Imac running slowly

Hello,new guy here.I am computer challenged.I'm over 50 and know virtually nothing about computers.My sister gave me this Imac when my Dell died.It ran OK for the first few months but now I get that annoying spinning wheel everywhere I navigate and every time I attempt to view videos.Could some kind person explain,in laymans terms,what steps I could take to remedy this situation.I'm running 10.8.5 with a 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo,2 GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM.These terms mean nothing to me as I copied them from "About this Mac".Please help.Thank you in advance.

RaymondRush said:

I'm running 10.8.5 with a 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo,2 GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the computer info that really helps. Many folks forget to post this info...which can slow things as far as getting to an answer/solution.

I'm going to mention three things:

- How full is the hard drive (amount used and amount free)?
- The computer could probably use more ram. I'd say at least 4gig.
- The computer needs to be rebooted/restarted every now & then. The less ram...the more often.
- Read some of the links in my signature. This "My Mac is Slow" siuation is pretty common...that's why I have links in my signature.

HTH,

- Nick

p.s. You double posted this. No need for that. Thanks.

pigoo3 said:

Thanks for the computer info that really helps. Many folks forget to post this info...which can slow things as far as getting to an answer/solution.
I'm going to mention three things:
- How full is the hard drive (amount used and amount free)?
- The computer could probably use more ram. I'd say at least 4gig.
- The computer needs to be rebooted/restarted every now & then. The less ram...the more often.
- Read some of the links in my signature. This "My Mac is Slow" siuation is pretty common...that's why I have links in my signature.
HTH,
- Nick
p.s. You double posted this. No need for that. Thanks.

Click to expand...

Nick thanks for your response.Did I mention that I know virtually nothing about computers.I don't know how to determine how much of the hard drive that I'm using vs.how much I have available.If RAM means random access memory then I have 2GB according to this:

Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac8,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.8 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: IM81.00C1.B00
SMC Version (system): 1.30f1
Serial Number (system): YM********
Hardware UUID: ********-3BCF-5DF0-AB70-***********

I turn the computer off every night and restart it every morning.

I will try to read your links although it could mean that I don't understand what I'm reading.I clicked on your second link and it took a full 20 seconds for the beach ball to stop so I could scroll down to read.

I'm sorry about the double post but I really don't understand the format of this forum.It's completely different from other forums to which I'm a member.

Can you see the hard drive icon on your computers desktop? If so..."right-click" on it...and an info window will pop up with the info.

Another way to do it is...go to:

- Apple menu
- About This Mac
- click on "More Info"
- then click on the word "Storage" in the upper left area of the window that comes up
- there will be something that looks like..."xxx GB free out of xxx GB". Need these numbers.


- Nick

Capacity 297.77 GB

Available 282.32 GB

Used 15.45 GB on disk

Are these figures helpful ?

Nick I must have a different menu than yourself.

I open "about this Imac" click on "more info" and then a window opens with a list of items to the left.None of those items is titled "storage".

RaymondRush said:

Are these figures helpful ?

Click to expand...

Yes that helps thanks.

One more question before any conclusions/recommendations. Open "Activity Monitor":

- double click your hard drive icon
- open the "Applications" folder
- open the "Utilities" folder
- open "Activity Monitor"

Once Activity Monitor is open:

- click on the "System Memory" tab near the bottom of the window
- tell us the "Page outs" and "Swap used" values

In fact while we are in Activity Monitor:

- click on the "CPU" tab (right next to the "System Memory" tab
- tell us the "% User", "% System", and "% Idle" values

* Nick

Ok Nick I found what you asked for.I never knew any of this existed.LOL.I still don't know what it means but here it is.

Pages in 121.37

Pages out 0


User 0-1.5

System 0-1.5

Idle 98-100

I hope this helps.

RaymondRush said:

I still don't know what it means but here it is.

Pages in 121.37
Pages out 0

User 0-1.5
System 0-1.5
Idle 98-100

Click to expand...

Thanks for finding everything (you did forget the "swap file" size...but it may not matter).

The numbers look pretty good. In fact all the numbers you posted look ok. So here are the two things I'm going to mention:

1. Whenever folks start having slowdown problems (and all of the numbers I asked for look good)...it's always possible that the hard drive may be going bad. Just a possibility.

2. As I mentioned a little bit earlier in the thread...you could probably use a ram upgrade (your computer currently has 2gig). Officially your computer has a max. ram of 4gig (unofficially 6gig). The 4gig upgrade is about $50-$60...the 6gig is about $100-$110.

I would recommend getting the ram upgrade first. Then see if things improve. If they do...great! If not...then it could be the hard drive is starting to fail.

HTH,

- Nick