My iMac has turned into a PC - Soooooo slow! Help?

[shippouk]

I dont know what on earth happened to my iMac yesterday, but its just suddenly gone so slow. It feels like I'm using a windows based PC.
I havnt added any new programs/apps or anything.
Lots of hang ups, programs load slowly, web browsers are slow to respond, constant spinning wheel of death.........even basic word documents take forever to load up.
I havnt done anything to the machine and theres over 100GB of free space out of 500GB on the hard drive.
Any suggestions on a cure?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Look at these and see, if they help you with your problem:

Performance Tips For Mac OS X

______________________________________________________
Have a look at Activity Monitor (Applications / Utilities /) and select All Processes and sort by CPU to see what the culprit may be.
Also check the "System Memory" tab to see what your "Page ins:", "Page outs:" and "Swap used:" are.

image below uses sorting by CPU as an example

Further reading:

Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor
Making The Most of Activity Monitor
What Is Activity Monitor (or How to Take Your Mac's Pulse)​

______________________________________________________​

 

[GGJstudios]

I dont know what on earth happened to my iMac yesterday, but its just suddenly gone so slow. It feels like I'm using a windows based PC.
I havnt added any new programs/apps or anything.
Lots of hang ups, programs load slowly, web browsers are slow to respond, constant spinning wheel of death.........even basic word documents take forever to load up.
I havnt done anything to the machine and theres over 100GB of free space out of 500GB on the hard drive.
Any suggestions on a cure?

Don't just skim through these, but read and follow them: Performance Tips For Mac OS X

 

[shippouk]

Hi
I'll go through that list shortly, but Ive just done what you suggested from your image grabs and I have the below images.
As you will see I'm hardly using any of the CPU

 

[GGJstudios]

Hi
I'll go through that list shortly, but Ive just done what you suggested from your image grabs and I have the below images.
As you will see I'm hardly using any of the CPU

How long since your last restart? It appears you've had some paging activity since then, but there's no way to know how recent or if it was under your normal workload.

 

[philipma1957]

you have a page out issue.

1.7gb in and 2.1 gb out also a lot of swapping 450mb.

how full is your hdd. if you have a hdd with 80 percent or more filled swapping which is reallly slow on a hdd is even slower.


I read the you have a 500gb hdd with 400gb full. can you clone or off load a lot more to a spare external.

you have a 170 gb vm and only 100 gb free space. i think if you could get up to 250gb free space the 170gb vm would have head room.

 

[shippouk]

How long since your last restart? It appears you've had some paging activity since then, but there's no way to know how recent or if it was under your normal workload.

Hi
I restart every day. So this morning.
What is paging activity please?

----------

you have a page out issue.

1.7gb in and 2.1 gb out also a lot of swapping 450mb.

how full is your hdd. if you have a hdd with 80 percent or more filled swapping which is reallly slow on a hdd is even slower.


I read the you have a 500gb hdd with 400gb full. can you clone or off load a lot more to a spare external.

you have a 170 gb vm and only 100 gb free space. i think if you could get up to 250gb free space the 170gb vm would have head room.

Again, I dont understand the term "page out" and also now "In/Out/Swopping".
I will try removing some unnecessary stuff off the internal hard drive though.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Hi
I restart every day. So this morning.
What is paging activity please?
///
Again, I dont understand the term "page out" and also now "In/Out/Swopping".

Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor

I will try removing some unnecessary stuff off the internal hard drive though.

You have enough free HDD capacity, thus no need to delete data. Backing up is another matter though.

You can use the following applications to benchmark the speed of your HDD / SSD, to see, if it is the culprit:

• AJA System Test
• Blackmagic Disk Speed Test
• Xbench

 

[Nameci]

A soon to be dying HDD could cause it...

 

[jackoatmon]

Just wanted to point out the absurd logic of the OP. With identical hardware, a Windows based computer will score better on just about any benchmark than an OSX based one, as Windows is a less resource-intensive OS in and of itself and it also tends to have better driver integration with hardware like GPUs, as manufacturers spend far more time on the OS that most people use.

Don't get me wrong, OSX is fantastic and I use it everyday, but there's plennnnty of information out there to show it's a slower, if more stable, operating system.

You're probably equating PC with slow because you never owned a fast PC. Try dual booting to windows on your current system some time. You'll see it's an unbelievably lightweight operating system. You can run it on 10 year old computers, in fact.

 

[Steve.P.JobsFan]

Just wanted to point out the absurd logic of the OP. With identical hardware, a Windows based computer will score better on just about any benchmark than an OSX based one, as Windows is a less resource-intensive OS in and of itself and it also tends to have better driver integration with hardware like GPUs, as manufacturers spend far more time on the OS that most people use.

Don't get me wrong, OSX is fantastic and I use it everyday, but there's plennnnty of information out there to show it's a slower, if more stable, operating system.

You're probably equating PC with slow because you never owned a fast PC. Try dual booting to windows on your current system some time. You'll see it's an unbelievably lightweight operating system. You can run it on 10 year old computers, in fact.

This is related to the OP's performance issue, how?

 

[jackoatmon]

Tangentially.

 

[philipma1957]

Hi
I restart every day. So this morning.
What is paging activity please?

----------



Again, I dont understand the term "page out" and also now "In/Out/Swopping".
I will try removing some unnecessary stuff off the internal hard drive though.

look at my screen shot. i have 16gb ram with 700 mb page ins 0 page outs and 0 swaps. every time you do a swap you ran out of ram and used your hard drive instead. think ram speed as jet and hdd speed as walking.

you reset your counters every time you boot. all those swaps happened in one day. the hdd is slow so your system dragged.

fixes are
more ram
empty hdd the more crowded the hdd is the slower swaps are.

the big fix is finding out what program did this. go to the system monitor and shut down every program you are running.


see second screen shot it has only my processes.

i can close
disk utility
promise utility
vmware
fusion
wallpaper
wizard
and xbench

i would leave safari and finder open. only you can decide what you can close of your programs. you will hopefully find out which one is doing the page outs/ swaps

 

[nefan65]

This is related to the OP's performance issue, how?

It's not in any way. Some feel the need to ALWAYS toss in the Microsoft, and/or Android argument in any/all discussions.

I wish this forum had an ignore button?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

It's not in any way. Some feel the need to ALWAYS toss in the Microsoft, and/or Android argument in any/all discussions.

I wish this forum had an ignore button?

It has, just go to your USER CP and then the EDIT IGNORE LIST section and add any member you like to ignore, though you will see the member being quoted, if that is the case.
https://forums.macrumors.com/profile.php?do=ignorelist

 

[Steve.P.JobsFan]

I wish this forum had an ignore button?

Anyways, OP, if you've used Winblows, I'm sure your familiar with CCleaner? It's on OS X. Install it, and run it 4 or 5 times. If it's still slow, you can try CleanMyMac. My older iMac had issues with speed, and this app seemed to fix it. I know people love to rag on this app, saying it removes core system files, blah blah blah, but it doesn't. The trial will only remove 500MB of junk. It's $20. There are other ways to get it, but I don't condone that, and that's naughty! Also, stay AWAY from MacKeeper. That's Malware.

EDIT: Nevermind! simsaladimbamba beat me to the catch!

 

[shippouk]

Just wanted to point out the absurd logic of the OP. With identical hardware, a Windows based computer will score better on just about any benchmark than an OSX based one, as Windows is a less resource-intensive OS in and of itself and it also tends to have better driver integration with hardware like GPUs, as manufacturers spend far more time on the OS that most people use.

Don't get me wrong, OSX is fantastic and I use it everyday, but there's plennnnty of information out there to show it's a slower, if more stable, operating system.

You're probably equating PC with slow because you never owned a fast PC. Try dual booting to windows on your current system some time. You'll see it's an unbelievably lightweight operating system. You can run it on 10 year old computers, in fact.

The PC quote was just intended as a little bit of a joke.
I own both PCs and Macs and have no loyalty to either.
I am not an Apple Fan Boy, nor a PC Fan Boy.
Each has its positives and negatives.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Anyways, OP, if you've used Winblows, I'm sure your familiar with CCleaner? It's on OS X. Install it, and run it 4 or 5 times.

What will that accomplish?

If it's still slow, you can try CleanMyMac. My older iMac had issues with speed, and this app seemed to fix it. I know people love to rag on this app, saying it removes core system files, blah blah blah, but it doesn't.

It didn't for you, but for others it did:
CleanMyMac cleaned too much

 

[Steve.P.JobsFan]

What will that accomplish?

It didn't for you, but for others it did:
CleanMyMac cleaned too much

I read that thread when it first appeared. IMO, CleanMyMac is a good app. I like it. As for what CCleaner will accomplish, it'll clear out temporary files and junk. I know sometimes (from experience) too many cache files and stuff like that will just gum it up. I had almost 1GB in cache files, cookies, stuff like that, and it made it dog slow. I'm just giving him general performance tips to see if they boost the speed.

 

[GGJstudios]

I read that thread when it first appeared. IMO, CleanMyMac is a good app. I like it. As for what CCleaner will accomplish, it'll clear out temporary files and junk. I know sometimes (from experience) too many cache files and stuff like that will just gum it up. I had almost 1GB in cache files, cookies, stuff like that, and it made it dog slow. I'm just giving him general performance tips to see if they boost the speed.

I would not recommend CleanMyMac, based on the number of complaints that have been posted in this forum and elsewhere. As an example: CleanMyMac cleaned too much. While you may not have experienced problems yet, enough people have that it's wise to avoid it, especially since there are free alternatives that have better reputations, such as Onyx.

You don't need "cleaner" or "maintenance" apps to keep your Mac running well, and some of these apps can do more harm than good. Most only remove files/folders or unused languages or architectures, which does nothing more than free up some drive space, with the risk of deleting something important in the process.

These apps will not make your Mac run faster or more efficiently, since having stuff stored on a drive does not impact performance, unless you're running out of drive space. In fact, deleting some caches can hurt performance, rather than help it, since more system resources are used and performance suffers while each cache is being rebuilt.

Many of these tasks should only be done selectively to troubleshoot specific problems, not en masse as routine maintenance.

Mac OS X does a good job of taking care of itself, without the need for 3rd party software. Among other things, it has its own maintenance scripts that run silently in the background on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, without user intervention.

Five Mac maintenance myths​

... clear out temporary files and junk.

You don't need to clear out temporary files to improve performance.

I know sometimes (from experience) too many cache files and stuff like that will just gum it up.

Actually, cache files improve performance. Deleting them can degrade performance.

cookies, stuff like that, and it made it dog slow.

Cookies do not impede performance. All the things you've mentioned either have no impact on performance, or will degrade performance by deleting them. That's why "cleaner" or "maintenance" apps are not necessary. I really encourage you to read the Five Mac maintenance myths above. It will help you understand how to get better performance out of your Mac.

 

[Steve.P.JobsFan]

I would not recommend CleanMyMac, based on the number of complaints that have been posted in this forum and elsewhere. As an example: CleanMyMac cleaned too much. While you may not have experienced problems yet, enough people have that it's wise to avoid it, especially since there are free alternatives that have better reputations, such as Onyx.

You don't need "cleaner" or "maintenance" apps to keep your Mac running well, and some of these apps can do more harm than good. Most only remove files/folders or unused languages or architectures, which does nothing more than free up some drive space, with the risk of deleting something important in the process.

These apps will not make your Mac run faster or more efficiently, since having stuff stored on a drive does not impact performance, unless you're running out of drive space. In fact, deleting some caches can hurt performance, rather than help it, since more system resources are used and performance suffers while each cache is being rebuilt.

Many of these tasks should only be done selectively to troubleshoot specific problems, not en masse as routine maintenance.

Mac OS X does a good job of taking care of itself, without the need for 3rd party software. Among other things, it has its own maintenance scripts that run silently in the background on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, without user intervention.

Five Mac maintenance myths​

You don't need to clear out temporary files to improve performance.

Actually, cache files improve performance. Deleting them can degrade performance.

Cookies do not impede performance. All the things you've mentioned either have no impact on performance, or will degrade performance by deleting them. That's why "cleaner" or "maintenance" apps are not necessary. I really encourage you to read the Five Mac maintenance myths above. It will help you understand how to get better performance out of your Mac.

I did read them, they were great tips. I know cookies and cache files, and things like that improve performance, those were just the things off the top of my mind. I'm very groggy today. Plus, there was a fire a block away from my local Starbucks, so they're closed today.

I do use Onyx, I do weekly maintenance with it.

 

[GGJstudios]

I did read them, they were great tips. I know cookies and cache files, and things like that improve performance, those were just the things off the top of my mind.

I do use Onyx, I do weekly maintenance with it.

If you read and understood the links posted, you would know that you don't have to perform regular maintenance with any 3rd party app. Mac OS X does that automatically, with daily, weekly and monthly maintenance scripts.

 

[forty2j]

I do use Onyx, I do weekly maintenance with it.

Dude, if you want to do weekly maintenance, just boot into Windows already. One of the primary points of having OS X is that it's fuss-free.. and all of the "cleaner" apps are, for the most part, just taking money for no benefit.

 

[Taz Mangus]

Hi
I restart every day. So this morning.
What is paging activity please.

With OS X there is no need to restart your computer every day. The only time I reboot my Mac computers is for an OS X update that requires it. The other times I just set it to sleep after 15 minutes.

It does look like the high page outs is probably causing the your system to slow down.

I would try a PRAM and SMC reset and see that helps.

 

[GGJstudios]

I would try a PRAM and SMC reset and see that helps.

Neither NVRAM nor SMC resets have anything to do with paging activity.