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iMac Suddenly Extremely Slow!

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SawceBaws

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 1, 2011
66
0
Well, I've had my iMac since August, and it's been working fine. I've been doing plenty of editing, browsing, etc. It's a Mid 2011 27' i7 with 4GB of Ram, and a 1TB HDD.

Today I was playing some music in iTunes, and I noticed that the temperature of the mac was at 50 degrees c. I waited a while, and suddenly iTunes began to freeze. No biggie, I quit iTunes and life went on.

Tonight, the same thing happened, but now, it seems the iMac is permanently slowed down. The temperature is back to normal (30 Degrees), but everything is super slow and freezes all the time. I can't open an application or a few pictures without it freezing with the spinning beach ball, and me ultimately having to do a hard restart...only to find that the problem still persists.

So, just to clarify, my iMac was working perfectly fine, and now suddenly, everything is lagging and freezing, no matter how many times I restart it. Im insanely annoyed. I just turned the iMac off to see if it's fixed itself by tomorrow.

I'd really appreciate advice. Please, help!
 
mr.steevo

mr.steevo

macrumors 65816
Jul 21, 2004
1,411
940
Calling Apple Care will probably result in you having to take it in.

My guess is the hard drive is failing and needs to be replaced. It happens.
 
heimbachae

heimbachae

macrumors regular
Aug 1, 2011
151
1
is that degrees celcius? otherwise i'm gonna have to ask how you do that because my 27" never runs anywhere near that cool.
 
S

SawceBaws

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 1, 2011
66
0
mr.steevo said:
Calling Apple Care will probably result in you having to take it in.

My guess is the hard drive is failing and needs to be replaced. It happens.
Click to expand...

Yes, exactly. The iMac's literally become unusable, even when I completely deleted all data from the HDD and restored the OS.

What's more is that when I tried to run Disk Utility (edit to clarify: I ran Disk Utility from the OS X Install DVD), and tried to "verify and repair" my disk, it said that "it could not repair this disk", which pretty much means my HDD is defective.

I called an Apple Authorized Reseller (only thing close to an Apple Store here where I live), and they told me that indeed it seem like a hard drive failure. They said it would take a maximum of 48 hours for them to replace it. It's still under warranty of course, but I have to pay a service charge...oh well.

As I mentioned, the iMac is completely unusable now, with the cursor freezing and the finder giving me errors when I try to open it. :(
 
Last edited:
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Gurutech

macrumors 6502
Jan 22, 2006
268
2
If it's under Applecare, you don't have to pay any "service fee".
It should be totally free.
 
Taz Mangus

Taz Mangus

macrumors 604
Mar 10, 2011
7,815
3,504
SawceBaws said:
Yes, exactly. The iMac's literally become unusable, even when I completely deleted all data from the HDD and restored the OS.

What's more is that when I tried to run Disk Utility (which took me 20 minutes to open), and tried to "verify and repair" my disk, it said that "it could not repair this disk", which pretty much means my HDD is defective.

I called an Apple Authorized Reseller (only thing close to an Apple Store here where I live), and they told me that indeed it seem like a hard drive failure. They said it would take a maximum of 48 hours for them to replace it. It's still under warranty of course, but I have to pay a service charge...oh well.

As I mentioned, the iMac is completely unusable now, with the cursor freezing and the finder giving me errors when I try to open it. :(
Click to expand...

It sounds like the reseller is trying to make some extra money off of warantee work. I would call AppleCare and explain that the reseller wants to charge you a service fee.
 
S

SawceBaws

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 1, 2011
66
0
But are you guys completely sure its a HDD problem? I don't think its the logic board, it's not got any of the symptoms.

Really frustrated, why MY iMac...2 weeks old!
 
derbothaus

derbothaus

macrumors 601
Jul 17, 2010
4,093
30
SawceBaws said:
What's more is that when I tried to run Disk Utility (which took me 20 minutes to open), and tried to "verify and repair" my disk, it said that "it could not repair this disk", which pretty much means my HDD is defective.
Click to expand...

You can't ever run the "Repair Disk" option while booted in the OS. You have to be booted from DVD or external OS. You can Repair Permissions but not the hard disk. It absolutely does not mean your HDD is defective.
 
S

SawceBaws

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 1, 2011
66
0
derbothaus said:
You can't ever run the "Repair Disk" option while booted in the OS. You have to be booted from DVD or external OS. You can Repair Permissions but not the hard disk. It absolutely does not mean your HDD is defective.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I ran it while I was booted from the DVD. It told me that It couldn't repair the disk, and that I had to erase everything and reinstall the OS, which I did, but it was still the same when I reinstalled.

I'm 99% sure it's a HDD problem.
 
derbothaus

derbothaus

macrumors 601
Jul 17, 2010
4,093
30
SawceBaws said:
Yeah, I ran it while I was booted from the DVD. It told me that It couldn't repair the disk, and that I had to erase everything and reinstall the OS, which I did, but it was still the same when I reinstalled.

I'm 99% sure it's a HDD problem.
Click to expand...

You must have the Seagate?
 
C

Catalystgrrl

macrumors newbie
Jan 24, 2013
2
0
Thank You!!

Turns out our entire department bought these bunk iMacs and are due new hard drives. Good thing this happened to me today or I wouldn't have found this forum and alerted everyone!

Especially with the recall deadline of April 12, 2013.

Thank you so much to the person who posted the recall link. Hope karma repays you in kind~!

( :
 
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