice beyond running AHT. Would you consider running EtreCheck http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck and post it's result here?

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Answer 7

jchrisman14 Author

Level 1

48 points

Nov 27, 2015 11:08 PM in response to SeaPapp

Took it in to the Apple Store. Hard drive failed, which is the 2nd time for this machine.

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Answer 8

SeaPapp

Level 7

26,486 points

Nov 28, 2015 4:26 AM in response to jchrisman14

All hard drives eventually fail, although I'll admit having two in one mac is just plain bad luck. Be thankful you were smart enough to keep backups, many people aren't. Did you have them check the SuperDrive also?

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