Random Slowdowns on iMac Al 20"

[Bendy Walker]

My Mac keeps randomly freezing on certain apps, forcing me to 'Force Quit' them. I've got no idea what's causing it. I have 4Gb RAM, so I can't imagine it's because I have too many apps open.

Also, my external HDD started making really loud fan noises recently, although it seems to have calmed down a bit.

Any suggestions as to what is causing this?

 

[toolbox]

Can you run disk utility and run the repair permissions option? See if that finds anything that is bad. Is your external hdd connected all the time? That also might be the cause, the mac trying to index it?

 

[Bendy Walker]

I'm running the Repair Disk Permissions thing now.

And yes, my external HDD is connected all the time. I used to use it as a Time Machine, but stopped after I got annoyed with the constant whirring it made every hour when it backed up. Now I just stick all my films and TV shows on there.

EDIT: Okay. I've never actually run this before. And it seems to have found a TON of errors or whatever you wanna call them. Is this normal? The list is huge.

Should I run this repair thing on a regular basis?

 

[toolbox]

Yes you should!, thats one step to keeping your mac running nicely

 

[Bendy Walker]

Haha, okay

Well, I tried to shut down my Mac last night, and it seemed to get stuck and wouldn't shut down.

As soon as I removed the power cable from my external HDD (essentially disconnecting it from my Mac), the Mac shut down instantly. So I'm guessing the external is the true culprit here.

 

[Sapphire08]

I just wanted to say thank you to this thread - I also have a 20" Alu Imac and have been getting more and more frustrated with the same problems as Bendy Walker.

One of the first things I did when I bought my imac 19 days ago was find an external drive to use as a time machine and its been connected ever since. I always noticed the problem seems to occur after my machine had been sleep and when ever I looked at the time machine status in the menu bar it seemed to be always going round??.

I removed itunes (as I thought that was the culprit) and I started it in safe mode last night to try and see what the problem was, all was ok, My machine had slept thru the night after finding and reading this thread this morning I checked on my time machine preferences and it stated last back up 9.57am - it was running and the status bar just said 'preparing....'
this was at 11.40am ie it should have done its hourly back up at 10.57??? so it had been running well preparing for how long!!! I decided that this must have been the problem all along. I ejected the drive and tried a restart - It was instantanous - wahoo!!! So will use my imac today just to completely prove the point but I bet it was that drive all along!! So thank you for giving me the inspiration to look into it.

If my imac restarts fine next time I ask it and my applications don't hang I will be so pleased but I will have to sort some solution for time machine backups - maybe time capsule as its wireless or maybe try another hard drive???

 

[Bendy Walker]

Hmm... well this is frustrating. I just thought that my HDD had died on me, but if you're having the same issues, it seems that it may be more to do with Time Machine.

I'm getting a new HDD in a few days, though I probably won't be using Time Machine. To be honest, I've had my Mac for 9 months now, and not a single thing has gone wrong with it. I keep all my important data backed up on the external, so if anything did go wrong, there'd be no worries.

I would say that the Time Capsule is your best bet for Time Machine compatibility. It is made by Apple, for a start, and is designed for full compatibility between Time Machine. Let us know how you get on with your problems, Sapphire.

 

[Sun Baked]

Look at console.app/system.log, it might indicated the issue.

Most likely a FW problem.

 

[Sapphire08]

Update: Without an external harddrive attatched my imac has been working like a dream for 3 days now!!!

So I have just downloaded and installed itunes - so will run it for another day or two with itunes on just to make sure that doesn't cause any probs - Then I will know for sure it the ext hard drive causing all the problems!

 

[Sapphire08]

Next update: My mac is such a dream!

I have been using lots of different programs including itunes - no problems at all, had another software update - to which it restarted without a hitch.
I have shut it down so that I could move it - took it downstairs for the day - shut down without a problem. I think I can safely say that the problem was definitely my ext hard drive and/or time machine!!

So tomorrow I will plug in said drive and run a back up and then eject it again, make sure all is ok and then carry on like that until I decide to get either another hard drive to try or a time capsule.

PS I hope everyone had a great christmas - here's to a healthy and trouble free 2009

 

[Sapphire08]

Well I plugged in the Ext hard drive this morning, it recognised no problem, so I started the back up and left it going - I planned to stay with it but I got called away as we had a visitor to the house. I returned to my mac about an hour or so later and the little time machine symbol was still revolving so I opened up the preferences and it says ' preparing' just like before aarrgghhhh. I looked at the hard drive and it light was not on - ie switched itself off of just died!

So I think I can safely say its the hard drive that's the problem as I doubt it's the time machine software hey???

To prove it I will have to get another hard drive to wipe and try

 

[Sapphire08]

Sorted

Got another ext hard drive - maxtor 500 gb - partitioned it and put time machine on one half and hey presto runs like a dream - has been for about a week now!