Does this sound like a OSX issue or a hardware issue?

[mellofello]

2012 base model Imac with 16 gb of ram. Not immediately after upgrading to El Capitan, but shortly thereafter, I started noticing tons of lag. It got worse to the point that all I was looking at was the beach ball spinning, and programs would take ages to respond to anything.

I looked at the activity monitor and my processor was not being stressed, and I was not even using 50% of the ram. I ran the diagnostic on the hard drive, and it came back ok. I tried systematically force quitting programs, and it didn't help.

Then I went nuclear option, and reinstalled the whole thing from a fresh install. Did not go from time machine, and systematically installed all the dmgs from my programs.

It is a bit better now but no where near as snappy. I still get beach balls, and in activity monitor I am showing even less strain. The HD is 80% empty.

I am out of ideas here. Anything else I should try before trudging this heavy ass computer to the Apple Store?

 

[Hughmac]

Hard drive on the way out? Back up quickly while you can

Cheers

Hugh

 

[Weaselboy]

Yep... I'm with Hughmac. Drive failure.

 

[keysofanxiety]

With the other lads about HDD. A quick check through SMART Utility should confirm if the HDD's on its way out.

 

[mellofello]

Thanks will download when I get home. What are the chances of getting it replaced by Apple even though it is not totally broken yet?

 

[keysofanxiety]

Thanks will download when I get home. What are the chances of getting it replaced by Apple even though it is not totally broken yet?

If SMART fails and you show Apple a screenshot of that, they should replace.

 

[Sirmausalot]

Thanks will download when I get home. What are the chances of getting it replaced by Apple even though it is not totally broken yet?

You problems started after the El Cap upgrade. When you wiped and reinstalled, did you still do El Cap? I'm not convinced it's the hard drive -- especially since your diagnostics came back okay and you don't hear anything (hard drives often make clicking sounds when they are on their way out). I'd try reinstalling the older OS. El Cap is buggy.