Issues with 2017 iMac

[iabm]

Hey all,

Hope you're safe and well?

I wonder if someone can help me?

I've not used my 2017 iMAc for ages, it seemed to get really sluggish when I had Adobe on it so I left it. Some time ago, I formatted it back to new and never used it, I've just updated it to Monterey and it still seems so sluggish. I noticed there is no erase option under the system settings menu which is new to the new OS, not sure why? Chrome also crashes all the time, too.

The info of the iMac is:
21.5 inch 2017
Processor: 2.3GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5
Memory: 8GB 2133 MHz DDR4
Graphics: Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 1536MB
Storage: 1TB with 965.21 available.

Any ideas on what I can do, please?

Thanks in advance!

B.

 

[glenthompson]

Is your drive a spinning drive or fusion? If so, then that’s your slowdown. Best solution is to get an external SSD like the Samsung T5 to T7 and set it up as your boot drive. I just did that to a 2012 Mac Mini I use as a file and media server. Got rid of all my performance issues.

Depending on the applications you run the 8gb of memory could be an issue. For most light duty use, 8 is usually fine.

 

[cwwilson]

Is your drive a spinning drive or fusion? If so, then that’s your slowdown. Best solution is to get an external SSD like the Samsung T5 to T7 and set it up as your boot drive. I just did that to a 2012 Mac Mini I use as a file and media server. Got rid of all my performance issues.

Depending on the applications you run the 8gb of memory could be an issue. For most light duty use, 8 is usually fine.

I agree with this take. My 2015 iMac with 2.8 quad-core i5 and a 1TB HDD could not handle Big Sur nonetheless Monterey without turning into absolute dog water. I had to reformat the drive to new and it went all the way back down to El Capitan before I upgraded it to Mojave. I only just recently gave it away to my dad but I did put Catalina on there before doing so and it seemed to run that just fine but to me it lost a bit of speed that Mojave offered.

All in all, the 5400 rpm that Apple put in there is criminal. My 2017 iMac 4K has the Fusion drive which utilizes a tiny SSD and that allows it to run Big Sur without too much of a hassle (I'll try installing Monterey at a later time).

 

[iabm]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I don't use it for anything other than emails, general word/office and books so I'd have thought it wouldn't be that slow. There are no other apps on the computer. I used to have Adobe PS /Creative Cloud but that killed it and and I stopped my subscription when it ended and I've taken that off, so at a loss... Haven't even put MS365 on this yet as it's too slow.

I did wonder, compared to my other Apple computers the drives look different and maybe when I formatted it before, I clicked something and now they look like this and could this be the reason?

I've also done the First Aid tool on them which seems to be okay.

I'm possibly looking to sell this so wanted to get it decent before exploring that option.

Thanks again,
B.

 

[CWallace]

I did wonder, compared to my other Apple computers the drives look different and maybe when I formatted it before, I clicked something and now they look like this and could this be the reason?

That is the correct configuration for the disks now. Apple went to it with Catalina.

Why you might see a new “Data” disk in Catalina

MacOS now splits the operating system and data files into two volumes, but they should never appear on the desktop.

www.macworld.com

 

[Fishrrman]

If it has a 1tb platter-based hard drive in it (HDD), it's going to be SLOW.
HDDs simply can't cope with "the load" that the modern Mac OS's put upon them.

Does it have a USBc port on the back? (I know the 2017 27" iMacs do, not sure about the 21" models)

If so, you could speed it up by doing this:
1. buy an nvme "blade" SSD
2. buy a USB3.1 gen2 enclosure
3. put the two together (some enclosures just snap together)
4. initialize it to APFS and install a copy of the OS onto it
5. migrate your user data over to it
6. boot and run with the external SSD as "the boot drive".

THAT will speed it up somewhat.
However... again... there is NOTHING that will make the slow internal HDD "faster"...

 

[glenthompson]

If it has a 1tb platter-based hard drive in it (HDD), it's going to be SLOW.
HDDs simply can't cope with "the load" that the modern Mac OS's put upon them.

Does it have a USBc port on the back? (I know the 2017 27" iMacs do, not sure about the 21" models)

If so, you could speed it up by doing this:
1. buy an nvme "blade" SSD
2. buy a USB3.1 gen2 enclosure
3. put the two together (some enclosures just snap together)
4. initialize it to APFS and install a copy of the OS onto it
5. migrate your user data over to it
6. boot and run with the external SSD as "the boot drive".

THAT will speed it up somewhat.
However... again... there is NOTHING that will make the slow internal HDD "faster"...

Why go to the trouble of buying a separate enclosure and drive? A packaged drive like the Samsung T7 or T5 will give more than adequate performance with less complexity and a probable cheaper price. With a drive and enclosure from different sources will always cause finger pointing if there's ever a problem.

 

[mj_]

I noticed there is no erase option under the system settings menu which is new to the new OS, not sure why?

Because this option is only available on Macs based on Apple's own Apple Silicon processors. Intel Macs don't get that feature.

Why go to the trouble of buying a separate enclosure and drive? A packaged drive like the Samsung T7 or T5 will give more than adequate performance with less complexity and a probable cheaper price. With a drive and enclosure from different sources will always cause finger pointing if there's ever a problem.

1 TB Samsung T7: $140
1 TB Crucial P2 + 10 Gbps SSK USB 3.2 NVMe enclosure: $102

Same performance (between 700 and 950 MB/s depending on whether or not you have Filevault enabled), ~30% lower price, and no finger pointing (it just works). Admittedly, the savings are rather insignificant overall but look at it this way: for the price of a 1 TB Samsung T7 you get a 1 TB Crucial P2 in an SSK enclosure plus an 8 GB stick of RAM thrown in for free.