Mac-Mini Running Slower and Slower and Slower...

[visvaldis]

Hi everybody!
My Mac-Mini (purchased new in Dec, 2013), with Mavericks was working fine until five days ago.
For internet I have Uverse from AT&T.
Before I go on it might be good to explain that typing this thread is taking time, because, although I'm not a typist and use one finger from each hand, I can still type faster that the characters appear on the screen. A typo means delete, I hit delete and watch the rainbow ball for several seconds, then the character is finally deleted. Typing this thread is an act of patience for me. I had quicker results typing posts years ago with dial-up.
A week ago I could listen to streaming radio stations and type and send emails. No longer the case. Now the streams stop.
Here are some symptoms:
I try to find if I have any unwanted apps on the hard drive. I double click the Mac HD icon, I get the rainbow ball and it turns and turns, until finally it opens. All apps are okay.
In any internet window, scrolling up or down I get the rainbow ball and slow scrolling.
I check to see if I have any damaging cookies, local storage, or plug-ins in Safari Preferences. Can't scroll in there either without the rainbow ball and scrolling is very slow, worst than dial-up.
If I want to Sleep, Restart, or Shut Down I go in the Apple menu and get the rainbow ball. It turns and turns and turns, I get tired of watching the ball turn, and shut down by pressing the button on the back.
I suspect the problem is malware, but can't find anything. I need help! Where can I find the culprit?
Typing this thread took me about 20 minutes, and a lot of rainbow balls.
I appreciate all comments and suggestions.

 

[OLDCODGER]

Hi everybody!
My Mac-Mini (purchased new in Dec, 2013), with Mavericks was working fine until five days ago.
For internet I have Uverse from AT&T.
Before I go on it might be good to explain that typing this thread is taking time, because, although I'm not a typist and use one finger from each hand, I can still type faster that the characters appear on the screen. A typo means delete, I hit delete and watch the rainbow ball for several seconds, then the character is finally deleted. Typing this thread is an act of patience for me. I had quicker results typing posts years ago with dial-up.
A week ago I could listen to streaming radio stations and type and send emails. No longer the case. Now the streams stop.
Here are some symptoms:
I try to find if I have any unwanted apps on the hard drive. I double click the Mac HD icon, I get the rainbow ball and it turns and turns, until finally it opens. All apps are okay.
In any internet window, scrolling up or down I get the rainbow ball and slow scrolling.
I check to see if I have any damaging cookies, local storage, or plug-ins in Safari Preferences. Can't scroll in there either without the rainbow ball and scrolling is very slow, worst than dial-up.
If I want to Sleep, Restart, or Shut Down I go in the Apple menu and get the rainbow ball. It turns and turns and turns, I get tired of watching the ball turn, and shut down by pressing the button on the back.
I suspect the problem is malware, but can't find anything. I need help! Where can I find the culprit?
Typing this thread took me about 20 minutes, and a lot of rainbow balls.
I appreciate all comments and suggestions.

First thing to do is open Activity Monitor and check CPU usage on loaded apps etc. If this does not give you an indication of unusually heavy usage, I would then check the HD with Disk utility. If that the HD passes, then I would download EtreCheck (free) and let it check the system.

If no solution is found, it may be time to reinstall the OS.

 

[richard2]

Firstly, it's possible that your disc is failing. You should immediately create a backup of your data if you don't already have one.

Secondly, please do the following:

Note: The following procedure must be performed on an OS X user account that has administrative privileges.

1. Open Terminal.
2. Enter the following:
   
   diskutil info /dev/disk0; syslog -k Sender kernel -k Message RCeq "corestorage|disk|jnl" -k Time ge -3d
3. Include the contents of the Terminal window in a reply to this post.

 

[Weaselboy]

Firstly, it's possible that your disc is failing. You should immediately create a backup of your data if you don't already have one.

First thing I thought also. OP try starting Disk Utility and select the disk then click verify disk and see what it reports.