Performance problems with my iMAC

Performance problems with iMAC

I own this iMAC:

Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac11,2
Processor Name: Intel Core i3
Processor Speed: 3.06 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Processor Interconnect Speed: 5.86 GT/s
Boot ROM Version: IM112.0057.B00
SMC Version (system): 1.64f5

The problem i m facing is this:
Lately i've noticed really slower performance on my iMAC... thing is that i can even actually hear the processor overworking for practically doing nothing memory demanding.. (and no this wasn't the case some time ago)
So i was wondering are there any possible check ups i should do and see what's need to be fixed...? (i do have the latest updates on all my software including MAC OS) Maybe some sort of antivirus check as well? (not familiar with the case of MAC - virus relevance.. don't know how valneruble MAC are to them and how to check on it so enlight me on this one as well if possible)
And in general any advice for my situation would be really appriciated..thank you in advance.

You can't hear the CPU, as it does not make any sound - the fans spinning faster maybe?

No, there are no virii that can affect OS X at this time.

What size hard drive and how much free space do you have?
Do you move a lot of large files (multiple GB - like movies) on and off the drive.

Other question, where is it slow, you don't really give us much to go on here.
Launching apps, running particular apps, like a browser - could be time to Reset Safari to clean it out every once in awhile.

For maintenance, grab Onyx from here and make sure you download the one that is designed for your version of OS X. Head for the Automation tab and check off everything except the Rebuilding section. Maybe run this once every 2-3 months.

My Hard disk capacity is: 424.13 GB Used: 186.31 GB Available: 237.82 GB
It happens on pretty much every application...such as... World of warcraft... VLC... Video opening with every program pretty much... even Safari is definately loading slower.. and i doubt it's coz of internet connection.

Under Applications->Utilities, open up Activity Monitor. Hit the "% CPU" heading such that the arrow next to it is pointing down, this will now show the most CPU intensive task on top. Now go about doing the things that you think are taking too long or causing performance problem and see how it looks in Activity Monitor. On a relatively idle system, majority of the tasks should be < 5% CPU utilization. Chrome (my browser) for example is right now taking about 3-5% as I write this post and as it's managing the other tabs I have opened..

If you see any one particular or group of tasks taking up a significant amount of CPU percentage for extended periods of time, that might be something worth exploring..

Regards

I've posted before about performance problems of my iMAC a couple of weeks ago...i was indicated to use Onyx and perform a fix (just without checking the rebuild option) and so i did but it only helped a bit and only for a short period of time as well..

This is my iMAC's info:

Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac11,2
Processor Name: Intel Core i3
Processor Speed: 3.06 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Processor Interconnect Speed: 5.86 GT/s
Boot ROM Version: IM112.0057.B00
SMC Version (system): 1.64f5

My Hard disk is of 424.13 GB capacity and has 198.5 GB used. I do have windows 7 ultimate 64 bit installed with bootcamp a long time ago and barely use them. (never had a problem so far and honestly doubt it has something to do with it)

The performance problems occur when i open any application i m quite sure...such as World of Warcraft.. VLC (i do watch quite huge videos of about 1 GB + )... safari... it is possible that this could be more of an internet issue i guess as well...but it's definately a performance problem non the less...So any suggestions and thorough guiding through this would be really appreciated! Thank you in advance...

Try Chrome or Firefox as your browser, much faster than Safari and far better at rendering.
For the large video files, switch to PLEX. The best media player by miles.

You might also try Opera. Much faster than Firefox, and comes with all the features most people use add ons for in Firefox, right out of install. +1 for Chrome. It's an amazing browser also!

Thank you very much about the web browser suggestions
I will try that. But i would like some advice on how to check on why is my iMAC's performance significally hindered and how to fix it and same thing goes for the internet connection.

I don't think it is, Safari is not good, and VLC suffers with large files, it's just part of their make up, their architecture.
Try the suggestions for what you are doing, and I reckon you'll not be thinking the same again.

T.N.Tee said:

The performance problems occur when i open any application i m quite sure...such as World of Warcraft.. VLC (i do watch quite huge videos of about 1 GB + )... safari... it is possible that this could be more of an internet issue i guess as well...but it's definately a performance problem non the less

Click to expand...

Performance issue in what way? Are you experiencing crashes/freezing? Are applications slow to respond? Is it limited to only those applications?

Your statement also leads me to believe that the issue could also be one of a slow internet connection. Is it your internet connection that is slow or your Mac?

When i say performance i mean slower loading on any process...like slower loading of anything pretty much on world of warcraft... slower loading of movies... of web browser... and the thing is that i just rechecked my internet connection and it's pretty much at the point of which it used to be since the beginning. (quite good that is) So i think i m narrowing it down to Processes taking longer to load (Any kind of process... like even opening a file).

So y you could say my MAC is currently slow and not my connection.

T.N.Tee said:

When i say performance i mean slower loading on any process...like slower loading of anything pretty much on world of warcraft... slower loading of movies... of web browser... and the thing is that i just rechecked my internet connection and it's pretty much at the point of which it used to be since the beginning. (quite good that is) So i think i m narrowing it down to Processes taking longer to load (Any kind of process... like even opening a file).

So y you could say my MAC is currently slow and not my connection.

Click to expand...

Try this, it's pretty simple.

Shut down your Mac.

Disconnect everything that is non-essential from your Mac. All printers, all USB hubs, all external hard drives, all scanners, all Internet connections (e.g. Ethernet cables), etc. Especially make sure that any USB hubs are disconnected.

If you have a third party mouse or keyboard, disconnect them and reattach the OEM Apple mouse and keyboard.

Now restart your Macintosh. Is application performance restored?

If so, reattach one device at a time, restart and see if things are worse again until you isolate the offending device. Often a bad USB hub can be the problem, but any sort of hardware has been known to cause problems inexplicably.


Oh, and do you have an optical disk in the drive? If so, eject it and see if that makes a difference.

___________________________________________

Randy B. Singer
Co-author of The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th, and 6th editions)

Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
OS X Maintenance And Troubleshooting
___________________________________________

Third time i post about this... So the problem is basically that it takes too long to load/perform any task (e.g. VLC...World of Warcraft...Web browser...). I've verified that it is not an internet connection issue.. I used Onyx once as instructed and there was just a slight "momentary" improvement and nothing more.. I've also tried to unplug every single USB device i have on my iMAC and restarted every single time and nothing changed.

This is my iMAC info:

Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac11,2
Processor Name: Intel Core i3
Processor Speed: 3.06 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Processor Interconnect Speed: 5.86 GT/s
Boot ROM Version: IM112.0057.B00
SMC Version (system): 1.64f5

[Hard Disk]: CAPACITY: 424.13 GB // AVAILABLE: 189.08 GB // USED: 235.05 GB

okay have you ran a repair permissions in disk utility?

I have actually yes... still only improved the performance a slight bit AND just for a really short period of time... (just like by using onyx)

Please i could really use some thorough guidance on this one...

okay, download smartreporter, and see if that gives any indication of hard drive failure. also, do a backup.
also check activity monitor and see if some unecesary process is hogging your cpu, or RAM.

Start up Activity Monitor as suggested and see what's going on..your system should definitely be quite speedy..

Regards

Note: Merged triplicate threads.

Instead of waiting a week or longer between responses and then starting a new thread, you might try answering each of the previous threads and let us know:

Did you have even try the previous suggestions?
And the results were?
Help to prevent folks from making the same suggestion you've already tried.

You should go back to post # 4 - where you stopped at the first thread and let us know the results.

Then go back to post # 12 - where you stopped at the second thread - and let us know the results.

Then there is a place to start from.

(It's ok if it takes a long time between your responses - but you still need to do the troubleshooting in some order and not just start over every time you visit the forum. Or, you'll likely never come to any conclusion.)

As i mentioned on my 3rd thread i've tried all the indications (onyx use, USB removal + restart, activity monitor which in fact wasn't that helpfull by itself since world of warcraft is using too much CPU memory as expected ,as it did from the beggning when i was facing no problems at all) and nothing pretty much helped...neither significally at least nor for a significant amount of time.

robduckyworth said:

okay, download smartreporter, and see if that gives any indication of hard drive failure. also, do a backup.
also check activity monitor and see if some unecesary process is hogging your cpu, or RAM.

Click to expand...

I will use that one and let u know.

Raz0rEdge said:

Start up Activity Monitor as suggested and see what's going on..your system should definitely be quite speedy..
Regards

Click to expand...

What do u mean exactly? I mean where does the quite speedy conclusion coming from? due to the hardware information i gave about my iMAC? No offence, i just didn't get your point. Anyway when World of Warcraft is running it is in fact using A LOT of the CPU memory..but not quite different from when i wasn't facing any problems.

is it slow when your not running World of Warcraft? i am confused due to the merge. obviously Warcraft will be hogging CPU, but what happens when you run AM without it running?

also what actually happens that causes this to be slow, are you running alot of programs at the same time? do you typically leave alot of apps open?
while in Activity monitor, have a look at your page outs and RAM usage and maybe we can rule out what your actually doing with the computer as a cause of the slow downs.

A LOT of the CPU memory..

Click to expand...

your system Memory is the RAM, not the cpu. just needed to clear that with you.