running slow lots of spinning wheels looking to do a clean load

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mid 2010 iMac, 21.5", 3.06 ghz i3, 4gb memory, 500gb sata, 476gb free.

Its been slow since it crashed 6 months ago after downloading a security update. I lost everything and had to download and reinstall El Capitan from Apples site. I use Firefox, Thunderbird, Preview and not much more. Do you think a clean load from a usb would help?
 
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You say it crashed after an update and you had to do a reinstall of El Capitan. Exactly how did it crash? What did it do? And when you reinstalled was it a total clean install or did you follow it with reinstalling your apps from a Time Machine backup?

I ask this because if you did not reinstall all your previous apps then why do another clean install? If you did reinstall the apps by using a Time Machine backup, could one of them be the problem.

Also I am wondering if something else is going on. Yes, 4GB of memory is kind of minimum for El Capitan but it should run okay. The iMac is six years old so what are the chances the hard drive might be failing?

Lisa
 
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Right after the security update it wouldn't restart. I guess it was a clean reload but I did it from the internet not from a bootable usb drive. I didn't restore anything.
 
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Suggest you download El Capitan again, burn to a USB thumg drive using DiskmakerX, backup anything you want to save, then do an erase and clean install.
 
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Thanks I will give it a try in a few days.
 
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And iery if it finishes up at a gray screen, after say an hour, turn off using on/off switch, and then reboot. That seems to fix the problem.
 
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Suggest you download El Capitan again, burn to a USB thumg drive using DiskmakerX, backup anything you want to save, then do an erase and clean install.

I second that notion. Total hard drive reformat, and DON'T regurgitate from Time Machine.

I also beg to differ that 4 GB RAM is OK. Well, it depends what you have going on. I have a similar vintage machine and got a lot of spinning balls until out of annoyance I changed a 2GB to 4GB for 6 GB total. Big difference!
 
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So I found out what was causing it!
Wifi was on! I turned it off and my iMac is lightning fast now. It must have been on by default. At least I now have a bootable el capitan usb now just in case. Thanks for the help!
 
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So I found out what was causing it!
Wifi was on! I turned it off and my iMac is lightning fast now. It must have been on by default. At least I now have a bootable el capitan usb now just in case. Thanks for the help!

That is weird. You should not have a slowdown due to Wifi being on. I have both "On" on my Mac Pro and there is no speed difference. It will select the ethernet connection automatically - which is normal - but I can switch it to Wifi if I wanted to - and have - with no speed issues.

I am glad you figured it out but I do find it puzzling.

Lisa
 
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Possible that the OP feels the computer was slow because of slow loading times for websites. That could be due to a very low signal WiFi that's being used. However still puzzling as OS X usually prioritises Ethernet over Wifi when available.
 
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I had the same issue, Mac Mini SSD, 16 GB of ram 420 GB of free space and it was running poorly. Once I shut off wifi it was back to normal.
Now my wife had been complaining her windows machine was agonizingly slow........hmmm I wonder so I shut the wifi down and bingo back to normal.
 
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Possible that the OP feels the computer was slow because of slow loading times for websites. That could be due to a very low signal WiFi that's being used. However still puzzling as OS X usually prioritises Ethernet over Wifi when available.

It can depend on the System Preferences -> Network and the 'Set service order…' under the grey gear at the bottom that the OP might want to check how it's set. Click and drag Ethernet to the topmost for them…



- Patrick
======
 
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It wasn't just websites. Email, text documents, Preview, all were slow.
Ethernet is on top.
 
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I had the same issue, Mac Mini SSD, 16 GB of ram 420 GB of free space and it was running poorly. Once I shut off wifi it was back to normal.
Now my wife had been complaining her windows machine was agonizingly slow........hmmm I wonder so I shut the wifi down and bingo back to normal.


This is not so surprisingly as if ethernet and wife is in same network, same router. and yes same problem with windows PC
Not a expert guess it has to do with NAT and 2 ip address to same computer.




.
 
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It was ok for a few days then came back! It looks like it has something to do with Firefox bogging everything down using too much resources. I can see it in Activity Monitor. When I use Safari or Vivaldi it works good.

I started Firefox in Firefox' safe mode (no extensions) and still bogs down. It must be something inherent to the way it runs on El Capitan.
 
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