Core 2 Duo still SLOW after Lion clean install

[CtotheP]

All,

Any suggestions? I have an early 2008 24" iMac: 2.8Ghz Core 2 Duo w/ 4gb of ram and a 320gb hard drive. After experiencing major slow-downs, to the point that the machine was rendered useless, I did a clean install of Lion this morning from my USB drive.

It snapped back initially, but after I restored my iPhoto and iTunes libraries, it was once again rendered useless. I have not installed anything else on the clean machine, so I rebooted. I've been sitting here for 20 minutes waiting for it to reboot and I just get a spinning wheel.

Thoughts? I've also unplugged all extra peripherals. Thanks in advance!

 

[DockMac]

Your HD might be on its way out. Have you ever changed it?

 

[CtotheP]

Never changed it, it's the original that came w/ the machine. I'm thinking that may be what I need to do. I booted back into the USB-based disk utility and am re-running the Verify Disk and Verify Permissions. It's estimate just to verify the disk is about 15 minutes.....bummer

 

[roadbloc]

Upgrade to Snow Leopard.

 

[Gav2k]

Having no issues on my Ali MacBook c2d. Running 8gb ram tho.

 

[CtotheP]

I wish I could find my Snow Leopard disc(s). Not sure where they are now. I have the original Leopard discs that came w/ the iMac.....bummer

Did find permissions that needed repair and trying to boot via safe-mode, but it's still taking forever

 

[CtotheP]

All,

Looks like the problem fixed itself. The machine had been in "sleep" for about 3 weeks (unknowingly) while I was on vacation. I noticed it was running VERY hot, so I unplugged it overnight and then plugged it back in.....VOILA!

Back up and running. It's got me a little nervous, but at least it's working smoothly again.

 

[CtotheP]

Hard Drive failed!!!

I followed the replacement instructions online and just replaced it with a 1 TB Seagate Barracuda......it's like a new machine!

 

[limo79]

Apple CPUs like Core 2 Duo are still enough even for Mountain Lion, so the source of problem are memory RAM size and/or HDD speed (my stock Fujitsu 200GB SATA I is not perfect if you make heavy duty tasks on Lion). I compared the speed with HP4330s with the Core i5 CPU ("Sandy Bridge" platform) and believe me or not, but the performance difference is more in benchmarks than in real life. Also Core 2 Duo SP, SL and i.e. P8400 was an excellent series.