2011 iMac Decreasing in Performance

[mattkidd]

Im not sure whether this is simply me being paranoid but my 2011 21.5" base (i5 2.5, 12GB RAM, 500GB, 6750m) iMac which I purchased back in August feels as though the performance is decreasing and the noise emitted (probably fans) is increasing. The hard drive also sounds as though its constantly at work and sudden peaks are sometimes shown on activity monitor.

I booted up the iMac earlier and decided to straight away go into temperature monitor to check to see whether there's an abnormal readings. As shown:

The readings i am concerned about are the Power supply and the secondary heat-sink, 53 and 62. This is after less than 5 minutes of boot up? on an idle processor.

I have recently run quite a number of clean up applications such as onyx, ccleaner and Drive cleaner, which made improvements however could this actually be a hardware issue opposed to a software one. What are your thoughts?

UPDATE: After installing iStat on Dashboard the following fans speeds are shown: 1199rpm CPU, 1098RPM Hard Drive, 999rpm Optical Drive...

 

[Haugiz]

My iMac 2009 started acting up and gradually became slower as the HDD became noisier. I ran a test with the Smart Utility (http://www.volitans-software.com/smart_utility.php) and found out that drive had a lot of bad sectors and was failing. I got the drive replaced and the iMac appears as good as new, so I'd advise you to look into HDD issues.

 

[Fishrrman]

How full is the hard drive?

Has it reached 60% or more of the available capacity?

Have you considered defragmenting the drive?

I would suggest either "iDefrag" or "Drive Genius" (as defragging tools).

You can download iDefrag for free, and check the level of fragmentation on the drive (it will not actually perform a defrag until it's registered).

Others will tell you that "you don't need to defrag OS X", because the OS defrags itself automatically. This is NOT completely true.

Poor man's defrag process:
Download the FREE "CarbonCopyCloner" app, and do a full clone of your drive to an external drive. Then re-initialize your main drive, and RE-CLONE the clone "back over". All the files will be copied contiguously, and you will end up with a defragmented drive again.

There could be other things slowing you down, such as 3rd-party software that acts as a drag on the OS, etc. But I'll reckon that a defrag will indeed make it run better.

 

[NutsNGum]

Time for some SSD surgery.

 

[GGJstudios]

Performance Tips For Mac OS X

The hard drive also sounds as though its constantly at work and sudden peaks are sometimes shown on activity monitor.

If a drive is constantly active or your CPU utilization is high (possibly with increased temps and fan speed) when you're not running any major apps, check to see if Spotlight is indexing by looking at the Menu Bar icon:

(not indexing)

(indexing) (pulsing dot)​

Also, try resetting the SMC.

I have recently run quite a number of clean up applications such as onyx, ccleaner and Drive cleaner, which made improvements however could this actually be a hardware issue opposed to a software one.

You don't need "cleaner" or "maintenance" apps to keep your Mac running well, and some of these apps can do more harm than good. Some remove files/folders or unused languages or architectures, which does nothing more than free up some drive space, with the risk of deleting something important in the process.

These apps will not make your Mac run faster or more efficiently, since having stuff stored on a drive does not impact performance, unless you're running out of drive space. Some of these apps delete caches, which can hurt performance, rather than help it, since more system resources are used and performance suffers while each cache is being rebuilt.

Many of these tasks should only be done selectively to troubleshoot specific problems, not en masse as routine maintenance.

Mac OS X does a good job of taking care of itself, without the need for 3rd party software. Among other things, it has its own maintenance scripts that run silently in the background on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, without user intervention.

Five Mac maintenance myths​

 

[mattkidd]

Performance Tips For Mac OS X

If a drive is constantly active or your CPU utilization is high (possibly with increased temps and fan speed) when you're not running any major apps, check to see if Spotlight is indexing by looking at the Menu Bar icon:

Image (not indexing)
Image (indexing) (pulsing dot)​

Also, try resetting the SMC.

You don't need "cleaner" or "maintenance" apps to keep your Mac running well, and some of these apps can do more harm than good. Some remove files/folders or unused languages or architectures, which does nothing more than free up some drive space, with the risk of deleting something important in the process.

These apps will not make your Mac run faster or more efficiently, since having stuff stored on a drive does not impact performance, unless you're running out of drive space. Some of these apps delete caches, which can hurt performance, rather than help it, since more system resources are used and performance suffers while each cache is being rebuilt.

Many of these tasks should only be done selectively to troubleshoot specific problems, not en masse as routine maintenance.

Mac OS X does a good job of taking care of itself, without the need for 3rd party software. Among other things, it has its own maintenance scripts that run silently in the background on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, without user intervention.

Five Mac maintenance myths​

You know what your saying that actually makes sense to me, what have i been doing! contrary to belief for some reason I believed running such tasks and cleaning all caches every week would do my Mac a favour, obviously not. It makes perfect sense for the performance to suffer potentially as a result as it rebuilds itself, how did i not realise this!

I have to admit to using onyx to clear my caches run maintenance tasks, rebuild things all the time, as well as using tools to cut down the size of Application with the additional language files. Will the System repair itself in regards the maintenance tasks?

I have also reset the SMC, seems better in terms of fan speed... which is good and the internal drive on the iMac is only using 60GB out of 500GB and passes SMART test perfectly..

 

[GGJstudios]

Will the System repair itself in regards the maintenance tasks?

What do you mean "repair itself"?

 

[mattkidd]

What do you mean "repair itself"?

Will the system rebuild all the necessary cache files that onyx has deleted?

 

[GGJstudios]

Will the system rebuild all the necessary cache files that onyx has deleted?

Yes. Many of the cache files are application cache files, so they will rebuild the next time you run those apps. Remember, the purpose of a cache file is to improve performance, not degrade it. The only time you need to delete a cache file is when you're troubleshooting a particular problem with a particular app.

 

[tips]

Nobody answered weather the Temperatures/RPM listed in the first post are normal or not normal on startup ?.

Yes. Many of the cache files are application cache files, so they will rebuild the next time you run those apps. Remember, the purpose of a cache file is to improve performance, not degrade it. The only time you need to delete a cache file is when you're troubleshooting a particular problem with a particular app.

 

[GGJstudios]

Nobody answered weather the Temperatures/RPM listed in the first post are normal or not normal on startup ?.

Thanks, I missed that. Yes, they do seem a bit high, since the CPU/GPU are usually the hottest elements. They're not high enough to cause any great concern, though. I'd keep an eye on them, just the same.

 

[cocky jeremy]

If the heat worries you, get smcFanControl and crank the fans up a bit. I did that with my 2009 and all issues i had are now gone. Also, as far as the drive, try running Repair Disk and Repair Permissions.

 

[mattkidd]

If the heat worries you, get smcFanControl and crank the fans up a bit. I did that with my 2009 and all issues i had are now gone. Also, as far as the drive, try running Repair Disk and Repair Permissions.

Hmm I might have to give this a try, I decided to install istat pro to further monitor things at its reporting that my power supply under idle use is at 77? Surely this isn't right? With the GPU at 60 and CPU at 50, does this sound healthy for 3 hours usage in idle?

 

[GGJstudios]

Hmm I might have to give this a try, I decided to install istat pro to further monitor things at its reporting that my power supply under idle use is at 77? Surely this isn't right? With the GPU at 60 and CPU at 50, does this sound healthy for 3 hours usage in idle?

I've seen other reports about the power supply being at a bit higher temp than the CPU/GPU in iMacs, so I'm beginning to think it's normal. 77C is certainly not high enough to cause serious concern. Apple doesn't publish "normal" temps because they can vary widely, depending on the configuration and workload on your system. Generally speaking, you don't need any 3rd party app to manage your fans, as your iMac will manage them quite well natively.

 

[cocky jeremy]

Hmm I might have to give this a try, I decided to install istat pro to further monitor things at its reporting that my power supply under idle use is at 77? Surely this isn't right? With the GPU at 60 and CPU at 50, does this sound healthy for 3 hours usage in idle?

My issue wasn't with the actual heat itself, it was the lack of ventilation in the back of my iMac (Where the hot air blows out) due to dust. I sprayed that out, turned up smcFanControl and i rarely have issues now. I do, however, think my CPU is starting to die, which might also be an issue. The heat you're saying you have doesn't seem too bad. My iMac idles at about 95 F.

 

[GGJstudios]

My iMac idles at about 95 F.

That's quite normal.

 

[jhencken]

where does one get the "normal range" data for this sort of thing?

I don't disbelieve you, but wonder where you get your figures of what's normal or not. Conversations with Apple today frustrated me totally in terms of finding out what temps the CPU, HDDs, etc., are safe to run at.

That's quite normal.

 

[GGJstudios]

I don't disbelieve you, but wonder where you get your figures of what's normal or not. Conversations with Apple today frustrated me totally in terms of finding out what temps the CPU, HDDs, etc., are safe to run at.

The Intel processors used in Macs are designed to automatically shut down to prevent damage if they truly overheat. CPU Tjmax = 105C (221F), GPU Tjmax = 100C (212F) on i3, i5, i7 processors. (Source: Intel)

If you're not already using it, iStat Pro (free) or iStat Menus ($16) will give you accurate readings of your temps and fan speeds, among other things.

Unless there is a rare defect in a Mac, most temps are well within the normal operating range, considering the workload being put on it. Websites with Flash content, games and other multimedia apps will put higher demand on the CPU/GPU, generating more heat. This is normal. If you're constantly putting high demands on your system, such as gaming or other multimedia tasks, expect temps to rise and fans to spin up accordingly. It's just your Mac doing its job to maintain temps within the normal range.

It is also quite normal for your Mac to become extremely hot to the touch during intensive operations. The aluminum body transfers heat more effectively than other materials used in computer casings, so you will feel the heat more. This doesn't indicate that it's overheating and will not harm the computer to be hot to the touch.

Your fans are always on when your Mac is on, spinning at a minimum of 2000 rpm (for MBPs) or 1800 rpm (for MBAs, MBs and minis). iMacs have 3 fans with minimum speeds in the 800-1200 range. They will spin faster as needed to keep temps at a safe level.

If your fans are spinning up without increased heat, try resetting the SMC.
(PRAM/NVRAM has nothing to do with these issues, so resetting it will not help.)

The intake and exhaust vents are in the back of the computer near the hinge on all Mac notebooks (except the new MBP with retina display, which has intake vents along the sides at the bottom). The iMac vent is a slot on the back near the top of the computer. Make sure the vents remain unblocked to allow your computer to perform at its best.

Learn about the fans in your Mac
Apple Portables: Operating temperature

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