Massive computer slowdown

[aplumpton]

<p>Well, massive is perhaps overstating it, but my iMac 24 has really slowed down and in most operations and in various software use the colored basketball is twiddling on a Michael Jordan raised finger. Operation is very very slow. A call to the local store service grouo suggested that I need a new hard drive, although the hard drive utilities test did not show any malfunctiions. Have any other Mac users (or non-Mac users) had this problem, and is there a simple cause/ fix other than replacing the hard drive?</p>

<p> </p>

[SCL]

<p>I use a PC, not a Mac, but I defragment the HDDs 1-2 times/week. It keeps things from slowing down. How often do you defragment your drive/s?</p>

[dave_s]

<p>I'm not a Mac user either, but do you wipe your computer free of malware regularly?</p>

[michael_elenko]

OS-X has built in defragging that runs in the background, so that is mostly a non-issue. Your hard drive may be the

culprit if you have less than 10% capacity remaining. What are the facts there?

 

Why don't you run the Activity Monitor utility which will show you how much CPU power each running app is sucking?

There are menu commands that display various processes. You can also select problematic apps and force quit them.

(View menu>quit process).

 

Perhaps RAM is the problem, specifically too litle of it. A key marker for that is to select the bottom tab>System

Memory. If the quantity of page outs exceeds the page ins, then you need mo' RAM.

 

Usually your problem is very solvable.

 

ME

[aplumpton]

<p>Thanks guys, and especially for the specific MAC comments from Michael. A you may guess, Michael, my computer savvy is weak. I did know that defragmenting is an automatic function of OS X and I did a utility check on the hard drive which came up negative (no apparent HD problems), but beyond that my little MAC book that came with the instrument does not tell me much about what to look for when there are problems.</p>

<p>The problem is more general than that associated with a few possible software problems. I will find the Activity Monitor utility and also check what you say in your last suggestion about RAM. I wouldn't have thought though that much RAM would be needed for simple everyday operations of the computer which are all running very slow.</p>

<p>But I am encouraged by your suggestions that maybe it is not the hard drive itself (the tech said it can be, even if it checks out OK on the HD test utility) and something that can be solved otherwise.</p>

[howard_m]

<p>since you admit to being a bit non-'savvy'.......</p>

<p>check how many programs are actually running. Mac's are different than PC's in that you can close all the windows of a program but it's still loaded and running (vs. a PC where when you close the last window, the program dies). That can cause you to max out the amount of RAM in the machine and a process called swapping which really slows the machine down</p>

[williamchuttonjr]

<p>1/ reboot</p>

<p>2/ Activity Monitor is your friend. It will tell you if your hard drive is full (90% is full), if you have a runaway program (cpu monitor)<br>

3/ there are UNIX housekeeping utilities Macs run in the background. Theses traditionally run in the middle of the night. If you reconfigure your power saving setting to keep you Mac awake for a week, the utilities will run automatically. There are apps to make them run on demand as well.</p>

[john_demott]

<p>When you check the Activity Monitor, look at System Memory--specifically the amount of Free Memory (RAM). When free memory gets very low, then the computer gets very slow. Two photo related applications that I have found can eat up free memory and slow my iMac are Adobe Bridge and Nik filters for Photoshop. If you have Bridge set to allow a very large cache file, it can suck up a lot of RAM. The Nik filters (which I otherwise love) seem to handle memory very poorly and if I use them intensively, I soon see the pinwheel. This appears to be a problem specific to Nik operating under Photoshop, since I don't have a problem with Nik filters in Nikon Capture NX2.</p>

[Tim_Lookingbill]

Google your issue and see how many others are having the same problem and you'll find each have specific situations that make it almost impossible to narrow down unless details are given about each system like Ram brand and how many modules installed, particular apps running and whether they start to eat up resources and Ram space, video buffer overruns caused by malware from streaming media, corrupted prefs and caches.

<p>

I found several solutions during my search with one solved by whether an HP or Brother printer was attached. Never thought that ever to be the cause. See what I mean? It's the same with PC's so this isn't a Mac vs PC issue either.

<p>

When my 2004 20" G5 iMac just shut off as if the electricity was knocked out, I had to do the same searches and found I had to get very specific about what I was doing at that time on my iMac and whether the fans rev'ed up, video went funny, and so on and so on. It could've been the logic board or the power supply. I went with the power supply and solved it without an Apple Genius to help me.

[Tim_Lookingbill]

Check out the link below showing with great detail (and a bit of humor) how a guy troubleshooted his MacBook Pro when it kept crashing resulting in the screen going black which is exactly what happened to my used iMac I bought in 2007 that exhibited the same symptoms "sort of" and eventually died, but this time replacing the power supply didn't work. I had to assume the video on the logic board went out which requires a replacement of the entire logic board because that's what the MacBook Pro guy ended up doing.

<p>

But at least he documented a blow by blow troubleshooting routine anyone can learn from.

 

<a href="http://www.embracingchaos.com/2011/05/macbook-crashes-kernel-panics-and-coping-with-an-apple-genius.html">MacBook Pro Crashes, Kernel Panics and Coping with an Apple "Genius"</a>

[keith_b1]

<p>You should ascertain the amount of RAM in your computer: 512MB=too small. 2GB=maybe OK. 4GB=better, etc. <br>

Built-in to your OS: <strong>Disc Utility</strong> (repair permissions, repair disc).<br>

From the outside world: <strong> Disc Warrior</strong>(rebuild directory),<strong> Applejack</strong>(repair permissions plus other stuff I can't describe), <strong>Drive Genius</strong>(can actually defrag HDD, even though it's not supposed to matter as much with a Mac).</p>

[mark_miller2]

<p>I started having problems on my PC last spring, slowing down considerably, getting stuck as though RAM was full, and eventually re-booting. Only two years old, almost all the online discussions and advice I read mentioned possible viruses, RAM problems, drivers gone haywire, perhaps severe hardware issues. I was considering buying a new computer rather than throwing money after iffy repairs or solutions. Then one site mentioned opening the computer to look for dust. And that was it; the fan to keep the motherboard cool was also pulling in dust, which in turn formed a blanket of insulation! The shut down was a protective response to prevent over-heating.Blew it off and cleaned it well, and the system runs like new again. So, dust could be one possibility in such situations. MM</p>

[bieg]

<p>Go into the disc utility and repair your permissions.</p>

[jens_g.r._benthien]

<p>Arthur, download Onyx for Mac OSX here:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.titanium.free.fr/">Titanium Software : Onyx</a></p>

<p>Run it, run all options, especially the 'Repair Permissions'.</p>

<p>Reboot. Now all your problems should be gone, unless Onyx displayed some error messages.</p>

<p>Onyx is free.</p>

<p> </p>

[colin turner]

<p>No.1 Back it up.</p>

[brad_smith8]

<p>Slowdowns on any system can occur if there is less than about 15% free hard drive space.</p>

[aplumpton]

<p>Memory, RAM (2 GB, and not being used more than 50%) cpu use, pages entered versus pages out, disk space, etc, all seem to be OK when I used the MAC activity monitor. Thanks all for the ideas to date, which I will read more closely tomorrow and get around to applying. Colin, yes, I have a Time Machine that continually backs everything up, as the worry about disk failure is still prominent in my mind and back-up is a small price to pay for security of data.</p>

[mark_poseley]

<p><em><strong>No.1 Back it up.</strong></em><br>

<em><strong> </strong></em><br>

+1 to this!</p>

<p>Before you attempt anything you don't understand about repairing file permissions, running fsk (a UNIX defrag utility), or Any third party stuff to try and fix issues, make sure your critical data is duplicated somewhere safe.</p>

[zack_zoll]

<p>Mark makes an excellent point about dust. Also, is this a workstation, or a general-use computer? Back when I only had a desktop, I used to use it for everything - browsing, watching movies, games (though only one on the machine at a time), etc.</p>

<p>Then I got a laptop, and totally removed the desktop from the internet. There is a wireless receiver around here somewhere for doing updates on recently installed software, but I can't tell you how much of a performance difference it made. I didn't even reformat it; I just uninstalled/deleted everything that wasn't work related (I kept notepad, calculator, and the dvd player), and then ran a defrag. It now runs CS4 with 60 gig files faster than when it was new and it ran and old copy of CS2 with 30 gig files.</p>

[stevenseelig]

<p>Two most likely issues<br>

1. Too many programs are running. Try closing all programs and reboot.<br>

2. Hard drive is too full. Right click or ctrl-click on your hard drive icon and see how big your hard drive is and how much is available.<br>

I would also back-up before doing anything drastic.</p>

 

[Tim_Lookingbill]

Don't think this was mentioned, but you might also try creating a new user account and see if it affects speed. You'll have to figure out the meaning of any changes on your own because I've never had to do that level of troubleshooting with regards to messing with software. It boils down to whether it's software or hardware related and I'm pretty sure you've been given enough troubleshooting tips in this thread to keep you busy for at least a week.

<p>

Oh, I almost forgot, try throwing the kitchen sink at it. Hey, just a bit of levity.

<p>

And it would be very helpful and considerate to all if you updated your results here if and when you sort this out.

[photo5]

<p>I usually run a few apps at the same time and found that when I upgraded from 4gb to 8gb of RAM my iMac was much snappier. Ram is so cheap right now, there is no excuse not to upgrade. Most of the computers I own have 8gb (except for the laptops).</p>

[pholcus_phalangioides]

<p>First, as others have already said, BACK UP IMMEDIATELY. Twice if possible, onto two different drives, with two different backup programs. E.g. Time Machine on one, and Carbon Copy Cloner to the other. (Different software has different bugs, and may have different problems with a failing drive, so redundancy for all steps of a chain is a good idea. whenever possible).The 200-300 it cost to have two backup drives is nothing compared to the pain of losing your main drive then finding out that the backup you thought you had has major problems, too.<br /><br />A dying drive is a definite possibility, I see it at least a dozen times a year in a large academic department, and a couple of times at home. Ovorall slowdowns are often the only symptom until the drive becomes 'suddenly' unrecoverable. The slowdown is caused because it starts taking many attempts to read/write a block successfully. It eventually succeeds, so you don't see an error message (not because the OS can't be bothered to tell you, but because the drive can't be bothered to tell the operating system.)<br />Disk Utility's Verify Disk function looks for directory damage, not hardware problems. The SMART Status: Verified (Get Info on a drive from within Disk Utility) is basically useless--you need to look at the full SMART data on the drive. This is easy if it's an internal drive, usually impossible for an external drive. Download SMART Utility, http://www.volitans-software.com/smart_utility.php (It has a 30 day demo before you have to buy it.) It will show you if the drive is getting a lot of recoverable read/write errors, how many hours the drive has been in service, the temperature it's running at, and more. If that's ok, you can start trying other things. If it's not ok, --stop using the system-- until you have a new drive to clone to. Clone the current drive onto the new one, swap them, then keep the old one safe for awhile as insurance. I prefer Carbon Copy Cloner http://www.bombich.com/ but there are plenty of others such as Chronosync and SuperDuper. Beware of most freebies; many don't truly copy everything on the disk (Macs have some complex file metadata that needs to be dealt with properly.)<br />Other things:<br />OS X wants to have more free disk space than you might think--my rule of thumb is at least as much as you have memory plus 10 gigs.<br />A corrupted Spotlight index can cause Spotlight to constantly rebuild it, hogging drive activity. In Activity monitor, look for the mds process. It should only be actively doing things when you make changes to files; if it keeps cranking away, there's a problem. There are a number of utilities that can delete the index so it can start from scratch. if it still has problems, look for .mdimporter plugins in /Library/Spotlight and youruser/Library/Spotlight. Some third party ones are buggy. Move them all into a holding folder, reboot and see if that helps. If it does, check for updated versions, or live without.<br />Buggy programs can bog things down by hogging memory or cpu time. Look in Activity Monitor to see if anything is taking up more than it seems it should be, especially if it's supposed to be idle. Look at the Disk Activity section--if you aren't doing anything such as file copies or downloads, there should be very little activity showing.<br />Try going into the Energy Saver System Preferences, and uncheck 'Put Drives to sleep when possible'. It can take an annoying amount of time to wake drives up. Modern drives can be hard to keep awake though, they think they know best. If this is the issue, you can probably find a utility to keep them awake.<br />Repairing permissions has become a superstition left over from the very early os x days. There are still a few things that it can fix, but it's rare. It won't hurt anything, but don't expect anything of it other than thinking time.<br />Bad memory is more likely to cause outright errors and kernel panics than beachballs.<br />Good luck, and backup backup backup! (and that's to everyone :-))<br />Pholcid</p>

[aplumpton]

<p>First, thanks to all for the sugestions received to date. It is reassuriung that so many took an interests in my little dilemna. I had started some of the analysis suggested, while minimising the iMac use and instead using the laptop for most activity. My OS is 10.5.8, in answer to Lupo's question.</p>

<p>Then I read Pholcus's very recent and well-detailed analysis and suggestions, and downloaded a trial of the Smart utiltity he mentioned to diagnose the electro-mechanical condition of my hard drive. The initial response is that there are three trouble spots and the disc is in the process of dying. I have backed up everything on Apple's Time Machine, but will have that done again at the service centre (hard drive replacement) to be sure nothing gets lost.</p>

<p>Thanks to Pholcus and a warm welcome to Photo.Net. Your help was particularly pertinent. There was a test feature at the bottom of the Smart utility disc analysis, but I mistakenly pressed the long test rather than the short one (difference of 154 minutes versus 2 minutes, which I found out later) so I simply aborted the test (through computer shutdown) and don't know whether it is necessary to really do that test, as the program had already indicated the disc problem. </p>

[pholcus_phalangioides]

<p>I'm glad it helped. As for the long test, it's useful for new drives (quality control these days is terrible for all of the manufacturers), and when you're suspicious of problems but the short test doesn't show anything. And maybe periodically when you're wanting to procrastinate on something else...</p>