Sluggish 6 month old iMac with high speed internet

[dianett]

I bought an I-Mac in late Nov 2019.
Maybe this was my mistake, but I had Geek Squad transfer data from old I-Mac to the new one.
I did several speed tests at different places, and I have 200+ mbps.
But this I-Mac is sooooo slow doing EVERYTHING, even e-mail and Word. I can count as the beach ball goes round.

I also have a 2015 MacBook Air and it is not slow.

I contacted Apple and he had me delete a bunch of old programs and do some other things.

I just don't know what to do. I am not a gamer and I don't have a lot of stage on this Mac.
Do you have any suggestions that a non-technical person could understand?


Thanks so much

 

[Erehy Dobon]

Go to System Preferences > Users and create a new user.

Log out of yours and log into that account. Use your normal applications. If it runs substantially faster in the newly created account, then there's something wrong with your regular user account. Bad preferences, bad settings, a bad browser extension, malware, who knows?

But at least this way, you can rule out a hardware issue.

 

[Clix Pix]

Without knowing whether your machine is a 21.5” or a 27” iMac, but am guessing that it is the 21.5 bought off the shelf at Best Buy, since you mention the Geek Squad doing the transferring of all your data from your older iMac to this one. If that is indeed the case, then the issue is that your purchased-in-2019 iMac has the s-l-o-w 5400 rpm hard drive rather than a fast SSD. Even if your machine has a fusion drive, if it is a 21.5” iMac, the SSD for the fusion drive portion is going to be very limited in capacity. You can have the fastest ISP and internet services available but that can only go so far when you’ve got a machine with a slow hard drive.

You mention that your 2015 MBA is faster — and the reason why is that all of Apple’s laptops have been using SSD (Solid-State Drives) for years even as the 21.5” iMac has still been stuck with those stupid outdated hard drives unless the consumer upgrades and buys one built-to-order (BTO) from Apple’s website.

Unfortunately, too many unwary customers have fallen into this trap and then been stuck with a machine which is slow and worse, difficult, if not impossible, to update, even by techs, and of course if this is done early-on, it voids the warranty on the machine, too.

You may want to think about selling this machine and buying one which is configured more appropriately to your needs, doing a BTO/CTO at the Apple store website, where you can get exactly what you want in terms of a speedy SSD and also faster processor, etc., etc.

 

[Longkeg]

Apple and he had me delete a bunch of old programs and do some other things.

Unfortunately you’re talking to a bunch of techies who, for the most part, have difficulty speaking in non technical terms. We’re going to need to know what those “other things” were. We need to know more about your iMac: What version of Mac OS, how much memory, how much and what kind of storage, how much free space on that storage volume (hard drive)?

Your spinning beach ball issue probably has nothing to do with internet speed. More likely something is out of whack in the OS. I’ve seen this kind of thing before with migrated data. A piece of old code that lived harmlessly on an older machine gets dumped into a new machine and causes havoc. It’s rare but it happens.

If this were my computer I’d run Disk Utility to make sure the hard drive was good. Assuming it is good I’d wipe it and do a clean installation of a new Mac OS then manually install necessary applications from the original installers. I’d avoid bringing stuff from the old computer until you’e sure your iMac is behaving itself.

If you reply with more details perhaps someone else can take a stab at helping you.

 

[dianett]

Go to System Preferences > Users and create a new user.

Log out of yours and log into that account. Use your normal applications. If it runs substantially faster in the newly created account, then there's something wrong with your regular user account. Bad preferences, bad settings, a bad browser extension, malware, who knows?

But at least this way, you can rule out a hardware issue.

That was one of the things Apple had me do, but I tried it again. The responses were the same
Before I did that, I created a new user, and the responses were horrid and I could not even shut down.
I had to physically turn it off.

I bought an I-Mac in late Nov 2019.
Maybe this was my mistake, but I had Geek Squad transfer data from old I-Mac to the new one.
I did several speed tests at different places, and I have 200+ mbps.
But this I-Mac is sooooo slow doing EVERYTHING, even e-mail and Word. I can count as the beach ball goes round.

I also have a 2015 MacBook Air and it is not slow.

I contacted Apple and he had me delete a bunch of old programs and do some other things.

I just don't know what to do. I am not a gamer and I don't have a lot of stage on this Mac.
Do you have any suggestions that a non-technical person could understand?


Thanks so much

Go to System Preferences > Users and create a new user.

Log out of yours and log into that account. Use your normal applications. If it runs substantially faster in the newly created account, then there's something wrong with your regular user account. Bad preferences, bad settings, a bad browser extension, malware, who knows?

But at least this way, you can rule out a hardware issue.

Go to System Preferences > Users and create a new user.

Log out of yours and log into that account. Use your normal applications. If it runs substantially faster in the newly created account, then there's something wrong with your regular user account. Bad preferences, bad settings, a bad browser extension, malware, who knows?

But at least this way, you can rule out a hardware issue.

OK

I bought an I-Mac in late Nov 2019.
Maybe this was my mistake, but I had Geek Squad transfer data from old I-Mac to the new one.
I did several speed tests at different places, and I have 200+ mbps.
But this I-Mac is sooooo slow doing EVERYTHING, even e-mail and Word. I can count as the beach ball goes round.

I also have a 2015 MacBook Air and it is not slow.

I contacted Apple and he had me delete a bunch of old programs and do some other things.

I just don't know what to do. I am not a gamer and I don't have a lot of stage on this Mac.
Do you have any suggestions that a non-technical person could understand?


Thanks so much

Unfortunately you’re talking to a bunch of techies who, for the most part, have difficulty speaking in non technical terms. We’re going to need to know what those “other things” were. We need to know more about your iMac: What version of Mac OS, how much memory, how much and what kind of storage, how much free space on that storage volume (hard drive)? I honestly don't remember what the Apple guy did except I remember creating a new account.
He controlled the computer.

Your spinning beach ball issue probably has nothing to do with internet speed. More likely something is out of whack in the OS. I’ve seen this kind of thing before with migrated data. A piece of old code that lived harmlessly on an older machine gets dumped into a new machine and causes havoc. It’s rare but it happens. Apple had be delete a bunch of old programs.
I just got this, also, when it was trying to shut down: “HDDFanControlDaemon” can’t be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software. I can't find a fan controller and I never installed it.

If this were my computer I’d run Disk Utility to make sure the hard drive was good. Assuming it is good I’d wipe it and do a clean installation of a new Mac OS then manually install necessary applications from the original installers. I’d avoid bringing stuff from the old computer until you’e sure your iMac is behaving itself.
Ahhhh, this is where I fail. But I will call Apple and have them help me. I do have an external hard drive for Time Machine.

If you reply with more details perhaps someone else can take a stab at helping you.
I don't have more details that could work. I have used computers since 1968 using DOS, and I intuitive understand a lot, but I am dumbfounded here.

You're some diversity I go to sleep

I bought an I-Mac in late Nov 2019.
Maybe this was my mistake, but I had Geek Squad transfer data from old I-Mac to the new one.
I did several speed tests at different places, and I have 200+ mbps.
But this I-Mac is sooooo slow doing EVERYTHING, even e-mail and Word. I can count as the beach ball goes round.

I also have a 2015 MacBook Air and it is not slow.

I contacted Apple and he had me delete a bunch of old programs and do some other things.

I just don't know what to do. I am not a gamer and I don't have a lot of stage on this Mac.
Do you have any suggestions that a non-technical person could understand?


Thanks so much

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Without knowing whether your machine is a 21.5” or a 27” iMac, but am guessing that it is the 21.5 bought off the shelf at Best Buy, since you mention the Geek Squad doing the transferring of all your data from your older iMac to this one. CORRECT . 4K, 21", 8 GB 2400 MHz DDR ,3.6 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i3. I tried memory upgrade on the old one and there was no affect, I was told I needed updated processing. I have used only 886 GB of 1TB. Built in Retina, 21.5-inch (4096 x 2304), Radeon Pro 555X 2 GB graphics
If that is indeed the case, then the issue is that your purchased-in-2019 iMac has the s-l-o-w 5400 rpm hard drive rather than a fast SSD. Even if your machine has a fusion drive, if it is a 21.5” iMac, the SSD for the fusion drive portion is going to be very limited in capacity. You can have the fastest ISP and internet services available but that can only go so far when you’ve got a machine with a slow hard drive. So I wasted my money? This is so slow I want to throw it out my window.

You mention that your 2015 MBA is faster — and the reason why is that all of Apple’s laptops have been using SSD (Solid-State Drives) for years even as the 21.5” iMac has still been stuck with those stupid outdated hard drives unless the consumer upgrades and buys one built-to-order (BTO) from Apple’s website. BUT the one I got rid-of was 2011 and it was faster than the new one I just bought!

Unfortunately, too many unwary customers have fallen into this trap and then been stuck with a machine which is slow and worse, difficult, if not impossible, to update, even by techs, and of course if this is done early-on, it voids the warranty on the machine, too.

You may want to think about selling this machine and buying one which is configured more appropriately to your needs, doing a BTO/CTO at the Apple store website, where you can get exactly what you want in terms of a speedy SSD and also faster processor, etc., etc. I will try calling Apple. You can't call Best Buy now days. I could never sell this one because it is too horrid. Thanks

 

[Clix Pix]

Yes, I am sorry to say, but..... 21.5" iMac with i3 processor and that dog-slow 5400 rpm hard drive..... it's no wonder you're frustrated with your machine! Don't throw it out the window, and don't waste time calling Apple, as they aren't going to help you with this, since technically there is nothing wrong with the iMac, it is doing just what it is expected to do with that configuration, but do consider offloading it somehow (give it to a relative who needs a basic machine? Donate it to a charity? Sell it at a very low price, taking a whopper of a financial loss and just get rid of it? Whatever, there are choices out there) and buying yourself a machine with the configuration that will really work for you.

At LEAST i7 if not i9 processor and at least a 500 GB if not 1 TB SSD and at least 16 GB RAM will be a much better configuration for you.....

The thing to remember is that the 21.5 iMac is NOT readily user-upgradeable so you cannot easily add your own RAM or swap out drives in it. Think hard about what you want and need not only now but what you'll want and need in say, three or four years' time, and configure the machine accordingly. Consider how you use the machine and what you do with it -- just email, browsing, some forum participation? Post-processing and editing images shot with a digital camera? Rendering and editing movies shot with your digital camera or a dedicated video camera? Lots of numbers-crunching and spreadsheets for work or for other uses? Something else?

Think carefully about what you really need and want and can afford and then review the options available before putting any more money out to buy a new machine. Good luck!

 

[Erehy Dobon]

The followup postings are very difficult to read due to the challenging formatting (replies within a comment?). But it sounds like maybe an old used system replaced an older used system.

If that is the case, I hereby bow out of this discussion. I have no expertise on such matters.

Best of luck.

 

[Longkeg]

OK.... First off.... Spend a little time looking on these forums and get a feel for the way people use inserted quotes. The way you are doing it, inserting your comments/answers within the quote, is confusing. No one expects to find your comments buried within the quote, even if you put your comments in Boldface. Having said that... You wrote:

"“HDDFanControlDaemon” can’t be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software. I can't find a fan controller and I never installed it."

That makes me think I'm right about the system being corrupted. The "HDDFanControlDaemon” is part of the system software. It came with the computer and there's no reason you should know anything about it.

Did you buy this new from Apple or someplace else. I suspect this machine is fixable but the person fixing it needs to know what they're doing. If you bought it from Apple and it's still in warrantee, or better yet you bought Apple Care, I would let an expert (not necessarily a Geek) look at it and install a clean system.... Yes, I know the Apple Stores are closed right now but that is your best bet in the long run.

 

[Clix Pix]

To me it was perfectly clear from the get-go that this machine is a baseline or one step up from the baseline 21.5 iMac and that THIS is why the OP is unhappy with it. There's nothing inherently wrong with the machine, it's just that she had expectations of it that the thing couldn't possibly meet in the first place. Unfortunately she made a mistake in buying it off-the-shelf at the store and not really paying attention to the configuration.

It's not an older machine or a refurb or whatever, it's clear to me that she bought it new back in November 2019 at Best Buy, a chain outfit in the US, and that she then had the Geek Squad (Best Buy's attempt at being an equivalent of Apple's Genius Bar) do the transferring of her data from her older machine into the new one. And, yes, I agree that right there is asking for potential trouble, too, as a new machine is now taking on a bunch of cruft that was in the older one. Sometimes a new machine just ignores that and kicks it out but other times the cruft stays in there, too, only adding insult to injury. The primary problem here is that her machine is a very underpowered (i3) one with a painfully slow HDD (Apple really should be embarrassed to still be putting these things in ANY of its 2019 machines!). All of their other machines now have SSD -- I would hope that when Apple next puts out a new refreshed version of the iMac that at last the default drive in there will be an SSD, not an HDD.

 

[Longkeg]

To me it was perfectly clear from the get-go that this machine is a baseline or one step up from the baseline 21.5 iMac and that THIS is why the OP is unhappy with it. There's nothing inherently wrong with the machine, it's just that she had expectations of it that the thing couldn't possibly meet in the first place. Unfortunately she made a mistake in buying it off-the-shelf at the store and not really paying attention to the configuration.

It's not an older machine or a refurb or whatever, it's clear to me that she bought it new back in November 2019 at Best Buy, a chain outfit in the US, and that she then had the Geek Squad (Best Buy's attempt at being an equivalent of Apple's Genius Bar) do the transferring of her data from her older machine into the new one. And, yes, I agree that right there is asking for potential trouble, too, as a new machine is now taking on a bunch of cruft that was in the older one. Sometimes a new machine just ignores that and kicks it out but other times the cruft stays in there, too, only adding insult to injury. The primary problem here is that her machine is a very underpowered (i3) one with a painfully slow HDD (Apple really should be embarrassed to still be putting these things in ANY of its 2019 machines!). All of their other machines now have SSD -- I would hope that when Apple next puts out a new refreshed version of the iMac that at last the default drive in there will be an SSD, not an HDD.

Agreed, it's on the low end. Although the the OP only mentions, unless I missed something, using email and Word which shouldn't be too challenging. I'd be curious to see what happens if some HD space is freed up. The HD is almost 90% full. I'm sticking to my guns about the clean install. My sister had a Mini with similar specs. She did a Time Machine transfer from an old iMac. The result was very similar to what the OP describes, in fact my sister could have been the OP. Once I wiped the drive and did a clean install it was like night and day. Granted, you wouldn't want to edit movies with it but it's fine for email, word processing and light browsing.

 

[Clix Pix]

Yes, Longkeg, I agree about the clean install. Whenever I buy a new Mac I never use Migration Assistant or anything else to dump all the old crap from the old machine into the brand-new one. I do everything fresh and new from the start, do it all manually, and when it comes to content, I only put in the few documents, pictures, etc., into the new machine that I want and really need in there, and continue to keep much of that kind of thing, especially photos, separately on external SSDs.
[automerge]1586137149[/automerge]

 

[dianett]

OK.... First off.... Spend a little time looking on these forums and get a feel for the way people use inserted quotes. The way you are doing it, inserting your comments/answers within the quote, is confusing. No one expects to find your comments buried within the quote, even if you put your comments in Boldface. Having said that... You wrote:

"“HDDFanControlDaemon” can’t be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software. I can't find a fan controller and I never installed it."

That makes me think I'm right about the system being corrupted. The "HDDFanControlDaemon” is part of the system software. It came with the computer and there's no reason you should know anything about it.

Did you buy this new from Apple or someplace else. I suspect this machine is fixable but the person fixing it needs to know what they're doing. If you bought it from Apple and it's still in warrantee, or better yet you bought Apple Care, I would let an expert (not necessarily a Geek) look at it and install a clean system.... Yes, I know the Apple Stores are closed right now but that is your best bet in the long run.

Agreed, it's on the low end. Although the the OP only mentions, unless I missed something, using email and Word which shouldn't be too challenging. I'd be curious to see what happens if some HD space is freed up. The HD is almost 90% full. I'm sticking to my guns about the clean install. My sister had a Mini with similar specs. She did a Time Machine transfer from an old iMac. The result was very similar to what the OP describes, in fact my sister could have been the OP. Once I wiped the drive and did a clean install it was like night and day. Granted, you wouldn't want to edit movies with it but it's fine for email, word processing and light browsing.

I am sorry for how I responded, I don't really know how to answer so many people.
I am retired. Both I-Macs were purchased new, and yes, transfer from old to new by waste-of-money Geek Squad.
The new (Nov 2019) Mac was sold as the middle of 3 Macs with the 21 inch screen, I intentionally did not pick the lowest. The price tag on sale was $900, so to dump it will kill me, and who's going to buy a Mac that doesn't work right?
My older Mac (2011) worked perfectly until about the last year. So if all the I-Macs are not using SSD, why did mine work fine until a year ago?

I use e-mail, Word (a lot), an occasional spreadsheet or powerpoint, FB, News sites -- minor stuff in the scheme of things.

Are you saying there is no I-Mac that will work for me and I will be slower than molasses forever?

And do I read correctly that I should get someone to reinstall everything and start from scratch? I can't do that but Apple Support has been really good at helping and they will help me.
I appreciate your putting-up with me.

 

[Clix Pix]

Just buy a new machine with a better processor (i7, i9), and with a solid state drive (SSD) -- capacity of 500 GB - 1 TB, whatever would work best for you, and to this machine also add 16 GB RAM rather than the default 8 GB. This configuration will give you the speed that you are seeking.

 

[dianett]

Just buy a new machine with a better processor (i7, i9), and with a solid state drive (SSD) -- capacity of 500 GB - 1 TB, whatever would work best for you, and to this machine also add 16 GB RAM rather than the default 8 GB. This configuration will give you the speed that you are seeking.

The biggest question is this:
I replaced a 2011 iMac purchased at Amazon with a 2019 iMac purchased at Best Buy. Both "off the shelf" and 21" screen.
The 2011 imac worked fine for 7-8 yrs before slowing.
The 2019 imac worked badly from the first day after the data transfer (I didn't use it before I had the data transferred).
WHY is the new one not even sufficient?

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

Here are the facts, plain and simple.

The 2019 iMac you have has a platter-based hard drive inside.
It's too slow to run the OS very well.
It "runs", of course, but the running feels more like "walking".

THERE IS NO WAY TO GET MORE SPEED OUT OF IT, as it exists now.

That's the way it is, and you're not going to change this, unless you do one of two things:

1. Sell or return it, and get one with a fast SSD inside.
or
2. Add an SSD to it. Then it will run much faster.

Choice #2 is safe, cheap and so easy to do that even YOU can do it.
It's not much more than "child's play" on the Mac.

What you need:
A USB3 external SSD.
The Samsung "t5" is a good one.
There are others.
Go to amazon and search for "1tb USB3 SSD".

Does the iMac have a 1tb drive inside?
If so, get a 1tb t5, and "making the move" is VERY easy.
Again, even YOU can do it with just a little help from us.

Once you have the SSD:
1. Plug it in.
2. Use Disk Utility to ERASE IT to "APFS, GUID partition format".
3. Download CarbonCopyCloner, which is free to use for 30 days:

Download CCC | Bombich Software

www.bombich.com

4. Use CCC to "clone" the contents of the internal drive to the SSD
5. Go to the startup disk preference pane and set the SSD to be the new boot drive
6. Reboot.
That's it.
Good luck.

 

[Ruggy]

You say it's slow because the beach ball's going round and even if it isn't the fastest machine, that definitely isn't right.
If you have an actual Apple store anywhere you can get to (and if you aren't in lockdown wherever you are) then the best thing would be to physically take it into them and let them have a look at it.
They are really good at sorting things out and they can probably check more in 10 minutes than anything they could tell you to do in more than an hour at home, particularly if you aren't very comfortable with the technical side.
It might be you have a problem with your ram for instance, so they may need to check the hardware or maybe reinstall everything. The HD isn't the fastest but I don't see why it shouldn't be faster than an old machine.
The problem is probably not that difficult to fix but very difficult to diagnose and explain at distance I'm afraid.

 

[ZachApple]

In my experience (your mileage may vary), it is usually the hard drive that is the big choke point.

I use a 2011 21.5" iMac (one level up from base). Even with "only" 8gb of memory, it runs well as an iOS development machine.

After awhile it was getting very slow, so I had the 5400 spinning drive swapped for an SSD at an Apple authorized repair store (so the warranty was not voided).

After the SSD install, boot times went from 5+ minutes to 30 seconds.

 

[satcomer]

The biggest question is this:
I replaced a 2011 iMac purchased at Amazon with a 2019 iMac purchased at Best Buy. Both "off the shelf" and 21" screen.
The 2011 imac worked fine for 7-8 yrs before slowing.
The 2019 imac worked badly from the first day after the data transfer (I didn't use it before I had the data transferred).
WHY is the new one not even sufficient?

Because you transferred old 32 bit programs and hacks over!

Download the free program TinkerTool and run it (it won’t delete anything just so the path to manually update/delete) to see if you have some bad older programs/plugins!

 

[4sallypat]

..........
2. Add an SSD to it. Then it will run much faster.

Choice #2 is safe, cheap and so easy to do that even YOU can do it.
It's not much more than "child's play" on the Mac.

What you need:
A USB3 external SSD.
The Samsung "t5" is a good one.
There are others.
Go to amazon and search for "1tb USB3 SSD".

Does the iMac have a 1tb drive inside?
If so, get a 1tb t5, and "making the move" is VERY easy.
Again, even YOU can do it with just a little help from us.

Once you have the SSD:
1. Plug it in.
2. Use Disk Utility to ERASE IT to "APFS, GUID partition format".
3. Download CarbonCopyCloner, which is free to use for 30 days:

Download CCC | Bombich Software

www.bombich.com

4. Use CCC to "clone" the contents of the internal drive to the SSD
5. Go to the startup disk preference pane and set the SSD to be the new boot drive
6. Reboot.
That's it.
Good luck.

This is similar to what I did to my achingly slow 2013 iMac with 1TB 5400 RPM HDD...

Instead of USB3 drive, I used an external 256GB Thunderbolt SSD which makes the iMac super speedy.

So now the internal HDD is relegated as an archive drive for photos and non speed essential files.

Love the iMac again !

Dual drives on my iMac:

 

[dianett]

OP:

Here are the facts, plain and simple.

The 2019 iMac you have has a platter-based hard drive inside.
It's too slow to run the OS very well.
It "runs", of course, but the running feels more like "walking".

THERE IS NO WAY TO GET MORE SPEED OUT OF IT, as it exists now.

That's the way it is, and you're not going to change this, unless you do one of two things:

1. Sell or return it, and get one with a fast SSD inside.
or
2. Add an SSD to it. Then it will run much faster.

Choice #2 is safe, cheap and so easy to do that even YOU can do it.
It's not much more than "child's play" on the Mac.

What you need:
A USB3 external SSD.
The Samsung "t5" is a good one.
There are others.
Go to amazon and search for "1tb USB3 SSD".

Does the iMac have a 1tb drive inside?
If so, get a 1tb t5, and "making the move" is VERY easy.
Again, even YOU can do it with just a little help from us.

Once you have the SSD:
1. Plug it in.
2. Use Disk Utility to ERASE IT to "APFS, GUID partition format".
3. Download CarbonCopyCloner, which is free to use for 30 days:

Download CCC | Bombich Software

www.bombich.com

4. Use CCC to "clone" the contents of the internal drive to the SSD
5. Go to the startup disk preference pane and set the SSD to be the new boot drive
6. Reboot.
That's it.
Good luck.

Thanks so much. I

This is similar to what I did to my achingly slow 2013 iMac with 1TB 5400 RPM HDD...

Instead of USB3 drive, I used an external 256GB Thunderbolt SSD which makes the iMac super speedy.

So now the internal HDD is relegated as an archive drive for photos and non speed essential files.

Love the iMac again !

Dual drives on my iMac:View attachment 904505

I will talk to my son. Although he is a windows person, I am sure he can do this.
I would LOVE to love the Mac again!

 

[dianett]

Because you transferred old 32 bit programs and hacks over!

Download the free program TinkerTool and run it (it won’t delete anything just so the path to manually update/delete) to see if you have some bad older programs/plugins!

OK I will try that. Thanks

 

[4sallypat]

Thanks so much. I

I will talk to my son. Although he is a windows person, I am sure he can do this.
I would LOVE to love the Mac again!

Feel free to message me about this simple process to have a Thunderbolt SSD drive as your primary boot drive.
Can't beat the 10Gbps transfer rate compared to half that speed on a USB3...

I just bought another LaCie TB2 drive and will be gutting out the drive and replacing with an SSD to use on a friend's iMac that has the same issue...

I wonder why Apple did not put standard SSD into iMacs - especially the 2015 and up models...
The CPU and RAM are more than adequate for a speedy performance but to chokehold the entire system on an ancient rotational HDD - just amazes me!

 

[dianett]

You say it's slow because the beach ball's going round and even if it isn't the fastest machine, that definitely isn't right.
If you have an actual Apple store anywhere you can get to (and if you aren't in lockdown wherever you are) then the best thing would be to physically take it into them and let them have a look at it.
They are really good at sorting things out and they can probably check more in 10 minutes than anything they could tell you to do in more than an hour at home, particularly if you aren't very comfortable with the technical side.
It might be you have a problem with your ram for instance, so they may need to check the hardware or maybe reinstall everything. The HD isn't the fastest but I don't see why it shouldn't be faster than an old machine.
The problem is probably not that difficult to fix but very difficult to diagnose and explain at distance I'm afraid.

Yep, we ate in virus jail!

 

[szw-mapple fan]

Yep, we ate in virus jail!

Seconding the comment you replied to. Beach ball is not normal behavior for web browsing on an iMac whether or not it has a slow hard drive. One of the main reasons that this happens is because your hard drive is running out of storage. Typically you want at least 30 or 40GB free on the main hard drive because the computer will use it as a temporary place to store running programs, especially when you have limited RAM. Typically running programs are in RAM, but if RAM fills up it will move some inactive ones to the hard drive (also known as virtual memory). Since your Mac has a slow hard drive, swapping programs back and forth between RAM and hard drive will be very slow, causing the spinning beach ball. The less storage you have left, the slower it gets. If you hard drive is getting full, try moving some things to an external drive first. Another common reason would be RAM usage. Even the you're looking at websites, things like Google Maps or YouTube will take up a lot of RAM, so be mindful to not too many of those. If all else fails, follow the advice of earlier comments. Hope this helps.

 

[4sallypat]

Here's a video showing how a 2013 iMac that was soooo slow was revived with an SSD replacement.

If you have the ability to order a kit to remove the glass, display and HDD then this is the best and cheaper way to go.

Fast forward to 01:00 on this video to see how common this issue is with all iMacs:
iMac HDD replaced with SSD - if you have the courage and skills.....