Imac suddenly painfully slow, any ideas?

Yv

Yv

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Ah joy of joys, I have a recalcitrant iMac, looking for ideas of things to do/check pretty please.

Symptoms - just everything is slow, I mean painfully, head/wall interface slow. Lots of the little spinning wheel, whatever I try to do, whether it is opening webpages, typing this post [I keep having to wait for it to catch up with me, and I am only a 4 finger typer], opening documents, even just clicking on Applications in the dock - all have a yawning chasm between me clicking something and it actually happening.

So far I have checked activity monitor and cant see anything that is putting any pressure on any resources, CPU, Memory, Network, Disk, all running at a few percent.

Checked Disk utility, but all seems well, no signs of failing HDD [1TB with less than half used]

I have done a PRAM reset to no avail

Have installed latest OS updates [on Yosemite btw], again no effect other than it took bloody ages

Machine was perfectly fine this morning, I went out and put it into sleep mode. When I finally got home this evening, woke it up and has been like this since, so carried out all the above checks.

Haven't clicked on any dodgy websites, links or anything else in recent memory and do run sophos AV on it, that can find nothing untoward.

Specs are a late 2011 model [bought new mid 2012], 1TB HDD, 12GB Memory, 2.7GHz i5 processor

Can't think of anything else. I am just about to turn it off for the night and retire with the laptop, but if anyone has any ideas of stuff to look at, check, etc in the morning, would be very grateful.


ETA: actually, I think it might be a 2012 model I bought early 2013... meh, its a few years old but certainly not ancient. ;)
 
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The spotlight file search indexing thing slows mine down like that. When I've done a big update I leave it alone for several hours. Mavericks update turned mine to treacle for about 12 hours. Thought I'd killed it!

Also check the vents aren't blocked as I also had my G5 go into treacle mode as the cpu had been turned down due to a dust bunny the size of a cow being in circular vent at the back...
 
srichards said:
The spotlight file search indexing thing slows mine down like that. When I've done a big update I leave it alone for several hours. Mavericks update turned mine to treacle for about 12 hours. Thought I'd killed it!

Also check the vents aren't blocked as I also had my G5 go into treacle mode as the cpu had been turned down due to a dust bunny the size of a cow being in circular vent at the back...
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Curiously, my laptop is was also painfully slow when I woke it up. I mean, it always is these days, but after 4 or 5 minutes, it has yawned, had a stretch, downed some coffee and is back to full speed, but not tonight. For some reason I turned off the dropbox app and bingo, back to full speed. So now I am wondering if that is where the issue is, but cba going back downstairs, turning it back on etc. Will leave it turned off overnight, let it cool completely and see what happens in the morning. Will check vents too, though only has the vac on them last week.
 
What does your desktop look like, if it's full of stuff put it in the documents folder? Have you done a restart lately? How much of the hard drive have you used? You could try Diskwarrior, it does wonders for mine which is probably a contemporary of yours.
 
Merluza said:
What does your desktop look like, if it's full of stuff put it in the documents folder? Have you done a restart lately? How much of the hard drive have you used? You could try Diskwarrior, it does wonders for mine which is probably a contemporary of yours.
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My desktop is clear, many years ago I trained as a computer tech so loathe a cluttered desktop. ;) As I said earlier, disk less than half full and healthy according to OS checks.
 
There was an update to 10.10.2 issued today. Has that automatically been installed whilst you were away from it? If so, leave it to reindex till the morning and see if that sorts it out.

If not then run the update to see if it sorts it out for you.
 
Re-read your post and seen that you have installed the latest update so ignore the above.

One thing that could well sort it is to download the 10.10.2 COMBO update and then run that. Sometimes the auto update misses things and can cause a few problems. I always use the combo since I had a few issues about 5 years ago, never had a problem since. Others I know have had problems with the inline update.
 
Ploddles said:
There was an update to 10.10.2 issued today. Has that automatically been installed whilst you were away from it? If so, leave it to reindex till the morning and see if that sorts it out.

If not then run the update to see if it sorts it out for you.
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I ran an install this evening, it was flashing the message in the top corner, which I cancelled initially because it was playing up but then decided to install because it probably wasn't going to make matters any worse, which it didn't, but didn't improve anything either so not sure how much effect it might have. :(

Thanks for all the replies btw, appreciated. :)
 
Ploddles said:
Re-read your post and seen that you have installed the latest update so ignore the above.

One thing that could well sort it is to download the 10.10.2 COMBO update and then run that. Sometimes the auto update misses things and can cause a few problems. I always use the combo since I had a few issues about 5 years ago, never had a problem since. Others I know have had problems with the inline update.
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oh, ok, will try that in the morning, see what happens. Thanks Ploddles.
 
Opps was about to suggest activity monitor but have seen you have tried that
 
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Right, have done everything I can think of and still can't pin point the problem, but it is still painfully slow to do anything. I think it might have to be a trip to the Mac Surgery so they can do blood and urine samples and maybe even stick a scope in there :( Now praying its hardware, it is still under Applecare.
 
OK, just spotted something, no idea if this is relevant or not but to me, it is odd.

I rebooted the computer and once it had started, turned on the activity monitor. When it boots up, stuff like CrashPlan and Dropbox and Timemachine, and the AV etc automatically start too. This isn't new, they always have.

The activity monitor showed memory used at about 5.5GB's.

I started up lightroom, and watched the activity monitor, LR takes about 160MB's, but it also for some reason starts image capture, even though I have set that not to kick in when I insert a memory card - that takes 1.2GB's ffs!! For something that shouldn't even be needed. However, the interesting part is this, in the activity monitor at the bottom, where it shows the sum total, starting these programs pushed it up and up, much more so that the sum total of the programs I have opened, if that makes sense?. So, I quit lightroom, but that still left image capture 'running', or at least showing as using memory. I had to quit that from the activity monitor itself. By now I am up to 11.something [it keeps varying] of 12GB's of memory used. I also quit crash plan and dropbox, not that either show as using that much, between 100 and 200 MB's each. Quiting image capture and its 1.2GB's of memory didn't have any effect on the memory used number at the bottom.

SO this is where I am really confused, the used memory at the bottom of the activity monitor doesn't drop. It is like it is taking memory and not giving it back afterwards. What I don't know is whether this is normal or not. :thinking:

activity by Yvonne White LBIPP - WhiteGoldImages, on Flickr
 
I have a feeling that later versions of OSX only free up memory as required, rather than releasing it immediately an application is closed, so shutting LR etc won't release memory.

However 5.5GB at idle seems like a HUGE amount of memory to be used. IIRC my Macbook (8GB available) used 1.2GB at idle under Mountain Lion, 1.8GB with Mavericks (not checked under Yosemite). Running LR would take it to about 2.4GB/2.9GB depending on OS version.

I notice your file cache is 7.75GB - what's it caching so much data for?
 
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ancient_mariner said:
I have a feeling that later versions of OSX only free up memory as required, rather than releasing it immediately an application is closed, so shutting LR etc won't release memory.

However 5.5GB at idle seems like a HUGE amount of memory to be used. IIRC my Macbook (8GB available) used 1.2GB at idle under Mountain Lion, 1.8GB with Mavericks (not checked under Yosemite). Running LR would take it to about 2.4GB/2.9GB depending on OS version.

I notice your file cache is 7.75GB - what's it caching so much data for?
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not a bloody clue? How would I find out? Like I say this so very frustrating because absolutely nothing changed from it being perfectly fine to being a pain in the pants, I didn't add, remove, update, just nothing! Once it starts getting into the real indepth nitty gritty with macs I am pretty lost.

SHould add, not looked at the activity monitor for some time, so no idea what it was like when it was 'normal', as in, usage at idle, etc
 
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Sophos is taking a lot as well. That would also slow it down massively if that was running a scan of everything that has been updated.
 
srichards said:
Sophos is taking a lot as well. That would also slow it down massively if that was running a scan of everything that has been updated.
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I only put sophos back on last night when I had this problem so I could run a virus scan, not had it installed since I did clean install of OS well before xmas. Its background monitoring on screen shot, and like all AV's, does take up some resources, but still quite small as an overall percentage I think?
 
When it's horribly slow like this is the CPU still being used just a few percent like you said at the beginning? You also said memory use was a few percent, but that doesn't seem to be the case here.

I know little enough about Macs too, but on general computing principles iot doesn't seem right that so much memory is gobbled doing nothing.
 
That is my feeling Toni, it is the memory usage that isn't right. CPU is constantly low, if I have that window open and ask it to open something like LR or PS it still only goes up a few more percent. The only thing that seems to be hammering memory is that kernel task at the top, which I assume is OS related... :( Meh, wondering if I should just do an OS re-install [the one that leaves your files and what have you intact] and see what happens. Everything is backed up anyway if it all goes pear shaped. :grumpy:
 
If it is still under apple care then I'd consider raising a case. They have an online chat thing now and that seems to be a much easier way of getting things resolved. There are also diagnostic thingies they can do remotely as well. Saves having to haul it off somewhere.

I think they've definitely changed the way memory handling works as I had this under IOS. It just sucks it all up until there is none left then might let go some of it. It used to be the case it would let it go as soon as you finished with it and now it hangs onto it. If it isn't using the swap space then it isn't strictly short on memory at all.
 
srichards said:
If it is still under apple care then I'd consider raising a case. They have an online chat thing now and that seems to be a much easier way of getting things resolved. There are also diagnostic thingies they can do remotely as well. Saves having to haul it off somewhere.

I think they've definitely changed the way memory handling works as I had this under IOS. It just sucks it all up until there is none left then might let go some of it. It used to be the case it would let it go as soon as you finished with it and now it hangs onto it. If it isn't using the swap space then it isn't strictly short on memory at all.
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Thanks Suz, might buzz them on chat if possible then, and yes, just found something about yosemite not giving back memory until its needed, so Toni was also right, that does seem to be the case and explains that part of it but puts me right back to square one on what the hell is wrong with the bloody thing :LOL:

Meh, time for some food, brain befuddled
 
The memory behaviour was also true under Mountain Lion IIRC. I used one of those memory cleaning apps (menubar stats) to monitor my system and free memory, because, even though it shouldn't make a difference, it seemed to help. Just checked: fresh boot, Yosemite running and nothing else I had 6.4GB free out of 8GB total, which is what I'd expect really.
 
I had a problem with the Google apps installed -- they were being denied permission to do what they wanted, they would die and continually re-spawn. None of this was apparent in Activity Monitor, but it did show as a stream of error messages in Console. It's worth looking there to see if anything in the background is generating errors.
 
Just had a chap on another forum come back to me with a dead-slow iMac. I mentioned your comment about dropbox, he disabled it and apparently the machine is running normally again.
 
ancient_mariner said:
Just had a chap on another forum come back to me with a dead-slow iMac. I mentioned your comment about dropbox, he disabled it and apparently the machine is running normally again.
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Aye, seemed to work with the laptop, but that is now back to normal even with dropbox working, so possibly it wodges up somehow and creates issues here and there so certainly worth knowing about.

Chappers said:
Found this article on File Cache,
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5813551?start=0&tstart=0
this is normal or so it seems.

As your machine is covered by Apple Care, give them a ring in the morning. It''s an 0800 number. They're based in Cork and extremely helpful
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barryj21 said:
I had a problem with the Google apps installed -- they were being denied permission to do what they wanted, they would die and continually re-spawn. None of this was apparent in Activity Monitor, but it did show as a stream of error messages in Console. It's worth looking there to see if anything in the background is generating errors.
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I got a bit gung ho and said sod it, did the reinstall and touch so far everything seems to be back to normal, but that is just over half an hour, will see if it stays the way over 24 hours, I am not totally confident to be honest, so I think Apple will indeed be getting some communication in the morning.
 
Yv

I'm not optimistic that it will solve the problem but try running Memory Clean (free app) that will force the OS to clear out all memory. You shouldn't have to but at least you can see if it is RAM usage related or something else.

I'll get my thinking cap on re other options.
 
Have you tried running Onyx for Yosemite Yv?, it's a free maintenance programme for Macs http://www.titanium.free.fr/onyx.html , it performs such things as clearing caches, rebuilding indexes , repairs permissions etc. It may or may not solve your problem, but it's a programme I run every day, just to keep most things neat and tidy.
 
Thanks Guys - TBH, I would rather not run additional programs until I know what the underlying cause is, when something goes suddenly pear shaped like that [rather than a progressive slowing down] it just gives you yet another thing to eliminate from the equation, if that makes sense.

Having said that, I have been running it now for 48 hours, including a long period of 'sleep' today [the same as the day it went bad] and so far, so good, back to normal.

The only thing that seems to have changed is related to Java, my customer management system needed java6 to run [aswell as having the current java8 installed for other stuff, which had updated a day or two before] and after doing the reinstall I couldn't open the CMS. It turns out it only needed it for emailing from within the program, a feature I don't actually use anyway, and after contacting support and deleting a couple of files, that is back running quite happily and the update is due soon which won't require it at all. I know java can cause issues, especially on macs, so maybe that is related, though I suspect it is merely a consequence not the original problem.

Meh, who knows, bloody computers, I think I am going to revert back to using film and pen and paper :LOL:
 
Whilst not directly reletated to your issue, the only figure I tend to look at in the Memory section is how much memory gets swapped to disk. If anything slows down anything it will be that. Considering yours is 0 bytes, it won't be the memory. Using all memory is perfectly normal under OS X.
 
Yv said:
Thanks Guys - TBH, I would rather not run additional programs until I know what the underlying cause is, when something goes suddenly pear shaped like that [rather than a progressive slowing down] it just gives you yet another thing to eliminate from the equation, if that makes sense.

Having said that, I have been running it now for 48 hours, including a long period of 'sleep' today [the same as the day it went bad] and so far, so good, back to normal.

The only thing that seems to have changed is related to Java, my customer management system needed java6 to run [aswell as having the current java8 installed for other stuff, which had updated a day or two before] and after doing the reinstall I couldn't open the CMS. It turns out it only needed it for emailing from within the program, a feature I don't actually use anyway, and after contacting support and deleting a couple of files, that is back running quite happily and the update is due soon which won't require it at all. I know java can cause issues, especially on macs, so maybe that is related, though I suspect it is merely a consequence not the original problem.

Meh, who knows, bloody computers, I think I am going to revert back to using film and pen and paper :LOL:
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You'll be using a proper computer PC next! :p
 
Nod said:
You'll be using a proper computer PC next! :p
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pah, wild horses wouldn't drag me back to windoze!! I have spent more time sodding around the windows 8 machines at garage, all 2 of them, both less than a year old, than I have spent in total on 2 imacs, a MBP and a MBA over the last 4 years!! :p
 
Well, if you will let the minions play with the things...
 
Yosemite completely buggered my iMac and I had to go back to Maverick. Perversely, Yosemite works perfectly on macbook pro, lots of info for those who were troubled by it- http://osxdaily.com
 
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