Mid 2010 iMac slow on startup and shutdown

[mrmarts]

Hey Guys

Lately I have been noticing my imac running the latest update 10.8.3 is taking awhile to boot up (approx 4 minutes) and even longer to shutdown (5 minutes). Is this because my 1TB hard drive is nearly full (FYI i have 395GB free), or is it because of my startup programs, or even it because i need more ram i currently have 8GB installed.

For the experts out there is any tips on how I can improve this rotting Apples performance, until i take the plunge and buy another desktop next year.

 

[Mugwumper]

Tell us more ;^)

Like what version of the OS are you running? And can you quantify how much slower it seems? And compared to what?

For reference, I have a mid-2010 quad-core i5 27" with 8GB running 10.8.3, and only 170GB free out of the 1TB. It seems a bit slower with 10.8.3 but not much.

I typically run this thing for 50-60+ days without a reboot. Just put it to sleep at night.

I also have very few things that need to start up when it does get booted. I do have 4 Spaces desktops open all the time, too.

Still, it's just a matter of 30 seconds or so from "on" to login screen, and then another 5-10 seconds to have everything ready to go.

The biggest thing I've noticed is that Chrome gets slower the longer I don't reboot, and it seems to chew up 8-10GB when running (I do have 10-15 tabs open at any one time). Once I stop Chrome and restart it, things are markedly faster, and then it slows down.

Hope this helps . . .

 

[TheBSDGuy]

Check out this link:

http://scsc-online.com/Activity Monitor.html

Having 395GB free on a 1TB HD shouldn't be a problem, but if you shut the system down with a lot of apps running and they're memory intensive it could explain your problem.

An easy experiment that I could think of would be to terminate ALL apps, and then shutdown/re-boot the system to see if the performance improves. Otherwise it might be a drive or system problem.

 

[toddzrx]

Get an SSD that's at least large enough to put the OS and all apps on it. Then take your current hard drive out and use that for external mass storage. You'll get another couple of years out of your computer, and it will be massively faster than what you have now.

 

[RoastingPig]

Install a ssd to prolong your machines life and once you go ssd you never go back