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Some help please

P

Pinkly Smooth

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 8, 2018
166
9
Hi everybody.
I would like to ask, is there a way or a program that will test to see if your iMac has lost any power? I heard about Mackeeper and how it not being reliable. Is there anything else, to test if the iMac you have, has lost any of its power? I have the free version of Malwarebytes and when I do the scan it tells me "Congratulations, you are clean."
Thank you.
 
The absolute BEST advice you're going to get regarding "MacKeeper" is:
STAY AWAY FROM IT !!!

MalwareBytes, on the other hand, is "good stuff".
 
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What problem are you trying to solve? MacKeeper is terrible, and should be deleted if you have it on your machine.
 
Hi the problem I have is talked about here, on this thread I started:
forums.macrumors.com

About my iMac

Hi everyone. I have an iMac 3.8Ghz i5 quad core. I have had it for some years now. I bought it for music production, and I am now in the process of using the iMac for this purpose. This is the only computer I have that I use, and I have been using it all this time, just as a regular normal...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com
I don't have Mackeeper, just Malwarebytes. thank you.
 
Please don’t create multiple threads, it makes it hard for people to follow the real problem you’re trying to address. If you have a fusion drive, it sounds like folks answered your question. The only thing I would recommend is getting an external NVME enclosure and drive and to make that your main drive. The fusion drive uses a very small ssd, once it’s full, it’s pulling data off the spinning drive which is a very slow experience.
 
profcutter said:
Please don’t create multiple threads, it makes it hard for people to follow the real problem you’re trying to address. If you have a fusion drive, it sounds like folks answered your question. The only thing I would recommend is getting an external NVME enclosure and drive and to make that your main drive. The fusion drive uses a very small ssd, once it’s full, it’s pulling data off the spinning drive which is a very slow experience.
Click to expand...
Can you please explain to me what the very small ssd drive is that I have and why it is full? When you say a very slow experience, do you mean to say that my iMac is now very slow? I bought this iMac for music production, for that exact reason, and I have taken care of this iMac to the best of my ability. I don't understand why it would be slow now. I need the iMac to be fully functioning in order to produce music.
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profcutter said:
Please don’t create multiple threads, it makes it hard for people to follow the real problem you’re trying to address. If you have a fusion drive, it sounds like folks answered your question. The only thing I would recommend is getting an external NVME enclosure and drive and to make that your main drive. The fusion drive uses a very small ssd, once it’s full, it’s pulling data off the spinning drive which is a very slow experience.
Click to expand...
The specifics of my iMac are:
Hi it is the retina,5k, 27 inch, 2017.
macOS High Sierra Version 10.13.6
3.8ghz, quad core intel core i5
8gb memory
 
Ok iMacs come with 3 options of storage: spinning platter hard drive (this is the bottom of the line 4k iMac), a fusion drive, or an ssd. Most likely you have a fusion drive, which is a small ssd “fused” with a traditional hard drive. When the machine is working well, the computer identifies the data you use most often, and keeps it on the ssd, and leaves the less used data on the hard drive. When the fusion drive first came out, it came with a fairly reasonably sized ssd: up to 128GB. With the more recent fusion drives, Apple moved to a smaller ssd, in some cases 28GB. Once this runs out of room, likely because you’re using multiple applications that need large amounts of data for usage, then the OS has no choice but to use the spinning drive. The spinning drive is like molasses compared to the ssd. So a solution, if this is really your problem, is to get an external ssd and use that instead of your internal fusion drive.
 
Hi profcutter, I have 128gb SSD fusion drive.
When I was buying the iMac, if I knew more, as I bought the iMac for music production, I would have bought an SSD, but didn't know any better at the time.
I was told by the people at the shop that the iMac I bought can be used for music production.
When you speak about multiple applications, I am barely using the power of this iMac, just using the simple functions, like safari, and such - as I have yet to begin producing music.
I have heard that an external ssd, is not as powerful as an internal one.
I just don't understand why I have problems with speed even though I chose the 128gb fusion.
I was told later on that if it is good enough for apple, its good enough for me.
It is very, very, very important that my iMac is functioning well and is ok and has not lost any of its speed or power, nor that the fusion drive ran out, because like I said, I bought this iMac for music production and I cannot afford low or compromised speed.
I will take my iMac to the store where I bought it from, to see why the circle spinning around called the spinning beach ball, shows up, when processing information, this is after all, what started by concern.
It wasn't doing that before when I first bought it, and it wasn't showing up when making complicated performing complex computing tasks - just normal things, which worries me. I talk about this on this thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/about-my-imac.2229523/
It may not have to do with low speed or the fusion drive, 128gb running out of room. What are your thoughts?
I will also ask them at the shop to test my iMac to see if it has lost any of its power. I will ask them about an external ssd.
Thank you.
 
Can you post an image of your storage tab under “about this Mac”? You keep saying you have a 128GB fusion drive. You either have a 1TB fusion drive or a 2TB drive. The 2TB drive has a 128GB ssd, the 1TB drive is limited to 32. How much space are you using? How much is free? We need to eliminate that as a possibility. If it’s not drive related, then you need to run Apple diagnostics to see if something is failing.
 
I looked at that and it says 2.12 TB Fusion Drive. There is 2.02TB available of 2.11TB. Thank again.
 
OK, then I'm going to say that it's not the drive. It sounds like the SSD isn't even full yet. You should run apple system diagnostics, and see if something comes up.

Use Apple Diagnostics to test your Mac - Apple Support

Apple Diagnostics, formerly known as Apple Hardware Test, can check your Mac for hardware issues.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
Are your fans running at high speed when you get the beachball? What do you have open and running?
 
profcutter said:
OK, then I'm going to say that it's not the drive. It sounds like the SSD isn't even full yet. You should run apple system diagnostics, and see if something comes up.

Use Apple Diagnostics to test your Mac - Apple Support

Apple Diagnostics, formerly known as Apple Hardware Test, can check your Mac for hardware issues.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
Are your fans running at high speed when you get the beachball? What do you have open and running?
Click to expand...
Hi thanks once more again! When you say the SSD isn't even full yet, do you mean the fusion drive when it runs out of room? I'm a bit confused.
How do you check if your fans are running at high speed when I get the beachball. It happens sometimes. I wouldn't know how to check. Most of the time, it happens when I am using safari, if I am not mistaken.
I will check the apple diagnostics tomorrow.
 
Remember that the fusion drive is both an SSD and a spinning drive. The most-used data is kept on the SSD portion. If your total data is less than the size of the SSD, then it should be keeping all your data on the SSD portion, if I'm not mistaken.

You should be able to hear the fans if they're running at a high speed.

How many tabs do you have open on safari? Too many webpages open can be a memory hog. You might want to up your RAM, which is easily done on your machine. You can check by going to activity monitor when the machine is slowing down. Click on the memory tab, and look at the graph at the bottom. If it's not green, then you may be running low on RAM.
 
profcutter said:
Remember that the fusion drive is both an SSD and a spinning drive. The most-used data is kept on the SSD portion. If your total data is less than the size of the SSD, then it should be keeping all your data on the SSD portion, if I'm not mistaken.

You should be able to hear the fans if they're running at a high speed.

How many tabs do you have open on safari? Too many webpages open can be a memory hog. You might want to up your RAM, which is easily done on your machine. You can check by going to activity monitor when the machine is slowing down. Click on the memory tab, and look at the graph at the bottom. If it's not green, then you may be running low on RAM.
Click to expand...
Sometimes, I have many webpages open.
 
profcutter said:
Remember that the fusion drive is both an SSD and a spinning drive. The most-used data is kept on the SSD portion. If your total data is less than the size of the SSD, then it should be keeping all your data on the SSD portion, if I'm not mistaken.

You should be able to hear the fans if they're running at a high speed.

How many tabs do you have open on safari? Too many webpages open can be a memory hog. You might want to up your RAM, which is easily done on your machine. You can check by going to activity monitor when the machine is slowing down. Click on the memory tab, and look at the graph at the bottom. If it's not green, then you may be running low on RAM.
Click to expand...
Will the apple diagnostics, reveal if the fusion drive 128gb has run out, which could be the root of this, and the reason the beach ball sometimes appears.
With regard to ram, the memory pressure at the bottom is green. It is a short green line from the right to left
 
profcutter said:
Remember that the fusion drive is both an SSD and a spinning drive. The most-used data is kept on the SSD portion. If your total data is less than the size of the SSD, then it should be keeping all your data on the SSD portion, if I'm not mistaken.

You should be able to hear the fans if they're running at a high speed.

How many tabs do you have open on safari? Too many webpages open can be a memory hog. You might want to up your RAM, which is easily done on your machine. You can check by going to activity monitor when the machine is slowing down. Click on the memory tab, and look at the graph at the bottom. If it's not green, then you may be running low on RAM.
Click to expand...
Also, will the apple diagnostics reveal if the iMac has lost any of its power, or if any power has been compromised? Thanks again for the help.
 
If you have many web pages open, close most of them I predict things will run better.

If you're doing music production, REBOOT before you begin and don't run any apps other than those you need for the music.

A 2tb fusion drive has TWO drives inside it:
- a 128gb SSD
and
- a 2tb platter-based hard drive.
They are "fused together" with software, so that they should just look like ONE drive in the finder.

Is this what you see when you reboot?
Or... do you see TWO drives in the finder?
If you see two drives, perhaps the fusion drive has been "DE-fused". Then you would see both of the drives "as separate drives".
 
Ok I will do what you said about the web pages. For some reason, just now, on safari, on facebook, at the top of the safari, there is a notice saying, "this webpage was reloaded because it was using significant energy."
Is that what you were referring to, with regard to the web pages slowing down? Maybe that is the reason why I had the beach ball appear, and that it has nothing to do with the fusion drive being full or slowing down or my iMac losing some of its power.
I don't know how to reboot, I will look into that when I begin producing music. When you say not to have any apps while producing music, other than the ones I need for music, which are you referring to? Apps like safari, for instance?
When you ask what I see when I reboot, are you referring to the apple diagnostics, is it the same thing? I have yet to use the apple diagnostics, or reboot, as this is the first time Ive hard about reboot.
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Fishrrman said:
If you have many web pages open, close most of them I predict things will run better.

If you're doing music production, REBOOT before you begin and don't run any apps other than those you need for the music.

A 2tb fusion drive has TWO drives inside it:
- a 128gb SSD
and
- a 2tb platter-based hard drive.
They are "fused together" with software, so that they should just look like ONE drive in the finder.

Is this what you see when you reboot?
Or... do you see TWO drives in the finder?
If you see two drives, perhaps the fusion drive has been "DE-fused". Then you would see both of the drives "as separate drives".
Click to expand...
Because I don't know what I am doing, I do not want to run apple diagnostics, or reboot, on my own. I prefer to take it to the shop where I bought the iMac from, so they can do it for me.
 
Ok, you absolutely need to know how to reboot if you’re going to use any computer. Go to the Apple menu, choose restart.
 
Do you mean to say that pressing the restart button means to reboot? if so, then I suppose its just a matter of terminology, as I am aware of restarting the computer.
If pressing the restart button is the same thing as reboot, what does this have to do with it:?

"Is this what you see when you reboot?
Or... do you see TWO drives in the finder?
If you see two drives, perhaps the fusion drive has been "DE-fused". Then you would see both of the drives "as separate drives".
 
Pinkly Smooth said:
Do you mean to say that pressing the restart button means to reboot? if so, then I suppose its just a matter of terminology, as I am aware of restarting the computer.
If pressing the restart button is the same thing as reboot, what does this have to do with it:?

"Is this what you see when you reboot?
Or... do you see TWO drives in the finder?
If you see two drives, perhaps the fusion drive has been "DE-fused". Then you would see both of the drives "as separate drives".
Click to expand...
I restarted the computer but I wasn't given any of those options.
 
"Because I don't know what I am doing, I do not want to run apple diagnostics, or reboot, on my own."

Don't be foolish.
Just reboot it.
It will start right back up.

Anyone who is "afraid to reboot" their Mac, SHOULD NOT be USING a Mac.
 
I think it was just a confusion of terminology. But yeah, at this point I’m thinking it’s better to just let the shop where they got the computer handle it.
 
Ok so I did the apple diagnostics on my iMac, and it said: no issues found.
And then it gave me a reference code.
Does that mean that the fusion drive is not full and my iMac is fully functioning and has not lost any of its power? Thank you guys once more.
If my iMac had issues with the fusion drive and it was running out, and slowing down the iMac, would it show up on the apple diagnostics? Thank you.
 
Pinkly Smooth said:
I restarted the computer but I wasn't given any of those options.
Click to expand...
71aye.jpg
 
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