Okay so the problems started, maybe 3 or 4 weeks ago when I got an external hard drive for backup. After a while, I realized I didn't need it and unplugged it and turned off Time Machine. Ever since then, my 24" 3.06 GHz iMac has been really really slow. I do lots of video editing (FCE, After Effects), and I can understand if it's slow when I'm using it since I have only 2 GB RAM. But I am having these problems even when just Safari's open. I don't think it's the editing software, because I have had those on here weeks before I started using this HD. Is it the hard drive? I also do have, I think it's called iStats? But sometimes even with Safari open, it uses up almost all of my RAM. I also have nothing in my trash, and in my 500 GB internal hard drive, I take up 129 GB. I'm really pissed though because I can't seem to fix it. I also use GarageBand, and I decided to post this when after trying to record a song maybe 6 or 7 times, it once again stopped and came up with the "too many tracks played" window, when only two tracks were in the project. Can someone please help me?
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PLEASE HELP! My iMac is slowing down and I've finally had it!
- Thread starter matt1219
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Open Activity Monitor and see if there are any tasks taking up unusual processor time. Also check your RAM usage in Activity Monitor. Anything unusual? What percentage of hard drive space do you have left (gb free and gb used)?
Do you leave your iMac on at night?
Do you leave your iMac on at night?
I do leave my iMac on overnight, I have already run Activity Monitor for the tasks, but I don't knwo what I should be looking for. RAM Usage:
Free- about 619 MB, Wired- about 275 MB, Active- about 809 MB, Inactive- about 340 MB, Used- 1.39 GB. I am also only running Safari with three tabs. HD space is 336.49 GB free, 128.95 GB utilized.
Download Onyx. Run everything. Verify/repair all permissions, clear all cache, rebuild, check your HDD. Everything.
It's been a HUGE help to me. I guarantee you will notice a difference. Plus it's free so you have nothing to lose
I'll try it. I thought I did that but I didn't.
look in your start up folders under /YourMainHD/Library/Startupitems
and also in /YourMainHD/System/Library/Startupitems
see what is there and if not needed take it out. By the way YourMainHD is your Mac Drive whatever you named it. Most likely it is called Macintosh HD
Check that.
Another place you can look too is open up sys prefs, goto Accounts, click on your account, then in the window to the right click on the tab Login Items, then and there you will find items that are being loaded into your memory everytime you log into your computer. You can safely remove everything there to see if it speeds up things. You may have to defrag your drive if all this does not help at all.
and also in /YourMainHD/System/Library/Startupitems
see what is there and if not needed take it out. By the way YourMainHD is your Mac Drive whatever you named it. Most likely it is called Macintosh HD
Check that.
Another place you can look too is open up sys prefs, goto Accounts, click on your account, then in the window to the right click on the tab Login Items, then and there you will find items that are being loaded into your memory everytime you log into your computer. You can safely remove everything there to see if it speeds up things. You may have to defrag your drive if all this does not help at all.
Did everything in OnyX, I'm gonna restart now, but I keep noticing that RAM jumps everytime I start up Safari. Then it goes down.
Just restarted and wow, it is already improving! I'll see ow it goes the next couple days and get back to you guys! Thanks!
Just restarted and wow, it is already improving!
I'll see ow it goes the next couple days and get back to you guys! Thanks!Did everything in OnyX, I'm gonna restart now, but I keep noticing that RAM jumps everytime I start up Safari. Then it goes down.
Just restarted and wow, it is already improving!
matt1219... any news? did it help you! You've described my Mac perfectly!
You do realize you rehashed a thread that ended May of last year? I'm sure the OP got his issue correct.
Start Activity Monitor, and at the bottom select the CPU-button to the left. The you can see how many % of your CPU is used. If "% user" or "% system shows a high number, some program is taking a lot of system resources and is probably the cause of your computer running slow.
To see exactly what program that is, select "All processes" from the droplist at the top. Click the "% CPU" column to sort the list by how much CPU every process use. If you don't have the "% CPU" column in the list, you can right-click the list header and select that field to add it to the list.
If any program in the list is at, say, 50-100%, that would probably be the cause of the "sluggishness". I hope this helps and that you can find the cause of the problem!
EDIT: Oops, didn't see this was an old thread. Still maybe useful to someone
You do realize you rehashed a thread that ended May of last year? I'm sure the OP got his issue correct.
I realize completely... but thanks for taking the time to check me.