2014 iMac remarkably slow

[carfac]

Hey....

So I bought a used 2014 iMac for my wife. She just reads Facebook and emails, so nothing heavy or groundshaking. Bought it from a local that sells other things.... this was their old POS, they upgraded so I just bought an old machine that would not have been horribly used...

Anyway, it has always seems slow. It was wiped when we bought it, it ran a while (like a day) and we thought it was too slow, so I wiped it, reinstalled.... and it seemed OK... not great but OK....

But really it is just a horrid dog. From a clean power up, clicking on "About this Mac" to the window opening... 7 seconds. Newly started machine, click on Chrome to Chrome opening, 21 seconds....

A dog?

I just want this to run snappier, and I feel it should. OK to reinstall OS, just dont know macs all that well and I dont have a clue what to do....

Attached is image of the task manager during this test- NOTHING is pegging....

Big Sur 11.2.3 21" 1.4 Ghz i5 8 GB 1600 DDR3

 

[glenthompson]

That's an underpowered machine but should still run a bit faster than you report. Without more information it's a bit hard to identify where the bottleneck might be. Without much else open, there shouldn't be a memory issue. CPU load isn't high and I get better response from my dual core Air. It likely has a very slow hard drive and the more recent versions of MacOS don't run their best on spinning drives. Swapping the drive for a SSD is a bit of a task. You might consider dropping back to an easier version of MacOS.

 

[casperes1996]

Big Sur 11.2.3 21" 1.4 Ghz i5 8 GB 1600 DDR3

I'm terribly sorry, but it sounds like you bought one of the iMac that never should've been.
They were just horrendous value and when they were new, just paying a smidge more could get computers that were 2-3-4x faster

Anyways, as for what you can do with it, the main limitation is the 5400RPM hard drive. The easiest solution is to get an external SSD and install the OS on that. Should make it substantially faster, but not a powerhouse or anything. The CPU is the same type you might find in ultra-slim laptops

 

[ian87w]

Hey....

So I bought a used 2014 iMac for my wife. She just reads Facebook and emails, so nothing heavy or groundshaking. Bought it from a local that sells other things.... this was their old POS, they upgraded so I just bought an old machine that would not have been horribly used...

Anyway, it has always seems slow. It was wiped when we bought it, it ran a while (like a day) and we thought it was too slow, so I wiped it, reinstalled.... and it seemed OK... not great but OK....

But really it is just a horrid dog. From a clean power up, clicking on "About this Mac" to the window opening... 7 seconds. Newly started machine, click on Chrome to Chrome opening, 21 seconds....

A dog?

I just want this to run snappier, and I feel it should. OK to reinstall OS, just dont know macs all that well and I dont have a clue what to do....

Attached is image of the task manager during this test- NOTHING is pegging....

Big Sur 11.2.3 21" 1.4 Ghz i5 8 GB 1600 DDR3

Probably because it still uses a hard drive. If you are adventurous enough, consider upgrading the drive to SSD. It will give it a brand new life. I have a base i5 2012 mac mini, and it performs fine with an SSD, handles everything from office and web browsing without issues.

Also, stop using Chrome. https://chromeisbad.com

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

As suggested the 1.4GHz with a slow old 5400 notebook drive was bought out to compete with cheapie PC laptops. Get a Samsung EVO SSD and connect externally via either TB or USB3. The speed of these is about the same, however TB boots miuch quicker.

 

[carfac]

Thanks alot! I am not hot on surgery.... so maybe I'll try an external just to see...

I was not expecting to use this for Photoshop or anything, but I had hoped for something a bit more spunky!

At least I did not pay much....

 

[esphil]

Replace the drive with a SSD. I still have a i3 2010 imac that I put a SSD in and it still runs fine as a daily even though I have a mbp from last year and a 8 core pc with 32gb of ram.

 

[1madman1]

I'll add to the echo chamber and say get an SSD. Modern versions of MacOS are painful on an HDD. As you've a model that's sealed together with glue you'd need to get an external one.

Another possible factor is that the cooling could be clogged up and the system throttling due to heat. Unfortunately not much you can do for that other than bringing it to a repair shop.

 

[Yebubbleman]

Hey....

So I bought a used 2014 iMac for my wife. She just reads Facebook and emails, so nothing heavy or groundshaking. Bought it from a local that sells other things.... this was their old POS, they upgraded so I just bought an old machine that would not have been horribly used...

Anyway, it has always seems slow. It was wiped when we bought it, it ran a while (like a day) and we thought it was too slow, so I wiped it, reinstalled.... and it seemed OK... not great but OK....

But really it is just a horrid dog. From a clean power up, clicking on "About this Mac" to the window opening... 7 seconds. Newly started machine, click on Chrome to Chrome opening, 21 seconds....

A dog?

I just want this to run snappier, and I feel it should. OK to reinstall OS, just dont know macs all that well and I dont have a clue what to do....

Attached is image of the task manager during this test- NOTHING is pegging....

Big Sur 11.2.3 21" 1.4 Ghz i5 8 GB 1600 DDR3

It's likely due to the fact that you (likely) have a 5400RPM 2.5" hard drive in that machine. The 1.4GHz Core i5 is the same that existed on the lower-end 2014 MacBook Airs, which is to say that it's not the fastest CPU of its day, but perfectly serviceable provided you don't have any other obvious bottlenecks (such as the aforementioned 5400RPM 2.5" hard drive). I'm sure an authorized service provider in your area could toss in a 2.5" SSD that would more than make the difference (and allow Big Sur to actually run smoothly). Though, I'm not sure what your budget is on making that iMac serviceable.

 

[Juicy Box]

The specs are fine. Get an SSD, external would be fine.

It will be a night and day performance.


APFS has been horrible for HDDs and Fusion Drives, and it has only gotten worse with new OS versions. Get an external SSD, a 1TB for less than $100, and it will feel like a totally different Mac. You can use the OEM drive as a bootable backup, extra storage, or just ignore it.

 

[carfac]

Im rolling it back to the Mavericks.... see what that does.

 

[DeltaMac]

I just upgraded a 2017 21.5-inch, replacing a HDD with an internal SSD, and upgraded the RAM from 8GB to 16GB.
(If it belonged to me, I would have gone with 32GB, but my friend didn't want to spend more!)
Quite a job to get there, but the results are a responsive computer, compared to, well, not so responsive.
And, the iMac is actually useful now - everything just snaps...
People pay me to do this stuff, otherwise I would suggest not doing the worst part, which is the RAM. I've replaced a few hard drives, but my first time to go "full inside" to swap memory.

 

[carfac]

Well Mavericks was too old. Upgraded to High Sierra and all seems to be good.

OMG is nmy wife happy- THANK YOU for helping me get there! Makes my life easier when MRS is happy!

OK, one last question.... I cannot get her iPhone or Ipad to be recognized with iTunes in High Sierra... What version of MacOS will I have to go to to get iPhone 12's and iPads running 14.5 to be recognized with.... and if I upgrade to that version, will I be back to super slow OS?

 

[DeltaMac]

I have no doubt that your 2014 iMac has the original hard drive, which is the main problem.
If you continue on with the original 5400 rpm hard drive for your system boot drive, then, yes, your speed will not improve.
One way forward is to use an external SSD. That will give you the performance that you hope your iMac should have.
(Better, but much more challenging to do, is to replace the internal HDD with an SATA SSD (solid state drive)

Your 2014 21.5-inch iMac is stuck at 8GB memory, which is soldered on the board.

 

[carfac]

I have no doubt that your 2014 iMac has the original hard drive, which is the main problem.
If you continue on with the original 5400 rpm hard drive for your system boot drive, then, yes, your speed will not improve.
One way forward is to use an external SSD. That will give you the performance that you hope your iMac should have.
(Better, but much more challenging to do, is to replace the internal HDD with an SATA SSD (solid state drive)

Your 2014 21.5-inch iMac is stuck at 8GB memory, which is soldered on the board.

Thanks delta.....

Well the move to Mavicks and then to High Sierra made a VAST improvement! I was able to run updates from there and get an itunes that works, too.... Like I said, this was just for Mrs. carfac to surf Facebook and Houzz! So it works for her, and she is happy!

I told her we could make it faster with an SSD, and I shopped for a 5ooGB at bestBuy at 70 bucks, but she is happy where it is, so I guess PROBLEM SOLVED....

I will add the external in 6 months when she complains agaiN!


Thanks again for all your input, I really mean that!

 

[Fishrrman]

The iMac probably has a platter-based hard drive inside.
This means... it's going to be SLOW.

You can make a GREAT improvement in speed by adding an SSD.

BUT... you DON'T have to pry it open to install one. Just plug in a USB3 SSD, and "clone over" the contents of the internal drive to the new SSD.

Do this, and I predict that you and your wife will be quite happy with the speed boost. Get one the same size as the internal drive.

You can buy a "pre-assembled, ready to use" SSD such as a Samsung t7.

Or... get a "bare" SSD (could be either 2.5" form factor or nvme form factor), and get a USB3 enclosure for it. Something like this:

Inateck 2.5 Inch USB 3.0 Hard Drive Enclosure External SATA HDD and SSD Case - Optimized for 9.5mm 7mm 2.5" SSD, Tool Free (FE2002)

Attention: package contains an extra foam sticker for 7 mm thickness hard drives, you should attach the sticker to the original one inside the lid before you insert the hard drive; 12.5 mm hard drives might be incompatible with this product. 70% faster than traditional USB 3.0 With UASP transfer ...

www.amazon.com

If you choose an nvme bare SSD, then get a USB3.1 gen2 enclosure for it (many available). These have USBc ports, but just use a USBc-to-USBa connecting cable, and it will run fine.

Once you have the SSD, plug it in and use disk utility to format/erase it.
Choose "Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition format".

Now the drive is ready to be "cloned over".

I suggest that you try CarbonCopyCloner, which is FREE to download and use for 30 days. Doing things "my way" COSTS YOU NOTHING.

The version of CCC you want is version 5.
DON'T download version 6, it's for Catalina and Big Sur ONLY, I believe.

CCC is remarkably easy to use, just accept the defaults.
IF CCC asks you if you want to clone the recovery partition as well, YES, you want to do this.

Good luck.