Ageing iMac getting slower

Good afternoon all,
My 7ish year old iMac has gradually getting slower seemingly after every new OS release. I have read the previous threads on here and have downloaded and run Onyx (hopefully this will help), but if it is as slow afterwards, as I have time machine back ups on an external HDD, how hard or complicated is it to start from scratch and delete everything to provide a clean sheet?

Is this easily done or even necessary?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Rhod

Rhodevans said:

My 7ish year old iMac has gradually getting slower seemingly after every new OS release.

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What you haven't told us is…the specs of the computer (exact model iMac, how much ram, how full is the hard drive, what OS version it is running)? Once we know this we should be able to make a better assessment.[/QUOTE]

- Nick

Hi Nick, sorry. I have pasted the info below.

Hardware Overview:
Model Identifier: iMac10,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 3.06 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz

Storage
Available: 460.45 GB (460,452,126,720 bytes)
Capacity: 999.35 GB (999,345,127,424 bytes)

System Software Overview:
System Version: OS X 10.11.2 (15C50)
Kernel Version: Darwin 15.2.0
Boot Volume: Macintosh HD

That's basically what I have. Do yourself a favor, add some memory. I'm running 16gb and running El Capitan just fine.
I'd up it to at least 8 gb.

Thanks for the spec. info. For the most part…there doesn't seem to be any obvious shortcomings with those specs. I guess the only other spec. that would be good to know is if it's a 21" or 27" iMac.

This iMac is from "Late 2009"…thus as you mentioned…in the 6-7 year old range. Many folks have had success adding ram & installing an SSD to help make an older computer feel more "snappy". Your iMac has a max. ram of 16gig…so a ram upgrade to 8gig could help.

As time goes on…the "computing world" gets more & more complex. What a "Late 2009" computer is asked to do in 2016…is certainly more then it was asked to do back in "Late 2009".

The unknown in this situation is…how slow this iMac feels to you. One person may find this computer to be perfectly acceptable…while at the same time you find it slow. So it kind of depends what you do on the computer & what sort of speed you expect.

- Nick

By the way…it was a great idea running Onyx…and the hard drive isn't too full. You should also know that if you experience a lot of spinning "beach balls"…this can happen due to too many apps open at once, not enough ram, and sometimes if the computer goes for long periods of time between reboots.

- Nick

Thanks everyone for the advice. The mac is hardly ever turned off if I'm honest so that probably doesn't help either!!!

Is the addition of RAM an easy DIY job or would you suggest that it should be done by a specialist. I do work in electronics and this job doesn't phase me, its just how fiddly the opening of the machine would be. Its a 21" mac by the way.

Rebooting say once a week will help maintain things and keep the machine reasonably fast. Always keep at least 15% free space on the hard drive and replacing/increasing iMac memory is a snack.

Make sure you get memory from Mac specialists and we recommended OWC and Crucial. Not eBay or PC shops. This shows how easy it is to replace memory and your machine can handle up to 16GB. 8GB will give it a boost and an SSD will really see it fly:-


http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/imac_late_2009_mem/

Rhodevans said:

The mac is hardly ever turned off if I'm honest so that probably doesn't help either!!!

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This is why I mentioned rebooting the computer every so often. I have a 2011 MacBook Pro with 8gig of ram. And depending on what I'm doing with it I may have to reboot as often as every 3-4 days…but normally more like once/week.

Rhodevans said:

Is the addition of RAM an easy DIY job or would you suggest that it should be done by a specialist. I do work in electronics and this job doesn't phase me, its just how fiddly the opening of the machine would be. Its a 21" mac by the way.

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Easy. Go to ifixit.com for instructions.

- Nick

Again, Thanks for all your help and advice.

I second Nick's suggestion of looking at upgrading to an SSD drive if you are going to keep that machine for a while longer. It will really make it ZOOM once you've upped the RAM.