About my iMac

[Pinkly Smooth]

Hi everyone. I have an iMac 3.8Ghz i5 quad core. I have had it for some years now. I bought it for music production, and I am now in the process of using the iMac for this purpose.
This is the only computer I have that I use, and I have been using it all this time, just as a regular normal computer, storing and editing my poetry and writings and surfing the internet in general, and I was told that if you buy an iMac for music production, the iMac will be compromised if you also use it as a normal regular computer, alongside the music production part. Is this true?
My iMac has 8gb Ram, but I will increase the Ram to at least 16 if not 32gb.
For some reason, my iMac, when not performing any function that takes times and is processing difficult things, sometimes where the arrow is, has a circle with different colours going round and round. I don't understand why because the iMac is not performing or processing anything difficult that takes time when it does this. I don't understand why. Is it because my iMac is slow, or got slower than it should be? Please help!

 

[herrdude]

What year is it and model number? What size screen? etc.

The suggestions can only be meaningful with as much pertinent information as possible.

 

[Pinkly Smooth]

What year is it and model number? What size screen? etc.

The suggestions can only be meaningful with as much pertinent information as possible.

Hi it is the retina,5k, 27 inch, 2017.
macOS High Sierra Version 10.13.6
3.8ghz, intel core i5
8gb memory
I understand there are updates that I have yet to update.

 

[herrdude]

Hi it is the retina,5k, 27 inch, 2017.
macOS High Sierra Version 10.13.6
3.8ghz, intel core i5
8gb memory
I understand there are updates that I have yet to update.

According to Everymac (https://everymac.com/systems/apple/...7-inch-aluminum-retina-5k-mid-2017-specs.html) you can go up to 64GB of RAM. You have a fusion drive so that should be fairly quick. Have you thought of a fresh install of Catalina?

I can't say about music production. Hopefully someone else will chime in (pun intended!).

 

[Pinkly Smooth]

Hi herrdude, Thanks for the reply. I will probably just go up to 32Gb RAM. I think that will suffice. I know about the fusion drive, this is why I am confused, why it is doing this. There are some updates I need to make on my iMac, I will also update with Catalina, Is it worth it? Also in doing these updates like Catalina, is the computer at risk during the updates for something bad to happen to the iMac? Is it perfectly safe, my question is. Thanks!
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Is there a way to test the power of the iMac to see if its power has diminished and to test if it is as strong as it was when you first bought it? Thank you.

 

[herrdude]

Yes, it's worth it and there is no risk.

I find it highly unlikely that the cause is reduced power. You would be surprised what a difference a fresh install will make.

I suspect that your 128GB SSD part of the fusion drive is full and so the iMac is calling up programs from the spinning part of the hard-drive. This could explain the speed difference.

 

[Pinkly Smooth]

Yes, it's worth it and there is no risk.

I find it highly unlikely that the cause is reduced power. You would be surprised what a difference a fresh install will make.

I suspect that your 128GB SSD part of the fusion drive is full and so the iMac is calling up programs from the spinning part of the hard-drive. This could explain the speed difference.

Hi, what is a fresh install? How do I go about doing that? Is it possible that the SSD could be full? How do you check that? Is there a way where you can check the power of the iMac, to see if has been reduced in any way? Thank you.
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Yes, it's worth it and there is no risk.

I find it highly unlikely that the cause is reduced power. You would be surprised what a difference a fresh install will make.

I suspect that your 128GB SSD part of the fusion drive is full and so the iMac is calling up programs from the spinning part of the hard-drive. This could explain the speed difference.

Maybe it has something to do with the internet, because it happens often when I am using the internet and something is loading. I don't know because I am unaware of the meaning of the different colour symbol that comes up as a circle spinning round and round with different colours.

 

[herrdude]

Hi, what is a fresh install? How do I go about doing that? Is it possible that the SSD could be full? How do you check that? Is there a way where you can check the power of the iMac, to see if has been reduced in any way? Thank you.
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Maybe it has something to do with the internet, because it happens often when I am using the internet and something is loading. I don't know because I am unaware of the meaning of the different colour symbol that comes up as a circle spinning round and round with different colours.

Go to the App Store and download the Catalina Installer. You can use Disk Utility to format your hard-drive and then proceed with a fresh install. Here is a more detailed description: https://setapp.com/how-to/clean-install-catalina

The circle spinning around is called the spinning beach ball. It means that your computer is processing information.

 

[Fishrrman]

DON'T put Catalina on it. Consider yourself as having been duly warned.

Particularly for music -- if you have a setup that works fine with your current hardware and software, be VERY careful about changing anything. It's just too easy to start "breaking stuff".

Having said that, I don't see where "using it for other things" is going to damage anything. Again, so long as you don't go making too many changes to the OS itself.

 

[Pinkly Smooth]

DON'T put Catalina on it. Consider yourself as having been duly warned.

Particularly for music -- if you have a setup that works fine with your current hardware and software, be VERY careful about changing anything. It's just too easy to start "breaking stuff".

Having said that, I don't see where "using it for other things" is going to damage anything. Again, so long as you don't go making too many changes to the OS itself.

Hi Fisherrman, what is the reason for not downloading Catalina if you will use the iMac for music production, like myself.
I will not upgrade to it, now that I know this.
I found this website about it: xhttps://www.musicradar.com/news/macos-x-1015-catalina-is-here-this-is-what-musicians-and-producers-need-to-know
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Go to the App Store and download the Catalina Installer. You can use Disk Utility to format your hard-drive and then proceed with a fresh install. Here is a more detailed description: https://setapp.com/how-to/clean-install-catalina

The circle spinning around is called the spinning beach ball. It means that your computer is processing information.

What I am trying to understand is that according to what I researched on why the ball appears is the following I found from online:
"Hardware causes. The most basic reason the beach ball appears is because your Mac's hardware can't handle the software task at hand. It's not unusual to see the occasional beach ball when you Mac is performing complex computing tasks. Even everyday activities—such as syncing with iTunes—can temporarily overtax the CPU."

When I get the beach ball, it is not when the Mac is performing complex computing tasks, which worries me, because I fear my iMac has problems and may have lost some of its power - it wasn't showing this in the beginning when I bought my iMac. I wonder if there is a way to measure the power of the iMac, to see if it has lost any of its power.

 

[Pinkly Smooth]

I have the Malwarebytes, but the free version, and when I do the scan, it says, "Congratulations, you are clean!"
I wonder how trustworthy that is, when I mean, if it indicates there is nothing wrong or anything bad about the iMac, that is slowing it down and causing problems.
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I looked online for help and I found that one way the iMac could be slowed down is:

"Look in Activity Monitor.
Press command-spacebar to open Spotlight and type “Activity”. Press return to launch Activity Monitor. Look for anything that is using more than 10% of the CPU; that MAY be your culprit. If you know what it is and you don’t need it anymore, quit it. If you don’t know what it is, call us for help or put on your daredevil mask, hit Google, and get adventurous."

I did that and found nothing above 10%