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Late 2013 iMac Running Slow

N

NR123

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 8, 2014
5
0
This issue has been present since purchase (October 2013). But it has progressively become worse.

It takes around 2 minutes to boot up and can't really multitask well (e.g. it stutters). General use is painfully slow.

I have called Apple and troubleshooted the problem. Their final suggestion was to delete everything on the hard drive and clean install. This is an arduous task and not something the end user should have to do.

Logging on yesterday, a message saying "run out of application memory did not go away". There were no apps apart from finder running.

Does this sound like a hardware or software issue? I have already reinstalled the OS (not clean install).

Computer specs: 27" Late 2013 iMac, 1TB harddrive, 16GB RAM.
 
NR123 said:
This issue has been present since purchase (October 2013). But it has progressively become worse.

It takes around 2 minutes to boot up and can't really multitask well (e.g. it stutters). General use is painfully slow.

I have called Apple and troubleshooted the problem. Their final suggestion was to delete everything on the hard drive and clean install. This is an arduous task and not something the end user should have to do.

Logging on yesterday, a message saying "run out of application memory did not go away". There were no apps apart from finder running.

Does this sound like a hardware or software issue? I have already reinstalled the OS (not clean install).

Computer specs: 27" Late 2013 iMac, 1TB harddrive, 16GB RAM.
Click to expand...

type activity monitor in the search (the little magnifying glass in the upper right hand corner) and look at the memory processes. 16gb is PLENTY of ram.
 
NR123 said:
I have called Apple and troubleshooted the problem. Their final suggestion was to delete everything on the hard drive and clean install. This is an arduous task and not something the end user should have to do.
Click to expand...

You may not want to do it, but your two choices seem like either biting the bullet and doing it, or taking the machine in for service - which may result in replacement parts requiring you to reinstall everything anyway (should they need to replace the drive or reinstall the OS as part of the diagnostic process).

Back up your stuff, wipe and install the OS, them test the machine to see if it's still running slowly. If it's better, reinstall your stuff and test again. If it's slow after a clean install, then you've got a hardware issue. If it's a 2013 machine, it's still under warranty.
 
The real question is how many applications are opening at boot time? And are they opening files when they start? This will use memory up rather quickly. Maybe you need more RAM for how you use your system?
 
NR123 said:
This issue has been present since purchase (October 2013). But it has progressively become worse.

It takes around 2 minutes to boot up and can't really multitask well (e.g. it stutters). General use is painfully slow.

I have called Apple and troubleshooted the problem. Their final suggestion was to delete everything on the hard drive and clean install. This is an arduous task and not something the end user should have to do.

Logging on yesterday, a message saying "run out of application memory did not go away". There were no apps apart from finder running.

Does this sound like a hardware or software issue? I have already reinstalled the OS (not clean install).

Computer specs: 27" Late 2013 iMac, 1TB harddrive, 16GB RAM.
Click to expand...

There's the problem, you're using a 1TB HDD. The performance you're having right now is perfectly normal with a 1TB HDD.

You should've gotten a Fusion or a 256GB SSD instead if you want the system to start up within 10 seconds.
 
Have you tried repairing disk permissions? If not then open finder, click on applications, select disk utility, and repair disk permissions. Also do you shut down the computer, or select sleep? I have had both a 1 TB drive, and presently a 3 TB fusion drive in a 27 inch iMac, and the boot time from sleep is almost immediate with both drives.
 
yjchua95 said:
There's the problem, you're using a 1TB HDD. The performance you're having right now is perfectly normal with a 1TB HDD.

You should've gotten a Fusion or a 256GB SSD instead if you want the system to start up within 10 seconds.
Click to expand...

I don't think the HD is the culprit. Per his quote:

Logging on yesterday, a message saying "run out of application memory did not go away". There were no apps apart from finder running.

This is not typically indicitive of a slow HD. Run hardware test, reinstall the OS and/Or do the genius appointment thing.

Also try what djbamber said.

Good luck
 
Last edited:
Check if you have external drives connected. Also, if the iMac has finished indexing all the hard disks.

For my set-up, I have the 256 SSD, and 2 external 500GB hard disk. If the external drives are not connected, I get 14sec boot time. But if it is connected, it takes a lot longer.

There's also a possibility that the hard disk you're using has bad sectors. Run diagnostics and see if it is damaged. One bad sector is more than enough for a replacement of the hard disk.
 
yjchua95 said:
There's the problem, you're using a 1TB HDD. The performance you're having right now is perfectly normal with a 1TB HDD.

You should've gotten a Fusion or a 256GB SSD instead if you want the system to start up within 10 seconds.
Click to expand...

It's not. I have a 1Tb HDD and boot-up is 30 seconds.
 
I think 38-40 seconds is quite slow for those specs. Have you every tried a SMC reset on your iMac. I found instructions on how to carry out a SMC reset in this post that talks iMac running slow problems. It can work wonders sometimes!

I would suggest that you try it. The OP can also definitely give it a shot.

MartinAppleGuy said:
Yip.

----------



My specs are bellow. A family member has a 2.7Ghz mid 2011 iMac with a 1Tb Hard Drive (7200RPM) and his boots in 38-40 seconds. Mine has the 5400rpm Hard Drive and boots in just a hair over 30 seconds.
Click to expand...
 
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